Scientific Industrial Efficiency BY DWIGHT T. FARNHAM \\ INDUSTRIAL ENGINEER. ILLUSTRATED BRICK AND CLAY RECORD CHICAGO 1917 ^ Copyright 1917. BRICK AND CLAY RECORD DEDICATED TO L. D. F. 396630 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I , 9-16 The Application of Efficiency to Indus- trial Management CHAPTER II 18-28 What Scientific Management Accom- plishes for Employer and Employe CHAPTER III 29-37 Analytical Time Study CHAPTER IV 38-47 Centralized Control CHAPTER V 48-59 Planning and Scheduling CHAPTER VI 60-72 Standardized Technical Control CHAPTER VII 73-84 Three Important Aids to the Factory Manager CHAPTER VIII 85-97 Principles and Results INTRODUCTION 5 PREFACE 7 INTRODUCTION A MERICAN INDUSTRY is today at the threshold of an era in which the elimination of all wastes, both of labor and material will be vital. Vast quantities of both have been destroyed and America must conserve every foot-pound of energy and every ounce of raw material. What Mr. Farn- ham calls "casual management" must be replaced by exact and definite methods of management in other words by scientific industrial efficiency. The editor became interested in Mr. Farnham's work while visiting a group of industrial plants in St. Louis and induced him to write a series of articles for Brick and Clay Record. These articles, together with subsequent study of what can be accomplished for an industry by building into it a mechan- ism which eliminates waste as relentlessly as it forces the recognition of true merit among a company's employes, led us to believe that a statement of the methods of scientific industrial efficiency which we have witnessed would prove of general interest. After his graduation at Yale, Mr. Farnham began his in- dustrial career as kiln fireman in a factory in the mining district of western Pennsylvania. During the next ten years, which were spent with three different companies, he worked his way up thru various foremanships and superintendencies to the position of active head of a three million dollar cor- poration on the Pacific Coast. In 1914 he resigned to study industrial conditions abroad. After his return to this country he joined the staff of the Emerson Company, efficiency engi- neers, and became supervising engineer of their western division. Since the latter part of 1916 he has been engaged in private practice. This rather unique experience as laborer, executive and engineer we believe gives Mr. Farnham an unusual view- point. We know his work is practical and that the results described in the following pages are accomplished facts. We believe that he combines the theoretical and the ideal with the commercial successfully in that the final result benefits employer and employe alike. The effects of scientific industrial efficiency are three-fold, 6 Scientific Industrial Efficiency that is, they affect three classes of citizens, namely, the manu- facturer, the employe and the community : For the manufacturer, it cheapens the cost of production, increases output without increasing investment, improves quality of product and reduces labor troubles. For the employe, it means higher pay, shorter hours, less fatigue, steady employment, better satisfaction in work and higher ideals. For the community it is productive of better citizens, lower taxes, fewer strikes, a lower cost of living and less hard times. This may sound rather Utopian, but study of what the science of management is accomplishing for industries in America and abroad will convince the most skeptical. EDWIN G. ZORN Editor, Brick and Clay Record PREFACE E PROBLEM of industrial efficiency is one of the greatest problems before the American people today. Candidates for the highest office a country's citizens can bestow do not indulge in the discussions of questions in which the people lack interest and do not advocate re- forms unless they believe them vital to the welfare of the country. Charles E. Hughes, in one of his campaign speeches, made the following statement: "We have got along in this country altogether too easily with our wealth of natural resources, but now we have reached a point where it is necessary, as it has been necessary abroad, to try to reduce all waste, to try to prevent all unnecessary outlay and to try to make busi- ness successful, according to the merit of a well organized, economically conducted business. "We see in each of the warring European nations a marvelous national efficiency. Let it not be supposed that this efficiency will not count when Europe, once more at peace, pushes its productive powers to the utmost limit. "We must meet the most severe competition in industry. We are undisciplined, defective in organization, loosely knit, industrially unprepared. "Two words appeal to me, indeed as the watchwords of the future. They are Co-operation and Efficiency." President Wilson has gone even further in his appoint- ment of a man who has written a book on scientific man- agement to the supreme bench, in his appointment to the Cabinet of a man who is widely known as an expert in efficiency and in his encouragement of industrial pre- paredness thru the work of the Federal Trade Commission. During the past fifteen years the improvement of indus- trial efficiency by means of the introduction of scientific management into factories, railroads and institutions of every sort, which employ workers and which boast of an organization, has become a profession. The Harvard Graduate School, Pennsylvania State College, Dartmouth 8 Scientific Industrial Efficiency and a number of other educational institutions are prepar- ing men to apply the principles and methods to the indus- tries of the country. A literature of several hundred volumes has arisen. The work of the pioneers of the movement, of Taylor, Emerson, Gantt, Gilbreth and their associates, has been widely described and is too well known to call for comment. The movement is a success and is here to stay. In preparing the following pages the writer has en- deavored to describe some applications of the science which have come under his own observation during the past ten years, both as an executive and as an engineer. The illustrations are, for the most part, drawn from a single industry that of clay products the fourth in im- portance among the mineral industries of America. It should be understood, however, that the principles are equally applicable to other industries as the writer has had occasion to prove by actual experience. To the two classes of critics those who find the ideals of a book of this sort too low, on account of its commer- cialism, or too high on the ground of impracticability the writer can only say that such is the American tem- perament a mixture of high ideals and shrewd common sense. Scientific management combines both qualities. For that reason its future is as sure as that of the Amer- ican people, whose success also has rested and will continue to rest upon a judicious mixture of these two elements. If this book, then, brings a higher ideal to a single busi- ness man, or a more practical idea to a single dreamer, the writer will be content. Saint Louis, Nov. 1, 1916. D. T. F. Scientific Industrial Efficiency CHAPTER I The Application of Efficiency to Industrial Management /~\F LATE YEARS the word "Efficiency" has been very ^^ much abused. It sounds so well and it is such a con- venient word that every newspaper reporter and every writer of advertisements uses it to round out his sentence, while he is waiting for the next idea to materialize. A few days ago, in looking over