Word: levitts
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...greatest coup was forcing manufacturers to sell to him direct, a practice traditionally frowned on by them. By browbeating, cajoling and threatening to take his business elsewhere, Bill Levitt now buys even his television sets from the manufacturer, pays no middleman's fees. By his special building and buying methods, he saves $1,000 a house...
When lumber was scarce, Bill Levitt had plenty; he had bought Western timberlands and a mill to supply him. When nails were short, he set up his own nail-making plant, made enough to sell to outsiders. When Congress lifted a veterans' priority clause, Levitt announced that vets would still come first at Levittown, thus had a potent lobby to work for him whenever he ran up against local building restrictions or Washington bureaucrats...
...Steps. There is no secret to mass-producing houses, says Bill Levitt. It is merely "size plus organization." But Bill and Alfred Levitt worked out a new kind of organization for housebuilders...
...building industry, shot through with featherbedding union practices, they had another advantage: neither the subcontractors nor Levitt's organization is unionized and there has been no great pressure from unions. Legend has it that once, when unionists were picketing Levittown, one of the pickets left the line to look at a house. He got so interested he ended by buying one. Says Bill Levitt: "I'm not against unions. I just think we can build houses faster without them...
Shortage into Plenty. Levitt builds them faster by using paint sprayers and many other labor-saving gadgets banned by the building unions. He prefabricates many of his materials. At his central warehouse, all the lumber needed in a house is precut to size, plumbing fixtures are assembled, staircases are prefabricated; thus only 20% of the construction work need be skilled labor...