Fun Ho! History

Fun Ho! Toys > Fun Ho! History > Home > Fashioning Fun Ho! Toys > Assembly, Preparation, Packaging and Quality Control

Assembly, Preparation, Packaging and Quality Control

Bernadine, or Benna as she was always known, enjoyed working with Fun Ho! Toys; after a lifetime of working amongst them, she "knew" each toy in detail.

The toys were each known by their number and the mere mention of a '105 ladder' or a '536' cab, conjured up a precise picture in Benna's mind, which would then race on through all the many assembly processes, rivets, washers, springs, their sizes and shapes and what to do if something had been missed out. Or if a toy hadn't been fettled properly, or a hole forgotten to be 'run'; or if the paint work was 'bubbled' or 'peely', any of which would cause it to become a 'second' or worse still, a 'reject' it was carefully examined.

This might give her leave to return it in person to the delinquent operator, flicking it on to his bench in disdain, the while castigating him roundly , face to face, eye to eye, and using just the right and proper level of adjectives, tone, and body language that the hapless worker deserved, according to his seniority, (or lack of it) and his ability and experience in that particular area!

Benna relished the responsibility of quality assurance that was hers, and woe betide any who would dare to question her experienced and justified rebuke!

The same mistake was rarely repeated, and for her part, Benna always reverted to her usual happy self immediately.

Any accidental chip in the paint would be spotted and expertly touched up in a trice with matching lacquer. Difficult parts of each toy were well known along with a special technique to rectify it.

Her deep knowledge of all models were used to good advantage for some 38 years. Wheel sizes, rivets, axle lengths etc were all neatly kept in an exercise book, and checked with Arthur's similar book regularly. But in spite of this, these two veteran staff members knew them all by heart and it was delightful to listen to them discussing alternatives and the pros and cons, especially if the Purchasing officer had run short of a particular size of anything.

Each product had a particular place for a transfer or sticker to be affixed, and this was another of Benna's responsibilities, which was carried out with due feminine efficiency and alacrity.

As each wheeled toy was checked and suitably decorated, with unerring accuracy, Benna would 'run' each toy forward and backwards on her table with one flowing motion born of long experience. This test guaranteed that all four wheels were operating freely and that there were no ' three -wheelers'. In fact it was almost unknown for toys to be returned 'faulty' , and nothing was either missing or superfluous.

Following this final quality check the product was placed precisely on a sheet of newspaper, and wrapped up with a flourish that any worthy fish and chip operator would envy.

Finally placed in a regular Fun Ho! box, suitably described and ticked off from the current production run sheet, ('for office use only', which was then sent to the office for checking and invoicing,) the packed box was quickly transferred to the despatch department.







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