Streamlining the Arms Program

Extract

“Industrial management” and “efficiency engineering” have become by-words in private business; in the field of public administration, we hear of “control.” The second World War has given great impetus to the development of effective practices in “management” or “control” in government departments.

As soon as the news of Pearl Harbor electrified the United States, armament production was expanded overnight to the limit of the country's resources. Pursuant to the defense program, the Department of War constructed not only many munitions plants, the great majority of them operated by private concerns under cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts, but also numerous storage depots and other installations owned by the Department of War and operated for the most part by its Ordnance Department, a division of the Army Service Forces.

During the initial months of the war, the problem uppermost in the minds of those who were directing the nation's defense program was how to achieve mass production of arms—a goal doubly difficult to reach because of the need of using entirely new techniques of manufacture. Not until the problem of quantity production was solved could attention be concentrated on obtaining maximum efficiency in operations. Swift expansion in any productive activity will by its very nature arrive at that point of unwieldiness where streamlining becomes imperative. Furthermore, because of the labor shortage, which grew more acute with the induction of increasing numbers of young men into the fighting forces, consideration of the efficiency of war plants early became mandatory.