Part 41

The management, which immediately controls the records and conditions should be the prime source of efforts towards the increase of efficiency throughout the plant. The opposition of managers to progress in this respect is exceedingly great, yet not altogether surprising for these reasons:

1. There is a widespread fallacy that so-called practical experience in the manual operations or technical processes of a business is the chief essential to success in its management. This is due to the fact that perfection of workmanship, of which he knows much, is more important in the eyes of the artisan than the actual cost of the operation, of which he knows little, or than the cause of this cost, of which he knows less.

2. It is only recently that educational institutions have afforded 373 any opportunity for adequate instruction in the art of management, pure and simple, a principal feature of which is the intelligent regulation of cost.

3. There has been, and now is, as a result of these two things, a failure to appreciate the necessity and value of exact data, in proper terms, of refined and scientific methods of collecting and using it and of logical reasoning in the solution of industrial problems.

The highest degree of efficiency, therefore, is only to be realized in a shop where executive methods have reached a high stage of efficiency, for in these is unquestionably its source.

Time Measurement Important.

The first step is to recognize the necessity and value of a proper measurement of time, as a guide not only to the executive but to the workman. A man was observed during 8 successive repetitions of the operation of making a machine mold in a foundry. The unit times varied 5.2 to 23.6 minutes, the total time for the eight being 104 minutes. Under the method of timekeeping in use at that shop it was only ascertained that the eight operations took 1¾ hours or an “average” of 13 minutes each, and the labor cost and distribution of burden were made on that basis. Because of the absence of any standard time whatsoever it was not realized that had the man done each of the eight in 5.2 minutes, they would have been completed in 41.6 minutes, resulting in a saving of over 60 per cent of the total time. Had the man received a proper work ticket bearing this standard time, before he began the work, there is no doubt that he could have easily performed the work in the shorter time and a marked difference in proportionate burden and cost would have resulted. Under the existing methods the management could not know of the waste, and so was helpless to prevent or cure it.

Every item of time, therefore, is capable of division into two parts: 374 A standard or necessary time and a (more or less) preventable waste, which latter is the easier thing of the two to determine.

An Example of Increased Efficiency in Riveting.

A gang of four were engaged in riveting some steel plates. By the use of a stop-watch it was found that a large proportion of the total time of the riveter and bucker-up was not utilized; yet some one was always at work. The reason was that the men proceeded along the work in such a way that the bucker-up covered with his body the holes as yet unfilled by rivets, he moving from left to right. When, therefore, a rivet was driven, these two men had to stand aside until another rivet was placed by the rivet passer. Upon the instruction of the engineer, they reversed the direction of their movements so as to cover only the filled holes, thus enabling the passer always to have a rivet ready for them and making their speed in driving the real gauge of the speed of the operation. Furthermore, when they encountered a hole that needed reaming (as was sometimes the case, until the fault was located with the fitters and remedied), the riveter would lay down the gun, pick up the reamer, ream the hole, lay down the reamer, pick up the gun and drive the rivet. When persuaded to test consecutively ten or more holes after driving the first rivet in a seam to anchor the plates and then to drive the ten consecutively, they progressed faster with less effort. These men, receiving not only a standard from the engineer, but kindly instruction as to how to attain it, and being stimulated, not by abuse, but by a scientifically determined bonus--increased their output over 150 per cent beyond the original amount.

In this plant, by the use of these methods, and in about seven months, the general increase in efficiency of the men was such that the force was reduced 67 per cent without reduction in volume of output, but 375 with a great reduction in net total unit cost, even after paying the bonus alluded to and the cost of the expert services which alone produced this result.

The Use of Bonuses.

It is proper to say a word here on the subject of bonus as a means of increasing efficiency. The principal merit of this motive lies in the fact that immediate personal gain is the strongest incentive to immediate personal effort. It operates just as strongly on the employe as on the employer. Hope of promotion is too vague and the actual chances too limited to exert much pressure, but an extra sum in the pay envelope--or better still, in a separate one--for the disposal of the “old man himself,” will do wonders. To be most effectual a bonus must not begin at the point of standard efficiency, but at the point when average efficiency ceases and extra effort begins; and it should increase on a curve faster and faster as the point of standard efficiency is neared, because the accompanying effort will be correspondingly greater.

Efficiency Methods and Department Heads.

