1909 Fiat Tipo 2
In this year the company existed already 10 years. Its development was almost indescribable. It basically started with two types and a factory on an area of 10,000 m2. The had now increased tenfold, without
even counting certain parts of the bodywork.
One started with around 150 employees. Their number rose to 4,000. In 1909 alone, more than 1,800 cars and around 40 trucks were produced, compared to more than 80 in 1908. But that also changed drastically until Italy
entered the war in 1915.
Engines were produced for vehicles from 7.3 kW (10 hp) to 147 kW (200 hp), and for ships up to 735 kW (1,000 hp). Armaments, including submarines were also manufactured. The vehicles have been divided into types
since 1908, i.e. initially Tipo 1 to 7, which with their new introduction replaced the previously usual classification according to HP or PS.
Much more than that, for the industrial production that prevailed at the beginning of the century, the entire company seemed to be rationalized. The three main works in Turin alone made a respectable impression. There
were also branches all over Italy and also in New York, London, Vienna and, for example, South America.
Prizes were awarded early on for the quality of the automobiles. Parts of the quality level were also achieved through our own subcontractors, e.g. a factory for ball bearings, 80 km from Turin, whose products were apparently
so good that they were also exported.
This was also an indication of the amount of training that had been provided to the employees. Of course, a considerable amount of machinery had also been added over the years. Today, Toyota is still credited with making
great progress in finding and correcting production errors, but Fiat was probably successful with this much earlier.
The only thing you miss when you look into the factory halls, despite the orderliness, is assembly line production, but this was implemented at Ford in the USA not before 1913. We have already noted this with the designs,
but Fiat's observation also ensured that the rationalization was not left behind the world standard.
The introduction of the cardan drive was largely behind them. Now it was time to merge the two engine blocks. They were logically called monoblocks and one initially stayed with four-cylinder engines. These were still
denied to the Tipo 2 above.
| 
