So that these problems could be fixed, a contest was started to find a replacement for the MG 34. Three companies were asked to design this replacement. These were: Metall und Lackierwarenfabrik Johannes Großfuß AG, Rheinmetall-Borsig, and Stübgen. Großfuß AG's design turned out to be the best. Strangely, Großfuß did not make weapons. They mostly made metal lanterns. Ernst Grunow was one of the head design engineers with Großfuß. He did not know anything about machine guns when he was told he would be involved in the project. However, he knew a lot about the machines used to make a lot of a product (mass production). Grunow went to an army machine gunner's training course to help him understand machine guns more. He also asked some soldiers for information. He then used some ideas used by Mauser and added some features he learned about from talking to army machine gunners and things that happened early on in World War II. The new design, the MG 42, was much easier to build. It took 75 hours to make the new gun. However, the MG 34 took 150 hours. The new gun cost 250 RM. However, the MG 34 cost 327 RM. The MG 42 was also made out of stamped metal. This made it easier to make than other machine guns.