From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Component specifications, cost reduction targets, and production planning for a new vehicle.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 163\4\ img039 | |
| Date | 1st December 1937 | |
| -2- (11) This car will probably have a Wraith head with single cylinder downtake exhaust pipe. (12) The exhaust system is definitely one of the parts of the car on which we expect 75% decrease in material costs rather than 40%. (13) The Bentley 50 will not, of course, have a revolution counter, we are proposing to use a reserve as on the Rovers, operated by a rear cable on the tank. The petrol gauge has got to be very simple. (14) Petrol Feed. We have got to be prepared to face a double petrol pump on the frame, although we have great hopes that the large pump on the engine will replace it by the time we get into production. We ought to start right away with Skinner finding out whether we can get a high pressure petrol pump at a reasonable price. As the pots are the only things that are different from the standard type of petrol pump, we see no reason why this unit should be very much more expensive than the one fitted to the Lagonda car. JACKS. A single quick lift hydraulic jack is contemplated. When dealing with this chassis we are thinking of quantities of 3,000 as a maximum. We are not going to go for highly finished parts on this car which cost a lot of money but do not give the customer anything. In order to sell the complete car with body for £900 we have somehow got to get 40% off our present material cost. We are getting out a balance sheet showing what each section is going to be allowed, but in the meantime we should like to have the recommendations of all concerned as to what they think can be done. There is going to be a discussion on Tuesday next week, and we should like this information in a type-written form by Monday noon. Included with the material savings we should like labour savings where these are available, i.e., in several cases we believe Rb.{R. Bowen} has got out reductions in labour cost assuming that the part is made on production in the same way as at present. Naturally, in order to cut down the figures Production have got to revise entirely their methods of manufacture, but that is part of the job which RHC.{R. H. Coverley - Production Engineer} is looking after. Our only concern is to give him something basically easy to fabricate. RmA. | ||