SOME HINTS ON MANUFACTURING
After you have formed a partnership or a company and have the coveted
capital to go ahead with the business, you and your associates must
consider two problems and the way you work them out will decide whether
your venture will lose money or _declare dividends_.
~The Problem of Manufacture.--~These two problems are the manufacturing
and the marketing of your product and in this chapter we will talk
about manufacturing it first and then take up the marketing end of it
in the next chapter, for while they are closely allied in a common
cause they have to be treated as entirely separate things.
In this respect a manufacturing concern is very like a human being in
that it has a brain and a body. You and those interested with you are
the brains of the organization and those who work for you, to the end
that profits may pile up for your benefit and behoof, form the body.
On your head, most likely, will fall the responsibility of turning out
a high-grade product at the lowest possible cost and to do this the
right way and to the best advantage you must begin at the beginning
and think and scheme out how you can obtain the best results with the
least outlay of time, labor and money.
There are many ways to start in manufacturing your product but the
_efficient_ way will depend on what you have to make, the number you
are to make and the amount of capital you have to do it with.
~Farming out the Work.--~In the beginning you will often find it
much cheaper, and hence more profitable, to give a contract to
some manufacturer--who has a big factory fitted out with thousands
of dollars worth of machine tools and a capable force of skilled
mechanics--for a given number of the articles, or machines, you want to
have made and delivered in and at a certain time.
By this arrangement there is no _initial_ time, effort or money spent
on buying machinery and getting a factory into running order, neither
is there the work and worry of keeping a shop force going and besides
you know exactly what each device will cost you when the lot is done
and delivered. Still this scheme is not one that appeals to many
inventors especially if they have, or think they have, a genius for
mechanics and shop management.
Another way to start operations in an economical manner is to have
some one or all of the parts of your invention done by outside
manufacturers, or _farm them out_ as it is called, and then assemble
the parts in your own shop. Scattered all over the United States are
shops and all sorts of factories where you can get a lower price
quoted on a certain part or parts made of wood, brass, rubber or any
other material than you could possibly make it or them for, in a shop
of your own in the beginning.
Of course the larger the quantity of a given piece you can order at
a time the lower will be the _pro rata_ cost, that is the cost of
each piece; for instance suppose a brass founder quoted you a price
of $1 each on a certain casting in lots of ten, he might scale the
price down to 50 or 60 cents each in lots of one hundred, and if you
ordered a thousand at a time you might _get_ the price down to 35 or
40 cents each. In figuring cost things like this must be taken into
consideration.
In many cases it is not the mere material put into, and labor put on
making a part that brings up the cost of the first lots but before the
part can be turned out a special _die_, or _jig_, or _fixture_ must be
made for duplicating the part and very often a special machine must be
designed and built for making a certain part. Such special tools and
machines are very expensive and their cost must also be reckoned with.
~Starting Your Own Shop.--~In starting your own shop the question of
what you are going to make and the quantity you intend to make will fix
very largely the kind of machinery, the floor space and everything else
you will need, nearly.
In this age of cheap electric power you can have an electric motor
installed, to run your lathes, drill presses, shapers and other
machines, almost anywhere you happen to be located. And besides it is
better, as a rule, to start and operate your plant in your home town.
For a shop on a small scale, wherever it may be, it is cleaner, less
troublesome and cheaper to use electric power than it is to use gas or
steam power.
Should you intend to operate on a very large scale it may then be to
your advantage to look up a place where there is water power, or if
your industry is one that calls for the large use of electricity you
would then be justified in moving to Niagara Falls, or some other place
where there are great hydro-electric plants.
The matter of being near to certain raw materials you need for
manufacturing, or to a market for your product is not one that you will
probably have to decide alone. Nor need the question of labor take
up your time for the wages of skilled machinists, electricians and
chemists are about the same throughout the United States, and while
rents are higher in large cities than in the towns and villages still
nearly one-half of the articles and machines made in the United States
are turned out in 100 of the largest cities.
One of the advantages of manufacturing in a large city is that you can
always get skilled labor and a great variety of materials on short
notice. Should your product be in the nature of gas or steam engines,
harvesting machines or automobiles you should locate your factory on
some navigable river, on the Great Lakes, or on a railroad line (with
a spur-track running alongside), in order to insure good and cheap
transportation.
