C&T Publications REVOLUTIONS Mad BomberZ Car Show - August 2015 | Page 42

Computers and Car
Parts:
Finding what you need has never
been easier
(BPT) - Not that long ago a
typewriter was the best tool for
recording data and libraries kept
track of books with index cards
packed into wooden drawers.

Obviously computers have improved productivity by letting people manipulate data faster. But have you ever
considered all the physical, hold-in-your-hands things that would not exist today without computers?
Engineering and manufacturing would certainly be slower and harder, but there would simply have to be
fewer things if people were still using index cards to keep track of them.
The auto parts industry is a great example. In the early 1900s, traveling auto parts salesmen could take trains to visit customers
because the parts they were selling fit in suitcases. But by the 1930s, some auto parts retailers had paper catalogs with over 100
pages!
By the 1950s, the auto industry was creaking under the weight of too many car models and parts and was badly in need of
computers. "If computers had come along sooner, we might still have Packards and Studebakers," says RockAuto.com vice president
Tom Taylor. "The complexity of building low volume cars with low volume parts was just too expensive back then."
Every year the auto parts industry has to make new parts for new cars while still making parts for older cars. There is an evergrowing inventory of parts to keep track of, and a growing record of which cars the parts fit. Compared to now, the data in the 1960s
was still relatively simple. "A handful of shock absorber part numbers took care of most American brand cars of that era," says
Taylor. "A 6,000 s ]X\