Repository: UIHistories Project: SWE - Proceedings of the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists [PAGE 44]

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If it is a case of mass production, the jig and tool designer can go all out, as the cost of the tooling will' be small compared with the quantity produced and the shop lay out can be arranged to suit the product. Every second saved on any one operation will result in really big savings. This is, of course, where the moving belt was first introduced and all automatic transfer equipment started. Jigs and tools then become special-purpose machinery. In the case of batch production with comparatively short runs, the situation is much more difficult, as the cost of the jigs and tools has to be absorbed in the price of the finished article and if the runs are not very long, it may not be worth while to shift heavy machinery to suit a proposed sequence of operation. This will then have to be adapted to existing shop lay-out. This is a case where the technique known as "Work Study" will pay particular dividends. In large undertakings there is frequently a work-study office, but in smaller firms this is usually done in the planning office or even in the drawing office. Work Study is a systematic investigation of all necessary steps to be undertaken in the production of part or equipment, considering all possible variations in materials, operational sequence, shop lay-out, available stocks, or off-the-shelf equipment. An extension of Work-Study techniques, which has in recent years gained wide application, is what is called "Project Evaluation Review Techniques", abbreviated PERT, also sometimes called "Critical Path Analysis". This method adds time estimates to the job breakdown and enables the critical activities to be pointed up so that special attention can be focussed on them. This ensures a much closer control of the progress of a project. A computer can be used to evaluate alternatives in the proposed process, and it is thereby possible to optimise the project to a certain extent. This technique can obviously be applied to projects of any size, from the production planning of a machine to large building projects. It was developed in the first instance for monitoring the progress of the Polaris Missile Program. It has become a very sophisticated tool for the designer and production engineer. It is thus apparent that draughtsmen, planners, and work-study engineers are all working to enable the designer to accomplish his task more efficiently.

LIBRARIES AND TECHNICAL LITERATURE It is essential for every engineer and scientist to have access to the records of the achievements of the past. These are collected in the technical literature, that is, publications and periodicals. While the fundamental knowledge required for every branch of technology or science has been acquired during training, the mind should not be cluttered up with details which can be found in books and tables. To know what has been done in the past to solve a set problem saves a lot of time and unnecessary effort. It is equally important to keep abreast of new developments, reports of which are usually published in magazines and periodicals or in catalogs.

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