Re‐visiting Devons' historical perspective on black holes and bullwhip

Purpose – To publicise the little known work of Eli Devons (1950) as a source of practical operations management “know how”, collated by an economist but of direct interest to wider academe. Design/methodology/approach – Evaluation of World War II UK aircraft production procedures against published literature and available case studies in operations management. Findings – Specific and substantial anecdotal evidence suggesting that both bullwhip and learning curve losses were common phenomena waiting to be discovered. Research limitations/implications – Much of the original evidence is circumstantial but still capable of triangulation because of multiple events pointing to the same causality. Practical implications – Identifies generic problems and solutions but also pinpoints areas which are applications specific. Originality/value – The re‐discovery that learning curve and bullwhip phenomena were rife 60 years ago supports the view that knowledge and its exploitation is episodic. Specifically, as soon as the environment returns to normal, so are the lessons learned under duress quickly forgotten.