My Years With General Motors

by Alfred P. Sloan Jr.

  During these first few months of the program, the various clay models are changed and refined continually; and at each stage the seating arrangements are modified in line with the styling suggested by the clay model. Many of these changes are worked out with the help of sketches and small-scale clay models which are developed by Styling in an attempt to experiment with newer and more attractive concepts.

  Meanwhile, the engineering departments of the car divisions and of Fisher Body have been working continually with the Styling Staff in order to reach an agreement on the chassis dimensions—that is, on the wheel base, ground clearance, tread, and the space required for the engine and drive mechanisms. An agreement on these fundamentals is necessary to permit the Styling Staff to "firm up" its concept of the new models.

  About two months after the first meeting the Styling Staff offers the Engineering Policy Group a fairly advanced styling proposal, presented with a full-size clay model and seating bucks, for the sedan. (This proposal will have already been approved by the interested car divisions and by Fisher Body.) At subsequent Engineering Policy Group meetings, which are held at least once a month, proposals for the other body types are shown. This does not result in a prescribed order of approval, however. In the ensuing period of review and change, which may last for four or five months, it is quite possible that the coupe style, for example, may receive general acceptance ahead of the sedan style. However, at least eighteen months before the start of production the Engineering Policy Group should approve the sedan clay model in order that Styling can begin to release drawings to Fisher Body.

  When the clay model is approved, Styling builds an inexpensive plastic model of the exterior. The plastic model is useful in checking the styling concept. Inevitably, the clay model looks bulkier than the car would actually be, but the plastic model can be painted to give the same light reflections as a finished car, and, indeed, with glass and simulated chrome trim, its exterior is almost identical with the finished product.

  About eighteen months before production begins it is possible to make some calculations about the cost of the models. The size and estimated weight of the cars are known by then, and Fisher Body has begun to develop information on production-engineering costs —that is, the cost of the dies, jigs, fixtures, and so forth. It is generally Fisher's practice to begin estimating these costs even before the clay model is approved by the Engineering Policy Group. At this stage it becomes possible to weigh the sales appeal of certain features against their cost, and to modify the design if necessary. In recent years tooling costs have been lowered somewhat by General Motors' ability, in some cases, to utilize certain structural features and inner panels that are common to several different bodies.

  When the Engineering Policy Group, Fisher Body, and the car divisions approve the clay and initial plastic models—often with some modification—the Styling Staff sets to work building new, much more elaborate plastic models, which are identical, inside and out, with the models that will come off the production lines. These reinforced plastic models were first used in an effort to build Motorama Show cars and other experimental cars quickly and economically. Later we began to use these plastic models just to give ourselves a "last look" at the cars we were putting into production. Until reinforced plastic was developed we had to make wood-and-metal styling models for this purpose, and it took as much as twelve to fourteen weeks to make one of them. The reinforced plastic models can be built in four or five weeks, which gives us more time to make tools and dies.

  In the next six months or so the problem of co-ordinating work in the new models becomes very complex. While the final plastic model is being built, the Styling Staff sends drawings of major sheet-metal surfaces, and of such details as door handles and molding sections, to the car divisions and Fisher Body. As it gets this information Fisher Body moves ahead as rapidly as possible on the design of production tooling, beginning with the large and complex components—for example, the cowl, door panels, floors, roofs— and going on from there to the smaller and simpler parts.

  About twelve months before production begins, the Engineering Policy Group must give its final approval to the design shown on the final, reinforced plastic model. Fisher Body can then finalize designs for the tools and prepare for their manufacture.

  This Engineering Policy Group approval constitutes a general acceptance of the complete line of cars. From this point on, the car divisions work directly with Styling on the approval of specific details—for example, body moldings, trim, instrument panels, and, of course, on the front, side, and rear treatments developed by the individual styling studios. These details are also presented to the Engineering Policy Group for approval. At the same time, the car divisions will be building handmade experimental chassis for testing and giving Fisher detailed drawings of the chassis.

  In other words, about one year in advance of the appearance of the cars in the dealers' showrooms, the major decisions of policy have been made— at least they have been if all has gone well. The Engineering Policy Group and representatives of Fisher Body, the Styling Staff, and the car divisions have reviewed the completed plastic models. Presumably, the models will have been approved. From here on, any substantial changes in the models will involve expensive reworking of dies and a variety of additional tooling costs, and also a serious loss of time, which could mean excessive preparation and production expense. Sometimes, however, these changes are unavoidable, because reviews after the first year may still uncover serious weaknesses in the proposed models. The divisional management and the chief officers of the corporation are now viewing the complete line of cars as they will appear in the showrooms and comparing them with the current fine of General Motors and current competitive lines. It is entirely possible that some of the body types which looked good in drawings, and continued to look good in the clay or first plastic models, may now require correction. And while changes at this stage are expensive, they may be less expensive than the lost sales resulting from an unappealing model. On more than one occasion we have had to choose one of these drastic alternatives.

