From Chaos To Safety and Sense

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 181, 11 December 1942, Page 6

From Chaos To Safety and Sense

— (Written for "The Listener" by

S.

B.

|; =- @ A man was carrying a fire extinguisher on his shoulder. It burst. His head was blown off. @ Ambulance workers, military and civil, were constantly confused by the varying sizes of stretchers and the slides that take them in ambulances. When a patient had a broken back, it was difficult to change him over to a stretcher that fitted.

@ Manufacturers of glass containers were making hundreds of different shapes and _ sizes: several times too much labour, several times too much glass. Wood heels for women’s shoes were using from three to six times too much labour and time, @Schoo) children’s parents were paying the same for thin exercise books as they were paying for thick ones, @ The deaf were pay-

ing prohibitive prices tor hearing-aid equipment. @ Into the Lend-Lease purchasing system was pouring a confusing multiplicity of orders for varying grades and qualities of similar articles or material. @ Prices were being fixed for commodities while there existed no standard quality grades to which the prices could be adjusted, OW all these things, from N decapitated firemen to "freak" heels have come, or are coming, within the scope of the New Zealand Standards Institute. Where there is confusion, the institute establishes definition and organisation. Where bad economy exists, the institute establishes basis for good management, If there is profiteering, the institute provides the key to honest trading. The institute could become a coercive organisation. It prefers the more progressive role of sane counsellor, Order : Not Uniformity Standardisation might mean _ that everything and everybody must look the same and behave the same, In practice, as promoted by the New Zealand Institute, it means the maximum efficiency consistent with competition in improvement, change and ingenuity. It means fire extinguishers that put out fires without blowing off people’s heads. When the pressureoperated fire extinguisher is brought into action, the containers must with- stand the force of the chemicals generated inside. Some containers were not strong enough. They were dangerous. The institute set down standards for protection. It insisted that the case

sovtninteines m must be made to withstand a maximum pressure of 350 pounds per square inch, while the pressure generated must not exceed 200 pounds per square inch, Stretchers: anf ambulances provide another striking example of the institute’s most obviously valuable functions, Neither ambulances nor stretchers in the past were made to any standards. Some stretchers had fixed | handles,

which made the stretchers too long to be received by ambulances. Some ambulances had ‘slides which were too narrow to take wide stretchers, Standardisation has ensured that as far as practicable, all stretchers will fit not only all ambulances but lifts in hospitals as well. Standards Mean Efficiency These standards simply mean efficiency. Take the case of tinplate, used in

so many New Zealand-made articles, all of it imported. Analysing orders to overseas manufacturers, the institute found that New Zealand firms required 71 different weights of tin coating, 20 different gauges of plate, in 90 different sizes of sheet. Acting as a purely organising and advisory body, the institute brought tinplate users together, and over the committee table reduced the range of coating weights from 71 to one, the range of gauges from 20 to 7, and the range of sheet sizes from 90 to six, One of the more than 100 committees working with the institute operates continuously on the simplification of orders to overseas manufacturers. Their work multiplies over and over the success of the work done on tinplate. Without this committee, war-worried manufacturers in Britain and America would despair of supplying our demands, Far-Reaching Changes Inside New Zealand, each move by the institute makes some far-reaching change in the national economy. The heels of most women’s shoes are turned and carved from wood in a specialist factory. This factory was making an excessive range of types. The institute has established four types only, with a range of size and variety to suit essential requirements. So far, the women don’t seem to have noticed the effect of this order, although its practical result is visible in the display windows of any shoe store. In the factory, work which previously required from three to six workers, can now be performed efficiently by one worker without depriving style or fashion of their needs, In the shoe industry, more work is yet to be done. It is proposed to limit the number of types of shoe that can be made in any one factory, Until now, (Continued on next page)

Shoes And Meat And Milking-Machines ...