the "Saturday Evening Post" in which the advertisements, on account of their cost, are probably written by the highest priced ad. writ- ers in the country, I counted up twenty-six pages of ad- vertisements. Thirty-three per cetit. of these advertise- ments contained the word "Efficiency" or one of its immediate derivatives, applied indiscriminately to every- thing from motor cars to muffins. On account of its usefulness, the word, like a good many other good things in this country of ours, has been very much over-worked. In fact, most of us have either adopted it as our own pet word which we feel exactly describes us and our way of doing things, or else we have encountered so many clever young men who have told us how efficient they were either in person or in print- that we loathe and detest the word and all that pertains thereto. In this wave of "Efficiency" which has swept over the country in the past ten years, it has been very easy to lose sight of the fact that, to the industrial engineer, the term has a very definite and exact meaning. The effi- 10 Scientific Industrial Efficiency ciency of a workman or of a factory is not a matter of opinion. Instead, it is the result of a careful application of certain scientific formulae to existing conditions. The engineer, when he has finished his study and has made his calculations, is able to tell you that a certain work- man is, say, seventy per cent, efficient; that the workmen in that department average sixty-six and two-thirds per cent, efficient, and that the proper application of certain principles will effect a saving of so many dollars a year. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT A RESULT OF PROGRESS The application of scientific management and the prin- ciples of efficiency to industrial concerns is an outgrowth of industrial progress in this country which has taken place during the last fifteen years. The principles them- selves, like most other basic truths of life, are incalculably old. We have an example of the set task in Exodus, when the task masters of Egypt were commanded by Pharaoh to lay upon the Israelites the same tale of brick but to withhold the allowance of straw. On that occasion Pharaoh's men "walked out'' on him, just as any modern laborers would do if the impossible were demanded of them. The beginnings of German efficiency are chronicled by Tacitus in the first century. He relates that it was the custom of the Teutons to sit about their banquet table and, amidst song and drink, boast of the great deeds they would do next day.. Having set their tasks while they were feeling extremely brave, it was up to them to go out in the cold gray dawn of the morning after and make good. If they were successful, their victim's loot was their reward. If they failed, their penalty was "the horse laugh" from their companions. About the middle of the last century Von Moltke perfected the staff idea for the German army. The line does the fighting and the staff provides the soup and the twenty-eight centimeter guns, and, to date, the staff has been pretty regularly "on the job" with both these essentials. In the eighties the horse racing fraternity began to standardize their business. They made use of the stop watch, they standardized equipment harness, shoes and sulkies and they developed breeding into a science long before we ever heard of eugenics. As a result, that ideal Application of Efficiency 11 of equine speed which prevailed when I was a boy the two-forty gait would be as much use to a race-horse now as a wooden leg would be to a football player. In 1911 Frederick Taylor and Harrington Emerson gave to the world, in book form, the results of their labors in industrial plants under the titles of "Scientific Manage- ment" and "Efficiency," Since then, there have been enough books written on the subject to fill a small library. These books treat of many different phases of the work and of its application to nearly every sort of industry. The great principle underlying the whole thing, however, is that of the scientifically predetermined task with a reward for its accomplishment or partial accomplishment. A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDUSTRY IN AMERICA In order to understand just how important an innovation this was, it is necessary to touch briefly upon the change in industrial America in the last fifty years. In about 1850 the steam engine became a factor in our industrial life. Before that, we were all more or less working for ourselves. A man was a farmer, or he kept the village tinshop or the crossroads tavern. He owned the busi- ness or he was intimately and personally associated with the owner. The "boss" was prepared to give his helpers a large amount of attention whenever necessary, as busi- ness concerns were small and employed only a few hands. Furthermore, the owner knew all about each workman, and all about his family, and was prepared to praise, or to chide, or to make allowance for his employes, who were his intimates and his friends. As the steam engine came into more general use, factories grew larger and larger, until now, a mill employing a thousand workmen is a mere baby in our industrial world. Suppose Henry Ford were to decide to spend an hour with each of his men in order to see for himself exactly what each one was doing and to inquire about the health of "his folks." If he began this month (January, 1917) and worked at it ten hours a day every day in the year, he would finish his talk with the last man some time in February, 1921. And yet a good many people want us to use exactly the same business methods our grand- fathers used. The result of the change in labor conditions is perhaps best seen by examining the two wage systems in most common use. 12 Scientific Industrial Efficiency REAL MEANING OF THE DAY WAGE SYSTEM The day wage system practically amounts to this: I say to a man "I will give you a dollar and a half a day if you will come and work for me in my factory ten hours every day. If you are able to persuade my foreman that you are working hard and faithfully you can continue 10 work for me. If you are a poor 'bluffer' or a poor worker you'll have to go." He accepts this contract and what is the result? 1. The workers are paid for the time served, not for the amount of work done. 2. The lazy man or the systematic loafer receives as much pay as the hardworking ambitious laborer. 3. The naturally ambitious worker has no incentive to do more than his lazy neighbor and probably doss less, being better able to figure out and put into effect schemes for "soldiering." 4. The foreman's usual means of determining the ef- ficiency of his crew is their general appearance of bustle. 