The Push-button Factory^ 



By Frank K. Shallenberger 



Associate Professor of Industrial Management 

 Stanford University 



Six years ago, two Canadian physicists, Eric W, Leaver and Dr. 

 J. J. Brown, wrote an article for Fortune magazine showing how 

 electronic controls developed for military use might be used to control 

 factory machines and processes and thus make possible the push- 

 button factory of the future — the automatic factory, where all work 

 would be done by machines without operators, where the only attend- 

 ants would be observer-technicians. 



They devised an automaton, or hand-arm device, directed and con- 

 trolled by a punched-paper tape, which would automatically load, 

 operate, and unload the machines. They proposed devices to inspect, 

 move, and assemble parts. They suggested that with a new set of 

 tapes and a little rearrangement, the plant might shift from one 

 product to another — for example, from vacuum cleaners to electric 

 motors. 



The automatic factory has become one of the most challenging sub- 

 jects of discussion in engineering and management circles today. The 

 April 1952 issue of Factory magazine was devoted to it. Even the Rus- 

 sians have climbed on the bandwagon. In February 1952, the 

 U. S. S. R. Information Bulletin printed a somewhat vague article 

 which purported to describe "The World's First Automatic Piston 

 Factory." This was proclaimed another Russian "first." The fact 

 that a group of "capitalist" Harvard students had demonstrated in 

 some detail 8 months previously how such a factory might be built was 

 not mentioned. 



Actually, the idea of automation is nothing new. It is the logical 

 and ultimate result of imaginative methods study and uninhibited 

 machine design. Anything which substitutes mechanical, electrical, 

 or other devices for human guidance and control is a form of auto- 

 mation. The automatic feed or cam which advances the tool and the 

 template which guides it, the pneumatic cylinder which clamps, in- 



} Reprinted by permission from the Engineering Journal, vol. 35, No. 11, November 1952. 



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