Big Red here with the continuing story of the first plastic Helmet liners.
So, TAKE FIVE!
For this installment, we will review the obstacles faced by the Chicago Quartermaster Depot as they relate to the remaining four of the six basic requirements for the manufacture of the plastic liner. Hydraulic presses, paint, suspensions, hardware, and assembly.
Hydraulic Presses:
Manufacturers of peacetime products such as refrigerators, washing machines, and other domestic appliances were forced to halt production due to the implementation of material priorities for war-related production, leaving hydraulic presses, unlike Keller machines, idle. The only hiccup the CQMD ran into here was the time necessary to locate suitable presses, purchase them, and relocate them for liner work.
Paint:
Painting the liner bodies, another requirement where no possible difficulty was foreseen, became a unique obstacle all its own. Because the plasticization process left the outer shell of the liner smooth with no pores, there was nothing for the paint to grab, causing it to flake off after minimal handling. What makes this obstacle intriguing is that the Standardization Branch, through experimentation, rather quickly resolved the adhesion problem and issued recommendations to all prime contractors for acceptable brands. However, because of wartime shortages, paint manufacturers were unable to guarantee access to the same ingredients from batch to batch, so a brand that worked well on one order of liners may not work on the next.
Suspensions and Hardware:
As liner development progressed, focus on improving comfort and durability as well as reducing the liner's overall weight resulted in numerous changes to the liner's internal parts. The major difficulty experienced here was the lag time between the OQMG approving a new part and the Standardization Branch issuing specifications and drawings for its manufacture so the CQMD could implement the change.
As soon as drawings and specifications for a new part were issued, the OQMG was extremely anxious to see the change implemented immediately; however, to avoid major production delays, the CQMD had to coordinate the introduction of the new part in a way that accounted for the inventory of existing parts on all production floors or any that might be in production at a subcontractor.
This was not an effortless task, as each liner manufacturer had been made a prime contractor responsible for all aspects of manufacture, and each had therefore engaged their own list of subcontractors for the parts they required, some having as many as 23 individual companies under contract at any given time. This meant that the CQMD had to coordinate with all companies involved to determine if the part being replaced was already on order, in production, or currently being used to assemble liners in an active contract. They would then issue variances for the use of existing parts as necessary to keep production moving and implement the new part's requirements in a way that would not cause production delays.
Assembly:
Assembling liners was a training issue that required hiring a new, unskilled workforce and teaching them how to perform the necessary tasks. Although training was the responsibility of the prime contractor, the CQMD had to maintain a balance between the activities of each prime contractor and their subcontractors to prevent any idleness on the assembly line, as this could potentially lead to layoffs and the loss of this newly trained workforce.
By the close of September 1942, the tsunami of obstacles delaying production found the CQMD with procurement requests for plastic liners totaling 4,605,500 and a successful production total of only 1,500,000 liners, barely one-third of what the OQMG had anticipated. Moreover, field reporting showed that prime contractors Capac, Hood Rubber, and International Molded Plastics were still not at a point where they could begin manufacturing. Firestone had delivered 16,530 out of 300,000; Mine Safety Appliances, 56,140 out of 372,000; Seaman Paper Co., 18,720 out of 175,000; and St. Clair Rubber Co., the recipient of a contract for low-pressure liners, a supposedly simpler and faster method, had only completed 120,000 out of the 1,250,000 required.
Westinghouse and Inland would not meet their delivery dates either; however, they had managed to attain rates of 11,000 and 18,000 per day, respectively. Westinghouse had over-delivered on their first contract of 707,000, while Inland produced 75,000 liners over their first contract of 622,500. Meanwhile, McCord bridged the gap by delivering 819,785 liners of 1,000,000 on September 2nd, while maintaining an assembly rate of 20,000 liners per day.
The fall of 1942 marked the beginning of sustained production of plastic liners. Because liner manufacture was a new venture and rather specialized in its requirements, it was simply not practicable to “throw additional firms” at the problem. Confident that every prime contractor and their subcontractors were committed to resolving the issues at hand, the CQMD remained focused on coordinating efforts to produce the best liner possible as quickly as possible.
Remember.
if your friends want to know how you gained your intel, tell em
Big Red Says!
FIVE'S OVER - MOVE OUT!
Hinterlasse einen Kommentar