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).
Merits of in-house component design versus using proprietary parts, with a focus on carburetter development.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 148\5\ scan0062 | |
| Date | 22th February 1935 | |
| To Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer} Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}16/KW.22.2.35. Replying to Sg.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD}1/E.9.2.35. We accept your observations that the Americans are at present building cars which are more silent, have a better performance, and are smoother than our own products. This position must have arisen either because we are technically incapable of designing and developing satisfactory products, or alternatively because we have not a satisfactory policy directing these efforts. If we consider first the engineering side of the Company, we feel that by designing and developing every component of the car ourselves we may have been dissipating our energies to a certain extent. We all take a pride in the fact that every part of a Rolls-Royce car is produced in the Works, and we should all like this to continue to be so. When we come to the point, however, that we are out of date on such vital necessities as 8-cylinder engines and stiff frames, one is forced to consider whether we ought not to limit our commitments and take advantage of the fact that there are certain components of the car produced by proprietary manufacturers which can be bought off the shelf. If we take carburetters as an example, we say that the development of a carburetter is in our experience more difficult than that of an engine. It is possibly for this reason that even an organisation such as General Motors, which have perhaps 100 times our capital, use proprietary carburetters almost exclusively. On Wraith, as in the past, the procedure has been to design a carburetter which will in due course be detailed, manufactured, and come on test. It is quite probable that when we have finished the development work required and got the right induction pipe we shall be able to show 5% better results than if we had fitted the Stromberg carburetter which is used on the Buick. Even if, when we had finished the Rolls-Royce carburetter, it was no better than the Buick we should still fit our own product, because having spent so much money on design and development we would always rather have the Rolls-Royce product. | ||