(b) TIME STUDY FOR ALL WORK DONE BY HAND THROUGHOUT THE WORKS, INCLUDING THAT DONE IN SETTING THE WORK IN MACHINES, AND ALL BENCH AND VISE WORK, AND TRANSPORTATION, ETC.
This information for each particular operation should be obtained by summing up the various unit times of which it consists. To do this, of course, requires the men performing this function to keep continually posted as to the best methods and appliances to use, and also to frequently consult with and receive advice from the executive gang bosses who carry out this work in the shop, and from the man in the department of standards and maintenance of plant (j) beneath. The actual study of unit times, of course, forms the greater part of the work of this section of the planning room.
(c) TIME STUDY FOR ALL OPERATIONS DONE BY THE VARIOUS MACHINES.
This information is best obtained from slide rules, one of which is made for each machine tool or class of machine tools throughout the works; one, for instance, for small lathes of the same type, one for planers of same type, etc. These slide rules show the best way to machine each piece and enable detailed directions to be given the workman as to how many cuts to take, where to start each cut, both for roughing out work and finishing it, the depth of the cut, the best feed and speed, and the exact time required to do each operation.
The information obtained through function (b), together with that obtained through (c) afford the basis for fixing the proper piece rate, differential rate or the bonus to be paid, according to the system employed.
(d) THE BALANCE OF ALL MATERIALS, RAW MATERIALS, STORES AND FINISHED PARTS, AND THE NUMBER OF DAYS' WORK AHEAD FOR EACH CLASS OF MACHINES AND WORKMEN.
Returns showing all receipts, as well as the issue of all raw materials, stores, partly finished work, and completed parts and machines, repair parts, etc., daily pass through the balance clerk, and each item of which there have been issues or receipts, or which has been appropriated to the use of a machine about to be manufactured, is daily balanced. Thus the balance clerk can see that the required stocks of materials are kept on hand by notifying at once the purchasing agent or other proper party when the amount on hand falls below the prescribed figure. The balance clerk should also keep a complete running balance of the hours of work ahead for each class of machines and workmen, receiving for this purpose daily from (a), (b), and (c) above statements of the hours of new work entered, and from the inspectors and daily time cards a statement of the work as it is finished. He should keep the manager and sales department posted through daily or weekly condensed reports as to the number of days of work ahead for each department, and thus enable them to obviate either a congestion or scarcity of work.
(e) THE ANALYSIS OF ALL INQUIRIES FOR NEW WORK RECEIVED IN THE SALES DEPARTMENT AND PROMISES AS TO TIME OF DELIVERY. The man or men in the planning room who perform the duties indicated at (a) above should consult with (b) and (c) and obtain from them approximately the time required to do the work inquired for, and from (d) the days of work ahead for the various machines and departments, and inform the sales department as to the probable time required to do the work and the earliest date of delivery.
(f) THE COST OF ALL ITEMS MANUFACTURED, WITH COMPLETE EXPENSE ANALYSIS AND COMPLETE MONTHLY COMPARATIVE COST AND EXPENSE EXHIBITS.
The books of the company should be closed once a month and balanced as completely as they usually are at the end of the year, and the exact cost of each article of merchandise finished during the previous month should be entered on a comparative cost sheet. The expense exhibit should also be a comparative sheet. The cost account should be a completely balanced account, and not a memorandum account as it generally is. All the expenses of the establishment, direct and indirect, including the administration and sales expense, should be charged to the cost of the product which is to be sold.
(g) THE PAY DEPARTMENT.
The pay department should include not only a record of the time and wages and piece work earnings of each man, and his weekly or monthly payment, but the entire supervision of the arrival and departure of the men from the works and the various checks needed to insure against error or cheating. It is desirable that some one of the "exception systems" of time keeping should be used.
(h) THE MNEMONIC SYMBOL SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFICATION OF PARTS AND FOR CHARGES.
Some one of the mnemonic symbol systems should be used instead of numbering the parts or orders for identifying the various articles of manufacture, as well as the operations to be performed on each piece and the various expense charges of the establishment. This becomes a matter of great importance when written directions are sent from the planning room to the men, and the men make their returns in writing. The clerical work and chances for error are thereby greatly diminished.
(i) INFORMATION BUREAU.
The information bureau should include catalogues of drawings (providing the drafting room is close enough to the planning room) as well as all records and reports for the whole establishment. The art of properly indexing information is by no means a simple one, and as far as possible it should be centered in one man.
(j) STANDARDS.
The adoption and maintenance of standard tools, fixtures, and appliances down to the smallest item throughout the works and office, as well as the adoption of standard methods of doing all operations which are repeated, is a matter of importance, so that under similar conditions the same appliances and methods shall be used throughout the plant. This is an absolutely necessary preliminary to success in assigning daily tasks which are fair and which can be carried out with certainty.
(k) MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM AND PLANT, AND USE OF THE TICKLER.
One of the most important functions of the planning room is that of the maintenance of the entire system, and of standard methods and appliances throughout the establishment, including the planning room itself. An elaborate time table should be made out showing daily the time when and place where each report is due, which is necessary to carry on the work and to maintain the system. It should be the duty of the member of the planning room in charge of this function to find out at each time through the day when reports are due, whether they have been received, and if not, to keep bothering the man who is behind hand until he has done his duty. Almost all of the reports, etc., going in and out of the planning room can be made to pass through this man. As a mechanical aid to him in performing his function the tickler is invaluable. The best type of tickler is one which has a portfolio for each day in the year, large enough to insert all reminders and even quite large instruction cards and reports without folding. In maintaining methods and appliances, notices should be placed in the tickler in advance, to come out at proper intervals throughout the year for the inspection of each element of the system and the inspection and overhauling of all standards as well as the examination and repairs at stated intervals of parts of machines, boilers, engines, belts, etc., likely to wear out or give trouble, thus preventing breakdowns and delays. One tickler can be used for the entire works and is preferable to a number of individual ticklers. Each man can remind himself of his various small routine duties to be performed either daily or weekly, etc., and which might be otherwise overlooked, by sending small reminders, written on slips of paper, to be placed in the tickler and returned to him at the proper time. Both the tickler and a thoroughly systematized messenger service should be immediately adjacent to this man in the planning room, if not directly under his management.
The proper execution of this function of the planning room will relieve the superintendent of some of the most vexatious and time-consuming of his duties, and at the same time the work will be done more thoroughly and cheaper than if he does it himself. By the adoption of standards and the use of instruction cards for overhauling machinery, etc., and the use of a tickler as above described, the writer reduced the repair force of the Midvale Steel Works to one-third its size while he was in the position of master mechanic. There was no planning department, however, in the works at that time.
