SYSTEMS THAT LOOK AHEAD

here is an engineer he envisions designs and creates complex military electronic products products which require thousands of engineering hours thousands of component parts thousands of manufacturing skills and one good information [Music] [Applause] [Music] system today's military electronic equipments are a far cry from the comparatively simple little black box of a few years ago similarly integrated information processing used to expedite the volumes of necessary systems paperwork is a far cry from the manual method of a few years ago with the Advent of the complicated systems concept came equally involved communication problems the hardware portion of our product numbers from 5,000 to well over 200,000 parts and assem mes dealing with all these parts for manual business operations such as design procurement receiving stocking fabricating test and inspection and cost determination and billing was an expensive and arduous [Music] task take the engineer for instance in addition to his creative duties the engineer was required to document these thousands of material [Music] requirements the First Recording was finally completed and the paper cycle began production control came next another documentation was made then to purch purchasing records on different forms quality control test and inspection cost the manual method of documentation slow repetitive not always [Music] accurate to investigate the feasability of replacing the manual system with one using integrated information processing techniques a a permanent study team was established by management to work within the procedures subsection representatives of the study group brought their combined talents and special experiences to bear on the total problem management had stressed that any new system must contain flexibility accuracy [Music] speed this is a punched card it is a medium of integrated information processing the information punched in cards can be reproduced sorted calculated and printed with many times the speed of the manual method of [Music] recording however integrated information processing does not depend on any one machine or a group of machines it is a concept which uses various combinations of machine capabilities to supply improved more timely business knowledge through comprehensive systems of information flow the material information system is such a system carrying pertinent information through the engineering design stages throughout the department and satisfying the customer needs today engineering cards are prepared for each part of the multipart equipment this card contains a part identification number a code to show where a part is used and quantity [Music] used as the design of the product progresses cards are punched and accumulated the engineering phase of the communication cycle completed by machines the engineers equipment design captured by a medium far superior to the manual system the engineer is free to return to creative thinking having Parts data available on this single accurate card has enabled the engineers and draftsmen to greatly reduce their clerical effort in the preparation of lists of non-standard parts and Tube complements for customer approval Parts lists are run automatically from The Source cards and eliminate hand copying of hundreds of thousands of lines what once took months is is now produced in a matter of minutes on a recent radar subsystem assignment a job that would have required 57 manday was accomplished overnight a unique example of flexibility occurred when it became necessary to prepare a Consolidated parts list for four different models of the same equipment the manual drafting effort would have required 60 man days while the mechanized effort required only one day a significant saving in money and ordering time now the captured data in the engineering source file is used to implement the functions of the procurement receiving releasing and fabricating cycle the procurement cycle where the function of purchasing is performed begins with the receipt of the material requisition card when involved with the concurrent procurement of thousands of items purchasing can do a better job when equipped to maintain a complete resume of their vendor Services products and Facilities as well as a measurement of its own activities such as number of orders kinds of orders and value of orders and the numerous combinations of these factors the buyers themselves are now able to have a better knowledge of the status of orders and can compare such things as prices contracts products and vendor sizes with very little effort Source information which has been Consolidated mechanically supplies the buyer with material requirements within minutes on one card to have gathered this information in the past would have involved many hours of manual statistical effort hours which the buyers did not have transcription errors have been reduced many fold simply because the amount to be typed has been reduced by 90% the data originated in engineering has passed through the procurement cycle and now enters the receiving stage receiving function is to accept ordered material verify the shipments completeness and notify production accounts payable purchasing and quality control of its arrival the volume of material handled by this component has increased considerably with the increased complexity of the product and the punched card has enabled receiving to not only adjust to this influx but to make great strides in improving its operation receiving now has available such information as commitments by shop order parts due to come in by shop order parts due to come in by vendor order open orders by the vendor valuable pertinent information Consolidated by means of the punched card receiving can now process 50% more work without the corresponding increase in personnel and Equipment cost the accuracy speed and completeness of the mechanized receiving report has enabled both accounts payable and production to eliminate much of the Expediting which was once so essential one of receivings most recent Innovations is the installation of a teletype Network which will automatically notify people concerned with the arrival of purchased items this network acts as a control center it dispatches via wire data on the receipt of stock and on failures in test and inspection to enable assembly schedules to be adjusted to the flow of materials and so the receiving cycle ends now that the necessary material has been procured and accumulated