5. There is no incentive for the workman to learn from each other or for the foreman to teach his men bet- ter methods, even if he knows them. The foreman is usually judged by the apparent industry of his gang. 6. Day work is a game between the foreman and his laborers. His part is to drive them into doing as much as possible, by roaring at them and by keeping ever present the fear of discharge. Their part is to retain their jobs, meantime doing as little work as possible. Who wins? The foreman over sixty men who can give each one one minute's attention out of each hour ten min- utes a day or the workmen each one of whom has fifty- nine minutes out of the hour unwatched when he can conspire with his fellows to do as little work as they agree is safe? You can't blame them. You and I would do the same thing in their place. WHERE THE PIECE WORK METHOD FAILS To get away from this sort of thing, somebody invented the piece work system. Theoretically, since the workman is rewarded in direct proportion to the work he does, the ambitious worker makes the maximum of which he is capable, the lazy worker is proportionately penalized and the output of the shop is maintained at the highest level. Supervision is required only to maintain quality and it is Application of Efficiency 13 to each worker's advantage to keep his machine in the best possible shape. Actually, the whole system goes to pieces on the diffi- culty of setting piece rates properly. In the usual course of events it is necessary to set a new piece rate before any quantity of the article in question has been manufac- tured. Setting the rate, therefore, resolves itself into an argument between the "boss" and the worker, based on past records, and the final bargain is a compromise. As the worker gains experience in making a new ar- ticle he naturally cuts the time per piece as much as he dares and earns as much as he dares knowing from past experience that, if his daily earnings go beyond a cer- tain point, his rate per piece will be cut. It is to the worker's advantage to set the rate as high as possible, so that he may earn as much as his boss will let him with the least possible effort especially as his record on this job will be used as a basis for bargaining on the next job. All this leads to certain subterfuges which hurt the em- ployer and have a bad effect upon the character of the employe. If the worker discovers a quicker way to do the job he keeps it to himself. That becomes one of his reserves to draw on when the "boss" drives him to the limit. He does not spend any time inventing new tools or devices to do the work more quickly. He is willing that there should be enough break-downs so that the "boss" will have to allow for break-downs next "bargain day." He favors a slow speed and lost motion on his machine and he argues the necessity of various false motions in handling the material. Very often also the weak are driven too fast, knowing only speed and strenuousness where, under a different system, they would be carefully taught every detail of the work, the obstacles would be removed and the workers gradually fitted to do efficient work. The general effect of the piece work system is to place a premium on inefficiency and hypocrisy, to make for sus- picion, mutual distrust and antagonism between employer and employe. Anyone who has been in the timekeeper's room in a big factory when some piece rate worker has earned five dollars when the average earning is around three and has heard the "howl" that goes up, the immediate calling of the foreman on the carpet and the drastic investigation 14 Scientific Industrial Efficiency which takes place, will not doubt a single word of what has been said about piece rates. The general failure of these two methods of rewarding labor has led to all sorts of expedients. These have been successful directly in proportion to their realization of the ultimate principle The scientific determination of the exact amount of work a man should do under existing con- ditions and his reward exactly in proportion to his accom- plishments. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT HELPS THE WORKER When the industrial engineer has finished this work, every workman in the factory which he has been study- ing has been set up in business for himself. He is not a time server paid to be present eight, nine or ten hours a day and tempted to "soldier" whenever possible by his natural rebellion against some overseer who stalks through the plant at intervals and "bawls him out" be- cause he doesn't appear busy. He is not paid exactly in proportion to the work some foreman thinks he does. Furthermore, the amount of work he should do has been scientifically predetermined not guessed at by some rusty foreman who learned by experience twenty years ago. The engineer when he determines the standard the amount of work each workman should do has taken into consideration the exact conditions under which the work- man labors; has made due allowance for fatigue on the particular sort of work; has insisted on regular rest periods and has accomplished this in such a way by the use of the stop watch and the analytical time study, that it is absolutely impossible for the workmen to deceive him as to the quantity of work which can be done under the conditions existing. Furthermore, at the time the analytical study is made by the industrial engineer existing conditions are bettered, and materials and tools are delivered exactly as required by low-priced laborers instead of being gone after by the high-priced workman. Instructions as to methods of doing the work are available at all times, instead of the workmen having to leave their work and hunt up the foreman for information. Delays due to break-downs of machines are reduced and everything is done to make conditions such that the workman can do the maximum Application of Efficiency 15 quantity of work with the least fatigue in the shortest possible time. GIVES HIM A CHANCE FOR A GREATER REWARD Knowing that the exact amount of work he can do has been determined in such a way that attempts to deceive would be futile and that rates once set will not be cut, the workman is not afraid to let himself out and do his utmost. Furthermore, he is encouraged to do this by the bonus system of payment which allows him his day wages if for any reason he cannot make the standard set and a liberal reward of from twenty to thirty per cent. additional if he accomplishes, or exceeds this standard. Besides being rewarded for the quantity of work done, this reward is also strictly dependent upon the quality of work turned out. In addition, time saving and quality improving innovations on the part of the workman are encouraged and rewarded so that the workman is just as much in business for himself as the small shopkeeper or the owner of the million dollar corporation, in that his reward is directly proportional to his application, fore- sight and ability. The result is that the quality of the product is im- proved, the cost of productive labor is decreased often fifty per cent. output is increased, overhead is reduced and the cost of production gets down to a point where no violation of anti-trust laws is necessary in order to drive competitors from the field. There are also innumerable other phases of the work, rang- ing from the analysis of further investment to the scien- tific marketing of the product, with the application of the bonus reward for salesmen which should not be overlooked. DELIVERIES COVERED BY SCHEDULE The matter of deliveries is taken care of by scheduling. Every part whether it be a part of a patent medicine or of an automobile is scheduled from the time the cus- tomer's order is received until the goods are shipped. This scheduling covers the ordering of material, the fol- lowing up of material orders, its reception at the plant, its storage, its delivery to workrooms, primary and sec- ondary operations upon it, assembly of parts, inspection and finally its shipment. With every order in the house so scheduled, with the time of every operation known through standardization, and with a penalty or a reward 16 Scientific Industrial Efficiency dependent upon each workman's adherence to schedule, the factory is in a position to state exactly at all times to the inquiring salesman just when delivery can be made. As a result, the salesman knows he is getting the