Evening star., 1942-06-14
By Richard l.. Stokes.

asserts that 1Ce are thinning the
battle of production-A. P. Photo.
way Island may have exceeded their
orthodox radius Of 500 miles.
The overall triumph of production
engineering has consisted in a wholesale
Transformation of handicrafts into guam
tity output operations. The change,
wrought in desperate haste, has been
nothing less than revolutionary. There
was leap from slow-paced. hand tech
niques to the peed-assembly line; from
individual to mass output from crude
tolerances and fixed designs to preci-
sions microscopically close and patterns
constantly altering; and from highly
skilled to inexperienced labor.
That mass production and the as
sembly line are today the rule and not
the exception IN war production must be
credited to the machine tool Industry,
in cooperation with engineers of plants
concerned. In addition to the headlong
urgency of the task, there were formi-
dable obstacles to surmount. The ma
chine tool industry. a quaint feudaf
and dynastic survival. was almost ruined
by the depression, then suddenly it was
called on to retool major segment of
the national industrial plant Many
OF the processes required were wholly
pioneer, at least in this country, so that
new strategies of the assembly line had
to be created. The emergency left no
time for training skilled labor. On a
scale never before practiced in the
United States, it was necessary to break
down assembly lines into single purpose
machines, which could be mastered by
green operators in a few months or
even weeks
Plane Motors Mass Produced.
Among distinguished successes achieved
to date may be named the manufacture
of machine guns and aircraft engines.
The former until recently was a handi-
craft of gunsmiths, and the latter a
tailor-made job of artisans approximate
ing watchmakers. Both products are
now rolling out of numerous factories in
staggering quantities The assembly line
principle has been applied, with brilliant
speed-up effect, to such heavy items as
tanks, merchant ships and submarines.
At single plant in the Detroit area,
Henry Ford has undertaken, before the
year is out, to pour from the assembly
belt Is to 18 bombers daily
Even more theatrical, because it is
readily visible, has been the triumph of
American industry in plant enlargement.
1t has proceeded at such a pace that
the Government recently called a tenn
porary halt, until supply of materials
could overtake capacity. This develop
ment has two phases-expansion of ex-
isting facilities and construction of new
establishments, financed either by pri-
vate capital or the Government.
Under the former head, examples we're
encountered everywhere of floor space
multiplied, output increased many fold,
personnel doubled or tripled and further
giant enlargements under way. But it
was the new plants which shone like
glow from the Arabian Nights" The
dimensions of not a few are reckoned in
miles or parts of miles. Some are in full
and some in part operation Most have
risen like exhalations, as if at the stroke
of magicians wand. from sites which
year ago or less had been swamps,
COW pastures or snowfields. Their work.
ing forces would populate sizable towns
In one aluminium factory, jeeps are pro-
vided to transport staff members over
formidable distances under single roof
The most legendary of all is the Ford
Willow Run factory for heavy bombers;
and even that is to be dwarfed by plants
already on order.
Firms See Ahead.
Output was found to be in various
stages Of progress. Some items par
ticularly tanks, bomber planes and air
craft. engines, got off to a head-start
through French and British orders
which began in the autumn of 1899. A
few companies, more farsighted than
their Government or public opinion, saw
the handwriting on the wall early in
1910 and hazarded the desperate gamble
of converting or adapting their facil-
tiles, at private expense, to war produc-
ton. Since priorities were not then in
force, they had no difficulty in obtain
ing machine tools and stockpiles of ma
terials Among such enterprising firms
should be mentioned the Aluminium Co..
of America, the National Cash Register
Co. Of Dayton. the Goodrich synthetic