it must now be released to the factory floor assembly quantities are calculated release tickets authorizing the issuance of material to the factory floor likewise are now machine produced this mechanization saved the manual typing of some 350,000 release tickets on one subsystems contract alone production tags used to identify and root equipment are also machine produced the clerical phase of hand copying this information is thereby eliminated from the Foreman's duties freeing him for more essential supervision accurately marked assemblies are rooted through through inspection and shipping where machines assist in making labels preparing shipping documents keeping track of the immensely complicated flow of materials from our Factory to the customers remote sites with thousands of parts and thousands of manh hours required to coordinate the Assembly of an electronic system mechanized processing succeeded in gathering all necessary data for costing equipments [Music] the financial man recalls with distaste the drudgery of adding the pennies and dollars to arrive at product cost the cost analyst spent 60 to 75% of his time maintaining the volumes of handwritten Parts lists then the machine freed them from the piles of papers and masses of numbers for the more stimulating job of financial analysis the electronic computer utilizes the engineering source file together with other pertinent data and provides basic product cost information from this base it can make fast and accurate reappraisals of our cost experience the most valuable asset to any company is its trained people people who pool their various talents and abilities to design create and manufacture the company's product and yet the value of these employees and in turn the product depends on the company's ability to match talents to [Music] jobs as our Workforce grew the importance of having a central authoritative source file for personnel information available to all functions became apparent and so development of the employee information system began this system processes information about the employee from the time he is hired records the completion of the many educ education and training classes offered to improve his potential assures periodic evaluation of performance AIDS in selecting qualified candidates for job openings and prepares his weekly pay the first portion of the employee information system to be implemented was Personnel accounting and payroll distribution which included the calculation of a complete week payroll for all employees and the administration of all benefit plans savings plans and state federal and territorial taxes this initial step showed a $45,000 Pere savings but this system does far more than issue the employees paycheck It prepares purchase lists to buy his bonds reports his savings under the savings and security plan accumulates his contributions to the pension plan calculates his insurance premiums and determines what part of his earnings are subject to the more than 100 different taxing jurisdictions within which the heavy military electronics department operates Social Security reporting is now done by sending the Magnetic Tape directly to the agency with little paperwork involved with the manual system one payroll clerk was needed for every 130 employees with mechanization the the payroll Clerk's capabilities have been extended to 190 employees during this same period 10 across the Board General and cost of living wage increases were processed with little difficulty by changing One MasterCard for each rate class changes for over 5,000 employees were made all of this information is contained on magnetic tape in a Personnel inventory file this file is constantly growing and will continue to grow as more employee information is added in the future presently plans are being formulated to use this file as an aid to the manager in assigning skills to our many projects within the department in short the employee information system can and will supply management with a better understanding of its employees resources the financial information system when complete will meet all traditional accounting requirements and will act as a readily accessible pool of knowledge on the operation of our business utilizing Source data already summarized and refined by the material and employee Information Systems the financial information system produces operating statements and reports the financial information system eliminates the usual bookkeeping tools such as journal entries hand posted ledgers and the overwhelming amount of hand effort necessary to produce them the labor thus saved when added to the analytical power and pool of knowledge in the system provides the business with financial services never before possible the mechanization of much of the input to the financial information system has already contributed significantly in time and savings for those who travel mechanization provides an expense account statement promptly at the end of each month this enables The Traveler to keep his account balanced and so reduces the Department's investment in overdue accounts a very successful example of exception reporting is the engineering expense report this utilizes the computer and summarizes expense information for succeeding levels of management pinpointing only significant deviations from the budget engineering can focus attention on problem areas further plans for the financial information system are under development these include using known data with which to forecast the future making running analysis of new business plans continuously reviewing alternate courses of [Music] action this is a modern electronic computer fast accurate flexible it has the ability to digest thousands of varied pieces of data process it with great speed and precision and Supply timely concise accurate information much of this information was never before available in a usable form now many new insights into the business are [Music] possible today the computer is also being used to convert the design specifications of the engineer into tapes which automatically operate the machines in the factory [Music] these Concepts have contributed to the production of reliable complex electronic products in the shortest possible time but of more importance the information systems bring the heavy military electronics department to the threshold of a new ability to look ahead they reflect our determination to bring to our customers better defense per dollar [Applause] [Music]