One thing that had impressed the Ford people was the vast difference between the aircraft and automotive processes. Our production was based on the use of standard machine tools; we had few of the special single-purpose machines designed for low-cost volume production of automobiles. Our practice had been deliberately adopted for several reasons. In expanding for war-emergency production we could expect machine tool builders rapidly to expand delivery of standard machines, where special machines would require much longer. Again, whereas automotive production could be standardized for reasonable periods, in aircraft engines we must be able to incorporate every new design change without seriously retarding production. To accomplish this, we had fitted special jigs and fixtures to our standard machines; for a design change we could scrap the fixtures but keep the machines running. No such flexibility as this could be had with the special machines of the automotive shops, and Sorenson’s crew had spotted this right away. In fact, if anyone thought we could learn much about production from the automotive boys, he soon found it was the other way around. They learned from us our secret of aircraft war production, the revolutionary idea of flexibility in volume. Along with this idea we had developed the aircraft-type assembly of components. Instead of using a conveyer to regulate production rates, we used it to transport materials to the assembly points. Here the workers built up complete units or subassemblies and inspected them on the spot. Aside from the flexibility thus introduced, the idea had an impact on our production workers. We did away with the deadly monotony of repetitive processes, by feeding to the operators such precisely machined parts that even the unskilled could assemble finished devices and test their functioning. And now as we lost our experienced workers to the armed forces and began replacing them with recruits from the white-collar trades, we found this gave a tremendous boost to shop morale. In the development of this process, I found myself thinking frequently of the scene in Charlie Chaplin’s picture where he finally uses both hands and both feet to feed nuts and washers into the ever-moving and compelling assembly.