by AlanHomes » Thu Aug 04, 2022 3:40 pm
I still use a filing cabinet that is eight feet in length, sits about three feet off the floor, has an open top with 8x10 cards, each card has a part number. As stock is depleted, the handwritten invoice is put into a basket, someone on a rolling chair makes adjustments on the corresponding inventory card. If stock shows it's at a reorder point, a yellow metal tab is placed on top of the card, if it has run down to zero, a red metal tab is placed on top of the card.
Back in high school, working in the New Car department after school, there was an "AutoPen", we called it a scripto. In another building where the sales office was a pad on a metal base with a pen that was attached to a mechanical arm. The same pad and mechanical arm was in the New Car shop. Whatever was written on the pad would duplicate in the New Car shop. Date, stock number, yes or no to undercoat, color, vehicle type etc. Even if someone wrote rude comments it would duplicate on the opposite end. It did not matter, whatever was scribbled out on one end would show up on the other end. I think it used a dedicated phone line.
Also remember in the sales office the fax cylinder that the user would place the phone handset onto a cradle, put the carbon paper and clean paper into the cylinder and it would spin round and round. Cool stuff.