Donald Hill
Before the Second World War, there was a strong ‘America First’ political faction in the USA, which didn’t want to take part in foreign wars. However, President Franklin D Roosevelt realized that war was inevitable and he began ramping up the US industrial base to prepare for it.
The government owned over 100 facilities that made weapons and equipment but they wouldn’t be able to provide the volume that was needed so civilian factories were converted or created to fill the demand. However, military equipment required higher precision and quality than the civilian factories and workforce could manage, so the designs of the equipment had to be modular and simplified.
One example of that process was the B-24 bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft. While the design was state of the art, flying faster, farther and carrying a heavier payload than the famed B-17 made by Boeing, every single B-24 was individually hand-crafted. To increase production, the government enlisted the Ford motor company, which could quickly produce cars with 15,000 parts.
Of course, there were critics of this idea: they - rightfully - doubted they could manage the same feat with an aircraft that had 450,000 parts, including 360,000 rivets that came in 550 different sizes.
When Ford’s production chief saw Consolidated’s production process he noted that no two aircaft were built alike. In his hotel room he stayed up until 4 o’clock in the morning to design a new work flow process.
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