Simplification's Boons to Purchasing Agents

T HERE was once a chief executive who was afraid his purchasing agent would standardize the styles of women's clothes. He didn't know that has long since been accomplished. There are many people who still believe that standardization takes all the joy, beauty and individual selfexpression out of life. Those people forget that everything God creates is standardized. Every tree, dog and man must meet divine specifications-and yet no two individual instances are ever alike. Without so much standardization of design there would be no digestion, no propagation, no medicine, no speech, no thought, no existence. In the manufacturing and commercial world there are many benefits to be derived from further simplification, so that men in identical situations can speak the same language and doctor their identical ills with the same castor oil. Some of these benefits are already being realized in a partial way. These can be expanded to greater service and others begun and developed. A vast number of purchasers would benefit from greater service or use which would be derived from simplified articles. For example, office desks are a horrible example of the need for simplification. Most concerns buy desks from time to time as need arises. When business changes require rearrangement of desks in offices, attempts are frequently made to regroup desks in sets to minimize aisle space. At such times it is usually found that the desks are not of uniform height and that desks of a given length are of varying width. The result looks like a terraced garden. At the request of the purchaser of a large life insurance company the National Association of Purchasing Agents recently asked Ray M. Hudson, Assistant Director, Bureau of Standards, to call a conference of manufacturers, distributors and users of desks to discuss the simplification of desk sizes. Several such conferences were held, but it was not possible to get manufacturers and distributors to agree on dimensions which would be mutually satisfactory. This was most disappointing to the Association

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