Judgment or common sense and

Good health.

Plenty of men who possess only three of the above qualities can be hired

at any time for laborers' wages. Add four of these qualities together

and you get a higher priced man. The man combining five of these

qualities begins to be hard to find, and those with six, seven, and

eight are almost impossible to get. Having this fact in mind, let us go

over the duties which a gang boss in charge, say, of lathes or planers,

is called upon to perform, and note the knowledge and qualities which

they call for. First. He must be a good machinist--and this alone calls

for years of special training, and limits the choice to a comparatively

small class of men.

Second. He must be able to read drawings readily, and have sufficient

imagination to see the work in its finished state clearly before him.

This calls for at least a certain amount of brains and education.

Third. He must plan ahead and see that the right jigs, clamps, and

appliances, as well as proper cutting tools, are on hand, and are used

to set the work correctly in the machine and cut the metal at the right

speed and feed. This calls for the ability to concentrate the mind upon

a multitude of small details, and take pains with little, uninteresting

things.

Fourth. He must see that each man keeps his machine clean and in good

order. This calls for the example of a man who is naturally neat and

orderly himself.

Fifth. He must see that each man turns out work of the proper quality.

This calls for the conservative judgment and the honesty which are the

qualities of a good inspector.

Sixth. He must see that the men under him work steadily and fast. To

accomplish this he should himself be a hustler, a man of energy, ready

to pitch in and infuse life into his men by working faster than they do,

and this quality is rarely combined with the painstaking care, the

neatness and the conservative judgment demanded as the third, fourth,

and fifth requirements of a gang boss.

Seventh. He must constantly look ahead over the whole field of work and

see that the parts go to the machines in their proper sequence, and that

the right job gets to each machine.

Eighth. He must, at least in a general way, supervise the timekeeping

and fix piece work rates. Both the seventh and eighth duties call for a

certain amount of clerical work and ability, and this class of work is

almost always repugnant to the man suited to active executive work, and

difficult for him to do; and the rate-fixing alone requires the whole

time and careful study of a man especially suited to its minute detail.

Ninth. He must discipline the men under him, and readjust their wages;

and these duties call for judgment, tact, and judicial fairness.

It is evident, then, that the duties which the ordinary gang boss is

called upon to perform would demand of him a large proportion of the

nine attributes mentioned above; and if such a man could be found he

should be made manager or superintendent of a works instead of gang

boss. However, bearing in mind the fact that plenty of men can be had

who combine four or five of these attributes, it becomes evident that

the work of management should be so subdivided that the various

positions can be filled by men of this caliber, and a great part of the

art of management undoubtedly lies in planning the work in this way.

This can, in the judgment of the writer, be best accomplished by

abandoning the military type of organization and introducing two broad

and sweeping changes in the art of management:

(a) As far as possible the workmen, as well as the gang bosses and

foremen, should be entirely relieved of the work of planning, and of all

work which is more or less clerical in its nature. All possible brain

work should be removed from the shop and centered in the planning or

laying-out department, leaving for the foremen and gang bosses work

strictly executive in its nature. Their duties should be to see that the

operations planned and directed from the planning room are promptly

carried out in the shop. Their time should be spent with the men,

teaching them to think ahead, and leading and instructing them in their

work.

(b) Throughout the whole field of management the military type of

organization should be abandoned, and what may be called the'

"functional type" substituted in its place. "Functional management"

consists in so dividing the work of management that each man from the

assistant superintendent down shall have as few functions as possible to

perform. If practicable the work of each man in the management should be

confined to the performance of a single leading function. Under the

ordinary or military type, the workmen are divided into groups. The men

in each group receive their orders from one man only, the foreman or

gang boss of that group. This man is the single agent through which the

various functions of the management are brought into contact with the

men. Certainly the most marked outward characteristic of functional

management lies in the fact that each workman, instead of coming in

direct contact with the management at one point only, namely, through

his gang boss, receives his daily orders and help directly from eight

different bosses, each of whom performs his own particular function.

Four of these bosses are in the planning room and of these three send

their orders to and receive their returns from the men, usually in

writing. Four others are in the shop and personally help the men in

their work, each boss helping in his own particular `line or function

only. Some of these bosses come in contact with each man only once or

twice a day and then for a few minutes perhaps, while others are with

the men all the time, and help each man frequently. The functions of one

or two of these bosses require them to come in contact with each workman

for so short a time each day that they can perform their particular

duties perhaps for all of the men in the shop, and in their line they

manage the entire shop. Other bosses are called upon to help their men

so much and so often that each boss can perform his function for but a

few men, and in this particular line a number of bosses are required,

all performing the same function but each having his particular group of

men to help. Thus the grouping of the men in the shop is entirely

changed, each workman belonging to eight different groups according to

the particular functional boss whom he happens to be working under at

the moment.

