Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JUNE 23, 1923
11
CONDUCTBDBY WILLIAM
THE QUESTION OF BETTER ECONOMIC METHODS
AS APPLIED TO THE PRODUCTION OF PIANOS
The Reasons Which Underlie the Non-Progressive Attitude Found So Widely in the Piano Indus-
try, Due Largely to the Complicated Problems Which Confront the Manufacturer in
Carrying the Dealer—The Practical Objectives of Wider Standardization
In some recent articles I have been pointing
out how the piano industry can do something
for its future economic security by undertaking
to simplify and revise its factory processes. In
order, however, to prevent misunderstanding I
ought to point out that there are two possible
ways of looking at the whole question of fac-
tory methods. There are two kinds of manu-
facturing, one producing for the largest poten-
tial market and the other based directly on the
highest possible quality, produced at a price
which necessarily follows and which, of course,
limits the possible sale.
It is hardly worth while considering improved
methods for doing things inside the factories,
unless we first draw a sharp distinction be-
tween these two classes and make sure which
is being followed in any particular case.
The Largest Possible Sale
The frankly commercial piano is, of course, a
piano put out by a person or a group of persons
with the idea that at some given predetermined
price it can successfully be distributed through
the retail trade in a large enough aggregate
quantity to assure a good aggregate profit to the
manufacturing group. This sort of piano must
be built as good as possible within the price
range set. Even then the selling methods adopt-
ed may be sufficiently superior to those used by
rivals to give the manufacturer a hold upon the
retail trade which the instrument could not ob-
tain by its quality alone, which is governed by
the price range.
The greater number of our piano manufac-
turers are interested, really and seriously, in
methods of improved shop practice, using that
term in the right sense, as meaning practice
calculated to reduce waste, lower cost and im-
prove quality. Most piano manufacturers are
really personally proud of their pianos and like
to think of them as worthy musical instruments
with characteristics all their own, entitling them
to public approbation upon their intrinsic mer-
its. Not all manufacturers pretend to claim
kinship with the highest representatives of the
art, but most of them can and do rightly claim
that they make something which, within a cer-
tain price limit, is characteristic, individually
worth while and meritorious. It would, of
course, be much better if there were no such
thing as working within price limits; but, so
long as this limitation does exist, we must take
account of it. We may, therefore, say that it is
worth while to consider improvements in shop
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though piano distribution is stressed almost ex-
clusively on the banking, merchandising side,
the production side is capable of strides towards
greater improvement which would tend to re-
store the balance between the two aspects of
the business in a manner much to be desired.
The piano manufacturer, as many practical men
often forget, is compelled, in the nature of the
case with which he has to deal, to be a banker
quite as much as a fabricator. He often has to
give actually more of his time to devising meth-
ods for "carrying" the dealers who distribute his
goods to the ultimate consumer than to devis-
ing ways and means for improving his factory.
It is this wholly lopsided state of affairs which
is responsible for so many of the peculiarities
of the piano business, particularly in respect of
manufacturers' attitude towards suggestions of
an engineering nature. I have heard it remarked
by an eminent engineer that, until he became ac-
quainted with piano and player manufacturers,
he had never encountered an industry which re-
pelled suggestions for improvement and even
seemed to take them as personal affronts. It
is, of course, possible that deeper analysis of
the piano industry would demonstrate the im-
possibility of ever making the merchandising
side merely equal in importance to the manu-
facturing side. But, until this has been proved
to my satisfaction at least, I shall continue to
urge that the factory is the most neglected ele-
ment in the piano business and that opportunity
after opportunity for the prevention of waste
and the improvement of quality is being thrown
away, all for lack of taste and knowledge ade-
quate to frame judgments as to the actual grade
and efficiency of the instruments being turned
out.
practice or in design for the benefit of those
who, within the limitations described, make pi-
anos for use, that is to say, with a view to
satisfying their ultimate consumer.
Honest, but Uncritical
Now, the typical piano of this grade is being
made to-day in factories which have been de-
signed specially to facilitate the transport of
material from department to department and to
avoid back-routing of goods which are passing
through the factory in process of assembly. It
is an instrument the makers of which really
would like to have the best thing of its kind and
who are genuinely interested in improvements
which will give them some intrinsic superiority
in some feature or features over their competi-
tors. They do actually prefer quality and do
want their names on goods of which they can
be proud. Unfortunately, however, they too
often fail to see that improvements in process
ought to be directed as much towards elevating
quality as towards reducing cost. In a word,
the typical manufacturer of this class is anx-
ious to have the best, but he lacks the power to
impose critical standards upon his judgment of
his product. He is too easily satisfied and is
easily self-hypnotized into the belief that the
article he is turning out is much better than it
actually is seen to be upon analysis. It is this
easy complacency which, more than anything
else, makes it hard to effect improvements in
It would be a fitting crown to many years of
piano making.
labor in this field to feel that some day the big
During the convention recently held in Chi- piano manufacturers would realize that the sim-
cago a large number of pianos was put on dis- plest and most effective sales help is a quality
play, including several of new design and even instrument, one which will please alike the
of new construction. Yet I am bound to say dealer, the tuner and the ultimate consumer. I
that scarcely one showed that its makers had am perfectly well aware that in modern condi-
any conception of the possibility of developing
(Continucd on page 12)
piano tone any further than it has been devel-
oped already, or any belief that there really is
anything to be learned new in the art of piano
making, at least of a practical nature, which
might be applied in existing factories. It is the
More profits for you
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How to
ders the advance of the manufacturing art in
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Cause of Non-progressive Attitude
copy, on your firm stationery, or send name of
firm, otherwise enclose ten cents to cover
The point that I should like to impress upon
postage.
all these manufacturers, then, is that the art
Write
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