Austin Seven Production 1936
THE ubiquitous "Austin Seven" is the junior member of a large family of Austin cars, which includes a range of 10 hp. models and 12 hp. models, all with four-cylinder engines, and a range of 12 hp. 16 hp. 18 hp. and 20 hp. models with six-cylinder engines. And as to cost, some 11 or 12 years ago the makers marketed a model at £800 and found a very limited demand for it; later it was produced for £250, and to date examples to the value of £26,000,000 have been sold at that price. How has it been done? Mass production and the conveyor system is the generally accepted answer, but it is wholly misleading. Admittedly, to visit the Longbridge works of the company near Birmingham to-day is to see one of the largest motor factories in Europe. The value of the plant alone is over £4,000,000. It is housed in buildings occupying about 100 acres. The works give employment to nearly 20,000 people and have a road frontage of over a mile. Nearly everything is made on the premises, castings, drop forgings (the Austin drop-forging section is one of the largest in the country), body pressings, and so on. There are miles and miles of conveyors. Practically everything in the works goes on conveyors, the only exceptions being the workpeople, who travel to and from their working positions as other folk. do, by walking, and the pay packets which every Friday are carried in well-worn locked wooden boxes to the various section foremen's offices and handed individually to each employee.
Many Conveyors
Conveyors are everywhere, often three deep or three high, depending on one's viewpoint In the engine-erection section they make a positive maze out of which only the experienced know the way. They hedge in the core-making and foundry operations at every stage. The engines, completed and passed off test in one section of the works, are conveyed a considerable distance, passing over the railway sidings and through several sections of the factory to reach the chassis-erecting shops, where they automatically sort themselves out in their proper sizes and shunt themselves in siding to be ready for inclusion in their proper chassis. But the conveyors have not made the Austin car cheap; they have merely been called in to help. Judged by another standard, Austin cars should be rather dear, for the factory is one of the very few where there is to be found miles and miles of overhead shafting and leather belts. They are a legacy of the past which it is not possible to scrap at a moment's notice.
The employment of women on core making in the foundry, on many of the lighter repetition machines, and in the car-finishing processes has nothing to do with the cost, while the fact that the average engineering wage of the district is not nearly so high as the average Wage of the Austin worker is more confusing than helpful. The real secret of the low price and quality of the Austin car is to be found in the intelligent policy of the executive; and the consistent way in which it is applied. They claim to know throughout the day, to very narrow limits, whether they are making a profit or a loss, working on the basis of not " What can we make a car for ? " but " what will the free market pay for a car ?
Production Time
One aspect of building a motor-car is that of the time that economically can be spent in production. Knowing the various processes through which the component parts have to pass, it is possible to give a definite time quota to each and see where effort is being wasted. For example, at one time the cylinder blocks of Austin cars involved costly machining operations, as regards time and effort The executive studied how to save effort not from the angle of what had been done but from the negative point of view of what had not been done. A new method was then evolved which gave about five times the accuracy of the older system at fractional cost. At one time a certain- size of aluminium piston cost one shilling to finish by a process that wasted time. Today, giving a very much better piston, from every point of view, the equivalent process costs only about 21d. The appreciation of the time factor accounts for the conveyors everywhere for it is held that as a man has only his time and energy with which to trade it is unfair and unjust to waste it, hence the conveyor to bring raw material to him and take away the results of his labour. That has led to the installation on many machines in the works of an electrical recording device which makes a mark on a, chart every time an operation is completed. The chart is divided into minutes and from it the speed of any operation can be read. In the office of every section supervisor is a group of such recording machines covering every machine tool.
If a machine stops, a member of the executive goes down to discover the reason and on a tele-printer sends to headquarters his explanation. The recording draws attention to faulty machines, faults in the tool room in sending out unsuitable tools and, from the operatives point of view better than all, faults on the part of the executive in not obtaining raw material or in not taking away the finished articles. With such a close check on all work done, the ordinary methods of accountancy are useless. A profit and loss account every 12 months is found to be of as much use in preventing losses as an inquest is in saving life.
Tracing -Losses
Losses must be known as soon as they occur, so that they may be dealt with. To handle that side of the question all accounting is done by a system of punched cards and code numbers. Books and typewriters are almost unknown in the office. In their places are numerous accounting machines and more remarkable machines which sort the cards, stop at faulty cards, and integrate and analyse the results so that in very few moments a statement of profit and loss can be secured. This checking and rechecking of the trading position of the firm goes on all day. Every morning the appropriate heads of departments know definitely what are the stocks in all parts in the factory. A statement is prepared of every car body on the assembly lines, its condition, the stocks of parts on hand for its finishing, how many bodies there are of one type, the number of chassis there are ready for them, and for how many more of any class there are orders in hand. Even every faulty part is accounted for and reports are sent to all sections concerned with its production.
Such a close watch on all time-wasting operations might seem to suggest economies in essentials and inspecting, but it has just the opposite effect. Efficient operation becomes of paramount importance and everything is done to secure it. The press shops are lit by the largest type of electric discharge lamps because their peculiar blue light has been found to better illuminate when sheet metal is being handled than the ordinary vacuum type of lamp. The assembly lines in the body shop have a double row of powerful lamps spaced about a yard apart, with a marked increase in their number at the inspection points. A large proportion of the cloth used for interior finishing is passed before a strong light for the detection of weaving faults, while the skins used in the upholstery are cut up individually so that variations in grain and texture may be properly balanced.