  Where in sum do we stand at this point, one year after work on the model has begun, one year before the public announcement date? Styling has completed its work on the fundamentals of the model. There are now in existence a number of reinforced plastic bodies which look exactly like the final cars. Styling is still completing work on new seats, instrument panels, interior trim, and new materials. However, the Styling Staff can defer for a while the decisions on upholstery materials, colors, and so forth so that it will be closer to the trend of taste at the time the new model goes on the market. Fisher Body is progressing rapidly on engineering drawings and on the design of dies and other production tools. Divisional engineering work on the new chassis is nearing completion, and the prototype chassis are ready for test. From this point on, Fisher Body and the car divisions must work closely together to assure proper co-ordination on the body and chassis work.

  The production tooling phase is now ready to begin. The general managers of the car divisions submit their final "product programs" through the Engineering Policy Group to the president of the corporation. These programs describe the features of the new models—their performance characteristics; their dimensions; their estimated weights; their estimated costs, including the expenditures required for plant rearrangement, and tooling and equipment. The Engineering Policy Group further compares car specifications with those of the current models of competitors and again it weighs the attractiveness of the product against the costs involved in its production. The president, the chairman of the corporation, and the other members of the Engineering Policy Group review the new model program in its entirety. When they approve the program, each division submits an appropriation request for the approval of the group executive in charge of the division, for review by the vice president of manufacturing and then for the approval of an executive vice president, the president, and the Administration, Executive, and Finance committees. Then
the manufacture of production tools gets under way.

  The engineering departments of the car divisions now begin to release a vast number of drawings of the parts for the new cars. These drawings are forwarded to the master mechanics' departments for decisions on whether the parts are to be made or purchased (in some divisions this is determined by a "buy or make" committee); to the processing departments for preparation of routing sheets which detail the sequence of operations by which the part will be made; to the standards department for determining the direct-labor time allowances for each operation, and to the cost department, which sets up cost sheets on all items of labor and material cost. The manufacturing departments, along with the master mechanics' and plant-engineering departments, determine how the production lines are to be set up—what new machinery and equipment will be required and where it will be placed—and what plant rearrangement will be necessary.

  By this time, too, the actual production engineering is well under way—among our outside suppliers as well as inside the corporation. As soon as we have finally approved the new models we consult with our many suppliers—of wheels, frames, rubber products, and so forth—in order to facilitate their engineering and development work and to help them plan their production.

  Some seven to eight months before the new models are to go on sale Fisher Body will have completed the first prototype bodies, incorporating many hand-built parts. We can now put complete prototype cars together for test. We generally build a number of bodies for each model on a pilot fine at Fisher Body about three months before production. These bodies are built from production dies, so the pilot line provides a test of body-production dies and tools and an opportunity to train production supervisors. Many of these pilot-fine bodies are mounted on the prototype chassis and used for additional testing at the Proving Ground and in the engineering departments of the divisions. Finally, the cars that come off the pilot lines can be used by the Sales and Advertising sections for promotional purposes—for example, for advance showings to our dealers.

  The production run itself is not started until about six weeks before the new cars go on sale. On the day the cars are formally introduced to the public our plants are, of course, rapidly attaining full production and many thousands of cars are already in the hands of dealers. The new-model program is over—and we are ready to concentrate more fully on the models that will reach the dealers one and two years hence.

  The entire new-model program thus has three phases. Styling dominates the first year of the program; engineering design is continuous almost throughout the entire two-year period, with work ending just before mass production begins; equipment and tooling begin before Styling completes its work, and cover the multifarious and elaborate procedures required actually to make a car. The key point, perhaps, is the period halfway through the process, at the end of the first year, when the new design is approved and we "lock ourselves in" by beginning the production phase.

  This is the way our procedure calls for new models to be produced, and this is the way, in large measure, they are in fact produced. However, no sooner do we "blueprint" reality than we begin to change it. In recent years the competitive situation has at times required us to produce a new model in somewhat less than two years. At the same time the increasing pace of competition has forced General Motors and other producers to speed up the rate of development of new design and engineering features. Naturally, when a larger part of a new car is "new," greater pressure is exerted on the process of design and the preparation for production.

