Stephen Mambert was committed exact records cost.
One the most important functions the division
management was estimate the costs producing the product. The disc reproduction operation
was new business that produced 35,000 records day and aimed
to much higher, yet the cost make per disc was not known. Mambert set about changing this
situation financial and organizational reforms, insisting
that Dinwiddie spend his time finding out the costs of
producing the records.
Previously this had been done haphazard manner, not at
all.
Mambert tried install his men and his methods the
disc reproduction division, yet all his attempts were
successfully resisted Dinwiddie, who obviously did not share
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Mambert's enthusiasm for better financial practices.
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The cost disc records was roughly estimated but when a
fraction cent per disc record could alter the balance
between profit and loss, only exact estimate could indicate
whether profit was being made.
One the first divisional policies, which was delivered down
by Edison himself, was make intensive studies costs of
operations each division. Dinwiddie was expert wax moulds and
record manufacture, but faced difficult technical problems
in mass-producing disc records. Mambert
also had little success dealing with Hudson, the division /c
.X-18
few years operation production methods had still not been
perfected and the wartime disruption raw materials made
costs unstable
