LEO
The Second World War had seen significant developments towards producing the computer. The EDVAC paper and the Moore school lectures had helped to distribute the knowledge of the logical architecture that is still used today. (input, output, memory, control, Arithmatic unit). However the initial implementations of computers such as the Manchester baby computer, EDSAC at Cambridge and the eventually completed EDVAC were produced as scientific computers for a scientific market that was expected to perhaps support 12 machines in the entire world.
Businesses such as Prudential, on both sides of the Atlantic and Lyons catering firm had developed sophisticated organisational processes with the support of office machinery such as typewriters, calculating machines and of course tabulating machines produced by Rand, IBM and their UK equivalents. Tabulation was used to speed up data processing and significant sales of IBM tabulating machines would continue well into the 60s and the business machine companies would follow a relatively evolutionary approach to computers by integrating micro electronics into their existing machines as indicated by the development of the Harvard Mark 1 which used a significant number of standard IBM parts.
Lyons in Britain were well known for their tea shops and corner houses and could be seen as a fore runner to the fast food chains that we see today. To improve operations they had created an operations department to look into new technologies that could be utilised for further improvements as the organisational structure had already reached a point where it was difficult to make further improvements. In 1947 two Lyons engineers, Thompson and Standingford, visited the US on a regular tour to compare and investigate new business practices and came across the current computing developments of the time such as ENIAC and the newly formed company formed by Eckert and Mauchly who would eventually produce the UNIVAC computers. Additionally they came across the tabulating companies who planned to integrate electronics into their existing products.
On their return from the US they provided several options to the Lyons board: to invest in the EDSAC machine in Cambridge, which they had found out about in America; approach an electrical firm, a number of electrical firms would enter the computing business; or develop the computer themselves. Lyons had independent culture, for instance growing their own tea and perhaps this was the trigger for why in 1959 the board gave the go ahead to begin developing their own computer, the LEO. There were a number of reasons for their decision where some were rational whilst others less so. The number of clerks required for information processing had continued to rise whilst the appeal of the job had decreased and this had led to wage rises so costs could be avoided. Currently scientific computers were unsuitable to the large scale data processing and developing a computer themselves would allow them to influence the design to suit their needs and get a first mover advantage over their competitors. The less rational reasons were for the prestige of being at the fore front and the lure of electronics.
To learn about computers an investment was made in the EDSAC computer with the understanding that a Lyons engineer would visit to gain skills. It is interesting at this point to compare the generally planned approach of the LEO development from an established business to the development of UNIVAC in the US where Eckert and Mauchly were often extremely optimistic and regularly ran into financial problems and often had to make short term decisions.
In 1951 the machine ran the first ever business task to calculate the values of bakery products however further work was necessary to prepare the machine for large scale data processing where a large memory would be necessary and peripherals developed input and output data on a large scale. It would take until 1954 for the first large scale business application to be run, which was also a world first, and involved processing of payroll data for over a 1000 employees. As opposed to the development of scientific computers reliability was critical as if the computer fails then employees theoretically would not get paid and thus Lyons adopted a number of processes to limit the risk.
Firstly a business analysis would occur to identify processing tasks that were suitable to be run on the computer and additionally the number of clerks that could be saved. During the development and implementation of LEO there were no specific redundancies as labour turnover was high and generally employees could be moved elsewhere. Shadow staff teams were used to initially produce comparative results and then as a backup system in case the machine failed. Shadow teams would eventually be replaced by a second computer. Additionally maintenance procedures were run each morning to test the computer at extreme conditions to minimise the number of mechanical faults although these still occurred at a rate of 2 or 3 a week.
Employees working on the machine could be split into three groups. Programmers who developed the programs to be run, made modifications and corrected initial errors, the operating employees who controlled the running of the machine and the engineers for maintenance. The LEO computer was used to run additional tasks to payroll such as processing orders for ice cream and provided additional business benefits such as allowing orders to be changed much later than previously possible. Additionally Sundays were generally reserved for non Lyons applications where the machine time was sold to other organisations such as the UK department of Ford who used the machine for payroll calculations and additionally for providing tables for scientific tasks which the machine was still suitable to.
In late 1954 the LEO computing company was formed and would produce a number of different models that were sold to other businesses. The LEO III would incorporate transistors as a second generation computer in 1958 however in 1963 a surprise merger occurred with English Electric and by 1964 Lyons had sold their remaining interest. It was a surprise due to the secretive nature of the deal and additionally LEO computers had always concentrated on business processes whilst English Electric was much more focused on technical problems and thus there were culture clashes resulting from the merger. LEO computers would remain in production until 1967 and the last LEO computer was taken out of service in 1981 at the Post Office.
Its a bit rushed since I've tried to write it mostly from recall.