(Continued from previous page) every manufacturer, to meet competition has been forced to make every design, In the near future, manufacturers will agree on self-imposed limitations, Each will make a limited number of designs. The result will be increased factory production and efficiency, with no reduction in the choice of designs available to the consumer, The story of savings may ‘be continued almost endlessly. In co-operation with the State laboratories, the institute has set a standard for milking machine rubberware. Tubing of modified dimensions was evolved, and its use has meant through New Zealand, a saving of 30 tons (or 25 per cent), of raw rubber, This has saved the manufacturers £8000 annually, and made it possible for them to continue when their extinction was threatened by the rubber shortage. In wartime, the institute’s first consideration must be national efficiency. Yet efficiency is not. achieved at the expense of the consumer. In fact, for the housewife and her husband the institute seems to have a particular soft spot. Take the case of meat. They End Confusion The meat industry is importantly concerned in the Government’s monster plan of price stabilisation, Already the Price Tribunal has fixed ceiling prices on first-quality meats, It is ordered that second-grade meat must be sold at prices 20 per cent lower, The difficulty until now has been that neither butcher nor consumer has had any clear definition of quality in meat. The price was fixed before grades were established, with the result that the maximum first-quality price came to be applied to all meat sold. It is difficult to blame the butcher, who was given no guidance; but the housewife most certainly suffered as a result. The insti-

tute, in co-op-eration with the Meat Industry and the Department of Agriculture, and the Price Tribunal has now established standards for the various grades of meat. A method of marking the meat so that butcher and consumer

may easily recognise the grading is now being perfected. Housewives may save 20 per cent on their purchases by knowing when they are buying second-grade meat ag distinct from first-grade. A double service has, in fact, been performed in meat standardisation. Definitions of the different cuts have now been fixed, so that housewives may be sure of receiving rump steak when it is ordered, and a Spanish neck will be a Spanish neck.

Even with an innocent commodity ‘like ice cream, standardisation is necessary to avoid the confusion and inequity that arise when variation in the amount of air incorporated causes the weight per gallon to vary, it is seid, by as much as from 3144 pounds to 5 pounds. To get the significance of this, it is necessary to remember that both the 3% and 5 pound gallons are generally sold at about the same price. The Standards

Institute has under consideration a standard which will require all ice cream to weigh 5 pounds per gallon, and thus establish a sane basis for commercial .transaction between manufacturers and bulk purchasers. Even small boys mav hencht when

mother has a spare penny on a hot day. The consumer will also directly benefit when standards are finally established for glass containers. Among the hundreds of varieties at present manufactured in New Zealand, many jars and bottles give an appearance of opulence which is belied by the contents, Thick glass and dummy bases are obvious devices, It is proposed to reduce the number of varieties by about 600 and the standard established will ensure that the container pretends to be no more than a container, They Protect the Consumer The most widespread general benefits will probably come from the standards to be fixed in the bread industry. Prices are already fixed; but there is still no precise definition of shapes, weights and qualities. When the new standards come into effect, all loaves will weigh two pounds, An exception is the split barracouta loaf, so frequently bought in the cities as the "small," "quarter" or one pound loaf. Until now, this small loaf has often weighed about 12 ounces. The standard will fix its weight at 14 ounces. In addition, bakers will no longer waste efficiency on many different shapes of loaf. The number of shapes in any provincial district will be limited to six, of which two must be the "sandwich" and "raised tin" shape. If these are not made, then bakers may make only four different shapes. The result will be a great saving of labour and much greater confidence for the consumer. The biggest job completed by the institute in recent weeks has, of course, been the simplification of _ clothing standards, Already vast economies are foreseen, running into six figures, Further consumer-protection is planned in standards of quality. Cloth and workmanship will be graded, and price fixation may follow, firmly based on standards reached in agreement with the industry. Standards mean planning. The institute establishes grades, which can be used by the Price Tribunal to fix prices inside a system which regulates wages, taxation, loan-raising and commodity supplies, for a planned national economy,