When you rent or build a shop the main thing is to have plenty of
windows on every side and see to it that the ventilation is good and
the heating system is adequate. There is no economy in making men work
with poor light, bad air and in a cold place.
~Buying Machine Tools.--~Having secured by lease or by purchase a shop,
or factory suitably located your next effort will be directed toward
equipping it with the proper tools and machinery.
Besides the usual machinists’ hand tools you should buy (1) a _gas
furnace_; (2) a _grinder_; (3) a _plain lathe_; (4) a _screw cutting
lathe_; (5) a _drill press_; (6) a _planer_; (7) a _shaper_; (8)
perhaps a _milling machine_, and (9) a _buffer_. Several of each of
these kinds of machines may be needed.
[Illustration: FIG. 86. A GAS FURNACE]
A gas furnace, see Fig. 86, is useful for tempering tools and other
operations where an intense heat is needed. A grinder, shown in Fig.
87, is used for grinding off rough parts of iron or brass castings and
for smoothing up rough surfaces. It is formed of a _mandrel_ which
turns freely in a pair of bearings set in a _headstock_. A pulley is
fixed to the middle of the mandrel and the latter is threaded on the
ends; an _emery_, or a _carborundum_ wheel is slipped over each end and
these are held in place by washers and nuts. A swivel _hand rest_ makes
it easy to hold the work against the wheel.
[Illustration: FIG. 87. A GRINDER AND POLISHER]
A plain lathe, see Fig. 88, is good for turning, drilling and facing
metal parts and for many other operations. It consists of a bed
supported on a frame which carries the driving pulleys; the latter in
turn is belted to a _cone pulley_ which is _keyed_ to the mandrel and
this runs in bearings in the _headstock_. The inner end of the mandrel
projects beyond the bearing and this is threaded so that a _chuck_,
that is a device with adjustable jaws for holding the work, can be
screwed on it.
Besides the headstock which carries the rotating mandrel, and which is
fixed on the left hand side of the bed, there is a _tailstock_ with an
adjustable mandrel which slides on the right hand end of the bed, and
between the headstock and the tailstock there is an adjustable hand
rest.
[Illustration: FIG. 88. A PLAIN LATHE FOR TURNING METAL WITH HAND TOOLS]
An engine lathe, as shown in Fig. 89, besides doing all an ordinary
lathe can do can be used for accurately turning up cylinders, disks,
etc., turning out cylinders and cutting screws of any size or pitch,
within certain limits, and it does all these things with rapidity and
precision.
A lathe of this kind has a _guide-screw_, a set of _change wheels_,
that is a number of interchangeable gears, and a _back-gear_, and by
means of these gears the guide-screw is revolved in any _ratio_ to
the speed of the gears which may be desired. For turning or cutting
a _slide-rest_ is used, that is an attachment sliding between the
headstock and the tailstock, for holding the tools.
[Illustration: FIG. 89. AN ENGINE LATHE FOR TURNING METALS WITH TOOLS
IN A SLIDE REST]
The slide-rest is made with two adjustable slides so that the tool can
be held in any position. The slide-rest can be moved freely by hand
or by means of the guide-screw which carries it along the bed at any
desired speed.
[Illustration: FIG. 90. PILLAR TYPE OF POWER DRILL]
A drill press makes drilling an easier and a more accurate operation
than when a lathe is used for this purpose. A pillar type of power
drill is shown in Fig. 90. It is so constructed that the drill can be
rotated at any one of a number of speeds and by means of a guide-rod
it is caused to advance into the metal _automatically_ at the proper
speed.
[Illustration: FIG. 91. A PLANER FOR SURFACING METAL WORK]
A planer, see Fig. 91, is a machine for turning up flat surfaces,
cutting slots and the like in metal parts. A planer is made up of a
_bed_, a _table_ in which the work is clamped and which slides back and
forth on the bed by means of a feed motion; a slide-rest, which carries
the cutting tool, is held above the bed by an upright frame and this
moves to and fro across the table.
[Illustration: FIG. 92. A SHAPER FOR SHAPING UP METAL WORK]
There are several kinds of shapers made and Fig. 92 shows one of them.
A shaper cannot only be used for planing, but for turning, boring and
slotting. In a shaper the work is held in a fixed position on the
table, which can be raised and lowered by a hoisting screw, and the
tool is made to move across the table by a quick-acting return motion.
