In visiting the factory where a half million automobiles are made each
year, the visitor first comes to the power house.
In the construction of this building 5,200 tons of structural steel were
used, the equivalent necessary to build a modern twenty-story
skyscraper.
Six engines of a combination gas-steam type, housed in this building,
develop 36,000 combined horse-power. They are said to be the first
gas-steam engines to be put to practical use. Another engine, using
steam only, develops 2,000 horse-power, while several pumping engines
increase the total horse-power of the plant to 45,000, probably the
largest individual unit of any power-plant in the world, and said to be
the only one of its kind in actual operation.
[Illustration: CRANK SHAFT GRINDING DEPARTMENT]
Some idea of the size of the engines is gained from the fact that the
stroke is 72 inches, while the gas cylinders are 42 inches in diameter
and the steam cylinders are 36 and 68 inches in diameter.
[Illustration: THE POWER HOUSE EQUIPMENT INCLUDES THE LARGEST DIRECT
CURRENT CONTROL BOARD IN THE WORLD]
In producing the gas and steam for these engines only twenty-two tons of
coal per hour are consumed, which speaks well for the efficiency of the
engines. In addition to the steam, the daily consumption of producer gas
for power purpose only is 28,512,000 cubic feet. Added to this figure
for power gas, is another item of gas used in the factory for various
purposes, which averages nearly 1,000,000 cubic feet per day, bringing
the per diem consumption of gas by the company up to 29,512,000 cubic
feet.
The main factory buildings are 900 feet long and 800 feet wide, four
stories in height and of fire-proof construction. They are so designed
that every part of the interior receives a full share of daylight.
The heating and ventilating of the factory building is accomplished in a
modern, scientific manner. In the winter, warm washed air is forced
through long ducts in the floor up into the room. In the summer, cool
washed air is handled in the same way, thus providing a clean, healthful
atmosphere the year around. By this system the air in the factory is
completely changed five times per hour.
[Illustration: OVERHEAD MONORAIL SYSTEM]
At the right as the visitor enters the factory, is seen the tool
construction department. Here are employed approximately 1,000 expert
tool makers, machinists and die sinkers. These men are engaged in making
new machinery (designed in the company shops), tools, jigs, fixtures and
other machine shop accessories, and repairing those in use.
Overhead are traveling cranes which have a capacity of forty tons each.
These cranes facilitate the work of the tool construction department by
carrying cumbersome parts of machinery to and from it for alterations
and repairs.
Here the visitor is standing upon the roof of a great tunnel, in which
are all the heating, water and steam pipes, and the power cables running
from the power house to various parts of the shop. This tunnel is large
enough to permit the easy passage of a touring car.
Standing in front of the factory office, the visitor is doubly impressed
with the magnitude of the view before him. In one continuous room,
containing approximately 700,000 square feet of floor space, there are,
in round numbers, 8,000 machines in actual operation, representing an
outlay of about $5,000,000. These machines use some 2,500 gallons of
lubricating oils and 11,000 gallons of cutting fluids each day. For
driving the many machines, about fifty miles of leather belting are
used, giving the room the appearance of a dense forest.
The visitor who is familiar with machine shop practice will notice at
once the peculiar location and setting of machinery in this shop. The
machines of a class, or type, are not all located in a single group or
unit. Each department contains all of the necessary machinery to
complete every operation on each part or piece it produces. To
illustrate, a rough forging or casting is started in a department at one
point, and after passing through the machines doing the required
operations, it leaves this department in a finished condition, ready to
be assembled into the car.
[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE MAIN HOSPITAL]
Such a system necessitates the grouping together of many different kinds
of machines, as well as including brazing furnaces, cyanide furnaces and
other special units (most generally found in separate buildings). Chutes
run from one machine to another, so that a workman can transport a part
from his operation to the next one by gravity. The results of this
transportation system are remarkable, making a big saving in trucking
expense, loss of material and the absence of usual delays.
[Illustration: PISTON MACHINING DEPARTMENT]
As the visitor passes down through the machine shop, he particularly
notices the sanitary conditions of the plant. There is a department,
enrolling about 500 men, whose duties are to keep the floors swept
clean, the windows washed, in fact to keep the sanitary conditions
surrounding the workmen as nearly perfect as possible. The floors of the
entire plant are scrubbed at least once a week, with hot water and a
strong solution of alkali, which removes the grease. Another department
of about twenty-five men does nothing but paint the walls and ceilings
of the factory, keeping everything fresh and clean.