truth, and just what will happen to him if he stretches the truth. He is benefited in the long rim and the firm is benefited by an unimpeachable reputation for integrity in delivery promises. The determination of exact costs of operation in time to be of assistance in setting the administrative policy; the organization of the executive force in such a way as to eliminate friction and work-at-cross-purposes, including the age-old row between the selling and the operating departments which exists in nine businesses out of ten; the abolition of reduplication of work in the accounting and non-productive departments; the systematization of material and supply purchase, to enable market fluctua- tions to be turned to advantage; the reduction of wastes and of rejections by customers through analysis of the causes all these things come within the province of the industrial engineer. During the past fifteen years these principles have been applied to railroads, steel mills, brick and sewer-pipe plants, logging camps, farms, hotels, department stores, paper mills, banks, knitting mills, mines, automobile fac- tories, public service corporations, city governments, and so on. There have been failures of course but these have been due to faults of application rather than to the prin- ciples themselves. A Harvard professor who spent four years investigating what has been accomplished lays the greater part of the failures to the personality of the man- agement and to the personality of the consulting engi- neer. It is necessary for the engineer to have the com- plete and unqualified support of those in charge and to deserve that support. Under such circumstances, there can be no failure and it is a common thing for economies amounting to fifty thousand dollars a year to be effected in concerns employing less than four hundred men. CHAPTER II What Scientific Management Accom- plishes for Employer and for Employe A FEW YEARS AGO any number of innova- ^^ tions in the management of a factory or business, which every one now regards as good business, were branded as "hifalutin' ideas" or as rank idealism. The "Safety First" movement is even now looked upon in some sections of the country as a charitable idea worked out by "a lot of fellers with more money than sense." It takes a damage suit for eighteen or twenty thousand dollars, decided by a warm-hearted jury with little use for corporations, to convince a certain type of executive who is the possessor of what he calls "good old fashioned common sense" that safety shaft collars, guarded belts. lighted stairways and an occasional hand rail placed around high speed machines are good investments. In the same way a great many men look with deep distrust upon any plan whatsoever, which has about it the slightest flavor of philanthropy. This type regards the working man as a sort of ravenous beast, having no- traits in common with ordinary white folks and is firmly convinced that if you give the laborer an inch he will take an ell. Consequently, he believes in conceding nothing to his employes until he is absolutely forced to it. He forgets that people in general are quite likely to act up to the general opinion we have ot them. If every- one treats a man as if he were a beast, before long he will act like a beast. This type of employer, unfortunately for him, is sooner or later convinced ol the error of his ways by what is now generally known as "collective bargaining" which in extreme cases is applied with a 17 18 Scientific Industrial Efficiency club, after dark, or by means of a general conflagration, in which the whole works go up in flames. RESISTANCE TO INNOVATION The third type isn't convinced until he's dead. Not long ago, the writer was waiting for a man who is at the head of the Executive Club of one of our largest cities a writer of note upon industrial and economic questions to finish some dictation. There was one let- ter of several pages which he answered with a polite note thanking the gentleman for his interest in an article recently published and telling him how much he appre- ciated frank criticism. When he had finished he turned to me and said: "There is no use arguing with that type of knocker they don't understand English because they haven't any- thing to understand with. If you come back at them you simply hurt their feelings without penetrating their un- derstandings, so I just thank 'em and say goodbye." It is among these types that you find the owner or the executive who always suspects Scientific Management be- cause it does something for the employe because it seems to offer a greater interest in work which is drudgery, and to increase the laborers' pay. He believes that any system which would induce Ida Tarbell to stand up before the Federal Commission on Industrial Rela- tions and to state that such a scheme offered a solution of the country wide industrial unrest, must be wrong on its face, because the laboring man according to his creed 'deserves all the unrest it is possible to supply him with. On January 20, 1915, Miss Tarbell said in part: "There is an increasing desire on the part of the em- ployers of America to give the laboring man full justice and the idea is steadily at work. "It is coming out fundamentally in what is called the Science of Management. This breaks away entirely from the old ideas. It means better earnings, shorter hours and, most important of all, the development of the man as a worker. "One reason why Scientific Management is so im- portant is that it requires co-operation and collective ac- tion to make it really successful." The account continues: "Miss Tarbell said she had seen the system at work in half a dozen big factories and laid stress upon its power to push men out of their What Scientific Management Means 19 ruts. She answered the common objection to Scientific Management as to its being a dangerous weapon in the hands of unscrupulous employes by stating that in such hands it would not work at all. "Miss Tarbell also advocated one-third of the extra profit earned thru the introduction of Scientific Management going to the managers, one-third to labor and one-third to the shop." NECESSITY FOR ABSOLUTE FAIRNESS It is better that the type of factory owner cited in the opening paragraphs of this chapter should not be able to comprehend Scientific Management. Occasionally, a sort of hybrid exists who can see opportunities for gain thru the installation of the system, but who is not broad enough to comprehend that the fair deal, necessarily, in order to be a fair deal, must secure something for the employe as well as for the employer. One such instance came to the writer's attention about a year ago. A thoroly capable engineer had set stand- ards of production on all the operations in a furniture factory employing about a hundred and fifty men. By the use of the stop-watch and the analytical time study he had figured out just how long it should take each man working at his best to perform his task. Incidentally, in this particular instance, it would have meant that if each man had worked as prescribed without physical injury to any employe the production of the factory would have been increased one-third, and the payroll cost of each article reduced one-third. To induce the men to do their work, according to the methods prescribed, the en- gineer proposed a reward which would pay them in pro- portion to what they accomplished. The answer of the owner of the company was charac- teristic: "You say they ought to do the work in this time and you want to pay 