(l) MESSENGER SYSTEM AND POST OFFICE DELIVERY.
The messenger system should be thoroughly organized and records kept showing which of the boys are the most efficient. This should afford one of the best opportunities for selecting boys fit to be taught trades, as apprentices or otherwise. There should be a regular half hourly post office delivery system for collecting and distributing routine reports and records and messages in no especial hurry throughout the works.
(m) EMPLOYMENT BUREAU.
The selection of the men who are employed to fill vacancies or new positions should receive the most careful thought and attention and should be under the supervision of a competent man who will inquire into the experience and especial fitness and character of applicants and keep constantly revised lists of men suitable for the various positions in the shop. In this section of the planning room. an individual record of each of the men in the works can well be kept showing his punctuality, absence without excuse, violation of shop rules, spoiled work or damage to machines or tools, as well as his skill at various kinds of work; average earnings, and other good qualities for the use of this department as well as the shop disciplinarian.
(n) THE SHOP DISCIPLINARIAN.
This man may well be closely associated with the employment bureau and, if the works is not too large, the two functions can be performed by the same man. The knowledge of character and of the qualities needed for various positions acquired in disciplining the men should be useful in selecting them for employment. This man should, of course, consult constantly with the various foremen and bosses, both in his function as disciplinarian arid in the employment of men.
(o) A MUTUAL ACCIDENT INSURANCE ASSOCIATION.
A mutual accident insurance association should be established, to which the company contributes as well as the men. The object of this association is twofold: first the relief of men who are injured, and second, an opportunity of returning to the workmen all fines which are imposed upon them in disciplining them, and for damage to company's property or work spoiled.
(p) RUSH ORDER DEPARTMENT.
Hurrying through parts which have been spoiled or have developed defects, and also special repair orders for customers, should receive the attention of one man.
(q) IMPROVEMENT OF SYSTEM OR PLANT.
One man should be especially charged with the work of improvement in the system and in the running of the plant.
The type of organization described in the foregoing paragraphs has such an appearance of complication and there are so many new positions outlined in the planning room which do not exist even in a well managed establishment of the old school, that it seems desirable to again call attention to the fact that, with the exception of the study of unit times and one or two minor functions, each item of work which is performed in the planning room with the superficial appearance of great complication must also be performed by the workmen in the shop under the old type of management, with its single cheap foreman and the appearance of great simplicity. In the first case, however, the work is done by an especially trained body of men who work together like a smoothly running machine, and in the second by a much larger number of men very poorly trained and ill-fitted for this work, and each of whom while doing it is taken away from some other job for which he is well trained. The work which is now done by one sewing machine, intricate in its appearance, was formerly done by a number of women with no apparatus beyond a simple needle and thread.
There is no question that the cost of production is lowered by separating the work of planning and the brain work as much as possible from the manual labor. When this is done, however, it is evident that the brain workers must be given sufficient work to keep them fully busy all the time. They must not be allowed to stand around for a considerable part of their time waiting for their particular kind of work to come along, as is so frequently the case.
The belief is almost universal among manufacturers that for economy the number of brain workers, or non-producers, as they are called, should be as small as possible in proportion to the number of producers, i.e., those who actually work with their hands. An examination of the most successful establishments will, however, show that the reverse is true. A number of years ago the writer made a careful study of the proportion of producers to non-producers in three of the largest and most successful companies in the world, who were engaged in doing the same work in a general way. One of these companies was in France, one in Germany, and one in the United States. Being to a certain extent rivals in business and situated in different countries, naturally neither one had anything to do with the management of the other. In the course of his investigation, the writer found that the managers had never even taken the trouble to ascertain the exact proportion of non-producers to producers in their respective works; so that the organization of each company was an entirely independent evolution.
By non-producers the writer means such employees as all of the general officers, the clerks, foremen, gang bosses, watchmen, messenger boys, draftsmen, salesmen, etc.; and by "producers," only those who actually work with their hands.
In the French and German works there was found to be in each case one non-producer to between six and seven producers, and in the American works one non-producer to about seven producers. The writer found that in the case of another works, doing the same kind of business and whose management was notoriously bad, the proportion of non-producers to producers was one non-producer to about eleven producers. These companies all had large forges, foundries, rolling mills and machine shops turning out a miscellaneous product, much of which was machined. They turned out a highly wrought, elaborate and exact finished product, and did an extensive engineering and miscellaneous machine construction business.
In the case of a company doing a manufacturing business with a uniform and simple product for the maximum economy, the number of producers to each non-producer would of course be larger. No manager need feel alarmed then when he sees the number of non-producers increasing in proportion to producers, providing the non-producers are busy all of their time, and providing, of course, that in each case they are doing efficient work.
It would seem almost unnecessary to dwell upon the desirability of standardizing, not only all of the tools, appliances and implements throughout the works and office, but also the methods to be used in the multitude of small operations which are repeated day after day. There are many good managers of the old school, however, who feel that this standardization is not only unnecessary but that it is undesirable, their principal reason being that it is better to allow each workman to develop his individuality by choosing the particular implements and methods which suit him best. And there is considerable weight in this contention when the scheme of management is to allow each workman to do the work as he pleases and hold him responsible for results. Unfortunately, in ninety-nine out of a hundred such cases only the first part of this plan is carried out. The workman chooses his own methods and implements, but is not held in any strict sense accountable unless the quality of the work is so poor or the quantity turned out is so small as to almost amount to a scandal. In the type of management advocated by the writer, this complete standardization of all details and methods is not only desirable but absolutely indispensable as a preliminary to specifying the time in which each operation shall be done, and then insisting that it shall be done within the time allowed.
Neglecting to take the time and trouble to thoroughly standardize all of such methods and details is one of the chief causes for setbacks and failure in introducing this system. Much better results can be attained, even if poor standards be adopted, than can be reached if some of a given class of implements are the best of their kind while others are poor. It is uniformity that is required. Better have them uniformly second class than mainly first with some second and some third class thrown in at random. In the latter case the workmen will almost always adopt the pace which conforms to the third class instead of the first or second. In fact, however, it is not a matter involving any great expense or time to select in each case standard implements which shall be nearly the best or the best of their kinds. The writer has never failed to make enormous gains in the economy of running by the adoption of standards.
