Modern Mechanical Engineering Vol-I

20 DRAWING-OFFICE ORGANIZATION
difficulties that may arise in the execution of the work. Most large firms
have a daily council of heads of departments, where ideas are interchanged
and matters concerning two or more departments can be discussed.
Office Correspondence.—The chief draughtsman will be responsible
for the office correspondence. It is usual for him either to consult the section
leader or to get him to draft a suitable reply to a letter in which a number
of details are considered. He is also responsible for the issue of all draw-
ings and order-sheets. His own order clerk looks after this work. He
keeps a registry of drawings and orders issued, and sees them through into
their respective shops or to the dispatch clerk. The order clerk usually
keeps the chief draughtsman's books and carries any instructions or messages
he may have to give. The chief draughtsman in a large office keeps a typist
for his own particular correspondence. This typist generally does the
filing of correspondence and keeps the indexes up to date.
General Procedure.—The drawing office must keep in touch with the
foremen and erection engineers. The normal procedure is for foremen,
inspectors, or sub-contractors who wish to elucidate any point or who desire
an alteration to suit shop practice or purchaser's usual requirements, to go
in the first instance to the chief draughtsman, who will probably send them
on to the man in charge of the job. It is very desirable that this procedure
be followed out, so that the chief draughtsman may be thoroughly conversant
with any change made during the progress of the work in the office. This
procedure eliminates as far as possible controversy at the conclusion of the
contract, and mistakes which may arise from departments not knowing
of changes made which may affect them.
Assistant Chief Draughtsman.—The work of the assistant chief
draughtsman is to be reasonably familiar with the correspondence and the
general duties of the chief. He is expected to concentrate his attention on
the technical aspect of the work, and it is for him to interpret carefully the
intentions of the design office. Drawings going out of the office should be
scrutinized by him generally to see that the terms of the specification are
complied with and that they correspond with the original designs.
Section Leaders.—The section leaders have charge of one or perhaps
several jobs, and work with several juniors under them. The section leader,
who is generally his own checker, gives out the work to the juniors, and
generally superintends the drawings on the boards, and does a considerable
amount of the drawing himself. Having given a drawing to a particular
man, he guides him generally, and when the drawing is finished it is taken
off the board and carefully checked. The process of checking is one of the
most difficult and harassing parts of an experienced draughtsman's duties,
as he has to watch the specification very carefully, to see that the general
dimensions correspond to the design or guidance drawings, and to assure
himself that the various detailed sizes correspond to those on other detailed
drawings. Every pipe and valve-flange on drawings and on order-sheets
must be individually checked. This is no small matter when it is stated
that in the machinery pipe arrangement alone of an intermediate liner of