'em for doing what they ought to do? Well, you can just make 'em come up to standard with- out any bonus!" The engineer, as soon as he found his man couldn't be moved by explanation or argument, resigned. Various executives who were ordered to. accomplish the impos- sible also resigned and at last reports the concern was 20 Scientific Industrial Efficiency going on the rocks about as fast as industrial chaos from receiving shed to shipping room could take it. EMPLOYER MUST BE PREPARED TO DO HIS PART It may seem a long way from a discussion of the em- ployer's attitude toward labor or of what happened in a furniture factory to your own particular business, but it is absolutely essential that the reader understand that it is quite as necessary that the factory owner or the chief executive be of the right sort and in the right frame of mind, as it is that the enginer be competent. The late Frederick W. Taylor said to the writer only a few weeks before his death: "The attitude of mind is essential. The factory owner must want Scientific Management badly badly enough to do as he is told. He must have faith enough to take him thru the inevitable periods of discouragement. The type who foresees all the difficulties which might occur, and who is everlastingly fearful, is not ready for Scientific Management. The man who would secure its benefits must have both courage and faith." He then went on to cite a number of instances naming some of the best known corporations in the country in which the directors had wanted the system installed, bui whose call he and his associates had refused because of the type of executive in charge. A four-year investigation of the success of Scientific Management in one hundred and forty-five factories by C. Bertrand Thompson, consulting engineer and lecturer at Harvard University, disclosed the fact that the larger part of the failures in fact, all but one were due to: I. The Personality of the Management. II. The Personality of the Consulting Engineer. In the first case the failures were due to: A. The managements' rushing in with great en- thusiasm and then vacillating between strong support and doubt and distrust a very weak-kneed course. B. Dissension in Management foremen really in con trol, etc. C. Absentee Control. D. Lawyers in Charge. E. Sheer Incompetency of Management. F. Financial Inability to Carry it Thru. G. Panics Fall in Output. H. Weak Selling Organization. What Scientific Management Means 21 The longer most of us live, the more firmly we come to believe that it is very seldom that the Fates grant us something for nothing. This law runs even thru science, as countless inventors who have spent their lives "invent- ing" perpetual motion machines have discovered. The rule is just as true in the case of industrial problems. The benefits, financial and otherwise, to be obtained from the introduction of Scientific Management into a factory are very great, but the owner who would obtain them must be prepared at the outset to go thru periods of doubt and discouragement and often to incur a certain amount of initial expense while the bread is being cast unon the waters. Anyone who represents the thing in a different light is borrowing a leaf from the book of the mining stock promoter and the gentleman who has a gold brick to dispose of at a sacrifice. THE NEED FOR MORE EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT Recently the need for more efficient management thru- out the country has been brought to light most forcibly. The Federal Trade Commission, upon investigation, has found that outside of banking, railroad and public utility corporations, there are about 250,000 business corpora- tions in the country. Of these over 100,000 report no net income whatsoever. Another 90,000 make less than $5,000 a year each, leaving 60,000 or less than one-fourth of the business corporations of the United States which earn over $5,000 per year, and so may be termed success- ful. Of these successful corporations only about one-half charged off depreciation. In other words, if they had kept their books fairly and honestly, it is a question how many of them, would have to come within the successful twenty-five per cent. Edward N. Hurley, then vice- chairman of the commission, stated that "Failure to pro- vide for depreciation is one of the causes that has a great influence on the business death rate." The same gentleman further stated: "If you compare our figures which show that only ten per cent, of our manufacturers and merchants know what it costs to manufacture and sell their products you have the answer as to why Germany has been so successful in developing such a high standard of efficiency in manu- 22 Scientific Industrial Efficiency facturing and distributing her products, not only in Germany, but in the markets of the world." The clay business, from which most of the illustrations in this book are drawn, is an average American industry. Its leaders are as fine men and as progressive as the leaders of any business in the country, and its mossbacks carry more moss to the square inch of back than any other manufacturers in the country and are proud of it. The writer at various times managed a number of clay plants of various sorts for several different companies, during which time he visited and studied conditions at over a hundred clay factories, and the money that is being wasted in some quarters is simply appalling. One branch of the industry was investigated by the United States Department of Commerce in 1914-1915. The department's findings, summarized briefly, are as fol- lows: 1. The manufacturers are without adequate knowledge of the costs of production in their own industry. 2. Extreme variations prevail in different factories in the cost of production, the difference in the cost of various specific operations between the minimum and maximum being as follows: Labor Costs 35 per cent. Material Costs 46 per cent. Kiln Fuel 66 per cent. General Expense 294 per cent. Fixed Charges 551 per cent. 3. Many factories are badly arranged and poorly equipped so that repeated rehandling of materials and products is necessary and economical routing extremely difficult. 4. There is a distinct need for more scientific methods of production. NOT A MATTER OF NEW EQUIPMENT There is one other point which the writer wishes to make clear before discussing in greater detail the ap- plication of Scientific Management to manufacturing. A great many men have the idea that letting an industrial engineer loose in a plant means spending from ten to fifty thousands dollars for new equipment. This is not What Scientific Management Means 23 the case at all. Anyone can cut costs by spending a lot of money for high-priced mechanical handling devices and more up-to-date machines. The competent engineer recom- mends new equipment only as a last resort. He may at various times present figures showing that a new ma- chine would pay for itself in three, six or twelve months, but his endeavor always is to make the machinery on hand do the work. It has been the experience of industrial engineers, gen- erally, that factories in this country are over-equipped and under-supervised so beware of the man who begins by recommending an immediate outlay for equipment. Efficiency doesn't mean a lot of new machinery. It means first of all getting one hundred per cent, use out of everything you have. HOW ECONOMIES ARE EFFECTED We have taken up considerable space describing the attitude of mind in which it is necessary to approach Scientific Management, and