MASS PRODUCTION.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 10 December 1927, Page 13

MASS PRODUCTION.

CO-OPERATION IN FRANCE.

Just how deeply the idea of massproduction has taken hold of the French automotive manufacturers may be judged by a recent report from the Department of Commerce to the effect that automotive manufacturers in France have got together and are working on a plan to standardise automobile parts. It has been decided to establish a “Bureau of Normalisation,” corresponding to the Bureau of Standards of the Standardisation committee of the Society of Automotive Engineers, U.S.A. Anyone who has delved at all deeply into the French automotive industry will realise just how revolutionary this new idea is. Hitherto manufacturing in France has been carried on under conditions of the utmost secreev—individual mnnufacturers have hidden their designs ns far as possible; they have considered every process of manufacture as a “trade secret” to be jealously guarded. If this new move indicates a growing spirit of co-operation among French manufacturers, it is going to give a tremendous impetus to the industry as a whole. Tn America the National Atrtombbile Chamber of Commerce has shown what can be done by co-operation, patent licensing, etc., but without any relaxing of healthful competition.