Seven Men Saved Millions Of Man-Hours

Northern Advocate, 24 September 1942, Page 2

Seven Men Saved Millions Of Man-Hours

An officer and six privates in Britain’s Arm >’ Ordnance Corps were responsible for setting on foot a movement which has saved Britain’s war industries many millions of man-hours and tons of material.

After Dunkirk, R.A.O.C depots became cluttered up with masses of broken, damaged or out-of-date stores. It happened that these seven men had all been in business before the war, and they knew that there was a vast reservoir of garages, backstreet firms and small engineering shops where repairs could be done. Realising that manufacturers do not like to have their production held up by repairs to their own articles, they persuaded business acquaintances to make room for repairs to vital equipment without interfering with Ministry of Supply contracts.

From this small beginning has grown the Central Repair Depot, where hundreds of thousands of pieces of equipment that might never have been used again find their way back into service. An uncanny foresight has been shown by the officers and men at this depot in dealing with raw materials. Long before shortages occurred they husbanded materials which are now worth their weight in gold.

Sixty per cent, of the articles repaired are in first-class condition within a month and are placed into stores for re-issue to units.

Although ’this Central Repair Depot saves the British taxpayers many thousands of pounds a year on new equipment, its real value, which cannot be measured in money, is in relieving the pressure on the war factories and making double or even treble the use of the manpower put into the original manufactured article.