Lyons Electronic

 the trouble with computers is that they're usually right there's nothing like them for making mere humans feel inadequate this one can add or subtract about 300000 large numbers a second it could sort several hundred thousand customers from say alphabetical order like this to numerical order like this in a few hours it prints out accounts by the thousand every month checks its own mistakes and even those of its engineers very impressive very humiliating if you think that it's a sort of electronic monster which has enslaved a lot of people in the accounts office and will eventually take over all your lives it's about time we cut it down to size a computer's great assets are speed and accuracy it does precisely what it's told and nothing else it cannot think for itself its thinking and its orders come from the programmers but let's start at the beginning take a large well-known british company but have a computer in their account center in manchester out of 39 order offices throughout the country let's take just one handles about 3 000 orders a week for gases and equipment in this case but it's a similar story whatever you're making and selling seven people whose job has nothing to do with computers on the face of it have compiled this information most of which the computer must take on trust so every detail of this transaction has been reduced to numbers the computer's own language now it's converted into a form which the computer can read punched tape this is the last human process before the data is given to the computervbecause it's so important it's donevtwicevthe second girl checking the tapevproduced by the firstvto complete the picture thevv computer needs to know what cash has been received from customers it all comes here eventually details of all the transactions involving hundreds of thousands of customers are recorded on these magnetic tapes and turned over by the computer every day the computer earns its heat in two ways every month it churns out 80 000 invoices computing them from the accumulated data on each customer's account the computer has made it possible for this company to change from daily invoicing which is some 300 000 a month plus statements to a combined monthly invoice statement among many other savings is the impressive one of forty thousand pounds a year on postage alone the computer's other job is this these figures which means so little to you and me are vital to those who run any large company it's likely that with many companies 10 of the details which are going into the computer on a tape like this contain errors 10 percent quite a thought isn't it when you consider all the work that's gone into it and don't forget that some errors are bound to be spotted before they get this far if the computer is so good at spotting errors why  in this case a whole department is employed entirely on chasing up each error finding the right facts and preparing them for resubmission to the computer and then they may have to wait because the computer is doing something else this causes delays in sending out accounts and costs money every error costs money check that part number the computer knows them all so you can't fool it only waste its time remember that the computer cannot think for itself it expects us to stick to the rules remember how much money is being spent making corrections and think how everyone could benefit if your company could save it