Mimic Rain
Radiators, which are made in the Works, are tested, first with internal air pressure under water and dried and then with pressure inside. Even the sunshine roof of the finished car is not taken for granted, for an inspector gets inside each car, closes all doors and windows and blows the born. His assistant outside turns on a very passable imitation of an English downpour of rain, and while splashes and sprays over the roof the water inspector looks critically for leaks. Another toot of the horn and the " rain " stops. The water is dried off by powerful air blasts and the car goes forward to have its paintwork polished and finished off. Minute blemishes in the painting which to an untrained eye are insignificant are ruthlessly marked out for treatment. All engines are run under their own power on test beds against dynamometers. The brakes of every chassis are checked before it is passed forward to receive the body. In fact, Austin testing and inspecting is more severe than in many factories, for any faults or which have to be dealt with mean it loss of time and consequently an increased cost on the vehicle affected.
A complete record is kept of the 6,000 machine tools in use. On one wall of a very small room are a series of cards, each representing a machine and grouped as the machines are grouped in the works. The colour of the card gives the age of the machine. A symbol on it discloses its nationality. Groups of numbers indicate the firm from which it was purchased (over 360 have been built by Austin themselves to their own designs and needs), its nature, the particular car parts for which it is used, and its price. A card index, made up from the group of cards, shows what it would cost to replace the machine and its present value in use, the number of times it has been repaired and at what cost, and most important of all, the amount of work it has done.
No item is too big, and no item too small for the attention of the Austin method of costing. It covers everything, from the air going into the cupolas in the foundry (it is weighed to see that there is just sufficient for correct combustion) down to the smallest piece of emery paper used.
Austin Seven Road Test
The Austin Seven, which costs £165, is comfortable, and has nothing of the cycle-car about it, the design being that of a good motor-car. Of power and speed, on the level and up hill, there is plenty, and the body' will carry three grown persons or two and two children with reasonable ease. Electric lighting and start-ing, adjustable and detachable bucket 'seats in front, a double windscreen, an all-weather hood, electric horn, and spare wheel show that equipment has not been skimped. The car is not faultless or incapable of improvement, but it has many sound points in its favour.
The engine is a four-cylinder water-cooled unit with a bore and stroke of 56mm. and 76mm, a capacity of 747.5 cubic centimetres, and it is stated to give off 10.5 horse power on the brake at 2,400 r.p.m. As the machine weighs only about 7cwt., the car is lively. The cylinders are cast on bloc, have a detachable head, and are separate from the crank-chamber. The valves are placed side by side, the tappets are adjustable, and there is a single cover plate. This is moderately get-attable, but it was not oil-tight, and the retaining screws might for convenience be attached permanently to the plate. On this, the near, side is also the carburettor. The jets can be changed without needless fumbling, the petrol supply is from a four-gallon or 18-litre tank in the scuttle, and the filler, which has a strainer, is under the bonnet. Inlet and exhaust manifolds are neatly bolted together, and the exhaust pipe is carried down at the forward end of the engine, so that it does not overheat the floor in front.
The cooling water circulates on the natural principle, and there is a handy drain tap at the lowest point. There was no fan fitted to the car tested. A generator is placed in front of the cylinder block and is cross-driven by gear, another instance of adequate design. Ignition is by magneto, which is coupled by vernier connexion and held to its bed by a single strap. On this side there is the oil filler, which, though it might well be ex-tended, has a quickly detachable cap and a gauze inside the month. The other filter, together with the oil pump, is in the base. The sump is separate and detachable, and the filter is of the tray pattern, but it might be made more accessible. The crankshaft runs in roller bearings. The frame of the car is very much tapered, the channel section is open on the under side, and it has three point suspension. Engine, clutch, and gearbox are bolted up together and fastened to the frame at four points. The front axle is of the orthodox car type, namely, a forging or xi. secuon, anu t.rus IS tied at either end by channel rods to a cross member. The general construction—the channel frame and ties, the forged axle, the stout cross members—seemed robust. The steering box is attached to the frame and has a complete wheel. The spindle and drop arm are in one, but can be withdrawn to enable new-life positions of the gear to be obtained with the least cost. The steering connexions have been kept well up and the track rod is protected by the axle. The transmission consists of a single-plate clutch, a, three-speed centrally-controlled gear box, a short open propeller shaft, thence by shaft enclosed in a torque tube to a helical bevel driven rear live axle with differential. The clutch housing has a small inspection plate on the removal of which the spigot oil reservoir can be reached. The gear lever works in a visible gate, and has a safety catch for reverse. The lid of the box contains the change speed mechanism and a filler. It can be got at—like the clutch inspection plate--without removal of floor-boards. The gear ratios are 4.9, 9, and 16 to 1. Reverse is 21 to 1. Quarter elliptical springs support the chassis at the back. The forward ends of these lie in the channels and are there bolted ; the rear ends are shackled. In front a transverse spring, clipped in the centre and shackled either extremity, is employed. There is grease gun lubrication throughout the chassis, and the valves are for the most part handily placed. The live axle casing has a breather, which serves as an overflow level pipe. Internal expanding brakes are fitted to all road wheels. The front pair are applied by centrally placed hand lever and the back brakes by pedal. A single cable working over a pulley is used for the front S4 ir, thus compensated action is afforded. &dins ent, though requiring a spanner, is simple once a tin cover is removed. The rear brakes are brought into action by a rod, cross bar, and cable. Wear can be taken up by hand. The drums did not look watertight to me, but I believe the later models have been altered.