The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1942-03-27
Small Manufactures
Encouraged By Drive
Ordnance Departments Aid Shows Results; Prime
Contractors and Minor Plants Working Together

weeks ago. This section, composed
Of one officer, q civilian assistant
and eight civilian engineers lost no
time in preparing the groundwork
for their subcontracting campaign.
Using extensive plant surveys al
ready on hand and personal inspec-
ton trips throughout the district,
they prepared master list Of over
1000 facilities showing production
capacity the number of employees, the
type of work each plant had been
doing and possible war items that
might be produced on a conversion
basis.
The next step was a calculation
Of the present output of each small
shop with relation TO total Ord
nance item-for example, what per-
cent Of machine gun small shop
might produce by subcontracting
The engineers also calculated what
Ordnance item each facility was
best suited for and also what per-
cent each facility is operating upon
at present.
From the commodity divisions the
section obtained a list Of all prime
contractors who are behind their
delivery schedules and the reason
for delivery failures. At the same
time they prepared a list OF dis
tressed" manufacturers - that is
small plants which were capable Of
making Ordnance items but had no
contracts. In this way 1t was possible
10 bring together prime contractors
who were anxious to let out part OF
their work and small plants which
needed the work.
There are, Of course, many facil-
tiles in the district which are en-
tirely unsuited to the manufacture
Of ordnance material. In order to
make full use Of plants Of this type
other procurement agencies OF the
army and navy were notified Of fa-
cillties In the district capable Of do
ing their work. Among the other
procurement agencies notified were
the quartermaSter corps, air corps,
corps of engineers, medical depart
ment, chemical warfare service and
the signal corps.
War production board bulletins
regarding open procurements OF the
various agencies have also been
utilized to aid the small contractors.
When invitations to bid appear, IA
cilities within the district capable Of
manufacture of the various items
are notified and referred to the
proper procurement agency for ad-
ditional information.
The work done by the small con-
tractor assistance section has al
ready borne fruit IN number Of
cases. Recently 80 unused looms
were found stored in plant In the
Springfield area The Boston quar-
termaster Office was notified and
as q result the looms were trans
ferred to another plant belonging
to the company where operating
space was available and are now
in use making webbing equipment
for the quartermaster corps. A
plant capable OF making elastic
webbing was discovered and Is now
turning ut that material for use In
gas masks for the chemical warfare
service. ...
Acting on q requestf rom Penn
sylvania firm which has a contract
for several thousand fuzes the small
contractor section, located several
manufacturers capable Of making
component parts ON subcontract.
For the Watervliet Arsenal two bad
ly needed large lathes were located
capable Of turning gun tubes. Sourc-
cs for onion skin paper, which Is
used In flares, were found in three
cities in the district. The paper will
be used by contractor in San
Francisco.
A Chicopee (MaSs) firm wanted
to subcontract certain operations for
which q particular type of automa-
tic screw machine was needed. They
contacted the district office and
were promptly put IN touch with
eight different plants which had the
proper machines available for the
Job. In another case all automobile
sales concern which found its reg
ular business falling off was aided
by the Ordnance district In convert
Ing its repair shop and obtaining a
few new tools and Is now making
several new parts on subcontract.
These are only q few examples Of
what has been done as the Ordnanc
Department moves into high gear III
Its campaign 10 use every available
man and machine to boost war pro.