introduction of automatic transfer machines andmechanisms, a step that will add to those manyadvantages inherent in flow production by closingthe gap between machine capability and the actualperformance of the machine, by reducing the timeinterval between operation and operation andbetween machine and machine. Also by introducinga mechanical discipline which could not be achievedby any other means.

It would seem then that engineers in this countryshould be encouraged to make a bold effort to workalong these lines. If we do riot make that effort wemay find ourselves still further behind our Americanfriends, who have always made the utmost use of everymechanical aid (the secret of their greater use of horsepower per man employed). This new development ismore or less in its infancy and if we apply these methodswherever we can we should be able to meet anycompetition.

The idea of the automatic transfer machine origi-nated in this country; ought we not, in golfingparlance, to "follow through"? Possibly the bestway to do this would be by the building of "package"units as indicated. That would require co-ordinationand co-operation. How can we create the conditionswhere specialised machinery can be built from stand-ardised units ? Is this a task for the machine toolbuilders? . . . for the manufacturers of the electric,hydraulic and pneumatic components? . . . or is ita job for the makers of end products themselves?Is it a task for one firm or for a group of firms?These are questions which should be asked and muchdepends on the answer.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe Author and the Institution make grateful

acknowledgement to the following for permission to

reproduce the illustrations indicated:—Numbers (3)^

(4)(4)(5)(6)

(23) 1(yy(8)(9)

(10)

("Lf i2)\By

the courtesy of "Machinery".

By the courtesy of the "AmericanMachinist" (through the "Machinist")

the courtesy of the Nuffield

(A)

(B)

(C)

(13) J Organisation.(16) By the courtesy of the Ford Motor

Company Ltd., England.

(18) >By the courtesy of the A. O. Smith(19) J Corporation of Milwaukee, U.S.A.(20) By the courtesy of the Austin Motor

Company Ltd.

REFERENCES ."Factory Planning" by H. E. Taylor—Proceedings: Inst.Prod. Engrs. 1922/23."Some Notes on Continuous Production" by Frank G.Woollard—Proceedings: Inst. Auto. Enginrs. Feb. 1925.See also articles in "Machinery" from 12th Feb. to9th April 1925 (inclusive).For detailed account of the Morris/Archdale gear-boxmachine see "Machinery" 10th January 1952.For further details of "Automation" at the Ford MotorCompany, U.S.A., see "The Machinist" 3rd May 1952.For further details of the Austin Motor Company's semi-automatic assembly line; see "The Machinist" 8th Sept.1951, and also "Mechanical Handling" for Oct. 1951.For information on auto-transfer machines in flow produc-tion see "The Basic Principles of Mass and Flow Production"by Frank G. Woollard, appearing in "Mechanical Handling"from April 1952 onwards.

DISCUSSIONThe following comments on Mr. Woollard's paper have been received :

From: Mr. HAROLD BURKE, Chairman of Council.'Productivity' is the word that is most used in this

post-war period, to describe the manufacturers'reaction to the problem of our national economy.Numerous delegations have visited other countriesto study this problem; much discussion has takenplace; and endless Reports have been issued on thesubject. All this work is completely pointless, unlesssome appropriate action is taken. Mr. Woollard'spaper, first of all, allows us to coin the word 'Trans-fermatic' to describe this form of productiontechnique; and secondly, makes a powerful anddecisive contribution to the solution of the practicaland technical difficulties that are encountered instudying production developments.

The subject demands very careful study. Ahurried glance at the paper may give an impressionof H. G. Wells' ''Things to Come", and in thisconnection, it is well to remember that Mr. Woollardis writing with a background of thirty years' experi-ence in the development of'Transfermatics'—truly, a

remarkable record in connection with a techniquethat is considered to be in its infancy. It may bethought that this type of equipment can only beused for large scale mass production, and this ispartly true. Bearing in mind, however, the largesection of industry that is concerned with massproduction on a smaller scale than that enjoyed bythe motor industry, we need to consider further themanufacture of standard units that can readily begrouped and re-grouped to meet the ever-changingdemands of world trade. This is a matter for themachine tool trade and, in my view, requires urgentattention.

The extended use of 'Transfermatics' may forceour designers to think more positively in terms ofstandardised products. For example, there are,I believe, 125 different models of motor cars beingmade in this country, and however much we maywish to encourage individual initiative, there is nocase made out for the multiplicity of sub-units ofdifferent design and size that go to make up the

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motor car. We do not need to be complacent, norenvy the American industry with its large quantityproduction—there is something we can do now inthis country, if we exploit to the full the techniquesoutlined in this paper.

The result must surely be a steady scaling down ofselling prices, and a restoration of our position in theworld's markets.