To facilitate the inter-departmental transportation of materials in the
factory, there is an overhead monorail system, comprising over 1-1/2
miles of I-beam track. On this system are nine monorail cars, each car
having two 2-ton hoists, by means of which great boxes and trays of
material can be picked up and carried overhead from point to point in
the shop.
Near the pay office is the main first-aid department. Here the chief
surgeon has on his staff eight regular doctors and several first-aid
nurses. The surgical equipment, which includes an X-ray machine,
pulmotor, operating table and electrical appliances, as well as improved
surgical instruments, enables the surgeon to cope with any accident.
[Illustration: REAR AXLE ASSEMBLY]
The factory service office houses a department which is responsible for
the well-being of factory employees. Of the 200 men in the division the
majority are employed in the capacities of watchmen, to take care of the
many entrances and exits of the plant and also to inspect the
fire-fighting equipment which is distributed over the entire plant.
This fire-fighting equipment is being continually added to as the plant
expands and now embraces more than a mile and a half of large hose,
10,000 feet of smaller hose, and 2,900 feet of hose attached to chemical
tanks. There are 1,421 three-gallon chemical extinguishers and
fifty-eight 40-gallon chemical tanks, mounted on wheels. Surrounding the
plant are twenty-seven water hydrants equipped to handle two and three
lines of hose, while inside the plant are eight hose-houses fully
equipped. Pyrenes to the number of 175 are distributed about the
departments for combatting electrical fires.
A new alarm system, said to be the most modern in the country, is being
installed throughout the factory. Back of all other preparation is the
sprinkler system, composed of water pipes hung next to the ceiling in
all buildings and so designed that there is a sprinkler head every ten
feet. Should the temperature in a room, for any reason, reach 160
degrees, the sprinkler heads in the immediate vicinity will open
automatically, spraying out water which is piped from two tanks having a
combined capacity of 600,000 gallons.
In addition to its other duties the factory service department has
charge of the lost and found articles. Since this work was included,
almost every sort of personal property, from key-rings to motor-cycles
has been found and restored to the rightful owners.
Proceeding from the factory service office, the visitor finds himself in
the main crane-way, devoted exclusively to the storage of parts in the
rough, or semi-finished condition. This crane-way contains over 67,000
square feet of floor space. Overhead are two 5-ton electric cranes, so
arranged that they can unload material from railway cars at one end of
the crane-way and deposit it in a position to be picked up by the
monorail cars, or placed in bins or barrels for storage. An interesting
item in regard to these cranes is that the load can be moved in three
directions at one time, this being accomplished by means of the small
car hoist. While the crane proper is moving through the crane-way, this
car travels across the crane, and at the same time raises or lowers
whatever may be suspended from it.
[Illustration: CYLINDER MACHINING DEPARTMENT]
Passing by the crane-way one comes to the rear axle unit assembly. The
manufacturing policy of the company is to make unit assemblies in
different departments and deliver them to the final assembly.
In the unit assembly departments are received the finished parts from
the machine shop. These parts are assembled on progressive traveling
tracks. By this system each assembler, or operator, performs one
operation only, and repeats this operation on every unit passing through
the department. As a result, every operator soon becomes a specialist,
and specialization is the fundamental principle of the entire
organization.
The economic results from this system have been wonderful, as will be
shown in some of the departments yet to be described. It saves floor
space, and eliminates congestion due to trucking, as large quantities
of material are piled along each side of the conveyor, and the unit in
process of assembling is moved to the stock, rather than each individual
piece of the assembly being distributed at different places.
After the rear axle has been completely assembled, it is immersed in a
tank containing enamel, and is hung on a special trolley which runs by
gravity along an I-beam track. This trolley carries the axle to an
elevator, which lifts it to a conveyor baking oven, located in a section
of the roof. The axles are continually moving through this oven, and at
the expiration of about forty-five minutes emerge from the far end
completely baked. They are automatically dropped onto another elevator
which lowers them to the point near where they are used in the final
assembly. All material and unit assemblies move in one direction--that
is, toward the final assembly.
[Illustration: MOTOR ASSEMBLY]
Beyond the rear axle section is the department that makes the magnets
for the magneto, and also that in which the transmission is assembled on
a conveyor track, ending in an automatic elevator which transports the
completed transmission to the motor assembly line.
In the rear of the transmission department is the motor assembly. This
assembly begins at the point where the cylinder machine shop ends, so
that the movement of the cylinder from the time it arrives in the
machine shop until it goes into the finished motor, is continuous. In
the machining of the cylinder castings, and the operation of assembling
the motor, close inspection of the work is noticeable. By the use of the
assembling line, better inspection is possible, than where one or two
men assemble the entire motor. In addition to the inspection in the
assembly, there are three points of trial, or working or testing, which
show up any defects in the motor.
