Part 5

"Why, listen. You, the best man we have on _decisions_, spend more than half your time _digging_, while your assistants spend much of their time making decisions. What's the result? Delay, the department in a jam, some decisions made in a hurry, some by your assistants.

"The trouble with you is, you haven't organized your department right." And the treasurer sketched the diagram reproduced in the upper chart on page 105.

"Why, man, your job is to keep _all_ bad credits off the books--not just the big ones. A bad risk--whether it's $5 or $5000--is a mistake. You're an expert credit man--but as a MANAGER, you're a WASHOUT.

"This," he added, "is the way you ought to set up your department. Then you, the best man on decisions, will do all the deciding. Your two assistants, who are just as good as you are at digging, will spend all their time getting you the facts." And as he spoke he sketched in the lower chart.

The credit man had erred in the other direction from the two retail merchants. He wasn't doing _enough_ managing. He was keeping too much work for himself. And he was _deputizing the wrong kind of work_.

The merchants were deputizing work they should have done themselves--the general supervision of stocks, advertising and sales did not require their undivided attention--and the volume and profits of the business wouldn't stand so much unproductive expense.

Our credit man, on the other hand, was doing work which others could very well do for him--the time he spent on such work should have been devoted to other and more important responsibilities.

In the story of the credit man, however, another fundamental of good organization comes to light. Remember how the treasurer classified the character of the work to be done? Not only was the credit man trying to do too much work, but even when he _did_ assign work to his assistants, he assigned the wrong kind. He deputized, true enough--but he erred in regard to the KIND OF WORK HE DEPUTIZED. He thought he could deputize small credits. It didn't take the treasurer long to show him that the amount made no difference--it was the character of the work that required consideration.

Plenty of managers make that same mistake. They judge the importance of the task by its physical bigness--or by the amount of money involved--instead of deciding according to the character of the work.

Before work can be safely deputized, then, it must be MORE INTELLIGENTLY CLASSIFIED. And the key to better classification is found by dividing the job or business into two elements.

One is ENTERPRISE. The other is ROUTINE.

_Enterprise_ is an arbitrary term which we shall choose to indicate those factors of work which involve the use of judgment, initiative, experiment or speculation.

_Routine_ we shall apply to those factors which follow settled precedents or rules or come within the range of known ability to perform.

Analyze your own job with these two terms in mind. The various duties you perform will fall readily into one or the other of the two classifications.

The things which come under the head of routine you have a right to deputize if, when you chart both classifications--in as accurate a proportion as possible to the capacities of the "principal" and the "deputies"--you find you are not overloading the business with unproductive management. A simple rule of thumb works here about as well as anything: Base the division of work on how much or how little of the routine the _principal_ can afford to carry.

* * * * *

You may safely deputize only so long as, by so doing, you leave yourself free for the more important, more profitable decisions.

Don't forget for a moment, then--if you would organize effectively--that there is a tremendous difference between enterprise and routine work. Don't waste energy on the one. DON'T DEPUTIZE THE OTHER--unless you can effectively organize a deputy's capacity for doing it, and then only if it pays.

Don't be like the manager who got a taste of the savings to be made through the application of mechanical handling equipment. He bought conveyors--and more conveyors. He was DEPUTIZING the handling job to machines. So far, so good. But the first thing you know he had a 50-ft. conveyor connecting two points in his shipping room. It took one man to load it, another to unload it. Previously one man with a hand truck had moved the packages very nicely, and had a lot of time left over for other duties. And here he needed an extra man--and owned a costly piece of equipment to boot. Under such circumstances the conveyor became very expensive scenery--not nearly so nice to look at as Yellowstone Park or the Riviera--and the money invested in it would have bought a trip to either.

Thus all savings through deputization don't pay. Many a machine will save time and labor, but the interest on the investment, and upkeep and the depreciation will more than eat up the saving--UNLESS THE TIME AND LABOR SAVED CAN BE PROFITABLY TURNED TO SOMETHING ELSE.

* * * * *

No attempted exposition of the KNACK OF ORGANIZING can be complete without something more than passing mention of a phase which may be all too easily slid over or completed.

When work is deputized, the responsibility of the manager does not end with the act of deputization. It is the manager's responsibility to see that the work is done in the simplest and most effective manner.

A sales executive had allowed a bunch of call reports to accumulate. There were several hundred of them. So he called in a stenographer whose time was hanging fairly heavily on her hands, and asked her to put them into alphabetical order preparatory to filing.

Fifteen minutes later he happened by and was startled to see that she had covered two desks with the call reports and seemed to be making haste very slowly indeed.