The Second World War had seen significant developments towards producing the computer. The EDVAC paper and the Moore school lectures had helped to distribute the knowledge of the logical architecture that is still used today. (input, output, memory, control, Arithmatic unit). However the initial implementations of computers such as the Manchester baby computer, EDSAC at Cambridge and the eventually completed EDVAC were produced as scientific computers for a scientific market that was expected to perhaps support 12 machines in the entire world.
Businesses such as Prudential, on both sides of the Atlantic and Lyons catering firm had developed sophisticated organisational processes with the support of office machinery such as typewriters, calculating machines and of course tabulating machines produced by Rand, IBM and their UK equivalents. Tabulation was used to speed up data processing and significant sales of IBM tabulating machines would continue well into the 60s and the business machine companies would follow a relatively evolutionary approach to computers by integrating micro electronics into their existing machines as indicated by the development of the Harvard Mark 1 which used a significant number of standard IBM parts.
Lyons in Britain were well known for their tea shops and corner houses and could be seen as a fore runner to the fast food chains that we see today. To improve operations they had created an operations department to look into new technologies that could be utilised for further improvements as the organisational structure had already reached a point where it was difficult to make further improvements. In 1947 two Lyons engineers, Thompson and Standingford, visited the US on a regular tour to compare and investigate new business practices and came across the current computing developments of the time such as ENIAC and the newly formed company formed by Eckert and Mauchly who would eventually produce the UNIVAC computers. Additionally they came across the tabulating companies who planned to integrate electronics into their existing products.
On their return from the US they provided several options to the Lyons board: to invest in the EDSAC machine in Cambridge, which they had found out about in America; approach an electrical firm, a number of electrical firms would enter the computing business; or develop the computer themselves. Lyons had independent culture, for instance growing their own tea and perhaps this was the trigger for why in 1959 the board gave the go ahead to begin developing their own computer, the LEO. There were a number of reasons for their decision where some were rational whilst others less so. The number of clerks required for information processing had continued to rise whilst the appeal of the job had decreased and this had led to wage rises so costs could be avoided. Currently scientific computers were unsuitable to the large scale data processing and developing a computer themselves would allow them to influence the design to suit their needs and get a first mover advantage over their competitors. The less rational reasons were for the prestige of being at the fore front and the lure of electronics.
To learn about computers an investment was made in the EDSAC computer with the understanding that a Lyons engineer would visit to gain skills. It is interesting at this point to compare the generally planned approach of the LEO development from an established business to the development of UNIVAC in the US where Eckert and Mauchly were often extremely optimistic and regularly ran into financial problems and often had to make short term decisions.
In 1951 the machine ran the first ever business task to calculate the values of bakery products however further work was necessary to prepare the machine for large scale data processing where a large memory would be necessary and peripherals developed input and output data on a large scale. It would take until 1954 for the first large scale business application to be run, which was also a world first, and involved processing of payroll data for over a 1000 employees. As opposed to the development of scientific computers reliability was critical as if the computer fails then employees theoretically would not get paid and thus Lyons adopted a number of processes to limit the risk.
Firstly a business analysis would occur to identify processing tasks that were suitable to be run on the computer and additionally the number of clerks that could be saved. During the development and implementation of LEO there were no specific redundancies as labour turnover was high and generally employees could be moved elsewhere. Shadow staff teams were used to initially produce comparative results and then as a backup system in case the machine failed. Shadow teams would eventually be replaced by a second computer. Additionally maintenance procedures were run each morning to test the computer at extreme conditions to minimise the number of mechanical faults although these still occurred at a rate of 2 or 3 a week.
Employees working on the machine could be split into three groups. Programmers who developed the programs to be run, made modifications and corrected initial errors, the operating employees who controlled the running of the machine and the engineers for maintenance. The LEO computer was used to run additional tasks to payroll such as processing orders for ice cream and provided additional business benefits such as allowing orders to be changed much later than previously possible. Additionally Sundays were generally reserved for non Lyons applications where the machine time was sold to other organisations such as the UK department of Ford who used the machine for payroll calculations and additionally for providing tables for scientific tasks which the machine was still suitable to.
In late 1954 the LEO computing company was formed and would produce a number of different models that were sold to other businesses. The LEO III would incorporate transistors as a second generation computer in 1958 however in 1963 a surprise merger occurred with English Electric and by 1964 Lyons had sold their remaining interest. It was a surprise due to the secretive nature of the deal and additionally LEO computers had always concentrated on business processes whilst English Electric was much more focused on technical problems and thus there were culture clashes resulting from the merger. LEO computers would remain in production until 1967 and the last LEO computer was taken out of service in 1981 at the Post Office.
Its a bit rushed since I've tried to write it mostly from recall.
