What's going on is shell production has skyrocketed because the guns must be fed, and quality control has gone to hell. My plan is I ask the question: what wins us the war?
Sadly, I think that what we need most to win the war is for the factories to be producing 150,000 shells per day rather than 60,000. Health and safety at work is a distinctly secondary concern when we're losing 25k men/week (my rough calculation of total French casualties over the war - my numbers at the time of the scenario may have been different but not substantially I bet) to enemy action.
Production must increase, and as far as possible so must the quality of what is produced. In the immediate term it's easy to say what we must do: put out more contracts for shell manufacture, go to the longstanding firms and (literally if necessary) dragoon their top men into working at the new factories to improve overall quality. If the quality of legacy factories deteriorates but we can get that 1/5k down to 1/20k while also improving production, that's an awful lot more dead Germans.
Looking to the long term, I propose that a new Office for the Supervision and Improvement of Quality in the Manufacture of Munitions be created reporting directly to me (or that whatever exists already in that regard be significantly expanded, in manpower and legal powers). I also propose that all chemical and manufacturing engineers in France not presently employed in essential war industries, and all students pursuing courses of study in the same fields, be declared liable for conscription but ineligible to serve other than in that office without extraordinary permission from me or M. le Général Joffre.
Still, I'm going to take the shells from the new ordnance companies and keep them separated from the general use. They will be used on if necessary, and will be marked as potential danger.
Proof testing of the barrels. If the shells are to spec then the barrels are not able to hold pressure. Metallurgy or milling quality control. But considering the last general passed the buck I would pass it down to a Colonel.
What's going on is shell production has skyrocketed because the guns must be fed, and quality control has gone to hell. My plan is I ask the question: what wins us the war?
Sadly, I think that what we need most to win the war is for the factories to be producing 150,000 shells per day rather than 60,000. Health and safety at work is a distinctly secondary concern when we're losing 25k men/week (my rough calculation of total French casualties over the war - my numbers at the time of the scenario may have been different but not substantially I bet) to enemy action.
Production must increase, and as far as possible so must the quality of what is produced. In the immediate term it's easy to say what we must do: put out more contracts for shell manufacture, go to the longstanding firms and (literally if necessary) dragoon their top men into working at the new factories to improve overall quality. If the quality of legacy factories deteriorates but we can get that 1/5k down to 1/20k while also improving production, that's an awful lot more dead Germans.
Looking to the long term, I propose that a new Office for the Supervision and Improvement of Quality in the Manufacture of Munitions be created reporting directly to me (or that whatever exists already in that regard be significantly expanded, in manpower and legal powers). I also propose that all chemical and manufacturing engineers in France not presently employed in essential war industries, and all students pursuing courses of study in the same fields, be declared liable for conscription but ineligible to serve other than in that office without extraordinary permission from me or M. le Général Joffre.
Still, I'm going to take the shells from the new ordnance companies and keep them separated from the general use. They will be used on if necessary, and will be marked as potential danger.
Proof testing of the barrels. If the shells are to spec then the barrels are not able to hold pressure. Metallurgy or milling quality control. But considering the last general passed the buck I would pass it down to a Colonel.