It was in the course of making a series of experiments with various air hardening tool steels with a view to adopting a standard for the Bethlehem works that Mr. J. Maunsel White, together with the writer, discovered the Taylor-White process of treating tool steel, which marks a distinct improvement in the art. The fact that this improvement was made not by manufacturers of tool steel, but in the course of the adoption of standards, shows both the necessity and fruitfulness of methodical and careful investigation in the choice of much neglected details. The economy to be gained through the adoption of uniform standards is hardly realized at all by the managers of this country. No better illustration of this fact is needed than that of the present condition of the cutting tools used throughout the machine shops of the United States. Hardly a shop can be found in which tools made from a dozen different qualities of steel are not used side by side, in many cases with little or no means of telling one make from another; and in addition, the shape of the cutting edge of the tool is in most cases left to the fancy of each individual workman. When one realizes that the cutting speed of the best treated air hardening steel is for a given depth of cut, feed and quality of metal being cut, say sixty feet per minute, while with the same shaped tool made from the best carbon tool steel and with the same conditions, the cutting speed will be only twelve feet per minute, it becomes apparent how little the necessity for rigid standards is appreciated.
Let us take another illustration. The machines of the country are still driven by belting. The motor drive, while it is coming, is still in the future. There is not one establishment in one hundred that does not leave the care and tightening of the belts to the judgment of the individual who runs the machine, although it is well known to all who have given any study to the subject that the most skilled machinist cannot properly tighten a belt without the use of belt clamps fitted with spring balances to properly register the tension. And the writer showed in a paper entitled "Notes on Belting" presented to The American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1893, giving the results of an experiment tried on all of the belts in a machine shop and extending through nine years, in which every detail of the care and tightening and tension of each belt was recorded, that belts properly cared for according to a standard method by a trained laborer would average twice the pulling power and only a fraction of the interruptions to manufacture of those tightened according to the usual methods. The loss now going on throughout the country from failure to adopt and maintain standards for all small details is simply enormous.
It is, however, a good sign for the future that a firm such as Messrs. Dodge & Day of Philadelphia, who are making a specialty of standardizing machine shop details, find their time fully occupied.
What may be called the "exception principle" in management is coming more and more into use, although, like many of the other elements of this art, it is used in isolated cases, and in most instances without recognizing it as a principle which should extend throughout the entire field. It is not an uncommon sight, though a sad one, to see the manager of a large business fairly swamped at his desk with an ocean of letters and reports, on each of which he thinks that he should put his initial or stamp. He feels that by having this mass of detail pass over his desk he is keeping in close touch with the entire business. The exception principle is directly the reverse of this. Under it the manager should receive only condensed, summarized, and invariably comparative reports, covering, however, all of the elements entering into the management, and even these summaries should all be carefully gone over by an assistant before they reach the manager, and have all of the exceptions to the past averages or to the standards pointed out, both the especially good and especially bad exceptions, thus giving him in a few minutes a full view of progress which is being made, or the reverse, and leaving him free to consider the broader lines of policy and to study the character and fitness of the important men under him. The exception principle can be applied in many ways, and the writer will endeavor to give some further illustrations of it later.
The writer has dwelt at length upon the desirability of concentrating as much as possible clerical and brain work in the planning department. There is, however, one such important exception to this rule that it would seem desirable to call attention to it. As already stated, the planning room gives its orders and instructions to the men mainly in writing and of necessity must also receive prompt and reliable written returns and reports which shall enable its members to issue orders for the next movement of each piece, lay out the work for each man for the following day, properly post the balance of work and materials accounts, enter the records on cost accounts and also enter the time and pay of each man on the pay sheet. There is no question that all of this information can be given both better and cheaper by the workman direct than through the intermediary of a walking time keeper, providing the proper instruction and report system has been introduced in the works with carefully ruled and printed instruction and return cards, and particularly providing a complete mnemonic system of symbols has been adopted so as to save the workmen the necessity of doing much writing. The principle to which the writer wishes to call particular attention is that the only way in which workmen can be induced to write out all of this information accurately and promptly is by having each man write his own time while on day work and pay when on piece work on the same card on which he is to enter the other desired information, and then refusing to enter his pay on the pay sheet until after all of the required information has been correctly given by him. Under this system as soon as a workman completes a job and at quitting time, whether the job is completed or not, he writes on a printed time card all of the information needed by the planning room in connection with that job, signs it and forwards it at once to the planning room. On arriving in the planning room each time card passes through the order of work or route clerk, the balance clerk, the cost clerk, etc., on its way to the pay sheet, and unless the workman has written the desired information the card is sent back to him, and he is apt to correct and return it promptly so as to have his pay entered up. The principle is clear that if one wishes to have routine clerical work done promptly and correctly it should somehow be attached to the pay card of the man who is to give it. This principle, of course, applies to the information desired from inspectors, gang bosses and others as well as workmen, and to reports required from various clerks. In the case of reports, a pay coupon can be attached to the report which will be detached and sent to the pay sheet as soon as the report has been found correct.
Before starting to make any radical changes leading toward an improvement in the system of management, it is desirable, and for ultimate success in most cases necessary, that the directors and the important owners of an enterprise shall be made to understand, at least in a general way, what is involved in the change. They should be informed of the leading objects which the new system aims at, such, for instance, as rendering mutual the interests of employer and employee through "high wages and low labor cost," the gradual selection and development of a body of first class picked workmen who will work extra hard and receive extra high wages and be dealt with individually instead of in masses. They should thoroughly understand that this can only be accomplished through the adoption of precise and exact methods, and having each smallest detail, both as to methods and appliances, carefully selected so as to be the best of its kind. They should understand the general philosophy of the system and should see that, as a whole, it must be in harmony with its few leading ideas, and that principles and details which are admirable in one type of management have no place whatever in another. They should be shown that it pays to employ an especial corps to introduce a new system just as it pays to employ especial designers and workmen to build a new plant; that, while a new system is being introduced, almost twice the number of foremen are required as are needed to run it after it is in; that all of this costs money, but that, unlike a new plant, returns begin to come in almost from the start from improved methods and appliances as they are introduced, and that in most cases the new system more than pays for itself as it goes along; that time, and a great deal of time, is involved in a radical change in management, and that in the case of a large works if they are incapable of looking ahead and patiently waiting for from two to four years, they had better leave things just as they are, since a change of system involves a change in the ideas, point of view and habits of many men with strong convictions and prejudices, and that this can only be brought about slowly and chiefly through a series of object lessons, each of which takes time, and through continued reasoning; and that for this reason, after deciding to adopt a given type, the necessary steps should be taken as fast as possible, one after another, for its introduction. The directors should be convinced that an increase m the proportion of non-producers to producers means increased economy and not red tape, providing the non-producers are kept busy at their respective functions. They should be prepared to lose some of their valuable men who cannot stand the change and also for the continued indignant protest of many of their old and trusted employees who can see nothing but extravagance in the new ways and ruin ahead. It is a matter of the first importance that, in addition to the directors of the company, all of those connected with the management should be given a broad and comprehensive view of the general objects to be attained and the means which will be employed. They should fully realize before starting on their work and should never lose sight of the fact that the great object of the new organization is to bring about two momentous changes in the men:
First. A complete revolution in their mental attitude toward their employers and their work.