So much for the individual operator. And now for the executives. From foreman up to and including the highest official the same methods can and should be applied. Under ordinary circumstances, the workman in need of material, tools or instruction keeps his skirts clear by a more or less indefinite and unintelligible request to the foreman. He thinks it the foreman’s duty to look after him, but that if he does not do so it’s no business of his. Put that man on standard time and bonus and if there is anything he thinks the foreman should do or get for him he speaks loudly and directly. This the foreman does not resent--as would ordinarily be the case--for his efficiency is determined by the combined efficiency of his men and upon this his 376 bonus depends. Anything, therefore, that interferes with the progress of the men touches him closely, and he will move heaven and earth to eliminate it. All kinds of defects which were previously hidden from the superintendent are now brought to his attention, and he welcomes them for exactly the same reason that actuated the foreman. Thus the change that comes over a shop when efficiency is accurately measured and adequately rewarded is often astounding.

But this is not all. The possession of exact data as to standard and actual times makes possible a certain great improvement in, and addition to, the executive staff and a material increase in the efficiency of the foreman and department heads. By this is meant the installation of a planning department, by which the apportionment of the time of men and machines is controlled. The advantage, indeed, the positive necessity, of the services of engineers and draughtsmen in apportioning the different parts of the product is well understood. The requirements of each part, the strains to which it will be subjected, the kind, quality and quantity of material required to resist these strains, the shapes of the pieces, their relations to each other and many other things are all given most careful attention. The value of fully constructing the design on paper, as a means of discovering possible errors or difficulties, and of correcting or overcoming them before large expense for material and workmanship has been incurred, are too well realized to need more than a simple statement for their acceptance. No sane executive would expect his department heads to take a copy of his customer’s order and individually work out the details with which they are particularly concerned and expect the parts to fit. Yet this is just exactly what is being done as regards the apportionment of productive time; and a tumult of broken promises of delivery, excessive cost of production, enormous wastes of time in changing jobs, etc., is the immediate 377 and unavoidable result.

What Can Be Done.

It is perfectly possible, but only to one trained in the particular art, to schedule the different operations on all of the different parts of the product; to plot the productive times required, so that each may begin at such a time in relation to the others that all will arrive at the point of assembly at the proper time and in the proper sequence; to combine these studies of the different productive orders on a chart which will show the disposition to be made of all the men and machinery; to prepare advance programs for each man and machine engaged in productive labor; and thus to give to the superintendent and foremen the advantage of the same predisposition of time that they now have of material.

As it is now, the time of these persons is entirely too much occupied with this problem of the disposition of time for which they are only partly equipped, having, it is true, much of the necessary information, but no training in the scientific handling of it. They are, therefore, unable to devote the time they should to the immediate study of the operations and the provision of tools, material and instruction to the men. They try to be all over the shop at once and they depend on getting their information at first hand, and consequently fail more or less clearly to cover the ground. Having such schedules and programs as are above described, and with the proper work tickets distributed on a dispatching board, each one in the division representing the work upon which a man or machine is engaged, having the time of commencement and the standard time thereon, the foreman can see at a glance without leaving his office what men will shortly finish their work and what steps must be taken to see that the drawings, tools and materials for their next work are ready for them in time. Having seen to this he has some leisure to 378 give his attention to matters immediately requiring it, knowing, if anything is obstructing the other men, that their anxiety to earn their bonus will cause them promptly to bring such matters to his attention. Having this schedule, moreover, the foremen are enabled to order material, etc., ahead and to do so intelligently, thus making the work of the shop transportation department much simpler. In one case by this means 25 men were able to handle the intra-shop transportation in a more satisfactory manner than 75 men had previously been able to do.

The planning department also greatly aids and is in turn aided by the purchasing department, for the times when material must or can be got can intelligently be determined to their mutual advantage. The sales department, too, when it once gets the idea that the shop is not working miracles, but has its limitations, can make delivery promises which really mean something and can be kept, and this is a trump card of no small importance when the fact becomes realized among the customers of the concern.

Responsibility of the Management.

In the opinion of those whose opportunities have enabled them to get at the facts, the inefficiency in manufacturing, which undoubtedly generally exists today, in spite of the prevailing impression to the contrary, is only about one-fourth due to the things over which the employes have control and three-fourths to conditions imposed upon them by the management. The methods outlined above have achieved results whenever they have been faithfully and honestly tried, with proper co-operation by the management and under the direction of skilled specialists, and the results have continued and will continue as long as the methods are followed. The effect upon the men is that from being often listless, indifferent and antagonistic, they become 379 energetic, ambitious and loyal friends.