The final operation in the motor assembly line is the block test, where
the motor is inspected and tested before being assembled into the
chassis. On the block test, the motor is driven by an electric motor for
the final O. K. and tryout before being installed in this chassis.
At the end of this testing period, if no defect has developed, the motor
is approved, placed upon a special truck and wheeled to the final
assembling line.
The motor department just described furnishes an interesting
illustration of the economy of the moving assembling system. Before the
present system was installed about 1,100 employees were required in this
department, working a nine-hour day to build 1,000 motors. Today, as a
direct result of the new methods of assembling, and the efficiency
gained through the profit-sharing with employees, about 1,000 men are
assembling more than 2,000 motors in an eight-hour day.
The assembling of the front axle, dash and radiator are fully as
interesting as the unit just described, but space will not permit a
detailed explanation of them.
[Illustration: TRANSMISSION COVER DEPARTMENT]
Perhaps the most interesting department in the whole factory, to the
visitor, is the final assembly. In this division, all the assembled
units meet the assembly conveyor at the point where they are needed. At
the start of the track a front axle unit, a rear axle unit and a frame
unit are assembled. This assembly is then started in motion by means of
a chain conveyor, and as it moves down the room at a constant speed of
eight feet per minute, each man adds one part to the growing chassis or
does one operation, which is assigned to him, so that when the chassis
reaches the end of the line, it is ready to run on its own power.
In following the final assembly line from the point where the chain
conveyor engages the frame and axles, the visitor is impressed with the
dispatch with which every movement is executed. The gasoline tank, for
example, comes down from the fourth floor on a conveyor outside of the
building, and drops through a chute onto a bridge over the assembly
line. On this bridge is located a gasoline pump, from which each tank
receives one gallon of gasoline before it is installed in the car.
After the gasoline tank is assembled, a number of small units are added,
such as the hand brake control lever, gasoline feed pipe, and fender
irons, until the point is reached at which the motor is placed in the
frame.
Ordinarily the setting of a motor in the frame is a long operation, but
in this assembly the motor is elevated by a hoist, and lowered into
place while the chassis is moving along the conveyor track. From this
point, other small parts are added, and bolts tightened, until the
growing chassis reaches the bridge on which the dash unit is deposited
by a chute from the second floor, where it is assembled. The dash unit
includes the dash, complete steering gear, coil, horn, and all wiring
ready to be attached to the motor, so that its installation is rapid.
Further along, such parts as the exhaust pipe, muffler, and side pans
for the motor are quickly fastened in place, and the wheels are brought
into the assembly.
There will be noticed the vertical chutes, extending through the
ceiling. Down through these, from the third floor, come the wheels, with
the tires mounted and inflated to the proper pressure. From this point
the chassis moves under the bridge upon which are stored the radiators,
which have been delivered by a belt conveyor.
At the end of the assembly line, the rear wheels on the finished chassis
drop into a set of revolving grooved wheels, sunk into the concrete
floor, and driven by an overhead motor. Two ends are accomplished by
this operation. First, when the wheels of the car revolve with the
grooved wheels, this motion is transmitted to the differential, through
the drive shaft to the motor, limbering up all these parts. The second
is that while the parts are being limbered up, the switch is turned on
and the motor started.
[Illustration: INSPECTION OF FRONT AXLE AFTER MACHINING]
At the end of the line the complete chassis is driven out into the yard
under its own power. Guided by practiced hands it moves swiftly out into
the yard, turns sharply and enters the final inspection line. A corps of
inspectors at this point takes charge of the chassis, and the
responsibility for each part is assigned to some one man.
From the final testing line the chassis is driven to the body chutes,
which extend into the factory yard from the third floor of the new
six-story building, and are so constructed that the chassis may be
driven under them. The bodies are let down the chutes on belt
conveyors, picked up by small derricks and swung over onto the chassis.
The bodies are at this time placed on the chassis merely as a means of a
rapid transportation to the freight cars, for in ordinary transportation
the bodies are packed in the cars separate from the chassis.
In the rear of the main plant are two six-story buildings each 60 feet
wide by 845 feet long, built parallel to each other and connected by a
crane-way 40 feet wide the full length and height of the buildings.
The boiler house, which furnishes the steam for heating the entire
plant, is located in the rear of these buildings. The method of heating
is worthy of particular interest, as the air is forced over coils of
steam pipes located in pent houses on the roofs, and from this point is
driven down into the various rooms through the hollow columns which
support the floors. In the summer, cool washed air is forced down
through these same columns, maintaining a normal, even temperature,
compatible with the state of the weather.