have devoted some time to explaining what Scientific Management is not. The thing that saves the money is perhaps best explained by an illustration. During the past week the writer spent a couple of hours at a large sewer-pipe plant which has been operated under Scientific Management for about a year. It was a hot day and the official government thermometer was ninety-seven degrees in the shade so that it must have been at least one hundred and fourteen degrees around the kilns. In spite of this, the spirit of the kiln foreman around the kiln which was being salted was the spirit of our grandfathers at a "barn raising" or of our fathers at a "husking bee." While the sweat was running pro- fusely, there was none of that hang-dog, "wage slave" attitude we hear so much about % from the street corner orators. One of the men had brought over a jug of lemonade and between salts the trial pieces were dis- cussed in the shade of a nearby kiln with the same spirit with which the equal partners in a business might dis- cuss a new product and this in spite of the fact that one of the firemen could hardly make himself under- stood on account of his broken English. A new method of salting was being tried out which meant more wo r k for the firemen, but were they sullen about it? Certainly 24 Scientific Industrial Efficiency not! They were all partners in the same business. Every fireman on the job knew that if the new scheme suc- ceeded the quality of the pipe would be increased and that his wages would be increased in exact proportion and was doing his level best to make the experiment a success. And there was more than the money. The system had been installed long enough so that it was "the style" among the men at that factory to take an interest in the work, in- stead of growling and shirking. When the salt was finished the men sat down in the presence of the superintendent with all the freedom they would have shown with each other in their own homes. They had the right to do so. They were not serfs ex- pected to cringe before their superiors, but independent workers each one set up in business for himself by the bonus system. Every man was as nearly as possible his own boss, working for the common end the greatest quantity of pipe of the best quality, produced with the least coal and with the least labor. The more each man saved the company, the more money he got himself. He knew how his friends, who were finishing other kilns, were doing and he was striv- ing to beat them at the game. A spirit of friendly rivalry brought added interest to a hard day's work and with each pay day came a substantial reminder of what his con- scientiousness had meant to the company. ON THE OTHER HAND From this plant I went to the factory of another com- pany a concern known thruout a dozen states as a busi- ness success. A truck holding three hundred brick was being loaded from a kiln. There were four men at work beside the man who came for the truck. As soon as these men had sized me up as a salesman or something equally harmless, as far as they were concerned, they fell back into their regular stride again. The system was this: As long as the truckman who seemed to be a sort of fore- man was in sight all four men kept moving. Each move was deliberate as possible, it is true, but still the motion was fairly continuous. However, as soon as the truck was loaded and removed by the trucker, work stopped. Two of the men frankly came outside of the kiln, sat doivn and rolled cigarettes. On one What Scientific Management Means 25 occasion when one of the men lingered in the kiln the other cigarette smoker cursed him freely for working on a hot day. As soon as they could hear the trucker returning, they threw away their cigarettes, went back into the kiln and began loading the empty truck which had been left there. Mean- time the trucker had to wait until the truck was filled. The men were obviously unhappy. Dodging the boss had ceased to be a novelty, they were plainly bored to death and were wishing for the dinner hour or anything to add interest to their existence. This crew was not over twenty-five per cent, efficient as compared with the first one described. The labor was costing the company four times as much as in the first case. The men were dissatisfied and were engaged in systematic soldiering, furtive and underhand, of a sort which every hour it was practiced got them more and more into the "wage slave" attitude of mind, instead of making them honest, self-respecting and proud of their work. These men were not in the least to blame. You and I would do the same thing in their circumstances. They were paid for time served not for work done, either quantity or quality. Piece work might have helped some, but when rates are set in the ordinary way, it is only a matter of time before systematic soldiering is just as prevalent in piece work gangs as where day work is in vogue. DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT YOUR MEN ARE DOING? You may say that men working in your factory would have been fired who loafed that way. Perhaps so theoretically. Remember, however, that a brick plant making a hundred thousand brick a day usually has one superintendent and two or three foremen who are not working foremen, or gang leaders. Suppose there are four such men altogether whose sympathies are not with the men, as must be the case where the leader actually works with his crew. In such a factory there are usually at least a hundred and sixty men. That makes forty men to each foreman so that each one can devote be- tween thirteen and fourteen minutes a day to each of his men. What will each man do the other eight hours and forty-six minutes while the boss is away? While each foreman may not, strictly speaking, have thirty-nine men 26 Scientific Industrial Efficiency loading all the time, nevertheless, when it comes to a trial of strength to decide whether that foreman can drive evejy one of his forty men at one hundred per A Piece Rate Crew "At Work." This Picture Was Taken Before the Drawing of Kilns at This Particular Plant Had Been Standardized, and the Men Are Not on a Bonus. This Crew is Not Over Forty Per Cent. Efficient. Note the Listless Attitude of the Men. cent, efficiency every minute of the day or whether each man will loaf a certain portion of the day, the chances are at least ten to one that the foreman will lose, since he is not likely to have more than a quarter of his men under observation at any one time. The writer's ex- perience, at any rate, has led him to bet on the men. WHAT THE ILLUSTRATIONS REPRESENT The first of the accompanying illustrations shows a typical piece work crew "at work." This picture was taken before the drawing had been standardized. The man at the left is removing a twenty-inch pipe from the kiln while the man on his right is calmly waiting to roll it away. This second man is not at all impatient. The man waiting at his right looks still more bored, while the man at the extreme right is frankly whiling away his time by whistling. Out of the five men in the picture, two men are at work, so that at the moment the picture was taken the crew was working forty per cent, effi- cient. What Scientific Management Means 27 The question, of course, at once arises as to why since this crew was on piece work all of the men were not doing their best to earn as much as possible. To the industrial engineer the answer is obvious. In the first place, the piece rates had not been established by means of the analytical time study. In consequence, the