One thing more: Much has been done and overdone in the line of so-called welfare work. It is a highly creditable and necessary line of effort, when confined to attempts to remove from the path of the employe any obstacle which prevents him from developing his skill and efficiency to the highest degree. An uncomfortable, unhappy person cannot be efficient. But as steam is necessary to the engine, so is incentive necessary to the worker to get him to make the best use of the facilities provided for him. Under our present civilization, the same incentive which pushes on the master will push on the man, and that is direct personal gain in dollars and cents, not for itself, but for and what that gain will bring. It must come to him quickly after the exertion which its expectation calls forth, for if long delayed, the effect is lost. It must also come to him separately from his regular wage that its amount may be the more readily realized.

Moreover, the results of efficiency methods, within the writer’s knowledge, are sufficient to convince him that their general adoption would so increase the purchasing power of the employe, by increasing his wages and decreasing the cost production, as to have a markedly beneficial and steadying effect upon the business of the country.

Efficiency methods, however, cannot be successfully designed or installed by those trained in other lines and prejudiced by other associations. After these methods have been scientifically developed to suit the existing conditions and actually put into operation by those skilled in the art, they may gradually be relinquished into the control of those who have been educated in the process of installation, with some hope of success for their future operation.

THE BRIDGE BETWEEN LABOR AND CAPITAL. 380

BY JOHN MITCHELL.

[Former President United Mine Workers of America.]

If the interests of labor and capital were identical--as some contend--there would be no chasm between them to bridge; and if the interests of labor and capital were irreconcilable--as others contend--any effort to unite them would be futile. From an experience extending over a considerable period, I am quite convinced that neither of the foregoing propositions will stand the test of close analysis. My judgment is that the interests of labor and capital, though divergent in some respects, are nevertheless reciprocal and inter-dependent.

To elucidate in a practical way the subject of the proper relationship between employer and employe, it is necessary to review the activities of these two factors in the field in which their interests are common and to mark the point at which they diverge. The employer and the employe are mutually interested in the successful conduct of industry; the profits of the one and the wages of the other obviously are contingent upon it, as both profits and wages must be paid from the earnings of the enterprise in which the capital of the one and the labor of the other are jointly invested. This being true, the workman and the employer are equally concerned in the character of the product which is manufactured and sold by them, just as they are interested equally in good markets and regularity of employment. Having worked in co-operation up to the point of turning out an article that commands a wide and profitable sale, the question of dividing the earnings of their joint efforts presents itself. It is the failure of the attempt to adjust satisfactorily this controversy that gives rise to the 381 differences between employers and workmen and is the basis of the labor problem as we have it today. True, there are many questions of discord apart from those of wages and profits, which result in serious industrial conflicts, but followed back to their source, it will be found that these issues are inseparably related to those of wages and profits. In other words, the demand for a shorter workday, for healthful, sanitary surroundings, has its origin in the irrepressible desire of the working people for a progressive improvement in their conditions of life and labor.

In ancient and mediaeval times when the structure of society was simple and each family consumed all the things it produced; or even at a later period when the master and the journeyman worked together side by side, and when the master had been a journeyman and the journeyman expected to become a master, there was little cause for controversy, and the problem of labor was not difficult of solution. It was not until the invention of machinery, the advent of the factory system, the use of steam, and the application of new processes that the question of the relationship of employer and employed grew so complex and impersonal that new methods became necessary in the proper adjustment of industrial affairs. As step by step industry developed from the stage of the privately owned factory to the firm and corporation, to the combination and the trust, the real employer was removed further and ever further from personal contact with his employes. As a consequence of this transition, the salaried manager took the place once held by the actual employer, and the simple and friendly relations of early days gave way to the intricate and complex industrial life of this generation.

Coincident with the development of industry which has revolutionized the whole life and history of our people and our civilization, have come the local, the district, the national, and finally the international organizations of labor. These gigantic associations 382 and federations of workmen are the logical and the inevitable consequence of an industrial development which threatened the subjugation of the individual workman and forced him, in self-defense, to merge his interests and his identity with those of his fellow workmen. The momentous change in the status of the workman which accompanied the revolution of industrial processes, transformed the whole problem of labor from the question of production to that of distribution, and it is the effort to find an equitable adjustment of the problem of distribution that is taxing to the utmost the ingenuity of economists, philosophers, and statesmen.