[Illustration: INSTALLING MOTOR ON FINAL ASSEMBLY LINE]
Various unit assemblies, small machine departments, and store rooms are
located here in addition to all the body work.
Practically the entire first floors are used as a receiving department,
where all the material consigned to the company is checked and
inspected. Railway tracks run the full length of both crane-ways,
facilitating the unloading and loading of supplies and parts.
The body department occupies the greatest amount of space, requiring,
with the upholstering department, most of the three upper floors. In
addition to this work the construction of tops, curtains and radiators
is carried on, and a large space is used for the storage of equipment
and parts, such as lamps, horns, tires, etc. A part of the second floor
is devoted to the storage and the shipping of parts to branches and
agents.
Having seen the body placed upon the chassis, the visitor passes along
toward the north. In succession are the chutes on which the crates of
fenders are sent down from the fourth floor of the main factory building
to the shipping platform. Here is also a chain elevator, which raises
the wheels out of the freight cars to a runaway on which they travel by
gravity to the third floor of the main factory. With this device it is
possible for three or four men to unload about 6,000 wheels each day.
[Illustration: MECHANICAL STARTER--END OF FINAL ASSEMBLY]
One passes the loading docks, where crews of six to eight men each,
working as a unit, remove the bodies and wheels from the chassis, and
load them into freight cars. So proficient are these loaders that a
freight car is loaded in twenty minutes. Approximately 150 loaded
freight cars are sent out every day. Besides these factory shipments
there are more than 300 loaded freight cars in transit each day from
branch factories.
The bodies are shipped separate from the chassis, being stood on end in
one-half of the car and protected from dust by coverings.
The chassis are put in the other end of the car, the first one being
carried in, minus the wheels, and placed in a diagonal position.
Brackets of cast iron, for holding the axle to the floor, are made in
the foundry. The front axle rests on the floor, and the rear axle rests
against the opposite wall near the top of the car. A block, with a hole
which just fits the axle, holds it against the wall.
[Illustration: THE BODY CHUTE, WHERE BODIES ARE PLACED ON EACH CHASSIS]
The next chassis is brought in and placed with its front axle opposite
the first one. In this way the chassis alternate until the car is full.
The space in the center of the car contains the fenders, and other
removable parts of the equipment.
Just beyond the loading docks is the foundry.
The foundry is one of the most interesting divisions of the entire
plant, and ranks, perhaps, as one of the most unique in the country, as
far as practice and equipment are concerned. As a general rule, foundry
practice has not shown the changes in an increase of production that
machine departments have, but in this foundry, due to standardization of
parts and specialization on the one car, it has been possible to devise
and install the unique equipment now used, which brings this department
down to the plane of expense and up in the labor-saving efficiency
prevailing throughout the entire plant.
[Illustration: CRANEWAY, SHOWING LOADING PLATFORMS]
This department works twenty-four hours a day, in three shifts of eight
hours each; iron is being melted and poured continuously during the day
and first night shifts. An average of over 400 tons of iron is poured
daily, and 426 tons of gray iron have been poured in a single day. This
tonnage is especially interesting, as it is produced on a floor space of
only 36,324 square feet.
All this iron is poured on overhead power-driven mold carriers, which
travel about twelve feet per minute. These mold carriers have suspended
from them pendulum-like arms, on the lower end of which is a shelf. The
molders who make the molds for the castings are stationed alongside of
these conveyors; the molding sand with which they fill the flasks is
stored overhead in a hopper, the gate of which discharges directly onto
the molding machine. There are two molders for each part, one making the
“drag,” or lower part of the mold, the other making the “cope,” or the
upper half. When these two halves of the mold are finished they are put
together, or “closed” on the shelf of the conveyor, which carries the
finished mold to the man who pours the molten metal. The molten metal is
brought to this man’s station by means of large ladles, suspended on a
trolley on an I-beam track, running from the cupola through the entire
length of the foundry. This does away with the necessity of carrying the
ladle of iron a long distance, thus saving much time and lessening the
liability to accidents.
[Illustration: CONTINUOUS CORE-OVEN]
[Illustration: QUENCHING STEEL FORGINGS IN HEAT-TREATMENT OPERATION]
While the mold is being poured it is in constant motion, and continues
so from the pouring station to the end of the conveyor, where the
casting is shaken out of the sand. The casting is thrown to one side to
cool, the flasks are hung upon hooks on the arm of the conveyor, to be
returned to the molder, and the sand drops through a grating in the
floor onto a belt conveyor; on this conveyor it is dropped on an
elevator, raised overhead and “cut,” or mixed with new sand, and passed
on to another conveyor, which deposits it in the hoppers above referred
to, ready for the molder’s use. In all this journey the sand is never
shoveled.
