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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 2359.PDF
AUGUST 22, 1940 vehicle ,of hundreds of last-minute changes. In fact, until the first production aircraft has flown away there is no certainty in design at all. So there is some excuse if the various components designed so carefully as interchange- able units do not maintain the pristine separations we planned. No Development Period Even when the design is complete and the first aeroplane has flown, there is no true development period because the production of components has by that time reached a very advanced stage. They were begun many months ahead of the production delivery date, and only desperate reasons could justify a change. Nevertheless, the firm as a whole does its best, and so do the sub-contractors who supply proprietary units. With these, even, troubles sometimes arise, and the beautifully simple layout provided in the early stages does not always work. It is not an unknown occurrence that an admirably simple unit supplied for the prototype aircraft, perhaps with a single quick-release connection which was to have hld items "A" and "B" together, had to be changed 147 Centre-sections ready fortransfer to assembly line opposite. on production — due to troubles that have arisen in the meantime—to about a dozen rods and levers. Each time such a change occurs all the drawings over which the Design Depart- ment has been burning midnight oil, and all the jigs, tools, patterns, etc., which the shops are endeavouring to build while production is going on, have to be altered. In addition to having to design the aeroplane, build the factory, design and make jigs and tools and to reach heavy production in one year—on an aeroplane for which the final particu- lars and specification have not arrived—one is also ex- pected to reach complete interchangeability from the word " go! " Yet inter- changeability can only be obtained by having draw- ings, tools and product alike, and we have none in the early stages of produc- tion. It seems to me that a year of development would be necessary to provide a leasonable chance of obtain- ing such interchangeability without adverse effect on the design of the aeroplane. Nevertheless, we design the aeroplane for produc tion, and by some miracle it turns out to be much nearer to our early concep- tion than we had dared to hope. Track Assembly All striving towards effici- ency in manufacture reduces itself into a movement to- wards order, discipline and team work. Unorganised group assembly, held together only by the individual's knowledge of the job as a whole, must eventually give way to a planned system. Planning in embryo starts with an attempt to provide the men with materials and jobs as they ask for them. Later, the work is organised into departments dealing with the various sub-assemblies. Usually, at the present time, a stationary group or line of aircraft in the final assembly stage is arranged, and groups of men move round carrying out their more or less specialised jobs to their foremen's instructions. The weak- ness of this system lies in the difficulty in enforcing dis- cipline and in the lack of accurate knowledge of what is going on. It is very difficult to plan work accurately, because as soon as men of a group cease on their own job (either be- cause they have finished all the aircraft waiting or because of shortages) the foreman finds them another job rather than put them on waiting time. Very often the work found is neither urgent nor important, and a feeling of slackness is established.
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