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).
Unsatisfactory procedure for costing new parts and the delays associated with Standardisation Sheets.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 154a\3\ scan0090 | |
| Date | 11th September 1933 | |
| X3066. To Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} From Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}3/MJ.11.9.33. Re. Standardisation Sheets. We are very glad that you are taking up the point of the increased costs on new parts. At the moment the position of this is most unsatisfactory. The position of the petrol tank is that it has taken over five months to estimate the cost. The Standardisation Sheet was originally sent to cost on 6.4.33. At present cars are on test and are being delivered with this tank although the Standardisation Sheet has never been signed by the Managing Director. Another bad one is the modified carburetter and air silencer on the 20/25 HP. We have been sending out cars fitted with this for some time but the Standardisation Sheet has not yet been signed. We consider that the procedure which we must adopt is that the costs must be on the original Standardisation Sheet. If we do this, it means of course that the estimated cost has got to be got out in a few days instead of six months. We see no difficulty in estimating cost. It may be that this cannot be perfectly accurate but it should avoid increases such as on the petrol tank. There is no technical reason why the price of the tank should have increased in the proportion that it has done and we are certain it can be got down, but the unfortunate part is that we are already committed to that cost on production and material. It would appear that in many cases we do not receive the costs until the parts are actually made on production. What we require is the estimated cost before any work is done on production. The procedure at the moment appears to be that we send the Standardisation Sheet to cost, they wait for BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} to supply all details, it is then sent into the Works for the times, the Cost Dept. then put in the cost and submit it to you. We suggest that the Works should estimate the costs from the actual part which has been run by us and that the final Cost Dept. figures should follow later. If it could be arranged that we send Sft.{Mr Swift} a copy of the Standardisation Sheet at the same time as we issue it to the Cost this might prevent unnecessarily expensive pieces being put on to the car. | ||