The following is a brief description of the duties of the four types of

executive functional bosses which the writer has found it profitable to

use in the active work of the shop: (1) gang bosses, (2) speed bosses,

(3) inspectors, and (4) repair bosses.

The gang boss has charge of the preparation of all work up to the time

that the piece is set in the machine. It is his duty to see that every

man under him has at all times at least one piece of work ahead at his

machine, with all the jigs, templates, drawings, driving mechanism,

sling chains, etc., ready to go into his machine as soon as the piece he

is actually working on is done. The gang boss must show his men how to

set their work in their machines in the quickest time, and see that they

do it. He is responsible for the work being accurately and quickly set,

and should be not only able but willing to pitch in himself and show the

men how to set the work in record time.

The speed boss must see that the proper cutting tools are used for each

piece of work, that the work is properly driven, that the cuts are

started in the right part of the piece, and that the best speeds and

feeds and depth of cut are used. His work begins only after the piece is

in the lathe or planer, and ends when the actual machining ends. The

speed boss must not only advise his men how best to do this work, but he

must see that they do it in the quickest time, and that they use the

speeds and feeds and depth of cut as directed on the instruction card In

many cases he is called upon to demonstrate that the work can be done in

the specified time by doing it himself in the presence of his men.

The inspector is responsible for the quality of the work, and both the

workmen and speed bosses must see that the work is all finished to suit

him. This man can, of course, do his work best if he is a master of the

art of finishing work both well and quickly.

The repair boss sees that each workman keeps his machine clean, free

from rust and scratches, and that he oils and treats it properly, and

that all of the standards established for the care and maintenance of

the machines and their accessories are rigidly maintained, such as care

of belts and shifters, cleanliness of floor around machines, and orderly

piling and disposition of work.

The following is an outline of the duties of the four functional bosses

who are located in the planning room, and who in their various functions

represent the department in its connection with the men. The first three

of these send their directions to and receive their returns from the

men, mainly in writing. These four representatives of the planning

department are, the (1) order of work and route clerk, (2) instruction

card clerk, (3) time and cost clerk, and (4) shop disciplinarian.

Order of Work and Route Clerk. After the route clerk in the planning

department has laid out the exact route which each piece of work is to

travel through the shop from machine to machine in order that it may be

finished at the time it is needed for assembling, and the work done in

the most economical way, the order of work clerk daily writes lists

instructing the workmen and also all of the executive shop bosses as to

the exact order in which the work is to be done by each class of

machines or men, and these lists constitute the chief means for

directing the workmen in this particular function.

Instruction Card Clerks. The "instruction card," as its name indicates,

is the chief means employed by the planning department for instructing

both the executive bosses and the men in all of the details of their

work. It tells them briefly the general and detail drawing to refer to,

the piece number and the cost order number to charge the work to, the

special jigs, fixtures, or tools to use, where to start each cut, the

exact depth of each cut, and how many cuts to take, the speed and feed

to be used for each cut, and the time within which each operation must

be finished. It also informs them as to the piece rate, the differential

rate, or the premium to be paid for completing the task within the

specified time (according to the system employed); and further, when

necessary, refers them by name to the man who will give them especial

directions. This instruction card is filled in by one or more members of

the planning department, according to the nature and complication of the

instructions, and bears the same relation to the planning room that the

drawing does to the drafting room. The man who sends it into the shop

and who, in case difficulties are met with in carrying out the

instructions, sees that the proper man sweeps these difficulties away,

is called the instruction card foreman.

Time and Cost Clerk. This man sends to the men through the "time ticket"

all the information they need for recording their time and the cost of

the work, and secures proper returns from them. He refers these for

entry to the cost and time record clerks in the planning room.

Shop Disciplinarian. In case of insubordination or impudence, repeated

failure to do their duty, lateness or unexcused absence, the shop

disciplinarian takes the workman or bosses in hand and applies the

proper remedy. He sees that a complete record of each man's virtues and

defects is kept. This man should also have much to do with readjusting

the wages of the workmen. At the very least, he should invariably be

consulted before any change is made. One of his important functions

should be that of peace-maker.

Thus, under functional foremanship, we see that the work which, under

the military type of organization, was done by the single gang boss, is

subdivided among eight men: (1) route clerks, (2) instruction card

clerks, (3) cost and time clerks, who plan and give directions from the

planning room; (4) gang bosses, (5) speed bosses, (6) inspectors, (7)

repair bosses, who show the men how to carry out their instructions, and

see that the work is done at the proper speed; and (8) the shop

disciplinarian, who performs this function for the entire establishment.

