The Making of a Motor-car

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 12 (Supplement)

The Making of a Motor-car

ASSEMBLED AT THE RATE OF ONE A MINUTE

AT Cowley, not far from Oxford, is a modest red brick, white-windowed building, where, in 1012, William Morris and his small company performed the prodigious feat of producing four cars a week. Small, snub-nosed, brass-bonneted vehicles they were, with a speedometer which leered at the driver a foot from the dashboard. Surrounding that same building today are works covering 120 acres, with one shed half a mile long—the longest of its kind in Europe. A stalf of 6000 men and women are employed in assembling 480 cars a day, or one car a minute in an eight-hour day. I'or three and a-half years this daily Heet has streamed away from Cowley to all parts of the United Kingdom and the world. For two years cars have been shipped at the rate of 500 a week to New Zealand and Australia alone, and to-day, William Morris, now Lord Nuffield, well known personally to New Zealanders, regards their Dominion as his leading Empire market. Specialised Production The phrase "specialised production," has been coined legitimately to descrihe tho Morris methods. At the Cowley works every man and woman may truly be described as a "specialist." New Zcalandgrs will bo interested to know that tho 40-hour week is in vogue, that tho workmen belong to no union, that they earn on an average over the award wages, and t'hat the organisation is so smooth and satisfactory that strikes have been found unnecessary as a method of securing better conditions Tho human aspect of the Cowley works, which epitomises tho efficiency of the machine age, is rne that i.s thought about almost instinctively during an inspection. "That man," said a guide, pointing to one of tho workmen bending over a chassis, "has been screwing up nuts and bolts for the past three years to my knowledge. It is all 110 does. Ho could get a transfer if lie wished, but he seems to prefer doing that job." Assembly Plant at Work The Morris works at Cowley are almost entirely an assembly plant and very little actual manufacturing is done, with tho exception of a percentage of the bodies used. Chassis are

assembled in ono section of the Cowley works, bodies in another. The painting is the work of another section, and still a fourth fits the body on to the chassis. The chassis frame actually grows before the eyes as component after component is fitted in rapid succession. The skeleton frame is fitted on to a slowlvmoving platform and groups of four men are allowed four minutes to perforin their individual tasks as the chassis crawls along. At one point, for instance, the chassis is simultaneously supplied with its engine, back axle, and propeller shaft. Further on the driving wheel is placed into position, then the wire fitters sot to work, followed by tho wheel fitters. Final Processes The job of assembling tho tyres on to the wheels is the task of yet another department, where six men each fit on 500 tyres in eight hours. A minute a tyro is the average allowance, and tho fastest worker can do the job in 25 seconds. The body assembling section is bedlam compared with the rumble of the chassis sheds. Roofs, body sides, doors are placed into position and there is an endless thundering of hundreds of hammers. Tho body is next sent to the celluloso shop, whero it receives nine coats of paint, passes through drying ovens for over an hour, and is then carefully rubbed down and finally polished. In the meantime, the trimming shop has been preparing seat cushions, door trimmings and other various interior accessories.

The body, on leaving tho cellulose shop, is placed on a body trimming conveyor, is fitted with tho windscreen and window glasses, and gradually assumes tho more familiar linos of a car interior. When it roaches the end of the conveyor it is picked up by a travelling overhead hoist and lowered into position on its chassis. Finally, the enr goes through tho mounting shop, is completed, and presented to tho testing department, who hand it over to the final view department, from whero it is sent to the despatch department.