Because of our success with the TNC lathe line, we had many visitors who mainly wanted to observe our assembly lines and build procedures. In the beginning J&L had no real policy concerning picture taking, so the early visitors (mainly oriental), came with cameras loaded. They couldn’t possibly achieve what we had done, could they? Well, as we discovered later (to our chagrin), they could, and did. They listened to an American ( W. Edwards Deming), when America didn’t. His manufacturing philosophy and step-by-step methods for improvement enabled the Japanese to eventually become a machine tool powerhouse. But in the 60’s and 70’s we were complacent; just like the American and British motorcycle industry, we failed to see the threat (eventually, of course, we forbid any type of photography in the building). Because the lathe is the predominant machine tool in use worldwide, the Japanese targeted the U.S. lathe market first. This became quite evident to anyone who visited the NMTBA (National Machine Tool Builders Association) show in Chicago over the next decade. Their government worked with them with funding to enable them to develop marketable products.

As we all know now, their grasp of the basic tenants of manufacturing had enabled them to excel not only in the machine tool industry, but in automotive and electronic products as well. And this same approach is valid as these products have moved away from Japan to Taiwan, Korea, and China.

There were quite a few World War II veterans employed in the shops at that time. Their reactions to seeing their former enemies walking around with cameras ranged from polite toleration to (guardedly) hostile. Most of our foreign visitors were young, not having any firsthand experience in the war; a few were older, and were probably war veterans. But as far as I know, we extended a welcoming hand to them all. I’m sure they played up the possibility of being future “customers”.

I was living in North Springfield at this time, and made the aquaintance of an Electrical Tech on the assembly floor. He lived near us, and eventually we set up a carpool arrangement; he would drive one week, I would drive the next. This allowed my wife to have the car on the off week (his wife didn’t drive). He would stroll into the Engineering office from time-to-time, either seeking out some information, or for a brief visit. During one of those visits he asked me if I wanted to see a “Polish Trailer”. I was game, so I followed him out to the assembly floor. He went over to one of the mechanics and asked where the “Polish trailer” was. The mechanic said “it was just here, I think it’s over there”, pointing in some general direction. So off we went, again missing it “by just a few seconds”. This went on for a few more minutes, until I realized I was the “Polish Trailer”………… This joke of course caused a hearty round of laughter (and a red face).