Federal-Mogul’s Telecontrol
by Barry Bauer
In the background (back to us) is Don Gilson, Personnel Manager, explaining the Telecontrol machine to Harold Wellman, president of Central National Bank in St. Johns, and Bob Thompson, vice-president.
Seen operating Telecontrol was Doug Knight. This machine was hooked up to most but not all of the production machines and kept track of how many times a machine on the floor cycled. That told them how many pieces of bearings, bushings, or washers they produced each day.
Because more than half of the machines were on F-M’s incentive program, Telecontrol kept track of how many pieces a machine operator produced in one day and how many hours they would be paid. A hard working incentive employee might make 16 hours pay on a given day.
The incentive program was eventually phased out due to a major push toward producing parts with tighter tolerances versus the number of parts produced. Today’s engines and transmission last much longer than their earlier counterparts.
Note: Doug enjoyed his cigars but in later years Federal-Mogul banned smoking on the job. They did have a designated smoking room upstairs over the Tool Crib.