Second. As a result of this change of feeling such an increase in their determination and physical activity, and such an improvement in the conditions under which the work is done as will result in many cases in their turning out from two to three times as much work as they have done in the past.
First, then, the men must be brought to see that the new system changes their employers from antagonists to friends who are working as hard as possible side by side with them, all pushing in the same direction and all helping to bring about such an increase in the output and to so cheapen the cost of production that the men will be paid permanently from thirty to one hundred per cent more than they have earned in the past, and that there will still be a good profit left over for the company. At first workmen cannot see why, if they do twice as much work as they have done, they should not receive twice the wages. When the matter is properly explained to them and they have time to think it over, they will see that in most cases the increase in output is quite as much due to the improved appliances and methods, to the maintenance of standards and to the great help which they receive from the men over them as to their own harder work. They will realize that the company must pay for the introduction of the improved system, which costs thousands of dollars, and also the salaries of the additional foremen and of the clerks, etc., in the planning room as well as tool room and other expenses and that, in addition, the company is entitled to an increased profit quite as much as the men are. All but a few of them will come to understand in a general way that under the new order of things they are cooperating with their employers to make as great a saving as possible and that they will receive permanently their fair share of this gain.
Then after the men acquiesce in the new order of things and are willing to do their part toward cheapening production, it will take time for them to change from their old easy-going ways to a higher rate of speed, and to learn to stay steadily at their work, think ahead and make every minute count. A certain percentage of them, with the best of intentions, will fail in this and find that they have no place in the new organization, while still others, and among them some of the best workers who are, however, either stupid or stubborn, can never be made to see that the new system is as good as the old; and these, too, must drop out. Let no one imagine, however, that this great change in the mental attitude of the men and the increase in their activity can be brought about by merely talking to them. Talking will be most useful—in fact indispensable—and no opportunity should be lost of explaining matters to them patiently, one man at a time, and giving them every chance to express their views.
Their real instruction, however, must come through a series of object lessons. They must be convinced that a great increase in speed is possible by seeing here and there a man among them increase his pace and double or treble his output. They must see this pace maintained until they are convinced that it is not a mere spurt; and, most important of all, they must see the men who "get there" in this way receive a proper increase in wages and become satisfied. It is only with these object lessons in plain sight that the new theories can be made to stick. It will be in presenting these object lessons and in smoothing away the difficulties so that tile high speed can be maintained, and in assisting to form public opinion in the shop, that the great efficiency of functional foremanship under the direction of the planning room will first become apparent.
In reaching the final high rate of speed which shall be steadily maintained, the broad fact should be realized that the men must pass through several distinct phases, rising from one plane of efficiency to another until the final level is reached. First they must be taught to work under an improved system of day work. Each man must learn how to give up his own particular way of doing things, adapt his methods to the many new standards, and grow accustomed to receiving and obeying directions covering details, large and small, which in the past have been left to his individual judgment. At first the workmen can see nothing in all of this but red tape and impertinent interference, and time must be allowed them to recover from their irritation, not only at this, but at every stage in their upward march. If they have been classed together and paid uniform wages for each class, the better men should be singled out and given higher wages so that they shall distinctly recognize the fact that each man is to be paid according to his individual worth. After becoming accustomed to direction in minor matters, they must gradually learn to obey instructions as to the pace at which they are to work, and grasp the idea, first, that the planning department knows accurately how long each operation should take; and second, that sooner or later they will have to work at the required speed if they expect to prosper. After they are used to following the speed instructions given them, then one at a time they can be raised to the level of maintaining a rapid pace throughout the day. And it is not until this final step has been taken that the full measure of the value of the new system will be felt by the men through daily receiving larger wages, and by the company through a materially larger output and lower cost of production. It is evident, of course, that all of the workmen in the shop will not rise together from one level to another. Those engaged in certain lines of work will have reached their final high speed while others have barely taken the first step. The efforts of the new management should not be spread out thin over the whole shop. They should rather be focused upon a few points, leaving the ninety and nine under the care of their former shepherds. After the efficiency of the men who are receiving special assistance and training has been raised to the desired level, the means for holding them there should be perfected, and they should never be allowed to lapse into their old ways. This will, of course, be accomplished in the most permanent way and rendered almost automatic, either through introducing task work with a bonus or the differential rate.
Before taking any steps toward changing methods the manager should realize that at no time during the introduction of the system should any broad, sweeping changes be made which seriously affect a large number of the workmen. It would be preposterous, for instance, in going from day to piece work to start a large number of men on piece work at the same time. Throughout the early stages of organization each change made should affect one workman only, and after the single man affected has become used to the new order of things, then change one man after another from the old system to the new, slowly at first, and rapidly as public opinion in the shop swings around under the influence of proper object lessons. Throughout a considerable part of the time, then, there will be two distinct systems of management in operation in the same shop; and in many cases it is desirable to have the men working under the new system managed by an entirely different set of foremen, etc., from those under the old.
The first step, after deciding upon the type of organization, should be the selection of a competent man to take charge of the introduction of the new system. The manager should think himself fortunate if he can get such a man at almost any price, since the task is a difficult and thankless one and but few men can be found who possess the necessary information coupled with the knowledge of men, the nerve, and the tact required for success in this work. The manager should keep himself free as far as possible from all active part in the introduction of the new system. While changes are going on it will require his entire energies to see that there is no falling off in the efficiency of the old system and that the quality and quantity of the output is kept up. The mistake which is usually made when a change in system is decided upon is that the manager and his principal assistants undertake to make all of the improvements themselves during their spare time, with the common result that weeks, months, and years go by without anything great being accomplished. The respective duties of the manager and the man in charge of improvement, and the limits of the authority of the latter should be clearly defined and agreed upon, always bearing in mind that responsibility should invariably be accompanied by its corresponding measure of authority.
The worst mistake that can be made is to refer to any part of the system as being "on trial." Once a given step is decided upon, all parties must be made to understand that it will go whether any one around the place likes it or not. In making changes in system the things that are given a "fair trial" fail, while the things that "must go," go all right.
