Modern Mechanical Engineering Vol-I

32

DRAWING-OFFICE ORGANIZATION

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Now these lists will have been made up early in the job on foolscap sheets
for the sake of ordering material, and long before the drawings are completed.
In such cases it is only necessary to hand these in to the tracing room and
have them incorporated in the drawing, indicating only the place and list
it is desired to have traced in.

Correspondence.—There is an amazing amount of correspondence
passing through the drawing office, much of which does not materially
affect the drawing-office work, but which the draughtsmen should see for
purposes of information. Unless the correspondence is kept in a very
orderly method, hopeless confusion is likely to arise. It is necessary to be
able to lay hands on particular letters at a moment's notice, as these letters
may contain the records of decisions arrived at in a very early stage of the
contract, and which it may be important to know and appreciate at a much
later period. Only copies of letters should be retained in the drawing-
office files; the originals of all incoming letters should be retained in the
typists' room or in a general reference room. Copies of incoming letters
should be kept on differently coloured paper from that of copies of outgoing
letters. A good practice is to have the former copied on thin white sheets,
and the latter on thin yellow sheets. All these sheets should be of the same
size, and a stamp in each case put at the top, giving necessary information
of the process of circulation or designation.

The white incoming letters have a stamp at the top,' such as:

Copy to: W.M., D.E., D.O., B.S.
Referred to: D.O.
Answered by: F.K.
Ref.—FK/JAD.

and the outgoing letters:

Copy to: W.M., CH., D.O.
Ref.—FK/JAD.

The letters sent out the previous evening are generally available for cir-
culation in the morning. Of course the originals, probably signed or
initialled by the chief draughtsman, would be checked by him before being
sent off, so that there is no need for him to peruse these letters, but he should
read letters which are sent out by other departments. Having finished
looking over the daily file, he will pas^ it out to the assistant chief, who will
assort them under their respective job numbers and subject-matter, and
give them to the appropriate section leaders. The case of incoming letters
demands a little closer scrutiny for any new points of importance which will