Chevrolet WWII Effort

[G-10Assembly]

Management Challenges: First, Indianapolis Stamping was a plant high specialized from a machinery stand-point, composed of heavy stamping and drawing presses. Electrical Welding Equipment, Body Assembly Lines and Paint and Paint Drying Equipment all necessary to construction of truck bodies in volume.

Personnel composed of highly trained Pressman, Assemblers, Electrical Welding Operators, Metal Finishers and Paint Men.

A complete Tool and Die Shop equipped to made huge body dies, with no heavy dies required, as all designs and had been frozen for the duration of the war.

Second: The problem of what to make and to make it would have been simple had they been able to clean out all of the truck body building machinery and start fresh with some other war product, but this couldn't be done. Because, being the only major source of bodies for General Motors and Chevrolet Trucks required by the Army and Navy for certain definite types of work, they had to keep a portion of the plant intact to take care of these requirements.

This meant keeping intact sufficient machines, assembly lines, pait booths and drying ovens to handle the considerably restricted requirements of the Army and Navy, and most important, having available their highly trained personnel to operate these machines needed.

How well the war effort job was done can be best understood by the record of conversion established at the Chevrolet Commercial Body Stamping plant in Indianapolis. The best criterion of how successfully the task was met, is the fact that they delivered the goods as promised, and on time, of many diversified parts they had contracted to made, and yet still were able to take stride such truck, cab, and body requirements as the Army and Navy needed.