There is also an _arbor_ on which the work is mounted where a circular
cut is to be made. The cutter head has a vertical adjusting screw with
a _worm feed_ and an index plate so that it can be set to any ratio. In
a shop where only small work is to be done a planer may be dispensed
with and a shaper used instead.
[Illustration: FIG. 93. A UNIVERSAL MILLING MACHINE FOR AUTOMATIC SCREW
CUTTING AND OTHER OPERATIONS]
A _universal milling machine_, see Fig. 93, is also a handy combination
tool in that it can be used for drilling, cotter drilling, boring,
profiling, key-seating, rack- and gear-cutting and other operations.
A buffing machine is made nearly like a grinder but leather, felt and
rag wheels are used on the spindle and when either pumice-stone, crocus
and rotten-stone is applied to them tool marks and scratches can be
buffed out and the work polished when it is ready to be _lacquered_ or
nickle plated.
[Illustration: FIG. 94. A JIG-SAW FOR SAWING SMALL WOODWORK]
If you are buying new machines get them fitted with individual electric
motors, as shown in Fig. 90, as this will save shafting, the time
and cost of putting it up, the cost of belting, besides the time the
machine is idle while the belt is broken and it is being laced again,
the loss of power in transmission, when the machine is idle, etc.,
etc.; boiled down, these machines equipped with individual motors are
the last word in modern shop practice and it is a good one for you to
follow.
[Illustration: FIG. 95. A BAND SAW FOR SAWING HEAVIER WOODWORK]
Whatever machines you order be sure to also order at the same time a
full supply of tools to use with them for otherwise you may find when
you have your machinery all set up and you think you are ready to start
that you are minus the cutting tools and should this happen you will be
in for another long delay.
Unless your product requires a lot of wood-work it will hardly pay you
to add a woodworking shop to your plant, though sometimes a _jig-saw_,
see Fig. 94, or a _band-saw_, as shown in Fig. 95, will often prove of
service.
It is the same way with a foundry, for unless you need a large number
of castings right along it is as a rule cheaper to farm the work out to
some founder in your own town.
~Buying the Stock.--~I do not mean the stock of your company--let your
friends and the public do that--but the raw materials, as the _stock_
is sometimes called, which you are to convert into the finished product.
Before you order either machinery or stock, try to _standardize_ your
product, that is to say whatever it is you intend to manufacture have
it in such shape that you are satisfied to market it without making
any further changes in it, at least for some time to come. It is the
after-changes, the constant changes that have kept many a manufacturer
poor, aye, forced him to the wall.
Having a standardized article, object or machine, you and your
associates should determine on the number to be built first and then
you can go over the model in detail and figure out just how much of
each kind of stock, such as brass rod, sheet hard rubber, screws,
washers, nuts, etc., you will need, allowing of course for waste and
breakage.
Now when you are ordering the tools and machines for your shop get
prices on and order your stock at the same time and see to it you do
not overlook any little thing and so have to wait for something you
forgot.
Screws, nuts, washers, bolts and some other small supplies can be
bought in wholesale lots cheaper than you could possibly make them in
your own shop and it is false economy to make anything with ordinary
machine tools that can be bought from some other manufacturer who does
the work with automatic machinery.
~Organizing a Shop Force.--~I am taking it for granted that if you
have enough ability to invent, design and make a working model of
an invention and get an _organization_ together to manufacture and
market it you will certainly have enough ability left to build up and
superintend the _body_ of your enterprise and that is your shop force.
Your first effort in this direction should be to hire a good foreman;
this, though, is not an easy thing to do for a foreman must be
something more than a thorough machinist who can use any tool or run
any machine. He must be able to get the best there is in them out of
the other men under him and see that each one is put on the job which
he is best adapted to do.
Some of the men will shine as bench hands, others will show an aptitude
in running machine tools and yet again others will be naturally clever
in assembling your device; he must be able to pick out these good
qualities and put the men where they will do the best work in the
shortest time.
By all means get a foreman, if you can, who has worked on something
like, or nearly like, your own product. He should be a man of shop
ideas with enough _initiative_ to put them into use. To get all these
things rolled into one human being for $25, $30 or $35 dollars a week
is asking a good deal but there are boss machinists in almost every
city who can fill the bill.