She had made a pile for every last letter in the alphabet. And every time she picked up a report, she had to hunt for the proper pile to put it in.

So he showed her how to sort first in five major piles--A, B, C, D in one pile and so on. And then to sort each pile again into five piles, one for each letter--and finally to sort each individual pile alphabetically.

It sounded like more handling. And perhaps it was. But the job of classification was greatly simplified. There was no more hunting for the missing pile. The work proceeded quickly and accurately.

A rough illustration. He might have gone a step further and deputized part of the girl's task to a machine instead of to the primitive system described. That is to say, he might have seen that she was provided with one of the preliminary filing baskets which file clerks often use. Then the task of sorting alphabetically could have been done in a single handling of each report.

But whatever the method he made available for the girl's use, the illustration still serves to indicate that the manager's responsibility does not end when he turns a job over to a subordinate. It remains his care to see that the job is done by the most effective method--not necessarily the speediest, but the one which gets the best results for the effort involved.

To find this "one best" method, industry has evolved a complete technique of time and motion study. And merely to hint at what may be accomplished by breaking down an operation into its elementary operations and observing the time required to perform them, becomes part of our task in setting down the ways and means of organizing.

First we shall find that any job, simple or complex, may be divided into three parts: make ready, do and put away.

Shaving, for example. First we get everything ready--razor, brush, shaving cream, hot water. Then comes the actual operation of shaving. And last, cleaning up--rinsing the brush, wiping the razor, and putting things back where they belong.

Perhaps you're in the same boat as the old farmer who, approached by the subscription salesman of an agricultural magazine, allowed he wa'nt farmin' now half as good as he knew how.

Or perhaps you already hold speed records at giving your face the once-over. But, you see, the whole point in studying the job is not aimed at faster shaving, but at simplifying the "make ready" and "put away" phases of the operation.

For example, the next time you shave, try picking up the tube of shaving cream with one hand and unscrewing the cap while you're wetting your brush with the other. It will be awkward as the dickens the first time you try it. But try it again and again and again. It won't be long before you'll be an expert at doing the job that way. Finish up that part of the operation by screwing the cap back on while you are lathering your face with the right hand. Does it require a stop watch to point out the saving in time that you've made? Oh, it won't be easy the first few times, but before you know it, you'll have taught yourself good work habits.

Take a simple job like the assembly of a license bracket in an automobile factory. An analysis of this operation (see "Micromotion Technique," by F. J. Van Poppelen, _Factory and Industrial Management_, Nov., 1930) showed that the right hand was busy all the time, while the left did nothing most of the time except hold the piece.

At the risk of getting too technical--for after all we are interested, not so much in the details, as in certain broad principles of organizing the work--let us see how the operation was performed.

First the operator assembled a number of screws and leather washers by picking up a screw with the left hand, a washer with the right, putting them together and laying the assembly aside. Then he picked up a bracket with the left hand and a screw and washer assembly with the right, placing the screw through a slot in the bracket--continuing to hold assembled pieces in his left hand while the right was picking up a flat washer and assembling it to the screw; picking up lock washer, assembling it to the screw; picking up acorn nut and starting it on the screw; and finally picking up an open-end wrench and tightening the nut. Then he assembled screw, washers and nut to the other side of the bracket, whereupon wrench and bracket were laid aside, completing the cycle.

An analysis of these motions, by right and left hands, is given in the table on page 120. It illustrates the important point that the right hand was busy all the time, but for a considerable part of the time the left was doing nothing but holding the piece.

On pages 118 and 119 are shown drawings of the old and the new assembly methods. Likewise, the lower table on page 120 analyzes, by right and left hands, the motions required by the new method. Note first that fewer elements--17 as against 26--are required. And note that both hands are productively employed with shorter distances to travel for stock and with decreased effort.

TABLE 1

LEFT HAND RIGHT HAND

1. Pick up screw Pick up leather washer 2. Assemble Assemble 3. Idle Lay aside 4. Pick up bracket Pick up screw and washer assembled 5. Hold bracket Assemble 6. " " Pick up flat washer 7. " " Assemble 8. " " Pick up lock washer 9. " " Assemble 10. " " Pick up nut 11. " " Start on thread 12. " " Pick up wrench 13. " " Tighten nut 14. " " Lay wrench aside 15. " " Pick up screw and washer assembled 16. " " Assemble to other side of bracket 17. " " Pick up flat washer 18. " " Assemble 19. " " Pick up lock washer 20. " " Assemble 21. " " Pick up nut 22. " " Start on thread 23. " " Pick up wrench 24. " " Tighten nut 25. " " Lay wrench aside 26. Idle Lay bracket aside

