Pictured above: It’s difficult to tell, but on the left is a Diedesheim AMII Rotary Transfer machine and on the right is an IBM PS/2 Model 30 Personal Computer. I mention both of these machines in this post.
I was fortunate enough in the mid 1970’s to do a four-year apprenticeship in mechanical engineering. I worked at one of the big factories in the city where I live and covered a multitude of engineering disciplines, including production engineering. My apprenticeship was completed in the early 1980’s.
Unfortunately, the early 1980’s was right in the middle of Thatcher’s Britain and unemployment was high. I was unable to get a permanent job once my apprenticeship was completed, so I did a few “other jobs” for a couple of years, whilst job hunting.
I eventually ended up in a factory that made showers and industrial liquid flow measuring equipment, in a neighbouring town. And that was where I stayed for about 14 years. I moved around within the company, covering machine operating, specialist machining, quality control and machine setting. My last job there was a mixture of production engineering, specialising in the machines I used to set and (despite having no experience in foundry work), casting development (looking at new ways to cast some of the products) and quality control elements mixed in.
The measuring machine
Of the 14 years I worked there, I spent around 6 or 7 of them in the Quality Control department. In those days, inspectors were employed by the Quality Control (QC) department to literally inspect components. Each manufacturing station was either making something outright or was performing an operation on a component.
The manufacturing process for that machine was to be checked regularly throughout its run, to ensure that the measurements stayed within defined tolerances from start to finish. The inspector’s role was to check the first component off the line (called a “first-off” and usually produced by the machine setter) against a known set of measurement checkpoints. The checkpoints were listed in a chart format, each checkpoint was listed with a set of blank boxes next to it. If the inspector passed the first-off as suitable for production, then an operator would be allocated to the machine and full production would commence.
The first-off component was usually measured by the inspector using standard measurement techniques, and sometimes this could take a while. In a normal production run, to save time, gauges were made to quickly check hole sizes, threads, diameters etc. so the line inspector didn’t have to manually measure every time. Once the line inspector had checked the component with the gauges, a series of ticks would be made in the relevant boxes on the measurement chart and the row of ticks initialled by the inspector. If anything was incorrect, then the inspector would stop the production and call the setter to rectify the issue. The issue was noted on the measurement chart (in red) and the component would have to be resubmitted to the inspector for checking prior to production recommencing.
For a number of reasons (mainly in order to save time), the QC department purchased a Coordinate Measuring Machine from Mitutoyo. It was a manual machine attached to an IBM PS/2 that ran Mitutoyo’s bespoke software, that would measure the geometry of physical objects by sensing discrete points on the surface of the object with a probe.
We all got sent on a course to train us how to use it (me included). I got very adept at using it, mainly because of the IBM PS/2 that was attached to it! When it was switched on, it would automatically start the measurement software. I discovered that you could break out of that and go to the base operating system: DOS. I spent many a night on that computer with Lotus 1-2-3 as well as programming the measurement software for semi-automation. It was my first taste of an IBM PS/2 personal computer and DOS.
And I was interested.
Meanwhile….
The mechanical machines
The factory primarily used mechanical machines, that functioned by using electro-mechanical control mechanisms. These utilised both hydraulics and purely mechanical means to manufacture components. There were several machines that had a multi-headed loading station and used multi-headed tool clusters to manufacture the bigger components, usually brass castings that would be machined into the shower bodies. Two of these machines (called a rotary transfer machine) were sizeable beasts and had 12 sets of tools in turrets, over four stations, each performing three operations at a time on a component. Each set of tools had to be manually configured to perform the operation on the component. The cutting tools that made up the toolset would have to be precisely measured and positioned so that the resulting cut would produce a form that would match the component drawing and had to be measured accurately to within some very tight tolerances.
If that sounds complicated, let me confirm it absolutely was! And that was what I used to do. I’d set these machines up to do production runs of thousands of components at a time over several days. I had to make sure that the machines reproduced all these elements time after time, to the specified dimensions and tolerances. I also used to have to deal with resetting the machine, should a machine operator “misplace” a casting, breaking one or some of the toolsets. Setting those machines could be a long job (depending on the problems) and a messy one. The machines used cutting oil (and lots of it) to lubricate the tools, the process of cutting and to wash away the brass chips produced because of the cutting. They were high volume, messy machines and used to get very hot and were subsequently hated by the machine operators, some of whom would be less careful about loading the components (resulting in a breakage, which meant they could go and operate something else less hot and messy).