  We are continuously involved in this process of making a new and better car. Although the many complex steps over the long period between the conception of a new-model program and its execution are costly, they are worthwhile. For the annual model change is part of the very nature of the development of the industry. Since its earliest days, long before the expression "annual model" was used, the process of creating new models has generated the progress of the automobile.

  Chapter 14 - The Technical Staffs

  General Motors is an engineering organization. Our operation is to cut metal and in so doing to add value to it. About 19,000 engineers and scientists work in the corporation, of whom 17,000 are in the divisions and 2000 in the general technical staffs. Many of our leading executives, myself among them, have an engineering background. It is natural, therefore, that we should always have understood that our progress is linked to technological progress, and that our effort to achieve it is necessarily never ending. I expressed a policy on this subject at the time I set up the General Technical Committee in 1923: research and engineering in General Motors were to be on the same organizational plane as operations.

  The permanent drive of research and engineering in industry is to accelerate technological progress, to incorporate in products and in manufacturing the advances made in science and technology, and to shorten the time between development and production. To achieve these ends we long ago differentiated a staff function from the operation function. We gathered together a research staff in the early 1920s and an engineering staff about ten years later. Today we have in General Motors, outside of operations, four technical staffs: the Research Laboratories, Engineering, Manufacturing, and Styling. (Note 14-1.) They are grouped in physical proximity to each other in a modern university atmosphere at the $i25-million General Motors Technical Center near Detroit.

  There are logical reasons for grouping these staffs geographically. Certain similarities exist among them in the creative nature of their work and its broader scientific and technical aspects, and there are overlapping areas of interest and activity which require co-ordination.

  Research

  The present approach to research in General Motors is the result of evolution. Research of one kind or another in the corporation goes back almost fifty years. A laboratory was organized for General Motors by Arthur D. Little, Inc., in 1911 to conduct, mainly, materials analysis and testing. The main stream of General Motors' research, however, comes down from the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, organized independently by Charles F. Kettering (with E. A. Deeds) in 1909—before he came to General Motors—for the purpose of working on developments in the automotive field.

  Mr. Kettering was, of course, the outstanding individual in the evolution of General Motors' research. For many years, paralleling my own, he was head of this technical activity in the corporation. In 1912, before he was associated with General Motors, he made automobile history when he brought out the first practical electric self-starter. One of his companies, the Dayton Engineering Laboratories, bought components for the starter and began assembly operations, and so became a successful manufacturer as well as a research laboratory. Three years later there were eighteen companies offering electric starting equipment. The first letters of the name of Mr. Kettering's company were taken to form the now famous trademark Delco. When Delco was brought into the United Motors Corporation in 1916, along with my company, Hyatt, I came to know Mr. Kettering intimately.

  Mr. Kettering, an engineer and a world-famous inventor, a social philosopher, and a super-salesman I might say as well, gave a great deal of time and effort to conducting research in various fields that captured his interest and imagination. Before he came into General Motors in 1919, his laboratory had begun its great work on combustion. His organization was purchased by General Motors and combined with other research activities to become, in 1920, the General Motors Research Corporation at Moraine, Ohio, with Mr. Kettering as president. In 1925 we moved the Research Corporation to Detroit, and brought all General Motors' general research activities together under Mr. Kettering. Mr. Kettering retired in 1947 and was succeeded by Charles L. McCuen, an outstanding engineer who came up through the Oldsmobile organization. Mr. McCuen followed an advanced engineering approach, and produced very good results in a number of important areas in General Motors until he retired in the 1950s.

  In 1955 a new phase in General Motors' research was begun with the appointment of the eminent
nuclear scientist Lawrence R. Hafstad as vice president of research. Dr. Hafstad's training, of course, was not as an automotive engineer; he had never been associated with an automobile company. His appointment reflected the fact that the emphasis in the work of the Research Laboratories was moving steadily in the direction of investigation of new, broad research problems.

  The activity of the Research Laboratories today lies mainly in three kinds of work. First, it does trouble-shooting around the corporation and it may be called in to help wherever its specialized knowledge is needed, for example, in the elimination of gear noise, in the testing of castings for material defects, or in the reduction of vibration. Second, it makes engineering improvements of a creative nature, growing out of problem-solving. These problems range from improvements in transmission fluids, paints, bearings, fuels, and the like, to high-level applied research, such as the work on combustion, high-compression engines, refrigerants, diesel engines, gas turbines, free-piston engines, aluminum engines, metals and alloy steels, air pollution, and the like. And third, it encourages some intensified basic research.