In all honesty I'll preface this with the absolute fact NCR had some fantastic engineers back in the day of mechanical registers, and precision manufacturing capability to mass produce stamped and machined parts rivaled only by Singer sewing machines. I often wonder if the current population has any understanding that Ford couldn't have mass produced cars without the work Singer perfected before Ford came along.
That said, the mercy of time has allowed me to displace in my mind most of what NCR taught me with information I find valuable. I do still own one of the small machine bags, and several of the metal drawers.
You really need to begin by understanding the NCR top down business method. The people at the top never worked on a machine but they were absolutely sure they knew tyranny and humiliation were perfect management tools. They were also highly annoyed that it cost money to teach field people how a machine functioned.
Add in that most new machines arrived at the user's business only partly assembled, because a complete machine in ready to use condition was in reality fragile. The system of 200 levers, 200+ rods, and multiple racks and pinions was as sensitive as a watch in terms of fit and adjustment, and NOT designed to ride in a truck. Add in that different machines did not really function in anything resembling similarity of design. Corporate BELIEVED registers would be placed where they would live until eternity arrived, and never moved. Then factor in most machines were 100% mechanical. Cashiers had good finger strength to push buttons across 10 rows of numbers, or they didn't last.
In the best of all possible situations, a new supermarket with 10 registers, a setup man might come out to the District to do some of the setup and "train" men from the District on how to set the machine up and service it. Naturally, NCR expected service men to learn this on their own time, after all a fortune had been spent on the man teaching him for 6 months when he started with the company. If Corporate was in a generous mood, manuals for the new machine might have been sent tot he District a month ahead of arrival, so men could study them, on their own time. You had a good job, and you were lucky to be a NCR man was often heard coming from the manager's mouth, AND you had a company car.
On the good side, the test people in manufacturing did beat hell out of some new machines, and had some idea where failures were likely to happen. They even invented field tools, probably based on assembly tools for that model, and sent them to District offices for new models. Some models had a model specific tool kit, 1 per district, sitting in the office, inventoried to the last tool.
The people in manufacturing didn't consider wear, NCR machines were made of the finest material and didn't wear, according to manufacturing. Besides, if the field man was doing his job, lubrication prevented wear. I should mention many of the levers were made of stamped sheet metal with bearings welded to the sheet metal and bent "Perfectly" according to the test fixture in manufacturing.
Now, factor in that every lever, rod, rack and gear in that machine must function and register perfectly 100% of the time a thousand or more times a day. Also factor in that the 2 rows of keys for pennies got 1000 times the use and wear the $10 keys got in an average store. That never occurred to Corporate.
Also add in that the factory setup man had been in Rochester to set up A&P store #**** in 1959, and trained Rochester men how to do it, so Rochester could and would set up all new stores that used the same registers or registers following in that model group without ever again communicating with manufacturing or setup. The people who designed the upgrade could think it up, you should be able to understand it, and don't mention that you only touch that model every few years. You were lucky enough to be hired by NCR, the company has faith in you.
Now, go park that green car 5 rows out from the store, don't forget to load the parts bag for the 26 drawer machine before you leave the office, and stay on that machine until it's perfect, and keep your coat on while you work on it. Don's Burgers is a very high volume business and we don't want anyone to think NCR people aren't professionals. It doesn't matter all 3 machines at Dons back up to the grills and live in a grease laden atmosphere they were never designed for.
Hell yes I can do it, while hanging by my toes keeping my suitcoat perfectly positioned as 20 countermen sling burgers & frys past me. I'll even hold my toolbag in my mouth because there is no place to sit it down. An hour later I'm standing at the pay phone explaining to the District Manager that the part bag doesn't contain 29 new keys and keybrackets, that got wiped out when the new menu board was being installed, and we also might need to completely rebuild the face of the machine too. No, I have no idea how the petrified burger got in the flag assembly either. Maybe you should hop in your green car and ride out here to see the debris.
Sorry if you younger fellows don't understand terms like pay phone.
Interesting. Have precisely 0 minutes available rn to address/look into this, or answer or ask my own questions. But i shall return
