INSPECTION, AND TRANSPORTATION AND PRODUCTION EXPEDITING Procurement is the overall process involving the desire and need for a certain commodity, the drafting of a specification designed to obtain the article desired, the purchase by contractual agreement, the manufacture of the article, and delivery to the ultimate consumer. This process presents a complexity of interrelated actions, the whole of which properly denotes procurement.

In normal procurement for Government agencies, conformity with specifications is usually established by the user upon delivery. Time of delivery presents no particular difficulties, for well defined production capacities are conducive to delivery at times specified; transportation facilities, particularly to delivery points within the continental United States, are adequate. War procurement, on the other hand, necessitates the determination of quality of commodities at the time of fabrication through exacting inspection. Extraordinary service demands require finest quality materials, supplies, and equipment. In peace time, failure of equipment or material would probably involve replacement, expense of replacement, and time only. In war, equivalent failure jeopardizes life and campaigns; entails burdensome remanufacture and transportation. Dearth of shipping space dictates that quality specified be accurately determined prior to loading of cargo.

Lend-Lease operations against a background of shifting complex conditions, all-out production, and ultimate delivery to foreign countries combine to stress inspection and production expediting in any procurement system. Materials become scarce. Substitutes must be developed. Established manufacturers that have heretofore dependably produced certain commodities take on new lines, convert their plants to war methods and war needs, while untried methods of inexperienced manufacturers contribute to disorganization. Untrained workers begin filtering into war industries. Such changes inevitably impair commodities. Only inspection at the source can maintain grade levels of production under these circumstances.

By July 1941 the Procurement Division had entered into some 400 contracts for Lend-Lease material. A central office and field service to inspect and expedite purchases were instituted. The staff comprised 17 inspectors and expediters, some of whom were concerned with the movement of materials from plant to warehouse and port. In the space of 1 year, however, the Procurement Division had obligated in excess of $1,000,000,000 over 15,000 individual contracts for a variety of commodities.18 Points of manufacture and shipment literally

17 Procurement Division records.

18 Most of these were of the noncombatant type unfinished products and industrial materials.

covered the United States. Considerate of current and anticipated work loads, field offices to serve as headquarters for defined inspection areas were set up at: Boston, Mass.; New York, N. Y.; Allentown, Pa.; Washington, D. C.; Atlanta, Ga.; New Orleans, La.; Louisville, Ky.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Cleveland, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Chicago, Ill.; Seattle, Wash.; and San Francisco, Calif. Field inspectors and expediters were assigned on the basis of specialized training and experience in commodities manufactured in given areas. To handle the traffic problem of thousands of railroad cars bearing Procurement Division goods to these ports, several port offices were established at points other than area headquarters: Philadelphia, Pa.; Baltimore, Md.; Tampa, Fla.; Los Angeles, Calif.; and Portland, Oreg.

As the volume of purchases and demands for prompt shipmenɩ increased, the Lend-Lease field organization of the Procurement Division found it necessary to designate suboffices manned by inspectors in a resident capacity. In close proximity to manufacturing points, members of the field staff can reach any part of the United States in a few hours, except the Rocky Mountain section.

Contractors are quick to avail themselves of the services of Government inspectors and expediters in connection with problems arising during the fabrication of materials. The various foreign government requisitioning agencies benefiting under the Lend-Lease program, on the other hand, created a staff of technicians and inspectors for clearance of questions regarding their needs and to assist in determining that the quality of the materials produced meet their requirements. Collaboration on inspections has been of considerable value to the Procurement Division's Lend-Lease Inspection Division.

To provide daily information regarding expected deliveries, orders waiting shipment, and shipments actually dispatched, the Procurement Division installed a teletype system embracing the thirteen field headquarters and the ports of New York and Philadelphia. The Washington administrative office was equipped with a battery of teletype machines for handling the transmittals of area offices. Daily field office reports of shipments consolidated with statistical reports from area offices are the bases of forecasted shipment schedules.

An added function of the field inspection organization is the highly responsible one of accepting Lend-Lease materials in the name of the United States Government, and, upon subsequent transfer to foreign governments, of securing receipts from proper representatives. Fabricated materials found satisfactory are accepted by the field representative. Lend-Lease materials that cannot be immediately exported for want of cargo space are placed in storage, for overloading of transportation systems and ships may prove disastrous. The field officer enters into storage contracts, conducts warehouse surveys, observes warehouse facilities for adequacy, and determines justification for further

expenditures. Once aboard ship for export, however, the receipt of the foreign requisitioning agency is obtained.

