To meet existing demand and to feed new weapons, Hindenburg and Ludendorff wanted a big increase in propellant output to a month. In July 1916, the output target had been raised from , which was expected to cover existing demand and the extra of output demanded by Hindenburg and Ludendorff could never match the doubling and trebling of artillery, machine-guns and trench mortars. The industrial mobilisation needed to fulfil the Hindenburg Programme increased demand for skilled workers, (recalled from the army) or exempted from conscription. The number of increased from men, of whom deemed (kv, fit for front line service), at the end of 1916 to men in October 1917 and more than two million by November, being kv. The demands of the Hindenburg Programme exacerbated the manpower crisis and constraints on the availability of raw materials meant that targets were not met.