Mr. Woollard is to be congratulated on the mostexcellent way in which he has dealt with the back-ground of 'Transfermatics', but more particularly onhis vision for the future—forthright, practical and tothe point. It is truly a worthy contribution to thefirst issue of the new Journal.

From: Mr. DAVID H. BRAMLEY, Head of Department ofIndustrial Administration, College of Technology,,

Birmingham.In 1950, Mr. Frank Woollard accepted a com-

mission from the College of Technology, Birmingham,to present a series of lectures to a senior managementcourse on "Principles of Mass and Flow Production".One of the objectives was to focus the attention oftop management on the possibilities and impli-cations of automatic transfer and automationas the logical development of manually-operatedflow production systems. Production Engineers inthe British Isles owe a great debt to Mr. Woollardfor his work in examining and analysing the positionas he finds it in 1952, for it was he who pioneered theidea of automatic transfer in the production ofmachined components as long ago as 1924, at theMorris Engines plant at Coventry. At that time,despite the brilliant production team he had abouthim, Mr. Woollard found some of the difficultiesinsurmountable, but it is now obvious that we canforge ahead for, like many another idea originatedhere, the principle has been taken up and exploitedto a considerable extent in the U.S.A. and on theContinent. We also have evidence of the use ofautomatic transfer machines in the U.S.S.R.

Without allowing our imagination to run awaywith us it is obvious, from Mr. Woollard's thesis, thatwe stand at the threshold of developments in factoryorganisation which will have as much effect uponour industrial society as the advent of jet propulsionin . aviation, and of atomic energy as a source ofpower. Some may say that costly elaboration ofproduction machinery to achieve automatism mustrestrict the development of product design. To thisobjection there seems to be two answers: first, toobserve that some of the most successful productdesigns of consumer goods—including motor cars—have remained almost static for the past twentyyears: second, to follow Mr. Woollard's signposttowards simplifying the operations to be performedat each stage of an automatic transfer plant, and thusto achieve standardisation of the machinery unitsand control mechanisms on a "package" basis, sothat they can be rearranged with facility to accom-modate product design modifications. Others maysay that automatism can have only a limited applica-tion. This is undoubtedly true, but Mr. Woollardhas said sufficient to indicate that in any situationwhere the repetition factor is great enough to justify

flow production, automatic transfer machines andautomation must be considered. Viewed in this way,acceptance of the principles of automatic transfer andautomation makes obsolete many British flowproduction plants devoted to the manufacture ofmotor cars, vacuum cleaners, washing machines,clocks and radios—to mention only a few of theconsumer products involved.

One thing puzzles me about current incursionsinto automatic transfer plants by the motor industry.Why pick on some of the most complicated com-ponents—cylinder blocks, cylinder heads, and crank-shafts, when there are simpler components such asvalves, valve rockers, pistons, steering and brakelinkages to work on; some with higher repetitionrates and less risk of modification? But anotherthing is clear: development of the automatictransfer and automation principles demands new andexceptional skill in production engineering. If theyare to be successful in the British Isles, we mustredouble our efforts in the education and training ofBritish Production Engineers—the responsibility ofthis Institution and the technical college. TheInstitution's educational policy is developing but asyet it hardly fulfils the needs of to-day. It must berewritten for the men we train to-day for the age ofautomatic transfer and automation.

From: Professor T. U. MATTHEW, Ph.D., M.I.Prod.E.Head of Department of Engineering Production, Univer-

sity of Birmingham.

The automatic transfer principle has been appliedsuccessfully between automatic cycle operations in anastonishingly wide range of process and productindustries during the past 50 years, but it is onlyrecently that it has been possible to apply it success-fully to the machining sequences used in the produc-tion of precision components required by theautomobile industry.

Mr. Woollard's paper draws attention to thesignificance of this development in the course of amasterly review of the past, present and futureprospects of automatic transfer mechanisms applied tomachining sequences.

The engineering details referred to in the paper areinteresting examples of the practical methods used inovercoming the difficulties inherent in "auto-mation". It is, perhaps, equally important to definethe basic planning requirements which must be metif this type of equipment is to be applied, not onlyin the mass production industries where the capitalcost of such equipment can be more readily justified,but also in industries concerned with the precisionmachining of comparatively small batches of com-ponents.

In the design of automatic plant for continuousflow production on a batch basis, where a series ofcomponents are to be fed forward to a final assemblyline, there are three basic planning principles of majorimportance which must be taken into account tomake this type of plant economically advantageous.

