1914 Erfurt dilemma--SOLVED!

LP08 · 08-24-2002, 02:55 AM

Prior to th 1970s, inventory management was not handled very efficiently by most manufacturers. You read many stories of excess inventory of guns of a specific type that took years to sell, eg., the 1921 Thompson sub machine guns. Prior to the 1980s, tooling and stations were designed to produce parts for guns and the stations were allocated time to run a specific lot size of parts before switching to another part. Inventory of parts accumulated until all the final parts were obtained and then the gun was probably assembled in a batch. Therefore, for small run pistols such as ppk's, most were probably assembled in batch's over short periods of time. Production quantities of parts are based on contract orders for completed pistols and spare parts. When I was in the defense industry, contracts were negotiated for so many complete units and spares of most parts and sub assemblies. We shipped spares before full assemblies because there were design bugs to work out in the complete units but many parts and sub assemblies were ok. Once the design was finalized, we shipped more completed units.

Lugers were a high volume pistol so production was probably fairly steady from 1915-1918 (once large contracts were negotiated) with dedicated production facilities and personnel. Before 1915, however, production may have been for only short periods of the year.

My guesses.

Dave

08-24-2002, 02:55 AM	#20
LP08 User Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Colorado Posts: 71 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Prior to th 1970s, inventory management was not handled very efficiently by most manufacturers. You read many stories of excess inventory of guns of a specific type that took years to sell, eg., the 1921 Thompson sub machine guns. Prior to the 1980s, tooling and stations were designed to produce parts for guns and the stations were allocated time to run a specific lot size of parts before switching to another part. Inventory of parts accumulated until all the final parts were obtained and then the gun was probably assembled in a batch. Therefore, for small run pistols such as ppk's, most were probably assembled in batch's over short periods of time. Production quantities of parts are based on contract orders for completed pistols and spare parts. When I was in the defense industry, contracts were negotiated for so many complete units and spares of most parts and sub assemblies. We shipped spares before full assemblies because there were design bugs to work out in the complete units but many parts and sub assemblies were ok. Once the design was finalized, we shipped more completed units. Lugers were a high volume pistol so production was probably fairly steady from 1915-1918 (once large contracts were negotiated) with dedicated production facilities and personnel. Before 1915, however, production may have been for only short periods of the year. My guesses. Dave