[ghaff]

A lot of Maudslay's (and Brunel's) innovation came down to process even through the idea of standardized parts probably dated back to the French General Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval a number of decades earlier.

As you say, this subsequently applied in the case of flintlocks.

But, yeah, everything exists as part of an ecosystem and if you're not at the right time, your brilliant idea probably won't fly. I've been an IT analyst off and on for many years and I've seen this happen often.