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).
Letter from a supplier discussing changes to speedometer r.p.m. specifications and the associated production costs.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 165\2\ img166 | |
| Date | 12th March 1938 | |
| (COPY) Ref. HRB/Ms. CHRONOS WORKS, NORTH CIRCULAR ROAD, LONDON. N.W.2. 12th March 1938. Messrs. Rolls-Royce Ltd., DERBY. Dear Sirs, We beg to confirm the visit of our Mr. Arrowsmith yesterday, and would like to go over the position regarding the r.p.m. of the speedometers. You will recollect that it was arranged that we should have one standardisation of revs. on all speedometers in order to assist us in getting down to our keenest possible cost. This had been agreed at 780 r.p.m., and the first release was sent to us for 200 instruments for Bentley Cars. Your revised instructions are that only 100 of these are to be proceeded with, the second 100 to be calibrated 806 r.p.m. We have made complete progress with the whole 200 instruments as regards parts, and this change will, therefore, necessitate a considerable amount of scrapping of material. We are collecting details of this, and will submit the cost to you in the course of the next few days. The Speedometer for the Wraith Model 25/30-HP. is, we understand to be 730 r.p.m., which therefore makes three r.p.m. we have to provide for - with the possible addition of the Phantom III in due course. You will no doubt fully appreciate that these changes of revs. on the instruments bring out again for us a serious problem in Production Planning, in that we can only progress these instruments through small quantities at a time, instead of, as we have been anticipating, in larger quantities of one standard r.p.m., thus helping to reduce our costs throughout manufacture and assembly. We can quite readily understand that you may have come to your conclusions because of the probable heavy expense continued. | ||