Show i GENERAL HUGH S. S JOHNSON JOHNSONs JOHNSONI r c l. l ia s J al awu s I Washington D. D C C. C PLANE PRODUCTION Phil Murrays Murray's plan for increased d be wrong m in plane production may places but it has at t least leas a germ Boiled doto do down downto of the right idea in it to its bones what he proposes 1 is isto to make a single great production unit out of the whole automobile industry industry in industry in- in I instead of a cluster of competing competing com com- competing companies That idea was also at the center of his earlier plan to speed production tion by creating a control board for each industry That also is the idea of treating such industry as a unit and so mobilizing each separately and then marshalling all these great units in one combined economic regiment regiment regiment reg reg- for defense production That is exactly the essence of what was done in the war industries board in 1918 It is exactly what is not being done in the Knudsen man four-man production office What the war industries board did was was to request each great industry service committee commit commit- to appoint a war tee which could speak and receive the governments government's instructions for the whole industry Then there were organized organized organized or or- in the board commodity committees one for each or more industries It never became necessary necessary necessary sary to make this alignment and method too formal or sticky but it was an arrangement that enabled the organization of the government overhead to mesh with the overhead control within each industry like the interlined fingers of your two clasped hands e Every production problem was broken down by industries and considered considered considered con con- in joint meeting of these committees or their representatives It is the only quick way to explore the productive facilities of each industry in industry industry in- in to prevent overlapping confusion confusion confusion con con- fusion and waste to determine the merits of vexed questions of priority priori priori- ty relative effort and bottlenecks It created a kind of piano keyboard keyboard keyboard key key- board upon which federal industrial control can produce or try to produce produce produce pro pro- duce all the harmonies and effects of which our economic music box is capable Indeed if you dont don't have that in view of the immense volume volume volume vol vol- ume of material and the vast complex complex complex com com- plex of American industry you are simply fumbling in a jungle of obscurities obscurities obscurities ob ob- cross purposes and divided divided divided divid divid- ed interests with never enough facts to decide wisely or well and with not enough controls to act with full effect even if you could decide TOOL NECK BOTTLE-NECK There is a tremendous reservoir of machine tool capacity and skilled tool and pattern makers idle in this country at a time when mass production production production pro pro- is our greatest need and it isn't coming In talking with a considerable variety variety variety va va- va- va of people I find much confusion confusion confusion sion about what machine tools really really really real real- ly are In my varied career of jack- jack trades of-all-trades-and-master-of-none I Iwas Iwas I Iwas was once responsible for a forge shop a machine shop an engine and an automobile factory such factory such as they were Many people seem to have an idea that machine tools are like a carpenters carpenter's box of tools tools saws saws planers plan plan- ers chisels square and maybe plumb-bob plumb and a ball of blue chalk They arent aren't like that at all Vol Vol- umes have been written on what I they are like and it is not my purpose purpose purpose pur pur- i pose to try to reproduce those volumes volumes volumes vol vol- I umes here further than to say that machine tools are the instruments of American mass production They have enabled us to produce an automobile automobile automobile au au- au- au for say that in another another another an an- other country with other methods would cost and and to produce them by thousands a day where in another method we should do well to produce 10 a day They are giant stamping machines that produce a whole automobile frame for example in one opera opera- tion They are batteries of machines machines machines ma ma- chines that receive raw iron at one end of the production line and turn turnout turnout turnout out completed welded butt-welded and painted steel pipe at the other on a fiat flat car with scarcely a human hand hana intervening They are forging ma machines chines that will do on a single trip what it would take a battery of blacksmiths three months to do There are presses drill-presses lathes and automatic screw machines that set to the proper gauges will turn out m in a few motions hundreds of perfected parts of this or that complicated piece of machinery of instruments of modern mechanized warfare with more ac accuracy curacy than all aU the ancients ancients an an- ever dreamed But these things do g go o in bat bat- teries Their operations have to be planned months if necessary in ad ad- vance Some consideration of ot this brief sketch etch will suggest how important are tool makers to swift mass pro pro- It isn't just dust that they make the working tools for the machines that produce these miracles They also make the tools that make the tools that do the tle job There are no words adequate to express the importance importance im im- im- im of oi these men to an any production production pro pro- program What Phil Murray Mur- Mur ray says is that there are about of them unemployed or only time part-time employed That's That a considerable considerable considerable con- con percentage of the total Here is our real bottleneck r |