To decide where to begin is a perplexing and bewildering problem which faces the reorganizer in management when he arrives in a large establishment. In making this decision, as in taking each subsequent step, the most important consideration, which should always be first in the mind of the reformer, is "what effect will this step have upon the workmen?" Through some means (it would almost appear some especial sense) the workman seems to scent the approach of a reformer even before his arrival in town. Their suspicions are thoroughly aroused, and they are on the alert for sweeping changes which are to be against their interests and which they are prepared to oppose from the start. Through generations of bitter experiences working men as a class have teamed to look upon all change as antagonistic to their best interests. They do not ask the object of the change, but oppose it simply as change. The first changes, therefore, should be such as to allay the suspicions of the men and convince them by actual contact that the reforms are after all rather harmless and are only such as will ultimately be of benefit to all concerned. Such improvements then as directly affect the workmen least should be started first. At the same time it must be remembered that the whole operation is of necessity so slow that the new system should be started at as many points as possible, and constantly pushed as hard as possible. In the metal working plant which we are using for purposes of illustration a start can be made at once along all of the following lines:
First. The introduction of standards throughout the works and office.
Second. The scientific study of unit times on several different kinds of work.
Third. A complete analysis of the pulling, feeding power and the proper speeding of the various machine tools throughout the place with a view of making a slide rule for properly running each machine.
Fourth. The work of establishing the system of time cards by means of which ultimately all of the desired information will be conveyed from the men to the planning room.
Fifth. Overhauling the stores issuing and receiving system so as to establish a complete running balance of materials.
Sixth. Ruling and printing the various blanks that will be required for shop returns and reports, time cards, instruction cards, expense sheets, cost sheets, pay sheet, and balance records; storeroom; tickler; and maintenance of standards, system, and plant, etc.; and starting such functions of the planning room as do not directly affect the men.
If the works is a large one, the man in charge of introducing the system should appoint a special assistant in charge of each of the above functions just as an engineer designing a new plant would start a number of draftsmen to work upon the various elements of construction. Several of these assistants will be brought into close contact with the men, who will in this way gradually get used to seeing changes going on and their suspicion, both of the new men and the methods, will have been allayed to such an extent before any changes which seriously affect them are made, that little or no determined opposition on their part need be anticipated. The most important and difficult task of the organizer will be that of selecting and training the various functional foremen who are to lead and instruct the workmen, and his success will be measured principally by his ability to mold and reach these men. They cannot be found, they must be made. They must be instructed in their new functions largely, in the beginning at least, by the organizer himself; and this instruction, to be effective, should be mainly in actually doing the work. Explanation and theory Will go a little way, but actual doing is needed to carry conviction. To illustrate: For nearly two and one-half years in the large shop of the Bethlehem Steel Company, one speed boss after another was instructed in the art of cutting metals fast on a large motor-driven lathe which was especially fitted to run at any desired speed within a very wide range. The work done in this machine was entirely connected, either with the study of cutting tools or the instruction of speed bosses. It was most interesting to see these men, principally either former gang bosses or the best workmen, gradually change from their attitude of determined and positive opposition to that in most cases of enthusiasm for, and earnest support of, the new methods. It was actually running the lathe themselves according to the new method and under the most positive and definite orders that produced the effect. The writer himself ran the lathe and instructed the first few bosses. It required from three weeks to two months for each man. Perhaps the most important part of the gang boss's and foreman's education lies ill teaching them to promptly obey orders and instructions received not only from the superintendent or some official high in the company, but from any member of the planning room whose especial function it is to direct the rest of the works in his particular line; and it may be accepted as an unquestioned fact that no gang boss is fit to direct his men until after he has learned to promptly obey instructions received from any proper source, whether he likes his instructions and the instructor or not, and even although he may be convinced that he knows a much better way of doing the work. The first step is for each man to learn to obey the laws as they exist, and next, if the laws are wrong, to have them reformed in the proper way.
In starting to organize even a comparatively small shop, containing say from 75 to 100 men, it is best to begin by training in the full number of functional foremen, one for each function, since it must be remembered that about two out of three of those who are taught this work either leave of their own accord or prove unsatisfactory; and in addition, while both the workmen and bosses are adjusting themselves to their new duties, there are needed fully twice the number of bosses as are required to carry on the work after it is fully systematized.
Unfortunately, there is no means of selecting in advance those out of a number of candidates for a given work who are likely to prove successful. Many of those who appear to have all of the desired qualities, and who talk and appear the best, will turn out utter failures, while on the other hand, some of the most unlikely men rise to the top. The fact is that the more attractive qualities of good manners, education, and even special training and skill, which are more apparent on the surface, count for less in an executive position than the grit, determination and bulldog endurance and tenacity that knows no defeat and comes up smiling to be knocked down over and over again. The two qualities which count most for success in this kind of executive work are grit and what may be called "constructive imagination"—the faculty which enables a man to use the few facts that are stored in his mind in getting around the obstacles that oppose him, and in building up something useful in spite of them; and unfortunately, the presence of these qualities, together with honesty and common sense, can only be proved through an actual trial at executive work. As we all know, success at college or in the technical school does not indicate the presence of these qualities, even though the man may have worked hard. Mainly, it would seem, because the work of obtaining an education is principally that of absorption and assimilation; while that of active practical life is principally the direct reverse, namely, that of giving out.
In selecting men to be tried as foremen, or in fact for any position throughout the place, from the day laborer up, one of two different types of men should be chosen, according to the nature of the work to be done. For one class of work, men should be selected who are too good for the job; and for the other class of work, men who are barely good enough.
If the work is of a routine nature, in which the same operations are likely to be done over and over again, with no great variety, and in which there is no apparent prospect of a radical change being made, perhaps through a term of years, even though the work itself may be complicated in its nature, a man should be selected whose abilities are barely equal to the task. Time and training will fit him for his work, and since he will be better paid than in the past, and will realize that he has been given the chance to make his abilities yield him the largest return—all of the elements for promoting contentment will be present; and those men who are blessed with cheerful dispositions will become satisfied and remain so. Of course, a considerable part of mankind is so born or educated that permanent contentment is out of the question. No one, however, should be influenced by the discontent of this class.