exact number of men which would do the work to the best advantage had not been determined. In the sec- ond place, the proper sort of equipment had not been provided. In the third place, the men knew that if they let themselves out they could make such large wages that their rate would be cut in which case they would have to work harder to earn the same money. In the fourth place, they had not been taught to use them- selves and their equipment to the best advantage. MEN THAT ENJOY THEIR WORK The second picture shows part of the setting crew at work. Needless to say these men are on bonus. You can almost see them hustle and they are enjoying every This Crew is on a Bonus and Their Work Has Been Stand- ardized. No Listlessness Here. These Men Have Been Set Up in Business for Themselves and Are En- joying the Work Thoroly minute of it. They know that the more quickly they do the work the more money they will make and they are "going after it" for all they are worth. The equipment they are using has been standardized. Everything is in 28 Scientific Industrial Efficiency smooth running order and experts have figured out the most advantageous way of doing the work, and have taught each individual workman just how to do the most work with the least wear and tear on himself. The photo- graph speaks for itself. The men haven't even time to watch the photographer. The two pictures tell the whole story. Which com- pany will have the lowest cost of production and make the most money the one whose men are soldiering, who do not care how much ware they spoil, who are dissat- isfied with their work, who regard themselves as "wage slaves" and strike at the first opportunity (often just for the excitement of the thing), or the company which has taken the trouble to standardize its equipment, to scien- tifically plan the work and to split with their men the fruits of more efficient operation by means of some sys- tem of bonus, with rewards in exact proportion to ac- complishment? CHAPTER III The Analytical Time Study T) EFORE it can be determined just how much work each J-* man should do, it is necessary to make it possible for him to do his best. A workman whose tools are inadequate, whose machine is continually breaking down or being shut down for lack of power, or who, every little while, has to wait for material, is not in a position to let himself out, even if he desired to make a record. Furthermore, under the ordinary systems of payment the workman does not particularly care whether his work is interrupted or not. It is much easier to sit down and wait while the machine is repaired by someone else or to "assist" the regular repair crew than it is to work. A case in point was that of a press feeder a boy of no great sense of responsibility who, when his job got monotonous, used to drop a bolt into the feed-chute. As a result the press would be shut down fifteen or twenty minutes while the die was removed and the bolt taken out. Meantime, the boy had a rest, enjoying the change in the activity of those about him and, incidentally, the picturesque language of the foreman. It took nearly a month to place the blame in this particular instance and, during that time, several thousand dollars output was lost which reckoned in lost profits, or even in wages spent for use- less work, amounted to considerable. // the company had made it to that boy's financial interest to do his part in in- suring the continuous operation of that press, this loss would have been avoided, beyond a doubt. No matter how great a workman's sense of responsibility, he reaches the "O what's the use?" stage very quickly where interruptions are frequent. Why should he try to break the record when just at the height of the race some- thing over which he has no control some belt or some steam connection breaks and nullifies his whole effort. Any way 29 30 Scientific Industrial Efficiency you look at it, breakdowns are discouraging and, unless you give the workman a chance by reducing interruptions to a minimum (a bonus to the repair crew is pretty good in- surance), you cannot expect him to do his best. HOW ATTENTION TO DETAILS REDUCED DELAYS Chart I furnishes an example of the reduction in delays brought about by attention to machine details and by plac- ing the crews on bonus in a large brick plant. At the time the record was instituted about a month's standardization 301, 10% ool Hours 20.00 10.00 .00 June ^4 July Aug. 5 Per Cent Working Hours Shui Down Hours Delay' Chart 1. Showing Reduction in Delays Effected in the Machine Room of a Large Brick Plant by Stand- ardization and by Placing the Crew on Bonus had been done. It will be noted that during the subsequent four weeks the reduction in delays was continuous and that the shutdowns decreased over sixty per cent. from four- teen hours a week to less than five. In addition to the elimination of delays there is a large field for the competent engineer in the improvement of tools and equipment. In many cases, study of the workman's accessories discloses the fact that the implements handed down for generations and stamped with approval by "experience" are totally unfitted for the work which they Analytical Time Study 31 are expected to do. There is certainly no more vener- able and ancient trade than bricklaying and yet Gilbreth, by the use of the fountain trowel and by making a scientific study of the workmen's motions, eliminated two- thirds of the motions as unnecessary, cut the work two-thirds and enabled union men to average three hundred and fifty brick per hour instead of one hundred and twenty. The work must be studied from the purely analytical viewpoint, freed for the moment from the blinders of tradition, until every obstruction which may prevent the worker performing his task in the easiest, the quickest and the best way is removed. Under no other circumstances have you a right to expect your men to do their utmost. THE ANALYTICAL TIME STUDY After the machines, the tools, the delivery of material and the removal of the finished product have been standard- ized, in other words, after you have given the workman a fair chance, you must teach him to use what he has to the best advantage and to do his work in the best way the easiest way for him and the one which will result in the largest dividends for the stockholders of the company. Since one man was set over another, to see that he labored conscientiously and well, motion study has been going on. You are all familiar with the story of the Irish section boss who so far forgot himself at a funeral as to order two of the pallbearers to "lave that coffin be and come over here four of yez is enough to carry it," and with the tale of that other son of Erin who, on calling down into the excavation and finding that three men were digging there, bellowed down the order for "half of yez to cum up out o' that!'' It may be a far cry from the instinctive sizing up of the right number of men to handle a job by the Irish boss to the highly technical motion study of the expert made with the cinematigraphic camera and the stop watch. The prin- ciple, however, is the same and consists in the solution of the question : How can this man best do the work, with the least wear and tear on himself, with the least waste of material and with the least expenditure of time, so that the final result will be the finest possible product at the least possible cost? An explanation of just how to make a motion study is just about as easy to formulate, and about as easy to under- stand, as an explanation