HN 2: The British and their Works

that he had rejected to production, bypassing the checkpoint. 170
This was not an isolated case, and furnished proof that the
importance of inspection activity for a well-functioning series
production was still seriously underestimated. To what extent
material shortages played a part cannot be stated with certainty.
At any rate, on 3rd and 4th November 1947 production came to
a halt because the hardening salts supplied by the Degussa
company did not comply with requirements and the disc wheels
could not be processed. A transport convoy was despatched to
the Soviet zone to get the necessary raw materials. 171
The inspection department was not prepared to put up with
transgressions of this kind, and demanded that those responsible
be called to account. Münch took this complaint seriously
and called for an investigation, in order to avoid similar incidents
in the future. Only recently, the steering arms on four
vehicles had fractured due to poor material quality, as a result of
which the management had decided to implement a replacement
campaign covering all Volkswagens, as far as this was possible.
Because the defect could not be satisfactorily eliminated
as things stood, Hirst obtained a detector from the British army
with which all important steering components were magnetically
examined for cracks in future. 172 In other ways too the
Senior Resident Officer acted as a driving force for the quality
development of the saloon. He constantly pressed for improvements
in vehicle engineering and quality, in order to make the
Volkswagen capable of holding its own with the competition. At
the management meeting at the end of July 1947, when export
had become a realistic prospect, Hirst announced a three-phase
programme for the further development of the vehicle. Phase
one comprised the attempts to procure better materials, and
68 69
Assembly of the chassis.
STRIVING FOR QUALITY