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).
Commentary on vehicle manufacturing strategies, advocating for a single model policy with incremental improvements.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 146\1\ scan0081 | |
| Date | 23th October 1937 guessed | |
| 2. proven; the only thing that really catches the public eye is the shape of a bonnet... When all is said and done, the aim of the motor industry is to make money, but this can only be accomplished by counterbalancing the overhead costs with a large output of chassis of one type. Here are two cases in point: FORD, who built 15 million of their famous model "T", and ROLLS-ROYCE who have not changed the shape of their bonnet in the last 30 years and have only brought out 4 different models in all that time. ROLLS-ROYCE have none the less made a world wide reputation that rests partly on tradition and partly on superlative workmanship. The truth of the matter is - and CITROEN has grasped it - that the soundest policy is to stick to one model in which only minor mechanical changes, of an efficiency-increasing order, are made during a period of 4, 5 or 6 years. By this we mean only such improvements as, say, a more efficient cylinderhead, a lighter and stronger piston, a better carburetter or ignition system, gears better cut or made of better metal, etc... Such alterations, however, in no way affect the general line of the car, which remains unchanged until the possibilities of its type have been exhausted, when it is time to consider a general redesign. Our manufacturers too often fail to recover their outlay on plant by withdrawing models too soon, so that they have to fall back on their capital in order to be able to carry on. Once they have understood the fallacy of constant radical change, all cheese-paring policy must be scrapped and, like ROLLS-ROYCE, they must go all out for quality. Naturally it is not suggested that a mass-production car can hope to compete with ROLLS-ROYCE, but the idea | ||