In the search for a panacea to heal the industrial ills against which society so justly complains, many suggestions are made and innumerable remedies proposed. On the one hand are found forces that would deny to labor the right of organization and combination, although exercising and enjoying the benefit of these rights themselves; on the other hand are forces at work advocating and demanding the abolition of the whole competitive system; between these extremes stands a great army of workmen and employers earnestly striving to find grounds of mutual agreement upon which the rights and obligations of each may be defined and brought into harmony. With all due respect to the opinions of others, I submit that the path of safety, progress, and justice lies in the middle course--in the recognition of the right of organization on the part of both labor and capital, by which and through which these factors in our industrial progress may work out their inevitable destiny, contracting freely each with the other upon all questions of mutual concern.

The trade agreement is the bridge between labor and capital. It restores, so far as it is possible to do so, the personal relationship, the mutual interest which existed prior to the advent of the factory system. It is an acknowledgment of the inter-dependence of labor and capital, a recognition of the reciprocal interest of 383 employer and employe. When the right of organization among workmen and employers is fully recognized and freely conceded, and when these forces adopt and practice the policy of collective bargaining, the day of the strike and the lockout, of the boycott and the blacklist, with their attendant evils, losses, and hardships, will have largely passed away.

THE UNEMPLOYED. 384

BY JOHN BASCOM, D. D., LL. D.

[Formerly President University of Wisconsin.]

A striking feature of the industrial world and one well fitted to occasion alarm is the large number of persons thrown, from time to time, out of employment. We are forced by it to accept one or other of two conclusions; that the economic world is mismade, incapable of a quiet and successful run, or that our handling of it has been in some way unskillful and misapplied. This fact of unemployment has become very conspicuous, and to those who suffer from it, and to those who sympathize with them, exceedingly grevious. A certain portion of the human family, and that in the most progressive nations, find themselves superfluous, out of connection with the means of living though others are obtaining support, comfort and luxury. They have nothing to do but to die in their tracks. Like the feeble ones in a forced march through an enemy’s country they first fall behind and then perish. This state of the case does not arise by accident and then pass away, it has periods of severity which frequently return, and stands among those constant dangers which may at any time overtake a few. This evil comes especially to industrious countries, like England, and to portions of our own country, like Pittsburg, noted for their enlarged production. The causes and remedies of this state of things become, therefore, subjects of anxious inquiry. We may assert that the want of employment is due in a general way, to the deficiencies and vices of men, but this assertion does not sufficiently point out the immediate occasion of the difficulty, nor furnish us its remedies.

Failure of the means of livelihood arises from indolence, ignorance, 385 vice and unfavorable conditions on the part of those who suffer from it, conditions often of the nature of accident. But while the recipients of this disaster are plainly recognized, the disaster itself comes to them in a measure independent of their failures. We need to know not only those who are likely to suffer from a given disease, but how the disease itself arises. The central and most productive cause in this series of provocations is indolence; the others accompany indolence and more or less arise from it. By indolence we mean a want of life and hence a weakness of all the functions of life. We may mean physical inactivity or intellectual sluggishness or moral indifference, or may mean them all blended in one or other of the various ways in which a weak and perverted life manifests itself. The tramp is physically indolent, he hates work. This indolence readily extends to intellectual activity; the indolent person is ignorant of the value of success, of its motives and of its means. The world reveals few incentives to him and makes few appeals. This indolence and ignorance do not wholly arrest the wants and desires of men, and hence vice, as in the case of the thief, enters as the most ready and immediate means of gratification. The torpid nature of the moral judgment lends itself to this result, and nothing but fear, itself weak and vacillating, stands between the indolent man and habits of gross indulgence, inconsistent with personal and with social welfare.

The accidents, misjudgments and disappointments which are liable to overtake us all owe the injury which they inflict to the weak personality on which they fall, and so misfortune seems to follow and persecute those who are least able to bear it. The indolent, passive mood is a good medium for the accumulation and transfer of every form of disaster. The class of the helpless is much enlarged by this flow 386 of every form of evil to these low places in conduct and character.