Despite being run by people with no experience, Kaiser's shipyards were incredibly productive. And they got relentlessly better. The first Liberty ship took 253 days. A year later it took 4 days. They measured everything and treated build-time like a startup's KPI. They got a 98% cycle-time reduction in 18 months.
To build those transport ships, we built massive new shipyards on empty land. These shipyards were built by a colorful America Industrialist named Henry Kaiser. Most of Kaiser's shipyard workers had mostly never seen a shipyard or built a ship: they were orchestra leaders, nightclub owners, and cabinetmakers. 70% were women - like in the famous "Rosie the Riveter" poster.
