ROLL 1
100 ft


ms pan jackets to tailors and customers



ms customers (two shots)



cu attache case opened - measuring equipment inside



ms tailor measures (5 shots)



ca man writes down figs (incut with measuring shots)



sv computer programmer girl at work (2 shots)



cu carriage



ms pan computer card decoder to printout



ms spool turns



ms tape puncher in operation (thus transferring information from index card to tape which then fed to decoder beside cutting machine) (2 shots)



ws men pull paper over cloth on cutting table (white base is foam rubber)



cu tilt tape decoder



cu cutter blade operating -- checking



ms operator screws cover back over blade



cu start button pushed



ws cutter in operation



cu ditto (two shots) (very difficult to maintain focus here)



ws cutter ditto



ROLL 2
30 ft


ms paper pulled off material



ms waste material separated from cut cloth



cu wastage in operator's hands



ws cut panels pan to tailor checks against customer - N/G



ws ditto -- OK



??? cu tilt smiling customer.




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: To all appearances, this is a normal tailor's shop in Tokyo's Kanda district. But with the first measurement, the customer should sense there's something different.

This is, in fact, the most advanced tailors shop in Japan. In just twelve minutes they can measure and cut a man's with, backed up by the resources of a computer.

With a new technique and equipment, the measuring takes five minutes. The order shoot, detailing the measurements, style and material goes to a computer programmer.

The information i punched onto tape and them onto a card which is kept on index for future orders. The tape relays information to the working component -- an automatic fabric cutting system.

In just a little more than three minutes, this machine cuts out the entire suit, whipping from one panel to another and smoothly rounding the curves. The high-speed cutter blade works at 2,500 strokes a minute.

The material -- covered by a sheet of paper to help suction -- is held to the table by a vacuum pump.

The only drawback to this new system is that the panels must then be stitched together on a sewing machine. But the owners, the Central textile Industrial Company, says the advantages far outweigh this problem.

They say, for instance, that customer complaints about poorly cut suits have been reduced 25 percent to just point-three percent. while wastage from left-over material has been drastically reduced.

But not every tailor can afford this 52,000 sterling assistant. The Central Textile Industrial Company has reached annual sales of two and a half million sterling and says much of its has come from using the computer system for the past two years.