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).
D.O. Instructions regarding the revision of the design and drawing process, using the Wraith chassis as an example.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 6\6\ 06-page218 | |
| Date | 15th June 1937 | |
| from HPS.{Horace Percy Smith - Experimental Factory Mgr} C. Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} 600 HPS.{Horace Percy Smith - Experimental Factory Mgr}/B/YS.15.6.37. D.O. INSTRUCTIONS. It is impossible to review the progress of Wraith from the design stage onwards without feeling there is need for drastic revision of the method of issuing new designs and detail drawings to the Experimental Department. On Wraith, more so than any other chassis we have produced, a definite effort has been made to turn out a product which will show a reasonable margin of profit, and to this end all and sundry have endeavoured to simplify design and modify at every opportunity, with the object of improving manufacture on a production basis. Whatever results may have been achieved, however, by this intensive study of manufacturing methods and simplification of design, one cannot help thinking that development of the chassis would have been enormously accelerated if greater consideration had been given to this aspect of the matter before ever drawings were issued and the manufacture of experimental details undertaken. It is obviously difficult when preparing a new design to visualise the entire process of manufacture of every detail from start to finish, and it is inevitable that scheme drawings will in many instances offer possibilities of improvement from this standpoint if only those ultimately responsible for manufacture of the chassis are given an early opportunity of expressing an opinion. Imperfections in the design drawing would not, however, matter so much if the Detailing Sections could be relied upon to detect and rectify any technical production errors which may exist, but without the guidance of the Tool Office and Operation Planning Departments, very few of the draughtsmen employed possess the necessary workshop experience to enable them to make an intelligent interpretation of scheme drawings which, after all, are only intended as a foundation for the production of working drawings. Many of the detail drawings are not even checked, and what with the correction of errors and omissions, modifications on questions of manufacture and others necessitated by alterations continued. | ||