The greatest good resulting from this change is that it becomes possible

in a comparatively short time to train bosses who can really and fully

perform the functions demanded of them, while under the old system it

took years to train men who were after all able to thoroughly perform

only a portion of their duties. A glance at the nine qualities needed

for a well rounded man and then at the duties of these functional

foremen will show that each of these men requires but a limited number

of the nine qualities in order to successfully fill his position; and

that the special knowledge which he must acquire forms only a small part

of that needed by the old style gang boss. The writer has seen men taken

(some of them from the ranks of the workmen, others from the old style

bosses and others from among the graduates of industrial schools,

technical schools and colleges) and trained to become efficient

functional foremen in from six to eighteen months. Thus it becomes

possible with functional foremanship to thoroughly and completely equip

even a new company starting on a large scale with competent officers in

a reasonable time, which is entirely out of the question under the old

system. Another great advantage resulting from functional or divided

foremanship is that it becomes entirely practicable to apply the four

leading principles of management to the bosses as well as to the

workmen. Each foreman can have a task assigned him which is so

accurately measured that he will be kept fully occupied and still will

daily be able to perform his entire function. This renders it possible

to pay him high wages when he is successful by giving him a premium

similar to that offered the men and leave him with low pay when he

fails.

The full possibilities of functional foremanship, however, will not have

been realized until almost all of the machines in the shop are run by

men who are of smaller calibre and attainments, and who are therefore

cheaper than those required under the old system. The adoption of

standard tools, appliances, and methods throughout the shop, the

planning done in the planning room and the detailed instructions sent

them from this department, added to the direct help received from the

four executive bosses, permit the use of comparatively cheap men even on

complicated work. Of the men in the machine shop of the Bethlehem Steel

Company engaged in running the roughing machines, and who were working

under the bonus system when the writer left them, about 95 per cent were

handy men trained up from laborers. And on the finishing machines,

working on bonus, about 25 per cent were handy men.

To fully understand the importance of the work which was being done by

these former laborers, it must be borne in mind that a considerable part

of their work was very large and expensive. The forgings which they were

engaged in roughing and finishing weighed frequently many tons. Of

course they were paid more than laborer's wages, though not as much as

skilled machinists. The work in this shop was most miscellaneous in its

nature.

Functional foremanship is already in limited use in many of the best

managed shops. A number of managers have seen the practical good that

arises from allowing two or three men especially trained in their

particular lines to deal directly with the men instead of at second hand

through the old style gang boss as a mouthpiece. So deep rooted,

however, is the conviction that the very foundation of management rests

in the military type as represented by the principle that no workman can

work under two bosses at the same time, that all of the managers who are

making limited use of the functional plan seem to feel it necessary to

apologize for or explain away their use of it; as not really in this

particular case being a violation of that principle. The writer has

never yet found one, except among the works which he had assisted in

organizing, who came out squarely and acknowledged that he was using

functional foremanship because it was the right principle.

The writer introduced five of the elements of functional foremanship

into the management of the small machine shop of the Midvale Steel

Company of Philadelphia while he was foreman of that shop in 1882-1883:

(1) the instruction card clerk, (2) the time clerk, (3) the inspector,

(4) the gang boss, and (5) the shop disciplinarian. Each of these

functional foremen dealt directly with the workmen instead of giving

their orders through the gang boss. The dealings of the instruction card

clerk and time clerk with the workmen were mostly in writing, and the

writer himself performed the functions of shop disciplinarian, so that

it was not until he introduced the inspector, with orders to go straight

to the men instead of to the gang boss, that he appreciated the

desirability of functional foremanship as a distinct principle in

management. The prepossession in favor of the military type was so

strong with the managers and owners of Midvale that it was not until

years after functional foremanship was in continual use in this shop

that he dared to advocate it to his superior officers as the correct

principle.

Until very recently in his organization of works he has found it best to

first introduce five or six of the elements of functional foremanship

quietly, and get them running smoothly in a shop before calling

attention to the principle involved. When the time for this announcement

comes, it invariably acts as the proverbial red rag on the bull. It was

some years later that the writer subdivided the duties of the "old gang

boss" who spent his whole time with the men into the four functions of

(1) speed boss, (2) repair boss, (3) inspector, and (4) gang boss, and

it is the introduction of these four shop bosses directly helping the

men (particularly that of the speed boss) in place of the single old

boss, that has produced the greatest improvement in the shop.