On the other hand, if the work to be done is of great variety—particularly if improvements in methods are to be anticipated—throughout the period of active organization the men engaged in systematizing should be too good for their jobs. For such work, men should be selected whose mental caliber and attainments will fit them, ultimately at least, to command higher wages than can be afforded on the work which they are at. It will prove a wise policy to promote such men both to better positions and pay, when they have shown themselves capable of accomplishing results and the opportunity offers. The results which these high-class men will accomplish, and the comparatively short time which they will take in organizing, will much more than pay for the expense and trouble, later on, of training other men, cheaper and of less capacity, to take their places. In many cases, however, gang bosses and men will develop faster than new positions open for them. When this occurs, it will pay employers well to find them positions in other works, either with better pay, or larger opportunities; not only as a matter of kindly feeling and generosity toward their men, but even more with the object of promoting the best interests of their own establishments. For one man lost in this way, five will be stimulated to work to the very limit of their abilities, and will rise ultimately to take the place of the man who has gone, and the best class of men will apply for work where these methods prevail. But few employers, however, are sufficiently broad-minded to adopt this policy. They dread the trouble and temporary inconvenience incident to training in new men.
Mr. James M. Dodge, Chairman of the Board of the Link-Belt Company, is one of the few men with whom the writer is acquainted who has been led by his kindly instincts, as well as by a far-sighted policy, to treat his employees in this way; and this, together with the personal magnetism and influence which belong to men of his type, has done much to render his shop one of the model establishments of the country, certainly as far as the relations of employer and men are concerned. On the other hand, this policy of promoting men and finding them new positions has its limits. No worse mistake can be made than that of allowing an establishment to be looked upon as a training school, to be used mainly for the education of many of its employees. All employees should bear in mind that each shop exists, first, last, and all the time, for the purpose of paying dividends to its owners. They should have patience, and never lose sight of this fact. And no man should expect promotion until after he has trained his successor to take his place. The writer is quite sure that in his own case, as a young man, no one element was of such assistance to him in obtaining new opportunities as the practice of invariably training another man to fill his position before asking for advancement.
The first of the functional foremen to be brought into actual contact with the men should be the inspector; and the whole system of inspection, with its proper safeguards, should be in smooth and successful operation before any steps are taken toward stimulating the men to a larger output; otherwise an increase in quantity will probably be accompanied by a falling off in quality.
Next choose for the application of the two principal functional foremen, viz., the speed boss and the gang boss, that portion of the work in which there is the largest need of, and opportunity for, making a gain. It is of the utmost importance that the first combined application of time study, slide rules, instruction cards, functional foremanship, and a premium for a large daily task should prove a success both for the workmen and for the company, and for this reason a simple class of work should be chosen for a start. The entire efforts of the new management should be centered on one point, and continue there until unqualified success has been attained.
When once this gain has been made, a peg should be put in which shall keep it from sliding back in the least; and it is here that the task idea with a time limit for each job will be found most useful. Under ordinary piece work, or the Towne-Halsey plan, the men are likely at any time to slide back a considerable distance without having it particularly noticed either by them or the management. With the task idea, the first falling off is instantly felt by the workman through the loss of his day's bonus, or his differential rate, and is thereby also forcibly brought to the attention of the management.
There is one rather natural difficulty which arises when the functional foremanship is first introduced. Men who were formerly either gang bosses, or foremen, are usually chosen as functional foremen, and these men, when they find their duties restricted to their particular functions, while they formerly were called upon to do everything, at first feel dissatisfied. They think that their field of usefulness is being greatly contracted. This is, however, a theoretical difficulty, which disappears when they really get into the full swing of their new positions. In fact the new position demands an amount of special information, forethought, and a clear-cut, definite responsibility that they have never even approximated in the past, and which is amply sufficient to keep all of their best faculties and energies alive and fully occupied. It is the experience of the writer that there is a great commercial demand for men with this sort of definite knowledge, who are used to accepting real responsibility and getting results; so that the training in their new duties renders them more instead of less valuable.
As a rule, the writer has found that those who were growling the most, and were loudest in asserting that they ought to be doing the whole thing, were only one-half or one-quarter performing their own particular functions. This desire to do every one's else work in addition to their own generally disappears when they are held to strict account in their particular line, and are given enough work to keep them hustling.
There are many people who will disapprove of the whole scheme of a planning department to do the thinking for the men, as well as a number of foremen to assist and lead each man in his work, on the ground that this does not tend to promote independence, self-reliance, and originality in the individual. Those holding this view, however, must take exception to the whole trend of modern industrial development; and it appears to the writer that they overlook the real facts in the case.
It is true, for instance, that the planning room, and functional foremanship, render it possible for an intelligent laborer or helper in time to do much of the work now done by a machinist. Is not this a good thing for the laborer and helper? He is given a higher class of work, which tends to develop him and gives him better wages. In the sympathy for the machinist the case of the laborer is overlooked. This sympathy for the machinist is, however, wasted, since the machinist, with the aid of the new system, will rise to a higher class of work which he was unable to do in the past, and in addition, divided or functional foremanship will call for a larger number of men in this class, so that men, who must otherwise have remained machinists all their lives, will have the opportunity of rising to a foremanship.
The demand for men of originality and brains was never so great as it is now, and the modern subdivision of labor, instead of dwarfing men, enables them all along the line to rise to a higher plane of efficiency, involving at the same time more brain work and less monotony. The type of man who was formerly a day laborer and digging dirt is now for instance making shoes in a shoe factory. The dirt handling is done by Italians or Hungarians.
After the planning room with functional foremanship has accomplished its most difficult task, of teaching the men how to do a full day's work themselves, and also how to get it out of their machines steadily, then, if desired, the number of non-producers can be diminished, preferably, by giving each type of functional foreman more to do in his specialty; or in the case of a very small shop, by combining two different functions in the same man. The former expedient is, however, much to be preferred to the latter. There need never be any worry about what is to become of those engaged in systematizing after the period of active organization is over. The difficulty will still remain even with functional foremanship, that of getting enough good men to fill the positions, and the demand for competent gang bosses will always be so great that no good boss need look for a job.
Of all the farces in management the greatest is that of an establishment organized along well planned lines, with all of the elements needed for success, and yet which fails to get either output or economy. There must be some man or men present in the organization who will not mistake the form for the essence, and who will have brains enough to find out those of their employees who "get there," and nerve enough to make it unpleasant for those who fail, as well as to reward those who succeed. No system can do away with the need of real men. Both system and good men are needed, and after introducing the best system, success will be in proportion to the ability, consistency, and respected authority of the management.
In a book of this sort, it would be manifestly impossible to discuss at any length all of the details which go toward making the system a success. Some of them are of such importance as to render at least a brief reference to them necessary. And first among these comes the study of unit times.
This, as already explained, is the most important element of the system advocated by the writer. Without it, the definite, clear-cut directions given to the workman, and the assigning of a full, yet just, daily task, with its premium for success, would be impossible; and the arch without the keystone would fall to the ground.
