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Numerical Control Society. NC: A Vehicle for Progress. Princeton, N.J.:

1967.

Ponta, Peter H. Remarks made at a Tool, Die & Precision Machining Association meeting. 1965.

Schmidt, Alfred O. A Technical Survey of the Tool and Die Industry in Michigan. Ann Arbor: Institute of Science and Technology, The University of Michigan, 1967.

Steffy, Wilbert et al. Numerical Control Justification: A Methodology. Ann Arbor: Institute of Science and Technology, The University of Michigan, 1967.

Wilson, Frank W., Editor-in-Chief. Numerical Control in Manufacturing. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1963.

Public Documents

National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress. Statements Relating to the Impact of Technological Change. Appendix Vol. VI: Technology and the American Economy. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment and Earnings Statistics for the United States: 1909-67. Bulletin No. 1312-5, 1967.

Industry Wage Survey: Machinery Manufacturing April-June 1965. Bulletin No. 1476, 1966.

U.S. Bureau of the Budget. Standard Industrial Classification Manual. 1957 and supplements.

U.S. Bureau of the Census. Annual Survey of Manufactures. 1966 and earlier series for appropriate years.

Census of Manufactures. 1963 and earlier series for appropriate
years.

Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1967. (88th edition.)
Washington, D.C., 1967 and earlier years.

U.S. Congress, Joint Economic Committee. U.S. Economic Growth to 1975: Potentials and Problems. 89th Cong., 2d Sess., 1966. U.S. Office of Business Economics. Business Statistics: 1967. September 1967.

U.S. Senate, Select Committee on Small Business. Hearings on the Role and Effect of Technology in the Nation's Economy. Part 1. 88th Cong., 1st Sess., May 20, 1963.

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MAKE-OR-BUY DECISIONS IN TOOLING
FOR MASS PRODUCTION

Introduction

The economical production of such durable commodities as vehicles, electrical appliances, office machinery, and farm machinery requires that they be manufactured in mass quantities. Such production is possible only through the heavy utilization of "tooling." Tooling, to an important degree, consists of dies, jigs, fixtures, molds, gauges, and specially designed machines. Combined with adequate managerial know-how, a trained labor force, and production-line facilities and techniques, these are the elements which constitute modern mass production. Construction of tooling is big business. The cost of "tooling up" for a model change, depending upon the degree of the change, may reach more than $300 million for an automobile company in a single year, and for a major company is seldom less than $50 million.

While mass production is made possible by tooling, the principal tools themselves cannot be mass produced. They are "custom made." Only one die, or set of dies, for example, is needed for the production of many thousands of automobile fenders or hoods of a given design. Dies for such purposes are fashioned at the cost of thousands of highly-skilled man hours in a shop equipped with costly machines, all under the supervision of expert management. In short, the construction of tooling devices contrasts sharply with the ultimate production of goods made possible by the tooling.

The purpose of this study is to examine the practical economics of the manufacture and utilization of mass-production tooling and to help resolve the question: Should the users of mass-production tooling integrate unto themselves the making of the tools or should the construction of tooling be delegated to outside suppliers?'

'The tools with which this study is especially concerned consist of the following: dies (a die is one of a pair of cutting or shaping tools which, when moved toward each other, produce a certain desired form in, or impress any

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