When functional foremanship is introduced in a large shop, it is

desirable that all of the bosses who are performing the same function

should have their own foreman over them; for instance, the speed bosses

should have a speed foreman over them, the gang bosses, a head gang

boss; the inspectors, a chief inspector, etc., etc. The functions of

these over-foremen are twofold. The first part of their work is to teach

each of the bosses under them the exact nature of his duties, and at the

start, also to nerve and brace them up to the point of insisting that

the workmen shall carry out the orders exactly as specified on the

instruction cards. This is a difficult task at first, as the workmen

have been accustomed for years to do the details of the work to suit

themselves, and many of them are intimate friends of the bosses and

believe they know quite as much about their business as the latter. The

second function of the over-foreman is to smooth out the difficulties

which arise between the different types of bosses who in turn directly

help the men. The speed boss, for instance, always follows after the

gang boss on any particular job in taking charge of the workmen. In this

way their respective duties come in contact edgeways, as it were, for a

short time, and at the start there is sure to be more or less friction

between the two. If two of these bosses meet with a difficulty which

they cannot settle, they send for their respective over-foremen, who are

usually able to straighten it out. In case the latter are unable to

agree on the remedy, the case is referred by them to the assistant

superintendent, whose duties, for a certain time at least, may consist

largely in arbitrating such difficulties and thus establishing the

unwritten code of laws by which the shop is governed. This serves as one

example of what is called the "exception principle" in management, which

is referred to later.

Before leaving this portion of the subject the writer wishes to call

attention to the analogy which functional foremanship bears to the

management of a large, up-to-date school. In such a school the children

are each day successively taken in hand by one teacher after another who

is trained in his particular specialty, and they are in many cases

disciplined by a man particularly trained in this function. The old

style, one teacher to a class plan is entirely out of date.

The writer has found that better results are attained by placing the

planning department in one office, situated, of course, as close to the

center of the shop or shops as practicable, rather than by locating its

members in different places according to their duties. This department

performs more or less the functions of a clearing house. In doing their

various duties, its members must exchange information frequently, and

since they send their orders to and receive their returns from the men

in the shop, principally in writing, simplicity calls for the use, when

possible, of a single piece of paper for each job for conveying the

instructions of the different members of the planning room to the men

and another similar paper for receiving the returns from the men to the

department. Writing out these orders and acting promptly on receipt of

the returns and recording same requires the members of the department to

be close together. The large machine shop of the Bethlehem Steel Company

was more than a quarter of a mile long, and this was successfully run

from a single planning room situated close to it. The manager,

superintendent, and their assistants should, of course, have their

offices adjacent to the planning room and, if practicable, the drafting

room should be near at hand, thus bringing all of the planning and

purely brain work of the establishment close together. The advantages of

this concentration were found to be so great at Bethlehem that the

general offices of the company, which were formerly located in the

business part of the town, about a mile and a half away, were moved into

the middle of the works adjacent to the planning room.

The shop, and indeed the whole works, should be managed, not by the

manager, superintendent, or foreman, but by the planning department. The

daily routine of running the entire works should be carried on by the

various functional elements of this department, so that, in theory at

least, the works could run smoothly even if the manager, superintendent

and their assistants outside the planning room were all to be away for a

month at a time.

The following are the leading functions of the planning department:

(a) The complete analysis of all orders for machines or work taken by

the company.

(b) Time study for all work done by hand throughout the works, including

that done in setting the work in machines, and all bench, vise work and

transportation, etc.

(c) Time study for all operations done by the various machines.

(d) The balance of all materials, raw materials, stores and finished

parts, and the balance of the work ahead for each class of machines and

workmen.

(e) The analysis of all inquiries for new work received in the sales

department and promises for time of delivery.

(f) The cost of all items manufactured with complete expense analysis

and complete monthly comparative cost and expense exhibits.

(g) The pay department.

(h) The mnemonic symbol system for identification of parts and for

charges.

(i) Information bureau.

(j) Standards.

(k) Maintenance of system and plant, and use of the tickler.

(l) Messenger system and post office delivery.

(m) Employment bureau.

(n) Shop disciplinarian.

(o) A mutual accident insurance association.

(p) Rush order department.

(q) Improvement of system or plant.

These several functions may be described more in detail as follows:

(a) THE COMPLETE ANALYSIS OF ALL ORDERS FOR MACHINES OR WORK TAKEN BY

THE COMPANY.

This analysis should indicate the designing and drafting required, the

machines or parts to be purchased and all data needed by the purchasing

agent, and as soon as the necessary drawings and information come from

the drafting room the lists of patterns, castings and forgings to be

made, together with all instructions for making them, including general

and detail drawing, piece number, the mnemonic symbol belonging to each

piece (as referred to under (h) below) a complete analysis of the

successive operations to be done on each piece, and the exact route

which each piece is to travel from place to place in the works.

(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.