When Roy T. Hurley took over as president of Curtiss-Wright Corp. in 1949, he made only one promise: "I'll put a price tag on every operation in our shop." Curtiss-Wright needed such tags. The company, once the biggest in the aircraft industry, had been forced to shut down 16 of its 19 engine, propeller and airframe plants. Last week Hurley demonstrated what he meant by price tags; in Curtiss-Wright's Wood-Ridge, N.J. engine plant, he showed off a faster and cheaper way of making engines by means of a new "automated" assembly line,...
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