Page 4 - Swindon Line Monitoring

Remembering ISTEL - Memories of Swindon Line Monitoring - Rogan Meadows

Press Line Monitoring – the original system development, 1976 – 1978.

I left Solihull in 1976 to join a team based in the Swindon Pressing Plant. Most of that early team
were from the Oxford area and we had an allocated “team” vehicle to do the daily run between Oxford
and Swindon. The vehicle, a Maxi, came out of the Swindon garage car pool. The team was headed
up by Mike Grant (AKA The Guv.) who reported to Mike Grice. As well as myself, the team comprised
Cliff Shuker, Adrian Faulkner, John Snook, Roger Gray and a couple of Swindon staff supplying their
knowledge of press shop planning.

Adrian became the team driver and picked up myself from Oxford, Cliff Shuker from Garsington and
John Snook from Grove and returned us on a daily basis. This worked well until the Friday late
evening when Adrian took the car in to Cowley Pressings plant to refuel ready for the next week.
Cowley Security recognised the car as a Swindon plant car and arrested Adrian on suspicion of
illegal use. As it was late there was no one in the Swindon garage to vouch for Adrians’ possession
of the car and it took some time to obtain the necessary authorisation for his release.

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Our work area at Swindon was on the 1 floor, inside with no windows, directly above a die
manufacturing heat treatment area. In 1976 it was a hot summer, and we took towels in to work to
sit on our plastic chairs. Our first task was to carry out a series of presentations to all workers, staff
and managers explaining how the system would work, what it would do, what the benefits were and
what savings would be made, including some roles that would become redundant (not a popular
concept in those strong union days!).

Additionally, because each press stroke was detected, the computer knew when and for how long
each press was idle. The relevant foreman’s job was to account for non-activity. Each would use a
ruggedised Visual Display Units (RVDU) capable of existing in a large press shop environment, with
keyboards used by gloved foremen. VDUs were unheard of back then, so we had to explain in our
presentations that they had a TV type screen and typewriter style, simplified, keyboard - only keys
for numbers 0 to 9. Each RVDU had a processor housed in a substantial metal box with its own air
con built in. At the time of installation we used the Maxi to deliver each VDU to the relevant area in
the press shop, dodging the fork lift trucks and slings of coiled metal and ignoring the shouts of “you
can’t bring that in here”

Visual Display Units - Emerging technology in the 1970s

Page: 4 Remembering ISTEL