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).
Secret memo discussing a scheme for a Central Control Office to manage parts production and inventory.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 27\3\ Scan299 | |
| Date | 21th October 1939 | |
| SECRET. W/Crewe. To Mr. Robbins, c. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/LS. Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}/Gry.{Shadwell Grylls}1/MH.{M. Huckerby}21.10.39. CENTRAL CONTROL OFFICE. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} has agreed to a scheme being prepared for a Central Records Office which to show its worth must be able to supply the following information:- (1) Glaring cases of over-production of certain parts. (2) Impending shortages of parts. (3) Useful transfer of parts from one factory to another to speed up production. Later such an office might be given control of the decision of where parts are to be made and in what numbers, but it must first prove it could do so. I am sending you two sheets herewith which are the front and back of a record card kept in the Central Office and filled in once a fortnight from information supplied by the assembly firms. The columns of interest to Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} are the three marked Z(a-b) Z(c-d) and Z(b-c) which give once a month the equivalent number of engines or parts in the rough stores, and in the finished stores and in operation against any one order number. A second small card filed under piece numbers is required to give the position of any part against all order numbers under which it is being manufactured. The front of the card is filled in in a way to save paper, but which makes the summation for the last column more laborious. The back is filled in in a way wasteful of paper, but so that the last column requires less visual gymnastics. We should like your views on the relative merits. There are certain irregular circumstances that have been catered for. One of these is the appropriation by the Exp. Dept. of partly machined pieces. These are shown as having gone in and out of the finished stores. The chit on which they are "bought" goes first to the finished stores, then the rough stores and finally the Cost Office. | ||