Large plants are made up of a number of departments. The office is the chief executive department. Here the plant is checked up, all correspondence taken care of, and all financial, educational, and business matters attended to. Closely connected with the office usually are the drafting rooms, where new models, changes in models, and experimental changes are made, since all such changes are first made on drawings. The engineering and experimental departments may also be located in the office building. In the experimental department all changes are worked out, and research work is carried on. If such changes prove to be a betterment they are made on the blue prints, and are then made in the factory throughout. Since even a minor change may cost the factory thousands of dollars, all changes must be carefully considered.
Other departments include those organized for engine, frame, axle, and chassis assembly, the paint department, and other departments according to size of factory and product manufactured, whether a complete automobile or an automobile unit.
The staff of men who handle a department usually includes a general superintendent, assistant superintendent, department foreman, section foreman, timekeeper, inspectors, and checkers.
The superintendent in many cases is a man who has come up through the ranks, and superintendents of this kind are usually the most efficient. Assistant superintendents, foremen, and others also are usually men picked from the ranks. Men with common-school educations are holding responsible positions in many factories and are drawing large salaries.
In each factory will be found an efficiency man or production manager, whose duties are to put into operation new methods, machines, and devices to increase production.
There will be found also an educational and welfare department in each factory, which looks after the welfare of workers, settles disputes between workmen and foremen, and in individual cases shifts workers from one shop operation to another. As a rule, the hospital or first-aid division is located in this department, which may undertake also the organization of training classes in such subjects as will increase efficiency, and may arrange for entertainments and the organization of clubs.
Progressive Assembly Method of Manufacturing
Progressive assembly means assembly of parts by stages, or step by step. In this work a man does one operation only, although he may be frequently changed from job to job, according to his ability as workman or mechanic.
Special equipment is required for this method. The work starts with the frame as a skeleton, which is placed either on a conveyer, that is moved very slowly, or on a special framework equipped with casters that it may be moved freely from place to place.
Where the conveyer is used, the conveyer is from 100 to 200 feet long, and moves at the rate of about two feet per minute, although the rate varies from factory to factory. By the time the frame or skeleton reaches the end of the conveyor the automobile is practically complete. The various units have been attached as the frame moves slowly down the floor. In some factories the automobile is so completely assembled that the engine is started and, after a short road test, the car is driven to the shipping platform. This means that in some factories an automobile is completely assembled in less than an hour. As the automobiles are placed close together on the conveyer a finished machine is turned out every minute or so.