The beginning of the end
It was the mid 1990’s. The factory had been investing heavily in computer-controlled machines, that could manufacture components quickly and with accuracy. The “new” computer-controlled machines (CNC’s) could replace many of the old machines, making parts faster than several machines put together. Eventually, new CNC machines were purchased that would take the place of the big machines that I used to set and so the writing was on the wall (so to speak) for these big old beasts. They were expensive to run, and it was a big overhead to set them and keep the areas clean, using a CNC machine to do the same job was cheaper and cleaner.
As more CNC machines were bought, the old machines were used less and less, until we got to the point in the later 1990’s that they weren’t used at all. That meant I didn’t have to set them any longer (and would be able to go about my business oil-smell and dirt free!). It also meant I was getting a bit bored! I liked setting the old machines, they were always full of surprises and filled me with a sense of achievement (when it went well).
I tried, honest
My production engineering colleagues were all over the CNC machines. They had to be really, as they were the ones that programmed them. So, courses were completed, programs were studied and rolled out as fast as they could write them. A new breed of machine setter was introduced: the CNC setter. Some people moved from the old mechanical machines after training, some new people were employed.
In the beginning of the CNC malarkey, I tried to get in on the act. A few of my colleagues tried very patiently to explain the nuances of CNC programming, but I’m afraid it fell on deaf ears. I just couldn’t (and still can’t) get my head around it. I just didn’t understand it one little bit.
The mainframe
The factory used an IBM AS/400 mainframe to process orders and maintain inventories etc. The factory had an I.T. Department, that was responsible for both the AS/400 and for the new client/server architecture that was being slowly rolled out. The AS/400 used dumb terminals on a token ring installation, several of which were on the shop floor, to check inventory levels and plan for manufacture. The company had invested in a small amount of ethernet cabling and sockets around the factory, which enabled them to place IBM PS/2 computers in some of the shop floor offices. These ran Windows 3.11, used Lotus Notes for email and the network file storage was provided by Novell Netware.
I found that side of computers utterly fascinating. I quickly commandeered the one we were allocated in our office and set to work discovering the hidden workings inside this wondrous animal. There was no internet at the time, but there was more than enough with Windows and Office to keep me busy.
And so, I became “a bit of a whizz” on this computer. I redesigned some quality control forms, so instead of the Department having to photocopy them from a master kept in a filing cabinet, they could just open a Word document and print it. That continued for a while – “digitising” forms and making them available. It taught me a lot about file systems, DOS and networking, along with email via Lotus Notes (very valuable information for the future). The bonus was that I enjoyed doing it.
I had a Land Rover at the time, one of the I.T. technicians that I knew had one too. We used to swap Land-Rover tips on the odd occasion and I got to know him reasonably well. I asked him if he would give me some pointers with Novell, and one of his colleagues about Lotus Notes – which they both, very kindly did. And so began my journey into the world of computers.
I remained “the computer whizz”. When the IBM AS/400 was upgraded to run SAP, the old PS/2 workstations were replaced with newer Compaq ones that could run the SAP software. I’m proud to say that I was one of the people that helped with that, by testing (and breaking) the new workstations.
Those were good times, but like everything else, that finished. What next?
I’ll do that for a living
I could see the writing on the wall for the big old machines, I knew that I would struggle greatly with CNC programming and the quality control work was becoming less as every day passed.
So, I had to find something else to do, either in the factory, or elsewhere.
I was keen on the computer/network side of things, this client/server thing seemed to be the way forward. So, I started to look for computer-related jobs outside of the factory.
All change
I looked around for a bit and was granted an interview with a new I.T. support department for the local Health Authority (The NHS). It was a small department, supporting 100 users in one building. There was no internet (to speak of), no email, it was just admin support teams with a few personal computers connected to a Novell Netware server and file system.
Given that I’d had no real experience in I.T. I thought this was a good way to jump in at the bottom rung and learn a few things.
I was employed. One of the people that interviewed me told me a few years later that they had had their doubts and were dubious about employing me with no real I.T. experience. The they said that I looked like the sort of person that could pick it up as I went along and gave me a chance.
23 years later, four NHS reorganisations (and a hell of a lot of long working weeks), I retired. I was a senior (in more than one sense of the word!) manager that had landscaped almost an entire client/server architecture of a County’s I.T. Infrastructure.
Not bad.