These requirements become all the more imperative since the demand is more and more pronounced for machines of higher speed, greater strength, and consequently capable of a largely increased output, as well as for machines whose parts may be rapidly changed to adapt them to a large variety of work. To this is added the demand for greater accuracy, better fitting, a superior quality of stock in their make-up, a more carefully considered design, and a generally finer finish.

In all the operations of manufacturing, from the very conception of the idea that we will manufacture, to the final marketing of the product, if we are to expect success, either in the building, the equipping, or the management of the manufacturing operations of such a varied and complex nature, we must first of all have a well-conceived, well-matured, definite and comprehensive plan. If this is not so we shall find the various component parts of our fabric disproportioned to each other. One will be of too great capacity and another of too little; one portion will be an unnecessary expense which will absorb the profits of another; one will be pushed while another is neglected; and so on until the whole establishment is in such a disjointed, disproportioned, and inefficient condition that success either mechanically or financially is impossible.

This is very forcibly shown in cases where a business that "ought to pay" seems to drift along from year to year with scarcely any advance in methods or profits to its owners. Another man takes charge and perhaps astonishes every one by his seeming extravagance, but gradually order comes out of chaos, the expenses which at first staggered the good old conservative directors begins to tell, and in due time everything is in proper condition, every portion of the concern does its allotted part, each in harmony with the others, everybody is cheerful and satisfied, better work is produced, and the stockholders are getting their dividends. Why? Simply that the man is master of the business and works with a well-conceived plan. He knew from the beginning just what would be the result; he was not afraid to make radical changes; there was no patchwork about it. Every portion of his plan was carried out in its entirety. Two different parts do not make a complete whole, and to have several plans in mind and then attempt to carry out a portion of each is but to invite failure. And the invitation is usually accepted.

This is also true even in regard to minor operations in the same line. We must get such a grasp of the complete idea and plan in all its details that "from the beginning we can see the end."

One of our most successful designers of machinery always seemed to be a good deal of a laggard during the first stages of a new design and would draw and sketch and measure in what seemed a very desultory sort of a way. When remonstrated with for what "the boss" thought was wasting time, he

used to say, "I don't want to make my drawing until I can shut my eyes and see the machine working." The complete conception of the design as it gradually forms in the mind is what is needed. And when the man had the ability to thus "see through" the whole design, the "working up" of the various component parts was to a great extent a matter of mechanical detail only.

So it is, or should be, in planning manufacturing operations. We must see the end from the beginning. This applies with peculiar force in the alterations of, or additions to plants already in existence, whether it be the changing on account of a different product to be manufactured, or of enlarging so as to increase the product. The plan should be comprehensive and provide for possible enlargements in the future, so that as each successive change is made we get nearer and nearer to the ideal of a completed structure that will be a credit and not a continual "eye-sore." Not only in appearance is this the proper method, but in the utility of the improvements made, and this again in proportion to the expense incurred.

If any "piecemeal" plan is adopted from time to time the result will be not only a failure to get the greatest accommodation out of the improvement, but to do so at an expense which is frequently lost by subsequent alterations of such a nature as to compel us to tear down a portion of the former work. And this process is repeated again and again until the expense of successive changes, additions, and alterations will have cost more than to have built the whole structure new. Beside this we have a mongrel structure in which "the last state is worse than the first." It is frequently better to make new things than to patch up old ones; ofttimes it is cheaper also. And this lesson may be followed through all the operations of manufacturing with good results to the reputation of the man who is responsible for the plans as well as the success of the establishment and the dividends to the stockholders.

It was from considerations such as these that in the second chapter, on Construction, it was pointed out how the capacity of our manufacturing plant might be economically increased and at the same time work along the same general lines so that the enlarged structure would be but an extension or expansion of the original plan and the whole structure become as complete and symmetrical in all its proportions as if it were built at one time and from a complete set of plans from one well considered design.

CHAPTER XVII

PLANNING THE DIFFERENT DEPARTMENTS

Location and arrangement of the departments. The routine of passing the work through the several departments. The planing department. The drilling and boring department. The heavy turning department. The milling and gear-cutting department. The small parts department. The grinding department. The polishing department. The small parts assembling department. The small parts storeroom. The experimental department. The foremen's offices.

LET us next proceed to lay out and plan for the different departments that may be necessary to carry out our manufacturing work, bearing in mind that much will depend on their proper location with reference to the buildings outside the machine shop proper, particularly the iron foundry, as well as their proper relation to each other.

In planning the relative location of the different departments of our machine shop in which are placed the several classes of machines it is necessary to so arrange them that when once the material, as iron castings or other heavy stock, comes into the shop, it shall pass in as nearly as may be a continuous line through the shop from its rough state to its place in the erection of the machines to be built, with little or no "retrograde movement" or other unnecessary handling or similar expense. Light and easily handled stock is not subject to these conditions to such an extent, and may be handled on the upper floors as its transportation from place to place is easily effected by the tram cars, trucks, etc., on the level, and these run upon elevators, and carried to the various floors where they are needed for the different operations upon them, or to a finished parts storeroom, where they may be kept until they are wanted for the assembling of a complete machine. In our case, however, having but two floors, quantities of small work may be packed in trucks, cars, or boxes and from the front gallery lowered to the ground floor by the traveling crane. In the same way stock or finished parts may be brought up to the gallery floors.

The plans accompanying this article, Fig. 79 show the ground floor and Fig. 80 the gallery floors, with the location of all the machines selected to equip the shop arranged as is thought best for the easy handling of the stock and the

convenient performance of all the necessary work of machining, erecting, and shipping. The machines are all shown drawn to scale, and with sufficient space around them for readily handling the stock and the machined parts.

The main floor is divided into five departments, namely, the Planing, Drilling and Boring, Heavy Turning, Milling and Gear Cutting, and the Erecting Departments, all located as shown on the plan.

Usually the first operation on nearly all castings and on many forgings is that of planing, this being particularly so with the heavier stock. Consequently it is advisable to locate the planing department near where this class of stock can be the most readily received into the shop from the foundry or from the forge shop. As by far the larger amount comes from the foundry the point nearest that department is where the planers should be located, so as to save distance in conveying material, and consequent expense. Our tram track leading from the foundry to the machine shop brings castings to a point nearly under the traveling crane (by which they are readily placed upon the planers on each side of it), or directly under it, by which it conveniently serves the large planers located in the erecting space just inside the row of columns.

An overhead trolley delivers castings to the other planers in the row arranged at right angles to the shop as they are taken from the foundry cars, or carries them, when planed, to the tram track and thence by the traveling crane to any part of the shop where they may be needed, generally to the tram track laid through the drilling and boring department, or to the large machines of this class located within the reach of the traveling crane inside of the columns. This overhead trolley may be operated by hand hoists, or by compressed air, but preferably it should be of the type carrying a small electric motor by which it is very quickly, efficiently, and conveniently operated. There should be at least two of these hoists on the trolley track, which should extend from the front end of the shop down to and over the tram track in the drilling and boring department.

It should be explained that in laying out the positions of the planers the outline shown includes the extreme run of the planer table, hence there is more space at the ends than would appear at first glance. In locating the planers with reference to each other they are placed at equal distances of five feet between tables without regard to the front or back, so as to give free access to both sides when the operator is putting on, setting, or removing work. Those of the larger planers are located parallel with the length of the shop. It will be best to drive these with electric motors. The other planers, of such sizes as will accommodate the usual variety of work, are located according to space available.

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Much of the medium sized work may be done on long planers very