Fifty Thousand Operations to Miake a Car 



How they are performed on the minute by 

 means of the wonderful "Control Board" 



By Reginald Trautschold, M. E. 



THE automobile is now so familiar to 

 us that we have ceased to realize 

 how complex a machine it really is. 

 Fifty thousand or more manufacturing 

 operations are required on a car, and each 

 operation must be performed at exactly 

 the right time. 



As a guide for the issuance of orders, 

 and as a standing record of progress made 

 in the shops. Major George D. Babcock, 

 production manager of a great automo- 

 bile company, has devised the "control 

 board." Vertical boards are covered 

 with a curtain of horizontal metal strips, 

 some ten feet long and about six feet in 

 depth. These curtains can be raised or 

 lowered, and strips can be inserted or 

 removed. Each strip is devoted to the 

 graphic depiction of the progress made 

 on some particular one of the numerous 

 parts manufactured. There are about 

 one hundred such strips onteach control 

 board. 



The horizontal distances along the 

 strips represent work days, so that a 

 vertical line at the extreme right of the 

 control boards may be taken as represent- 

 ing the date at which the car must be 

 completed. A distance to the left of such 

 a completion or zero line on any strip 

 will then measure a definite number of 

 work days prior to the date at which the 



5 350 345 340 335 330 325 320 3,5 

 L I I I I 1 I I I 1 



car should be ready to leave the factory. 

 At the proper locations on each strip are 

 small square blocks, known as "cages," 

 each representing a specific operation in 

 the manufacture of a particular part. 

 The distance of each cage from the zero 

 line indicates the date at which work on 

 each operation should be commenced. 

 For instance, take the strip devoted to 

 Fart B, in the illustration below. This 

 part is required thirty days before the 

 automobile is completed, but no earlier, 

 and, of course, no later. A cage is there- 

 fore mounted on the Part B strip, thirty 

 work days to the left of the zero line, to 

 indicate that thirty days before the car's 

 completion Part B must be finished. 



Two mechanical operations are re- 

 quired to complete Part B, each one of 

 which requires a work day. A cage 

 indicating the second operation is then 

 mounted on the Part B strip to the left 

 of the "finish" cage, separated from the 

 latter by a space representing one work- 

 ing day, and another cage for the first 

 operation is mounted the same distance 

 to the left of the cage for the second 

 operation. The distance between cages 

 represents the time required for the 

 operation immediately to the left; the 

 space occupied by the cages themselves 

 denotes the time allotted to examining 



Schedule 



310 VIS 300 



29l5 2?0 285 260 275 2™ 2^,5 260 355 "0 2^5 240 235 :30 

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Diagram giving a close view of the control board. Schedule tape at top is moved one 

 have been completed to date. Part A, and the other strips, show progress on the parts of 



216 



