STANDARDISATION

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1930, Page 3

STANDARDISATION

EFFECT ON INDUSTRY

WHAT NEW ZEALAND IS DOING

To eliminate waste by reducing production cos.., and thus .enable New Zealand manufacturers to stand against- overseas competition is Qie onjcct of standardisation, a measure of which, it is expected, Dominion secondary industries, following the lead of all the major countries, will soon adopt. v Standardisation is designed to establish efficiency by cutting production and distribution costs. It means that in all classes of industry fewer types will he made, hut a greater number of those types. The iron and steel manufacturer, for example, the plumber, the builder (to mention only a few), all will' have less variety in the articles they make or use. They will not need to carry so large stocks and will be abe to sell more cheaply. Most of the important manulacturing countries have adopted the principle; Great Britain, United States, Australia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada are some of them. IN INITIAL STAGES. As yet the movement is in its initial stages- in New Zealand. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has the question umier review, and it it expected that the establishment of committees to consider the adoption of standards in New Zealand industry will be a development of the near future. Meanwhile what standardisation has meant to the industry of Australia is full of interest lor New Zealand

During the visits to Christchurch, Dr. E. Marsden, secretary to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. has been actively associated with Mr G. A. Pascoc and Mr Hugh Anderson, of the engineering firm of Anderson’s, Ltd., in developing the preliminary work. Air ,I’ascoe and Air Anderson, said yesterday that it was almost- axiomatic io state that New Zealand industry could not compete, even in its home 'market, without the aid .of standardisation, which meant the co-ordina-tion of forces and joint effort. Its adoption could not come all at once; it was a matter of years, and no particular trade or industry would bo forced to adopt standards against its will. Of course in Australia once = nese standards were -xed departure from them was allowed only i! the raw material lor the manufacture or liio goods in question .was unobtainable in the Commonwealth or when the standard article did not suit the needs of; a, particular district. The result Was that manufacturers concentrated', on certain lines, made them well and 'ina-de more of them. The merchants, .n their turn, could do with a much smaller stock because they did not need to supply till the different types. For example it was found in Australia that there was over a hundred different types ol bath taps made. J his was ridiculous, for one bath tap was so much like another that probably half a dozen types would be sufficient. Thus it was the comm.tee’s work to select these half dizen, when no other types would be made. So it went on in hundreds ol different lines which the engineer, the builder, the plumber, the allied trades used. At present there was far too much variety, and this meant uneconomical manufacture, because a big number of one line could he manufactured far more economically than a Jew ol many designs

AMERICA'S EXAMPLE. America provided even more significant examples of what standardisation could achieve. In ’1922 there were sixty-six varieties of paving bricks manufactured in the United States. At the first conference of manufacturers and users it was’ decided that fifty-five of these varieties were superfluous, and they were eliminated. Today only four varieties were made, and as a result the manufacturers were saving £200,000 a year. Of shovels, scoops, and spades. 4460 kinds were on the market. A committee from the industry eliminated 4076 of these with no loss of efficiency in the particular product. The grinding wheel industry eliminated 459,000 sizes and shapes out of a total stock of more than. 715,000.

In electric lamps for lighting it was necessary now for the manufacturers to supply only 150 different lamps instead of the 1260 they formerly had to carry. President Hoover had been one of the strong advocates of standardisation in America.

New Zealand could reap benefits just as great from standardisation as could these countries. There were hundreds of articles used all over New Zealand where there was no advantage in making a great number of different designs of them. To those who manufactured such goods the advantages of standardisation must be abundantly apparent Already in the various towns there were laws specifying wlmt size and type of material must be used on certain work, but these laws bore no relation to one another. Amy movement/ in this direction would have to overcome prejudice, but standardisation was only a rational tiling the adoption of which was essential in an age when individualism in industry could not stand against misses and organised competition.