Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

Ideas Spur War Work I riiiitiiiiu'd I'foiii I'df/r >'/ ' tween maiiuKement ami employees: to identify progressive workers to the management; and to stimulate all the workers to a better appre- ciation of the important role which they play as individuals in shaping their own future with the organ- ization in direct proportion to their contributions to the well-being of their company. Distinctively colored suggestion boxes are placed throughout the plant and in the offices. At each box is a supply of suggestion blanks. Every means of communication is employed to encourage suggestions. Messages are recited over the plant sound system; posters are put on walls and bulletin boards; awards for outstanding suggestions are played up in the company house organs. Big awards are made per- sonally by top management repre- sentatives. Public presentation of awards are made at plant rallies and on special occasions. All-ex- pense furloughs to famous vacation spots are offered as incentives in addition to the cash awards (pay- able in War Bonds and Stamps) which are made in direct proportion to the estimated value of the sug- gestions. The suggestion blank is in three parts, each numbered identically. On the main section, the suggestor outlines his idea. On one of two perforated stubs attached he writes his name, clock number, department number and building number. The second stub he keeps as evidence that he has put in a suggestion. Suggestion bo.xes are regularly emptied not less than three times each week. All suggestions are read by the Suggestion Superviser and his staff who are members of the Personnel Department. They are then assigned to five full-time in- vestigators who check the em- ployee's idea with his foreman and others who may be interested. After that, the recommendation is expe- dited with all possible dispatch. The identity of the suggestor is known only to the Suggestion Supervisor to assure unbiased consideration for every idea submitted. If the suggestion has possibilities of adoption, the investigator clears the idea with the Engineering De- liartment where blue-print changes are made, if necessary, and com- ments about i)ractical)ility are ob- tained. Next, the idea is checked with the Process Department for additional comment and whatever process changes are needed. The investigator then checks the pro- duction orders on which the sug- gestion applies and obtains a report on quantities in order to estimate the savings. The suggestion now is tentatively adopted. It becomes effective after consultation with the Control De- liartment where labor and material savings are recorded. The idea is finally returned to the Suggestion Supervisor where the extent of an award is determined. Records are Kept If the suggestion is rejected, the investigator attaches comments giv- ing specific reasons for the rejec- tion. The decision is entered in a master book opposite a serial num- ber. The suggestion then is for- warded to the suggestor's foreman who explains the situation, thanks the employee for his interest and encourages further submission of ideas. If the employee is dissatis- fied with the rejection, a reinvesti- gation of his suggestion may be opened by the Suggestion Super- visor. The employee also is free to i-eojien his suggestion at any time. After a suggestion has been adopted, if it is considered to be of value to the war effort, the Sugges- tion Supervisor sends it to the Labor-Management War Produc- tion Drive Sub-Committee for cer- tification and transmission to the War Production Board in Washing- ton. There it is reviewed by the Committee on Awards which noti- fies the plant War Production Drive Committee of whatever action is taken. Ninety per cent of all suggestions made at RCA's Camden plant since Pearl Harbor, have been in connec- tion with war work. Among them have been recommendations for the conservation of essential materials, elimination of rejects, quality im- provements, methods for decreasing production and test time, simplifi- cation of ojjerations. elimination of bottlenecks, increase of efficiency, and imiirovement to morale. Industrial Power Rising ((■(iiititinid l'ri)tii jiayc 5) Science, through development of the electron tube, put radio in the fight and made it indispensable to the modern mechanized army, to the air corps, to the fleet, and to the merchant marine. Without the ra- dio tube .so wonderfully developed since World War I, radio could not play the important role it now has in warfare. The electron tube made radio equipment compact, portable, mobile, eflicient and extremely de- pendable. That was not so with the cumbersome wireless apparatus that used the spark transmitter and crystal detectors in the first World War. It was not until the final period of the conflict that the radio tube began to find service in the Army and Navy. Radio now qualifies as the voice and ear of the Army Signal Corps, of Naval Communications and of the Air Corps. We have but to look at the global war map to realize the great importance of radio. Its defi- nite assignments and achievements necessarily are military secrets. Rut when we compare the present demands upon communications with those of the first World War, it is easy to understand that radio's present role is a thousandfold more important. The airplane, the world- wide transport problem, and blitz warfare, all of which call for utmost speed and efficiency in communica- tion, have multiplied the demands and responsibilities of radio. Within the past year—a year of tireless effort in the manufacturing plants—the men and women on the production front have given the American armed forces the finest radio equipment in the world. As the war rages into 1943, every American finds himself and herself linked in some way with the battle. There must be no let-up on the home front. Every day in the New Year must find production rushing full speed ahead to the battlefronts. Then, and only then, will the last battle end in our victorv. RADIO AGE 25]