In casting cylinders, on account of their size and the care needed in
setting the cores, a different style conveyor is used. The molder,
instead of putting the mold on a pendulum conveyor, places it upon a
track, where it is moved by means of a chain. During this travel the
various cores are set, and the molds closed, moving to the point where
the men with large ladles pour the mold. From this point it is
transferred to another track. As it travels down this track, the casting
is given an opportunity to “set,” or cool. At the end of this line it is
shaken out over a grating, and the sand handled in the same manner as on
the smaller conveyors.
[Illustration: STRAIGHTENING CRANK SHAFTS ON STEAM HAMMERS]
As soon as the castings have cooled sufficiently they are put into great
horizontal cylinders, called tumblers. Small metal stars are placed in
these tumblers with the castings, and when the tumbler is full it is
started revolving. This shakes all the sand from the castings and they
come out clean and bright. This process continues for some time,
depending on the size of the castings. Near the tumblers are the
grinding wheels, upon which are ground off the rough edges and the
castings put into shape for the machine shop. They are sorted, inspected
and counted before removing from the foundry.
Another interesting feature is the handling of sand in the core room.
The sand is handled entirely in a gallery built above the room, equipped
with storage bins and sand mixers. Over each core-maker’s bench is a
hopper, connected with the floor of the gallery. When the sand is mixed
it is dropped through holes in the floor into the hoppers, which deposit
the sand on the bench convenient for the core-maker.
This core room contains perhaps the only endless chain core oven in this
country in which are two endless chain conveyors. These have hanging
upon them large sets of shelves, upon which the cores are placed for
baking. It is impossible to over-bake or under-bake a core, as the rate
of travel of the conveyor is fixed at a speed which leaves the core in
the oven the correct length of time.
All the aluminum parts as well as a large proportion of the brass, are
also cast in this foundry.
The process of heat-treating steel forgings before they are machined is
one of the most scientific and accurate features in the manufacture of
this car. Vanadium steel is used throughout the construction of the car.
It has been found from long and deep experimental work by engineers,
that the structural condition of steel may be changed by the application
of heat, and with certain conditions ascertained, by bringing a piece of
steel to a certain temperature, and then setting the molecular condition
in the steel by sudden cooling, or quenching, that the steel of a crank
shaft can be made to stand impact, that the steel of a front axle can
be made a most efficient agent to withstand vibration. Practically every
forging in the car is made of a special steel, for which a special
formula of heat-treating has been worked out, in accordance with the
work, or strain, the part must stand in the finished car.
It is by the use of this high-grade, scientifically heat-treated
vanadium steel that it is possible for the company to manufacture a
light-weight car, which has the ability to stand up under severe usage,
and to sell at the low price at which it is sold today.
The heat-treating department contains about seventy-five large furnaces,
which consume from 5,000 to 6,000 gallons of fuel oil per day. It is
into these furnaces that the various forgings are placed for
heat-treating. In each one is introduced a pyrometer, connected
electrically with a switchboard located in a separate building. This
switchboard is very similar to those used in telephone exchanges. The
operator takes the temperature reading of every furnace on his board
about every minute. The furnace foreman is notified by the operator as
to the temperature by means of small colored electric lights, located
above the furnace. The lighting of all the colors at the same time is
the signal to pull the heat or, in other words, extinguish the fires and
empty the furnace. After the required heat has been reached, the
forgings are allowed to either cool in the air, be covered with
pulverized mica, or quenched in a special solution, as the case may
require.
[Illustration: PYROMETERS BY WHICH THE TEMPERATURE OF THE FURNACES IS
REGULATED]
In this department are also located many grinding wheels and tumbling
barrels, similar to those used in the foundry, so that the various
forgings may be put in first-class condition before they are laid down
in the machine shop.
[Illustration: THIS BELT CARRIES THE FINISHED PARTS AND SCRAPS FROM THE
PUNCH PRESSES]
The operations in the manufacture of the crank case, or engine pan, of
the motor is of interest for several reasons, and the visitor has the
opportunity of viewing these processes.
The crank case in itself is interesting because it is made from drawn
sheet steel, instead of cast aluminum, as was once thought necessary.
[Illustration: TAKING INDUSTRIAL MOTION PICTURES