In 1883, while foreman of the machine shop of the Midvale Steel Company of Philadelphia, it occurred to the writer that it was simpler to time with a stop watch each of the elements of the various kinds of work done in the place, and then find the quickest time in which each job could be done by summing up the total times of its component parts, than it was to search through the time records of former jobs and guess at the proper time and price. After practicing this method of time study himself for about a year, as well as circumstances would permit, it became evident that the system was a success.
The writer then established the time-study and rate-fixing department, which has given out piece work prices in the place ever since.
This department far more than paid for itself from the very start; but it was several years before the full benefits of the system were felt, owing to the fact that the best methods of making and recording time observations, as well as of determining the maximum capacity of each of the machines in the place, and of making working tables and time tables, were not at first adopted.
It has been the writer's experience that the difficulties of scientific time study are underestimated at first, and greatly overestimated after actually trying the work for two or three months. The average manager who decides to undertake the study of unit times in his works fails at first to realize that he is starting a new art or trade. He understands, for instance, the difficulties which he would meet with in establishing a drafting room, and would look for but small results at first, if he were to give a bright man the task of making drawings, who had never worked in a drafting room, and who was not even familiar with drafting implements and methods, but he entirely underestimates the difficulties of this new trade.
The art of studying unit times is quite as important and as difficult as that of the draftsman. It should be undertaken seriously, and looked upon as a profession. It has its own peculiar implements and methods, without the use and understanding of which progress will necessarily be slow, and in the absence of which there will be more failures than successes scored at first.
When, on the other hand, an energetic, determined man goes at time study as if it were his life's work, with the determination to succeed, the results which he can secure are little short of astounding. The difficulties of the task will be felt at once and so strongly by any one who undertakes it, that it seems important to encourage the beginner by giving at least one illustration of what has been accomplished.
Mr. Sanford E. Thompson, C. E., started in 1896 with but small help from the writer, except as far as the implements and methods are concerned, to study the time required to do all kinds of work in the building trades. In six years he has made a complete study of eight of the most important trades—excavation, masonry (including sewer-work and paving), carpentry, concrete and cement work, lathing and plastering, slating and roofing and rock quarrying. He took every stop watch observation himself and then, with the aid of two comparatively cheap assistants, worked up and tabulated all of his data ready for the printer. The magnitude of this undertaking will be appreciated when it is understood that the tables and descriptive matter for one of these trades alone take up about 250 pages. Mr. Thompson and the writer are both engineers, but neither of us was especially familiar with the above trades, and this work could not have been accomplished in a lifetime without the study of elementary units with a stop watch.
In the course of this work, Mr. Thompson has developed what are in many respects the best implements in use, and with his permission some of them will be described. The blank form or note sheet used by Mr. Thompson, shown in Fig. 2 (see page 151), contains essentially: [Transcriber's note — Figure 2 omitted]
(1) Space for the description of the work and notes in regard to it.
(2) A place for recording the total time of complete operations—that is, the gross time including all necessary delays, for doing a whole job or large portions of it.
(3) Lines for setting down the "detail operations, or units" into which any piece of work may be divided, followed by columns for entering the averages obtained from the observations.
(4) Squares for recording the readings of the stop watch when observing the times of these elements. If these squares are filled, additional records can be entered on the back. The size of the sheets, which should be of best quality ledger paper, is 8 3/4 inches wide by 7 inches long, and by folding in the center they can be conveniently carried in the pocket, or placed in a case (see Fig. 3, page 153) containing one or more stop watches.
This case, or "watch book," is another device of Mr. Thompson's. It consists of a frame work, containing concealed in it one, two, or three watches, whose stop and start movements can be operated by pressing with the fingers of the left hand upon the proper portion of the cover of the note-book without the knowledge of the workman who is being observed. The frame is bound in a leather case resembling a pocket note-book, and has a place for the note sheets described.
The writer does not believe at all in the policy of spying upon the workman when taking time observations for the purpose of time study. If the men observed are to be ultimately affected by the results of these observations, it is generally best to come out openly, and let them know that they are being timed, and what the object of the timing is. There are many cases, however, in which telling the workman that he was being timed in a minute way would only result in a row, and in defeating the whole object of the timing; particularly when only a few time units are to be studied on one man's work, and when this man will not be personally affected by the results of the observations. In these cases, the watch book of Mr. Thompson, holding the watches in the cover, is especially useful. A good deal of judgment is required to know when to time openly, or the reverse.
FIGURE 3. -WATCH BOOK FOR TIME STUDY[Transcriber's note — Figure 3 omitted]
The operation selected for illustration on the note sheet shown in Fig. 2, page 151, is the excavation of earth with wheelbarrows, and the values given are fair averages of actual contract work where the wheelbarrow man fills his own barrow. It is obvious that similar methods of analyzing and recording may be applied to work ranging from unloading coal to skilled labor on fine machine tools.
The method of using the note sheets for timing a workman is as follows:
After entering the necessary descriptive matter at the top of the sheet, divide the operation to be timed into its elementary units, and write these units one after another under the heading "Detail Operations." If the job is long and complicated, it may be analyzed while the timing is going on, and the elementary units entered then instead of beforehand. In wheelbarrow work as illustrated in the example shown on the note sheet, the elementary units consist of "filling barrow," "starting" (which includes throwing down shovel and lifting handles of barrow), "wheeling full," etc. These units might have been further subdivided—the first one into time for loading one shovelful, or still further into the time for filling and the time for emptying each shovelful. The letters a, b, c, etc., which are printed, are simply for convenience in designating the elements.
We are now ready for the stop watch, which, to save clerical work, should be provided with a decimal dial similar to that shown in Fig. 4. The method of using this and recording the times depends upon the character of the time observations. In all cases, however, the stop watch times are recorded in the columns headed "Time" at the top of the right-hand half of the note sheet. These columns are the only place on the face of the sheet where stop watch readings are to be entered. If more space is required for these times, they should be entered on the back of the sheet. The rest of the figures (except those on the left-hand side of the note sheet, which may be taken from an ordinary timepiece) are the results of calculation, and may be made in the office by any clerk.
FIGURE 4. -STOP WATCH WITH DECIMAL FACE[Transcriber's note — omitted]
As has been stated, the method of recording the stop watch observations depends upon the work which is being observed. If the operation consists of the same element repeated over and over, the time of each may be set down separately; or, if the element is very small, the total time of, say, ten may be entered as a fraction, with the time for all ten observations as the numerator, and the number of observations for the denominator.
