Tuesday 24 April 2018

Manufacturing Difficulty

"Completion of quota at factory #200 in August of 1944

In August of 1944, the factory was instructed to produce:
  • IS-2 hulls: 200
  • IS-2 turrets: 200
As of September 1st, the factory delivered and QA accepted:
  • IS-2 hulls: 120
  • IS-2 turrets: 120
The quota for August was completed by 60%.

This significant shortfall of production is explained mainly by exceptionally poor output of the metallurgical plants that were supplying armour, as well as mass food poisoning of assembly and mechanical plant workers in the cafeteria.

Considering that the poisoning had some effect on the output of the factory, the People's Commissar of Tank Production permitted the extension of the due date for the August quota until September 5th and supply of workers from mother factories, delivered by airplane, without reducing the quota for September.

The total quota for August and five days of September is:
  • IS-2 hulls: 175
  • IS-2 turrets: 175
The timelines for completion of the August quota are outlined in table #1.

In September, the factory must produce:
  • IS-2 hulls: 200
  • IS-2 turrets: 200"

Yuri Pasholok writes that the annual report accounts for 200 hulls and turrets produced in August, so presumably the shortfall was made up for in September completely.

4 comments:

  1. What kind of metallurgical testing was done, if any, to determine if the incoming armor was acceptable for use?

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    1. Good old fashioned destructive testing. If you shoot at a sample from a batch and it falls to pieces, then the batch is suspect. In this case, however, the way it's phrased refers to quantitative rather than qualitative output. Typically production was held up by hulls sitting without turrets because not enough turrets arrived, etc.

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    2. I don´t think this explenation holds true considering that hulls and turrets are listed seperately.

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  2. I'm finding that dry note about mass food poisoning far more amusing than I probably should.

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