On Sun, 5 Nov 2006 11:51:52 -0600, "Morris Dovey"
wrote:

That's amazing given that "high-speed" reel-to-reel paper tape readers
and very much faster paper tape punches were in common use by that
time. Even the fairly primitive (no RAM and no semiconductors)
pre-FORTRAN Bendix G-15 came equipped with both of these paper tape
devices - and even then there was a mag tape option. I'd have expected
better of Lockheed.

I suspect it's a training issue- we've still got programs on magnetic
cassette tapes at work. My machines use 3.25" floppies (still old,
IMO- I'd like to see them all networked), but all the breaks have the
old FANUC cassette readers.

They could change them, sure- but that would require more than just
retooling. It would also require retraining the operators to use a
new interface and storage medium as well. Judging by the general lack
of computer skills that is still fairly common even today, that could
add up to a lot of downtime and botched parts. The guy on first shift
has been running one my machines for seven years, and he *still*
doesn't know that he can reorder the list of programs in the office to
put them in ascending order, and wastes a lot of time scrolling
through huge lists of part numbers to find what he needs.

Heck, there was even a paper tape reader on a machining center in the
place I worked at in 2003. Nobody knew how to use it anymore, so we'd
program it via the controller, but it was there.

Then again, I don't know that much about Lockheed- it could be that
you're right, and they are generally more on the ball than that.