TABLE 2

LEFT HAND RIGHT HAND

1. Pick up screw and transport Same 2. Position on block Same 3. Pick up leather washer and transport Same 4. Position on screw Same 5. Pick up new bracket and transport Pick up assembled bracket; lay aside 6. Position bracket on block Same 7. Pick up flat washer and transport Same 8. Position on screw Same 9. Pick up lock washer and transport Same 10. Position on screw Same 11. Pick up nut and transport Same 12. Start nut on screw Same 13. Position driver Same 14. Tighten nut Same 15. Position driver to 2nd nut Same 16. Tighten nut Same 17. Release driver and move assembled bracket 2 in. forward on block Same

The new set-up consists of a hardwood block, shaped to fit one side of the bracket when assembled, and nailed to the bench. The open-end wrench was replaced by a screw-driver with a socket wrench to fit the acorn nut, suspended on a spring in front of the operator. The miscellaneous containers for holding the small parts were replaced by a supply of sheet-metal duplicate trays, so that the various parts could be located in the most convenient position. (This arrangement was not used in the accompanying illustrations because it obscured the view.)

In a word, then, the number of elements was decreased by one-third--and practically all of the elements in the new method require less time than the similar or corresponding element in the old method. The distance of travel for stock has been shortened, parts are grasped more easily, better and faster tools are provided, effort is decreased, and both hands are productively employed.

Need the imagination be stretched to the breaking point to see how a job involving the work not of one man, but of several, may be similarly organized and similarly improved?

A second illustration will serve to show the application to group work (see "Motion Study Applied to Group Work," by J. A. Piacitelli, _Factory and Industrial Management_, April, 1931, page 626).

The operation studied here involved cycles of approximately eleven seconds' duration, performed by a group of seven men. The material handled consisted of rolls of roofing weighing about 50 lbs. each. Many of the elements in the cycle were obviously fatiguing. The rolls had to be lifted, during transfers from one worker to another, and rolled along a horizontal runway. The trucker lifted the completed roll and placed it on his truck. While the rate of production was limited by process and speed of equipment, the chance to cut cost and fatigue prompted the study.

Examine the equipment layout before the study was made (it is shown on page 124), and follow the operation. A roll of roofing paper approximately 8 in. in diameter and 36 in. long was wound about the mandrel of a winding machine by one of the workers. The roll was taken off and passed to another worker who wrapped a sheet of paper about it and pasted it in place. When the roll was wrapped, he had to lift the roll, turn and deposit it on the runway. The next man inserted a bag of nails, a can of cement and an instruction sheet into the core of the roll. To do this, he was forced to turn and bend almost to floor level to get his supplies.

Next the roll was passed along to two men who, from opposite sides of the runway, placed protectors and muslin caps on the ends of the roll. It was then rolled along to another man who placed gummed paper bands about the ends and pushed the roll to the end of the runway where the trucker placed it on a truck and wheeled it into storage.

The movie camera, which is gradually finding wider industrial use in the search for the "one best" method, was used to record the work of this group. It supplied not only a photographic record of the working place and surrounding conditions, but also a simultaneous record of time and method employed by each worker regardless of speed. It was then possible to study overlapping cycles and to analyze the methods to the desired degree of accuracy--and thus to transfer parts of the cycle of one operator to that of another, thus effecting a better distribution of work and shortening the cycle of the person on whom the production of the group depends--thereby increasing the productivity of the entire group.

These analyses showed immediately an unequal distribution of work. Again, from the equipment layout made after the study, let us follow through and see what changes were effected.

First the wrapper was freed from turning and lifting the roll from his table by the introduction of an elevator which lifted the roll to an inclined runway. The roll then moved from place to place by gravity when released by foot-operated trips. The pasting problem was solved by using a trough the length of the paper, open on the bottom and equipped with squeegee lips like the mucilage bottle on your desk. A pile of wrapping paper with the far edges of the sheets inserted under the trough supplied a pasted sheet every time one was drawn toward the operator. The trough was covered with a hinged plate which permitted the roll to pass over it to the elevator. It was found, by eliminating the fatiguing elements in this man's work and simplifying his cycle of motions, that the time would be so reduced that he could easily take over the work of the man who placed the cement and nails in the core of the roll. The instruction sheet was placed in the roll by the winder, who had ample time for this additional task. The pile of sheets was placed at his right under a date stamp so that he could date each sheet and slip it into the roll just before it stopped.

