- Striving to improve the quality of new Steinway & Sons pianos, Robert and John Birmingham and Bruce Stevens send the old Astoria factory manager to retirement. The new manager, Daniel T. Koenig, a former General Electric engineer, initiates the complete revision of the factory layout and organizational structure. He removes from the factory floors several experienced but conservative old workers who have refused to collaborate, and assigns them the task of rebuilding old pianos. Daniel T. Koening assigns new foremen, and hires quality experts from medical and other high-precision industries, whose job is to document and improve Steinway & Sons’ productions methods. The experts develop the manufacturing standards for hundreds of jobs, and print them on paper-bound in loose-leaf binders, for use by the workers.
- Steinway & Sons sells 2,162 grand pianos in the United States.