The decision had been made to move the comparator division to York, South Carolina. Textron had an empty Talon Zipper plant that they wanted to use, and the accountants claimed much cost savings from moving south. Many of the comparator workers refused to move; some people in Plant #1 expressed an interest in joining the exodus. Compromises were made to accommodate these people (at least one person was nearing retirement age, and figured, why not let the company move me at their expense?). Of course, the “cost savings” to the company never materialized (it seldom does). The lack of skilled craftsmen hobbled the product right from the start. What was once a shining example of Yankee Ingenuity became another financial leak in the Mother Ship.

In the meantime, we continued on in Plant #1, trying to absorb all the changes taking place. The new MRP (Material Readiness Plan) system required quite a lot of training for us. I was among several people sent to Atlanta for a week of this training. Many others who were closer to the “action” needed multiple week training sessions. This system was suppose to allow us to get a better handle on the procurement process; how to track the progress of various ordered parts more efficiently. Most of the actual work was done by the people in the Shop Office.

Our machines were built using what was called a “Machine Writeup”, listing all the assemblies required to achieve a complete machine. Our numbering system consisted of “assembly lists”, each of which was a complete sub-assembly in itself. For instance, A-12345 might be a machine base, A-21683 could be a slide assembly; each and every TNC model had a “Family Tree” which listed all the sub-assemblies required to build a complete “standard” machine. All the Tech Writer had to do was to  access the “Family Tree” for a particular model, print out the machine order, and issue it to the Shop Office. Then the order was plugged into the system to start the build. The new MRP system would schedule each sub-assembly so that the necessary parts would be done at the appropriate time based on final machine build dates, and taking into account the “lead times” to make every single part. Not a big deal if you are building one machine at a time, but if twenty are on the books, it becomes quite a project.

Of course a lot of the J&L TNC’s had “special” requirements based on customer standards or requests. These special items required additional engineering and were at an added cost to the customer (sometimes quite large additional costs were involved). These “special” assembly lists would be issued by engineering after completion of the design work.

Our overseas competition took another approach to this, offering just a “standard” machine, with little or no deviation offered or available. But at less cost, and quicker delivery. The machinery itself may have been less robust in design, but a new philosophy was emerging in machine tools; less costly, quick delivery, disposable machines began to take over the marketplace.