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Soho Foundry is a factory created in 1795 by Matthew Boulton and James Watt and their sons Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt Jr. at Smethwick, West Midlands, England (), for the manufacture of . Now owned by Avery Weigh-Tronix, it is used for the manufacturing of Weighing scale.
The early history of the Soho Foundry is of pivotal importance both to the history of the Industrial Revolution and to the study of the development of management theory. The Soho Foundry stood out from other factories of the day in the sophistication of its planning, its production processes and its management techniques; practising concepts that would not become commonplace until a century later. Comparing its workings to the techniques of mass production and scientific management made famous by Henry Ford and Frederick Winslow Taylor in the United States in the early 20th century, the economist Eric Roll wrote "Neither Taylor, Ford nor any other modern experts devised anything in the way of plan that cannot be discovered at Soho before 1805".
The accounting procedures of the foundry bore a striking similarity to modern processes, with each of the three main operating departments - the foundry which made cast iron parts, the Forge which made wrought iron parts, and the Machinist which machined the parts and assembled them together - being operated as separate .
The Soho Foundry was also innovative in the field of personnel management, setting up executive development programmes, Sick leave schemes and welfare spending programmes.
In 1857 the screw engines for the steamship SS Great Eastern were built at the foundry. In 1860 a new mint was started at the Foundry, the Manufactory having closed in April 1850 by Matthew's grandson, Matthew Piers Watt Boulton.
In 1861 tests were performed at the Soho Foundry for the London Pneumatic Despatch Company.
In 1895 W & T Avery Ltd. acquired the Foundry as a going concern.
In 1912, the manager of the company William Edward Hipkins, died at the sinking of Titanic while he was travelling as a first class passenger. He was 55 and his body was not recovered.
There was a small museum there, open only by appointment, but is now closed.
The grade II listed Pooley gates, of cast iron, are marked with "a Liver bird above ropework draped with cloth, flanked by nautical symbols including oars, flags and bugles, ships' wheels and intersecting dolphins". A plaque reads: "These gates were cast by Henry Pooley and Son about 1840 for the Sailors' Home, Liverpool. The Avery and Pooley Foundries were amalgamated in 1931". There was an active campaign to return these gates to Liverpool, resulting in the approval by Sandwell Council in March 2011 of an application to return them. After restoration the gates were returned to Liverpool on 8 August 2011 and were re-erected under the name "The Sailors Home Gateway" in the pedestrian section of Paradise Street in Liverpool One, close to the original site of the Sailors' Home. BBC News - return of gates LiverpoolConfidential.com - return of gates
The building is a Grade II* listed building. The gates and adjacent canal bridge are Grade II listed.
The oldest working steam engine, built here, is the Smethwick Engine built to recover water used in the nearby canal locks at Smethwick Summit, and now in Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum.
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