Watches Discover Part Standardization Like countless other products for consumption, how modern wristwatches are manufactured has undergone incredible changes since the industrial revolution that began during the late twentieth century. This important period in world history opened entirely new ways to mass produce products for a growing world population.
In all facets of manufacturing have been incredible technological advances that improved efficiency and reduced production costs.
Most of us have heard of how Henry Ford changed the way cars were built by the development of the method of assembly line production. Cars would constantly leave the assembly line at Ford as workers fit in different parts of the chassis in a specific order and within a predetermined time.
What few of us think, what are the other changes that made this operation possible type of manufacturing. It is absolutely essential to the success of the line of mass production was the development of standardized parts and components that are almost identical to each other.
Before the development of the mass assembly lines of production, most mechanical assemblies, including watches were built from components that were most often made individually by producers. This means that, very often, parts of a machine that is a car, locomotive or a sewing machine, can not be used on another machine.
An example of getting the machines back to clear homebuilding can be seen in a tragic story of the First World War. The French developed a machine gun, the Chauchat which was built one at a time by individual craftsmen. Although plans called for the weapon the same dimensions, different production methods and the fantasy of the manufacturer resulted in each weapon literally a creation of a kind.
For the troops on the ground, this non-standard manufacturing had tragic results sometimes fatal. French Army and U.S. troops who had been issued a pistol quickly discovered that the parts are not interchangeable, meaning that parts of a weapon was not used on another.
The second more serious drawback is that the loading and firing mechanism in the gun is often the amount due to the absence of integrated quality control. Overall, the Chauchat has been a disaster for the troops who invoke it during the brutality of trench warfare.
A problem has been much less intimidating to those encountered by the clock and watch repair business. As Chauchat, parts of a brand or even model of the watch could not be used to repair the same brand and model. A major change in the way of watch parts were designed and manufactured came from the Bulova Watch Company.
In the early twenties Bulova introduced the first wristwatch that designs consist of standard parts manufactured to very close tolerances. The main advantage of this change in the engineering and design strategy was that the watch could use parts of a watch repair Bulova watch Bulova for others, regardless of the model. Another added benefit to watch repairers was the ability to keep spare parts on hand and, consequently, the time required to repair a watch Bulova has been considerably reduced.
As producers look at others have adopted the practice of standardization of parts and integrated quality control, reliability of wrist watches has been considerably increased. The use of standardized components means that these parts subject to wear has been more consistent and predictable, which requires less maintenance and repair of the watches assembled like a kind items.
Unfortunately, as with most businesses of the old guard which has seen significant changes and watches have become more smoothly, trade spreads new range of watch repair has largely disappeared.
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Posted on March 30, 2010.