  The manufacture of reliable, standardized telephone apparatus is a major responsibility of another Bell System unit, the Western Electric Company. It supplies to the operating companies telephone equipment of high quality at reasonable prices. Western Electric also buys for the operating telephone companies supplies that it does not itself produce. Since large quantities are required, this arrangement results in important economies. Western Electric speeds delivery to the telephone companies of the right equipment and materials, and the right time, from stocks maintained in distributing houses from coast to coast. Also, specially trained western Electric forces install for the Bell companies most of the complicated central office equipment required to connect all parts of the telephone system. Experience has proved the great value of centering these responsibilities in an organization that works as a unit of the System toward the same goals as the telephone companies—a service steadily improving and increasing in value to more and more people. One of many assembly operations in making Bell telephones at a Western Electric plant in Indianapolis. One-fifth of these sets are now produced in colors. Evolution of an IndustryIn the first few years after the telephone was invented, six different manufacturers made telephone apparatus for the Bell companies. Each produced equipment of different design and quality. It quickly became apparent that progress depended upon standardized equipment of the best possible quality. In 1882, the Bell System purchased the Western Electric Manufacturing Company. This company had grown out of a partnership formed in 1869 by Enos M. Barton and Elisha Gray. It had specialized at first in telegraph and then in telephone equipment. Ownership of Western Electric gave the System assurance of standardized equipment of high quality, reasonable prices, and a dependable source of supply. A Western Electric installer, one of the members of a nation-wide team, puts the finishing touches on new central office switching equipment installed for a Bell telephone company. High-powered optical apparatus is needed to maintain the hair-splitting tolerances that are required in making miniature electronic tubes used in communications equipment. Growing with the System, Western Electric became an enterprise of national stature. Its manufacturing operations are principally in Chicago, Ill., Kearny, N. J., Baltimore, Md., Allentown, Pa., Tonawanda, N. Y., Indianapolis, Ind., and Winston-Salem, N. C. In the years since World War II the company’s manufacturing facilities have undergone an almost continuous modernization and expansion. In addition to building a number of new factories, the company has rented or purchased other plants to obtain the manufacturing space required for the dual job of furnishing equipment needed by the armed forces and continuing to meet the requirements of the Bell System. A complex manufacturing jobAs manufacturing unit of the Bell System, Western Electric must be ready at all times to produce over 200,000 different kinds of apparatus and component parts for telephone equipment. Each year, about 70,000 of these are required and manufactured. The quantity of each item produced varies from one to many millions. Mass production methods are used wherever possible, but the items required in large quantities are very much in the minority. In a recent year, less than one per cent of the products manufactured were made in quantities of over 100,000. About 30 per cent were made in quantities of less than 10. Applying lead sheathing to telephone cable. Each of Western Electric’s 29 distributing houses maintains an efficient repair shop where service-worn telephone apparatus is reconditioned so that it will give good service once again. Because telephone equipment must be tailor-made—much of it in small quantities—it is necessary for the manufacturing and supply unit to have intimate knowledge of Bell System plant everywhere. And since telephone plant must give trouble-free service 24 hours a day, telephone equipment must be of the highest quality and built to exact, uniform standards. Experience has proved that the design, manufacture and operation of standard telephone equipment can be accomplished best when the designers, the makers, and the operating people work closely together on the same team. Supplies—when and where neededWestern Electric’s purchasing people constantly study world markets, prices and potential sources of raw materials and finished products. They work closely with suppliers that provide equipment and supplies that Western itself does not make, so that these will meet the Bell System’s high standards. Western also helps them develop better production methods. A fingertip view of a “2A” transistor, one model of the astonishing electronic device invented by Bell Laboratories and now being produced by Western Electric. In a recent year Western Electric purchased from 28,000 large and small suppliers located in over 3,000 towns and cities in all the 48 states. Purchases included, in addition to all kinds of raw materials, finished products ranging from pencils and pen points to automobiles and telephone poles. Western Electric operates 29 distributing houses through which materials flow to the Bell companies. Each house is set up to meet the supplies requirements of the telephone company it serves. It works closely with the telephone organization to deliver the goods promptly and efficiently. Each Highly trained Western Electric men install central office equipment for the Bell telephone companies. Altogether, Western Electric is able to supervise all steps in making the equipment ready for use, from purchase of raw materials to finished installation. This assures the telephone companies that new apparatus will give the best possible service. A national assetTime and again the unified service of supply within the Bell System has proved to be a national asset. After hurricanes, floods and fires, when telephone company people go “all out” to restore service, Western Electric swings into action to deliver the needed equipment and supplies. And this equipment is standardized. It is familiar to all telephone people and can be installed quickly anywhere. Western’s productive capacity is ready also in any national defense emergency. Throughout World War II all of the company’s resources were devoted to the needs of the United States and its allies for electronic and communications equipment, including radar, sonar and various types of radio equipment. In the present national defense program, Western is not only helping to expand and improve America’s telephone system, but is using experience gained in its regular telephone job to supply specialized military equipment to the armed forces. After World War II Western Electric produced record-breaking quantities of equipment to meet America’s telephone needs. It increased its production tremendously to meet the big demand for telephones, willingly undertaking the financial risks of a big expansion program so that the operating companies could serve millions of people faster than otherwise possible. Since the end of World War II, prices of manufactured goods of all kinds have gone up, but Western Electric prices have gone up far less than the average—as of the end of 1954, they had gone up less than half as much. Because it works as a unit of the System rather than toward a separate end of its own. Western Electric plays an essential part in furnishing Americans with the best telephone service at the lowest possible cost. |
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