A report on the survey carried out at W. H. Allens, Queens Works, Bedford

The original terms of reference under which the project was undertaken are included in this report and the requirements requested are satisfied. On initial contact at Aliens, I was introduced to Mr. Colson, who informed me that his company of Consulting Engineers had introduced a scheme of methods engineering work study and incentives payment and that the results on the grinding section were not fully satisfactory. The machine loading was based on synthetics which were working in other factories. There was methods and planning charts from which the Methods Engineering and Planning Sections worked when loading work onto the shops and it was required that the shortcomings of these charts should be corrected. I was then introduced to Mr. Sargent, Chief Methods Engineer. He assigned one of his staff to me. It was suggested that we went down to the shop floor and consider the Lumsden grinding machine, as this machine stalled when the feeds and speeds suggested from the methods sheets were applied, but the main problem which it was essential to tackle as soon as possible was the grinding of gudgeon pins. Details of the work carried out on each machine are included in separate sections.