Delivery to ultimate destination for use depends upon coded shipping marks issued by the Procurement Division. Symbols, terminology, and numerals must be reproduced on containers and on all documents exactly in accordance with instructions in order that material may be identified at the port of debarkation for rapid distribution. The slightest deviation may divert materials. Thus have more duties come to be imposed upon already hard pressed inspectors and expediters. The inspector at port is required to make an inspection of damaged material, and arrange for necessary repacking, remarking, or reconditioning, while irreparably damaged material is handled by the area inspector-in-charge.

Improvement of present export packing practices requires the development of standard specifications for individual commodities, and their incorporation in the contract of purchase. As a result, suppliers would be materially aided in shipping materials so as to guarantee safe delivery.

The journey of Lend-Lease goods from the point of manufacture to seaports on the three coast lines 19 of America is recorded, and traced by traffic expediters. This entails delivering anything from toothpicks to complete industrial plants, of the right kind, in sufficient quantity at the right port in undamaged condition, at the right time. Pick-ups delivered at the water's edge are loaded on ships in preparation for the next leg of the trip to far-flung battle fronts. This trust is comparable to that of the Services of Supply of the American Army. Over and beyond their own preparation the United Nations must be equipped with all matériel by "the arsenal of Democracy."

At the time of award of contract, the manufacturer rarely knows the destination of his product. Reasonably in advance of anticipated shipment, a request for shipping instructions is transmitted by mail on a prescribed form, by telephone, or telegraph to the Procurement Division. From hourly reports on the status of national transportation facilities, how a shipment may reach a selected port at which adequate boat accommodations are or will be available is determined. Congestion or slow down, which handicaps stevedores in the loading of ships, must be prevented if a temporary embargo is not to be declared on a port. Least damageable or bottom cargo must be placed in the hold of the ship, and the more delicate or awkward cargo, on deck, the latter being termed top cargo. Incoming tonnage thus broken down speeds the work of loading and dispatching, reducing the time within which ships to be convoyed can be assembled and escorted overseas.

1 East, West, and Gulf.

To coordinate transportation with available transit and port facilities, the Procurement Division consults liaison officers of the foreign purchasing authorities. A clear track and an open port permit application, by teletype to the International Branch of the Transportation Control Division at the Headquarters of the Services of Supply of the War Department 20 for an ODT (Office of Defense Transportation) Block Permit. This shipping permit or QM Release Number, authorizes shipment to a designated port. Without it, railroad and truck lines are forbidden to move consignments to ports. Upon the Army's issuance of an ODT Block Permit, the release data is relayed to the supplier, a record being kept by the Transportation Branch of the Procurement Division along with that of any previous shipments against an incomplete contract.

With mass sea transport and its attendant dangers, and the necessity for convoying to prevent loss by enemy action, it develops that foreign puchase commissions cannot always advise on destinations immediately. Lacking shipping instructions, materials otherwise ready for transport are sometimes stalled for short periods. In most instances, however, pressure brought to bear by the War Production Board and other cooperating Federal agencies, including the Army and Navy, keeps industry and commerce operating at maximum speed. Men wrapped up in their own contribution to the war effort do not readily comprehend nor tolerate interruptions developing in the flow of material to the front. It is generally wiser, therefore, to move completed goods immediately from the point of origin to temporary safe resting places. In some cases commodities can be stored at the point of manufacture. More frequently it is necessary that they be moved from plants to warehouses and storage facilities 21 maintained by the Storage Unit of the Procurement Division.

Two storage plans to meet this problem have been evolved. The first calls for the construction of warehouses and utilization of adjacent lots for goods that can be stored safely in the open. The Lend-Lease Administration allocated $20,000,000 to the Procurement Division for the construction of storage depots for its own needs and those of the War Department. Each unit covers a large area, accommodating approximately 8,000 carloads of material for the Procurement Division alone. War Department personnel will operate the facilities but the Procurement Division will order material purchased by it in and out of storage. To supplement the construction program and make use

20 The War Department, charged with internal military security for the duration, is the logical functionary for transportation control. As such, it cooperates with the Office of Defense Transportation, the War Shipping Administration (charged with efficient utilization of ships), and the Procurement Division or any other Federal procurement agency. Such control prevents conflicting authority, costly congestion, and wasteful use of already overtaxed facilities and equipment.

Those used jointly with the Army are known as "Army depots."