The “Spot” System Explained.

What is the “Spot” system? It is a system of group working, where all detail work is carried out in specialist departments, such as ours are now—but with this difference. In all erecting and building shops, the vehicles themselves are moved down the shop, at definitely schedule periods, and stop at defined “Spots” for a predetermined page 39 number of hours, to have specified work performed on them, after which they move on to the next “Spot,” and so on until completion. At each “Spot” is located a specialised group of men, with the necessary equipment, and the required parts to do the work scheduled to be done there, and it is considered by those who have adopted it for repair work to be the most economical method of getting their desired output. In other words, it is now the vehicles that are placed on the “spot” instead of the men.

Illustrations accompanying this article give a clear indication of how the system operates, and, in view of its successful adoption elsewhere, there does not appear to be any reason why we might not apply it here, especially in such shops as it is particularly adaptable to. There are, of course, certain difficulties, such as our number of classes of vehicles, the problem of having adequate stocks of spare parts, the diversity of the traffic requirements, etc., and these would call for some suitable modification in the system.

The Crewe shops of the London Midland and Scottish Railways in England, and the B. & O. Railway in the United States, have adopted the “Spot” system, with beneficial results on locomotive repair output. It appears that equally successful application of the system could be made to wagon repairs.