These are, first: the different component linesmust be timed and phased so that all parts cometogether at the correct rate and in proper sequence

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for sub and final assembly. Without this provision,finished component stocks are likely to becomeuneconomically large. Second, the number ofcomponents in transit between major operations mustbe sufficiently large to allow for normal delays onindividual units in the automatic group. Withoutthis provision, the need for stoppages of the entireline must be anticipated.

Third, flexibility of design and operation must beprovided. Flexibility must be built into the basicmachine design in such a way that major changes inmachining operations from one component batch toanother may be accommodated without major changesto machine heads or mountings.

This type of flexibility is essential to guarantee thatit will always be possible to adapt the machine andthus to spread the initial capital outlay sufficientlywidely to permit low capital charges.

Flexibility must also be provided in machineoperation in a number of ways, such as (a) by allowingfor rapid by-passing of machines which developfaults, or alternatively, by providing stand-by unitsand replacement tools which can be quickly substi-tuted should failure occur; (b) by dividing machiningoperation lines into automatic transfer groups withinter-group buffer stocks such that stoppages in anyone group need not affect the general flow of produc-tion; (c) by providing means for altering the relativespeed of adjacent automatic groups so that theproduction balance may be restored from time to time.

In addition to these planning principles, there are anumber of engineering principles which must also beobserved in the detailed design of such equipment.The most important of these are:—

(i) the provision of safeguards against seriousdamage caused by tool breakage, misalignmentof parts, or the introduction of defective partsfrom previous operations. Overload trips,electrolimit switches and automatic or visualinspection at danger points are commonlyused safeguards.

(ii) the provision of positive means for maintainingaccuracy of alignment and for holding keydimensions within the required tolerances.

Reference is -made in the paper to a number ofmethods, such as locating and clamping against non-wearing surfaces, and the use of hardened steeldowels and bushes. Attention must also be directedto the use of kinematic design principles in thisconnection.

It is interesting to note that many of the examplesquoted in the paper, and many other existing plantsbased upon the automatic cycle and automatictransfer principle, embody at least a number of theseplanning and engineering principles.

In one example mentioned, the A. O. Smith carframe plant, all these principles have been observedand in particular the engineering requirement offlexibility has been met to a degree which has enabledthe plant to maintain continuous operation over 25years, and to be adapted continuously to meet widechanges in the style, size and shape of the product.

The future use of such machines in British industrywill depend to a major extent upon providing thesame degree of flexibility in this type of plant.

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From : Mr. T. W. ELKINGTON, M.I.Prod.E., Director andGeneral Manager, Peter Brasshouse, Ltd., Birmingham.

I heartily endorse Mr. Woollard's opening remarksthat never has such a major development of productionengineering received such little national publicity orcomment.

On the other hand, Mechanical Handling has had agreat deal of attention, and is now accepted as theterm used to cover inter-departmental handling.

Too little attention has been focused on thebroader conception of Materials Handling—which isnow acknowledged as the term used to cover themovement of material right through the productionplant, in other words, from "door to door".

Materials Handling embraces handling at the"work point proper", which has been designated"inter-process handling" and which, in the main,involves precision engineering and a great deal ofproduction engineering ingenuity.

The automatic transfer machine is the logicaldevelopment of the co-ordination of handling and themachine—the natural blending of two facets ofproduction engineering.

Mr. Woollard has given us a sound picture of thestrides made in the motor manufacturing industriesin the use of this technique, and has given provenexamples Of the economic values of these projects.British manufacturing industries as a whole wouldbe wise to weigh carefully the possibilities of similarsystems where quantity production is required for,without doubt, other products can be effectivelyhandled with automatic transfer machines. Thebasic principle is—"dispense with handling whereverpossible, for it adds nothing to the job except itscost ! "

Production Engineers must at all times be alive towastage due to excess handling and although thereare many jobs where, for technical reasons, difficultiesarise to prevent manufacture on the same scale asin the motor industry, economies can be made byusing the same approach. While the economies of'' Inter-Departmental Handling'' are difficult to assess—for they cover the whole plant and are eventually ab-sorbed in the overheads—"Inter-Process Handling" orhandling at the "work point proper" can be accuratelyascertained. Many of the advantages such as thereduction of fatigue; reduction of scrap, and damage;and the saving of floor space, can be valued only askeeping in step with the times—the natural.progressof industry.

The points upon which to assess the economicvalue of a transfer machine's installation must bemore definite and have strict bearing on the sellingprice and quality of the product. Production'Engineers therefore must base their calculations on:—

(a) The quantity to be produced.(b) The increased output expected.(c) The labour cost.(d) The amortisation of the equipment over the

contract period.(e) The cost of maintenance and replacement.The further extension of this technique throughout

industry in general depends on concrete propositionsbeing put before the Boards of Directors and Produc-

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