In the illustration given on the note sheet, Fig. 2, the operation consists of a series of elements. In such a case, the letters designating each elementary unit are entered under the columns "Op.," the stop watch is thrown to zero, and started as the man commences to work. As each new division of the operation (that is, as each elementary unit or unit time) is begun, the time is recorded. During any special delay the watch may be stopped, and started again from the same point, although, as a rule, Mr. Thompson advocates allowing the watch to run continuously, and enters the time of such a stop, designating it for convenience by the letter "Y."
In the case we are considering, two kinds of materials were handled sand and clay. The time of each of the unit times, except the "filling," is the same for both sand and clay; hence, if we have sufficient observations on either one of the materials, the only element of the other which requires to be timed is the loading. This illustrates one of the merits of the elementary system.
The column "Av." is filled from the preceding column. The figures thus found are the actual net times of the different unit times. These unit times are averaged and entered in the "Time" column, on the lower half of the right-hand page, preceded, in the "No." column, by the number of observations which have been taken of each unit. These times, combined and compared with the gross times on the left-hand page, will determine the percentage lost in resting and other necessary delays. A convenient method for obtaining the time of an operation, like picking, in which the quantity is difficult to measure, is suggested by the records on the left-hand page.
The percentage of the time taken in rest and other necessary delays, which is noted on the sheet as, in this case, about 27 per cent, is obtained by a comparison of the average net "time per barrow" on the right with the "time per barrow" on the left. The latter is the quotient of the total time shoveling and wheeling divided by the number of loads wheeled.
It must be remembered that the example given is simply for illustration. To obtain accurate average times, for any item of work under specified conditions, it is necessary to take observations upon a number of men, each of whom is at work under conditions which are comparable. The total number of observations which should be taken of any one elementary unit depends upon its variableness, and also upon its frequency of occurrence in a day's work.
An expert observer can, on many kinds of work, time two or three men at the same time with the same watch, or he can operate two or three watches—one for each man. A note sheet can contain only a comparatively few observations. It is not convenient to make it of larger size than the dimensions given, when a watch-book is to be used, although it is perfectly feasible to make the horizontal rulings 8 lines to the inch instead of 5 lines to the inch as on the sample sheet. There will have to be, in almost all cases, a large number of note sheets on the same subject. Some system must be arranged for collecting and tabulating these records. On Tables 2A and 2B (pages 160 and 161) is shown the form used for tabulating. The length should be either 17 or 22 inches. The height of the form is 11 inches. With these dimensions a form may be folded and filed with ordinary letter sheets (8 1/2 inches by 11 inches). The ruling which has been found most convenient is for the vertical divisions 3 columns to 1 1/8 inches, while the horizontal lines are ruled 6 to the inch. The columns may, or may not, have printed headings.
The data from the note sheet in Fig. 2 (page 151) is copied on to the table for illustration. The first columns of the table are descriptive. The rest of them are arranged so as to include all of the unit times, with any other data which are to be averaged or used when studying the results. At the extreme right of the sheet the gross times, including rest and necessary delay, are recorded and the percentages of rest are calculated.
Formulae are convenient for combining the elements. For simplicity, in the example of barrow excavation, each of the unit times may be designated by the same letters used on the note sheet (Fig. 2) although in practice each element can best be designated .by the initial letters of the words describing it.
Let
a = time filling a barrow with any material.
b = time preparing to wheel.
c = time wheeling full barrow 100 feet.
d = time dumping and turning.
e = time returning 100 feet with empty barrow.
f = time dropping barrow and starting to shovel.
p = time loosening one cubic yard with the pick.
P = percentage of a day required to rest and necessary delays.
L = load of a barrow in cubic feet.
B = time per cubic yard picking, loading, and wheeling any given kind of earth to any given distance when the wheeler loads his own barrow.
[Transcriber's note — formula and Tables omitted]
This general formula for barrow work can be simplified by choosing average values for the constants, and substituting numerals for the letters now representing them. Substituting the average values from the note sheet on Fig. 2 (page 151), our formula becomes: [Transcriber's note — formula omitted]
In classes of work where the percentage of rest varies with the different elements of an operation it is most convenient to correct all of the elementary times by the proper percentages before combining them. Sometimes after having constructed a general formula, it may be solved by setting down the substitute numerical values in a vertical column for direct addition.
Table 3 (page 164) gives the times for throwing earth to different distances and different heights. It will be seen that for each special material the time for filling shovel remains the same regardless of the distance to which it is thrown. Each kind of material requires a different time for filling the shovel. The time throwing one shovelful, on the other hand, varies with the length of throw, but for any given distance it is the same for all of the earths. If the earth is of such a nature that it sticks to the shovel, this relation does not hold. For the elements of shoveling we have therefore:
s = time filling shovel and straightening up ready to throw.
t = time throwing one shovelful.
w = time walking one foot with loaded shovel.
w1 = time returning one foot with empty shovel.
L = load of a shovel in cubic feet.
P = percentage of a day required for rest and necessary delays.
T = time for shoveling one cubic yard.
Our formula, then, for handling any earth after it is loosened, is:[Transcriber's note — omitted]
Where the material is simply thrown without walking, the formula becomes:
If weights are used instead of volumes:[Transcriber's note — omitted]
The writer has found the printed form shown on the insert, Fig. 5 (opposite page 166), useful in studying unit times in a certain class of the hand work done in a machine shop. This blank is fastened to a thin board held in the left hand and resting on the left arm of the observer. A stop watch is inserted in a small compartment attached to the back of the board at a point a little above its center, the face of the watch being seen from the front of the board through a small flap cut partly loose from the observation blank. While the watch is operated by the fingers of the left hand, the right hand of the operator is at all times free to enter the time observations on the blank. A pencil sketch of the work to be observed is made in the blank space on the upper left-hand portion of the sheet. In using this blank, of course, all attempt at secrecy is abandoned.
The mistake usually made by beginners is that of failing to note in sufficient detail the various conditions surrounding the job. It is not at first appreciated that the whole work of the time observer is useless if there is any doubt as to even one of these conditions. Such items, for instance, as the name of the man or men on the work, the number of helpers, and exact description of all of the implements used, even those which seem unimportant, such, for instance, as the diameter and length of bolts and the style of clamps used, the weight of the piece upon which work is being done, etc.
It is also desirable that, as soon as practicable after taking a few complete sets of time observations, the operator should be given the opportunity of working up one or two sets at least by summing up the unit times and allowing the proper per cent of rest, etc., and putting them into practical use, either by comparing his results with the actual time of a job which is known to be done in fast time, or by setting a time which a workman is to live up to.