Your foreman can usually get all the mechanics you need but don’t make
the mistake of starting in and letting him hire the men. After he has
found a man and wants to take him on, then you talk to the prospective
employee, and you do the hiring. Hiring and _firing_ the men should
be your _prerogative_. This will make all of them respect you without
respecting their foreman the less and they will do more and better work
by knowing that you are the real boss of the works.
~The Stock Room.--~The tools that belong to the shop and the stock, or
raw materials, should be kept under lock and key in the stock-room and
a stock-clerk should be put in charge of and made responsible for them.
Have slips printed and whenever the foreman, or anybody else, including
yourself, wants a drill, or a piece of brass, or a machine screw,
insist that the stock-clerk get a slip signed for it. By this method
you will know exactly where your tools and stock went to; and when a
man returns a tool credit him with it.
You should also have a record kept of the time spent on each job by
the man who did the work and the easiest way to do this is to use
a time-stamp as shown in Fig. 96. If your shop is a small one your
stock-clerk can take care of the time-slips. By doing things in this
systematized way you will be able to keep pretty close tab on tools,
stock and labor and these are three _factors_ where a great deal of
waste usually occurs in small shops and factories.
[Illustration: FIG. 96. THOMPSON TIME STAMP]
~The Finished Product.--~Whatever you are manufacturing, the finished
product must be made as attractive as can be with the littlest
extra cost and this applies alike to a toaster for a gas-stove or a
threshing-machine. It’s the finish the buyer sees and he will gladly
pay for the paint and the gloss that covers up the defects, if the
thing looks nice.
Where a number of different materials enter into the make-up of
a device it is always well to give some thought not only to the
design,[5] but also to the color effect.
[Illustration: FIG. 97. A HIGH FREQUENCY MACHINE]
Figure 97 shows a _high frequency_ (violet ray) electric machine
designed by the author in which this idea is carried out. The stand is
of iron, nickle-plated; the base of the apparatus proper is of wood,
japanned black; the rim is of brass, nickle-plated; the plate-base,
on which the visible part of the apparatus is mounted, is made of
slate and japanned black; the metal parts of the interruptor are
nickle-plated, and the coil and insulating standards are of hard rubber
as is also the handle. The cover shade and the violet ray vacuum tube
are of glass, while red or green flexible silk cords are used to make
the connections, and finally the lamp socket is of a composition called
_electrose_.
Thus the color scheme is polished ebony, the wood base, the slate plate
base, hard rubber fittings and electrose socket all appearing precisely
alike; the blue-white nickle-plated parts alternate with the black, the
glass lends an added touch of beauty while the red, or green, cords
give it a dash of color that relieves and sets off the other parts.
Iron work can be _japanned_ black, _enameled_ any color, or
nickle-plated; brass can be lacquered or nickle-plated, and wood can
be enameled. After the device or machine is assembled it should be
rubbed up to remove all finger marks and to brighten it, then wrapped
in tissue paper and packed carefully in a box if it is small enough so
that this can be done, or it must be crated in such a way that it can
be transported without marring or breakage.
~Overhead Charges.--~In figuring on the cost of a completed device,
machine or product so that a selling price may be put on it which will
insure a handsome profit the cost of the stock, of the breakage of
tools, of the labor, or production, and of the power--gas, electricity,
water or coal--are all easy to keep track of.
But there are other costs that must be taken into account which,
while they do not stick out so plainly must also be reckoned with,
or your venture will be a money losing one. These are the _overhead_
charges, such as the _depreciation_ of your machinery, that is the
wear and tear of it; the rental of your factory, or the taxes if you
own the building; the insurance on the building and the machinery;
transportation costs such as teams and teamsters or automobile trucks
and drivers; telephone calls and the other little and big items of
expense--all of these must be carefully thought up and worked out for
the year and charged against the number of machines you are going to
make in that year.
To these fixed and variable charges must be added the salaries of
yourself and your associates and the office staff together with the
printing bills, advertising accounts and all the incidental expenses of
maintaining an executive office. Divide the total running expenses for
the year by the number of machines you have turned out in a year and
you will have the net cost of each article or machine you have produced.
~Where Your Profits Come In.--~Add 33⅓ per cent., 100 per cent., or 500
per cent. to the cost of production and let that be your selling price
to _consumers_, agents, jobbers or wholesalers, less the usual small
discount for cash. And the difference between the cost of production
and your selling price will be your _profits_ less certain losses on
accounts which even an agency can’t collect.