Simplifying the cycle of the men who placed the caps on the ends of the roll enabled them to take over with ease the work of the man who had placed the gummed-paper bands around the ends. Thus each man capped and banded his own end, whereas formerly the bander had had to assume an awkward and fatiguing position to reach the far end. And last, by placing a redesigned truck at the end of the incline, the completed rolls landed in the truck, and the trucker was able to care for two machines.

The method finally established was recorded on instruction sheets, and the existing premium was modified to provide additional incentive. Although, as stated at the outset, the rate of production was limited by the machine, substantial savings resulted from the study. Production has been maintained with 4-1/2 men instead of 7; fatigue has been greatly lessened; cost has been reduced about 26 per cent; average earnings of the group have increased about 19 per cent.

Thus the search for the "one best" method becomes an important factor in organizing the work.

We might go on and show how this group work was organized in accordance with our two fundamentals, but the purpose of introducing this illustration and the one preceding it was, after all, to show that the _principal's_ responsibility, after deputizing work, ends only when he has shown the _deputy_ the most effective method of doing it.

Besides, we must hasten on to the task of handling the "help." We have seen that the entire FABRIC OF MANAGING rests upon the knack of ORGANIZING; that organizing the work must be preceded by PLANNING; and that planning must be based upon ANALYSIS. And now, having organized, we must learn how to handle the "help"--which is a task met in every job involving managing.

And what job, big or small, does not involve MANAGING?

IV

Handling the "Help"

There used to be a good old golden rule of thumb that was plenty good enough for the good old rule-of-thumb days. It was: _If you would be fair, treat all your men alike_.

As a matter of fact it wasn't a bad rule in those halcyon days for man wanted then but little here below.

And he got it.

Those were the days when a certain plant of a certain electrical concern was known affectionately among the employees as "Siberia."

With good reason, too, for it was the dreariest, bleakest place in winter you can imagine. And a transfer to it was like nothing so much as a sentence to Siberia.

Well, well, their plant today is as comfortable a place to work in as you'll find anywhere in the country; that concern today sets a high standard of employer-employee relationships; those same workers who, thirty years ago, shivered at the bare thought of pulling on their pants and trekking over the barren wastes to "Siberia," are today comfortably retired on modest pensions which don't do a thing but help keep the wolf from the door.

Yet the management, in those days beyond recall, would have shown you that _all men were treated alike_.

Perhaps that was the trouble. Anyway, if you asked the management today how to handle "help," dollars to doughnuts the answer would come closer to being: To be fair, TREAT EVERY MAN DIFFERENTLY.

A suggestive statement--significant because it is indicative of tremendous change in the relationships of capital and labor, of employer and employee.

Fifteen years ago a lad graduated from an Eastern university. His folks were poor but proud--as Mr. Alger used to say--but managed to see Phil through. Phil had made a good record in school--and some good friends. Through one of them he got a letter to Mr. H--, the head of an old established firm of stockbrokers--and the letter got him a job.

The job paid $5 a week. Even in those days there wasn't much left over after carfare and lunches had been deducted.

But Phil was "learning the bond business." He wouldn't be worth even $5 a week the first six months. After that, maybe.

He stuck. Graduated from "running the street" to a stool in the stock clerk's cage. Came the New Year and Phil found an extra dollar in his pay envelope. He asked the cashier if there wasn't some mistake. There wasn't.

Two days later he got a job in a factory near his home at $12 a week. Told Mr. H-- he was leaving. Was offered $15 to stay. Wouldn't.

Mr. H-- confessed later that he had let the most promising prospect in years slip through his fingers. All--if you ask us--because it was a fixed policy of the house to treat all alike.

For years it had been doing just exactly that. Each June it took on a new crop of young men to "learn the business." Each young man got $5 a week. No favorites. But nine out of every ten came from prosperous, even wealthy families. That $5 bill was nothing in their young lives. Their families were glad to have them work for nothing, for they were getting an insight into the investment business--and some day, whether they became bond salesmen or just plain manufacturers and solid bankers, that knowledge would be worth its weight in gold.

Phil was the tenth man. Mr. H-- knew well enough that he couldn't get by on $5 a week. _But there was the rule._ It couldn't be broken.

No, we can't wind up by telling how Phil did well in the pants factory, married the boss's daughter and owns the business today. That would be wandering far from the truth. He couldn't "see" the boss' daughter for one thing--and besides the pants factory wasn't such a much.

No, you'll find Phil today doing a bang-up job in an Ohio plant. It says "General Manager" on his door. And as far as he is concerned, it was the best thing that ever happened when Mr. H-- treated him like all the rest.