by an artist of just how to paint a 32 Scientific Industrial Efficiency picture would be to one who had never seen a painting. There are numerous articles, and even whole books on the subject, but the analytical time study is a thing that must be done to be understood. Furthermore, there is no limit to skill which may be developed or to the results which may be attained any more than there is in sculpture or in paint- ing. The conscientious man, not over-equipped with im- agination, ingenuity and inVentiveness, may learn to handle a stop watch skillfully and obtain satisfactory results the genius will revolutionize an industry. A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF MOTION STUDY Briefly, the process consists in timing every motion of the workman with a stop watch arranged to register the hun- dredths of a minute, and of recording these motions. The problem is then studied analytically, the useless motions are eliminated and the worker is taught to secure the desired result with the fewest possible movements. In the course of this work new crevices are often introduced and new processes invented. A time study may take fifteen minutes or fifteen days depending upon the intricacy of the process and the economies which are likely to result from the solu- tion of certain problems. We have seen what was accomplished in bricklaying. The man who did that work wrote a book describing just how the studies were made. Some time the writer may attempt to explain the methods of making time studies in a clay plant, but such an explanation would be too long and too com- plicated for a book of this sort. The general rule is, find out how long each class of work is taking by dividing it into its elements. Recor'd the time of each element. Classify the elements into necessary and unnecessary movements. Eliminate the unnecessary. Improve the process as your knowledge and ingenuity and the knowl- edge, ingenuity and experience of those who are familiar with the work, suggests. Reduce the final decision as to the best way to do the work, to writing. Show the workmen how to follow these instructions, and make it worth their while to follow them to the letter. Until you have done this, you will never know how much useless work is going on about the plant, how much the men are handicapped in their work and how much more work can be done with less fatigue to the worker and with increased profit to the firm. Analytical Time Study 33 THE BONUS REWARD Inasmuch as you are going to expect the workman to learn new methods and to follow instructions to the let- ter, you must reward him for his trouble and pay him Scene in the Oil House of the Ordinary Plant. Note Condition of Drip Pan and Pool of Oil on the Floor 34 Scientific Industrial Efficiency in proportion to his effort and accomplishment, both as to the quantity and quality of his work. There are numerous systems of paying a bonus, all of which have their good points. The important thing to do, however, is to select the system which exactly fits the situation in question. Labor differs in various sections of the coun- try and a system which would incite one type of work- man to do his best might not interest another at all. The local labor situation must be studied and a plan selected which will strike the employe as fair and which will induce him to do his best to attain the standard set. As an example of a practical and widely used bonus sys- tem, the Emerson system may be eked. This pays the work- man according to his degree of attainment of the standard set according to the following formula and table : Standard Hours = Efficiency. Actual Hours TABLE Per Cent. Per Cent. Efficiency Bonus Efficiency Bonus 67 .005 91 .11 73 .01 92 .12 76 .02 93 .13 79 .03 94 .14 82 .04 95 .15 84 .05 96 .16 86 .06 97 .17 87 .07 98 .18 88 .08 99 .19 89 .09 100 .20 90 .10 Under this system then, if a certain operation, such as drawing a kiln of brick, was standardized at eight hours and the crew drew it in nine hours the formula would be filled in -as follows: 8 Hours Standard - = 88 per cent. Efficient. 9 Hours Actual and the members of the drawing crew would each receive .08 or eight per cent, of their wages as a bonus for doing the work in the above mentioned time, in addition to their regular pay. Analytical Time Study 35 In some cases it is desirable to arrange the bonus to dis- courage absences, and so forth, as well as to reward for the accomplishment of a standard quantity and quality of work A Standardized Oil House. In Excavating for the New Floor, Several Barrels of Oil Oozed Out of the Surrounding Soil, Which, Owing to a Long Continued State of the Conditions Shown in the Preceding Picture, Had Become Thoroly Saturated. Hundreds of Dollars Gone to Waste 36 Scientific Industrial Efficiency in a given time. Details must be varied to suit conditions, but the principle remains the same, namely : Reward in exact proportion to accomplishment, so that the workman is bene- fited in dollars whenever he increases the firm's return on its investment. The principle is as applicable to gang work These "Wheelers" Are Not on a Bonus. At the Time the Picture was Taken, the Kiln Was Two-thirds Filled With Brick, Customers Were Clamoring for Early Ship- ment, and the Room in the Kiln Was Needed to Operate the Plant at Full Capacity. Yet These Seven Men, Working Under the Piece-rate System, Felt They Had Time for a "Tea Party" as to the individual workman, as the following tabulation shows, which gives the attainment of various crews secured in a recent installation of the system approximately five months after the standards were set: Crews Per Cent Efficiency Annual Economy Press 92.5 $ 5,950.00 Setting 105.0 5,000.00 Drawing 92.0 2,000.00 Shipping 117.0 12,650.00 To summarize the manufacturer who is progressive, who has faith, who is prepared to give his employes a square deal and who can convince them of that fact, is in a position to benefit his employes, to advance himself and to increase the dividends of his stockholders. Labor troubles can be reduced, Analytical Time Study 37 guess work eliminated and management reduced to an exact science. All this requires patience and application but the results are far reaching and are well worthy of attainment. CHAPTER IV Centralized Control TT7HEN KIPLING VISITED AMERICA in 1889 his * ^ comment upon the conduct of affairs m general was : "There is considerably too much guessing about this large nation. As one of them put it rather forcibly, 'We guess a trestle will stand forever, and we guess that we can patch up a washout on the track, and we guess the road's clear and sometimes we guess ourselves into the depot, and sometimes we guess ourselves into Hell.' " DARING HAS HAD A LARGE PART IN SUCCESS In the past the American business man's willingness to take a chance has been one of the mainsprings of his suc- cess. Conservatism does not plunge into the wilderness, face unknown dangers and return to civilization with the prizes of the forest and of the mine. Until the beginning of this century, the pioneer has been pre-eminent and it has been the man with courage, with daring sufficient to take a chance and often a very long chance who has succeeded. We, who have remained in civilization, never hear of the nine hundred men who played ten to one shots and whose bones lie in the mountains of California or under the gla- ciers of Alaska. It is the hundred successful men the men who play the ten to one shot and win who come back to the cities and, riding in motor cars and building palaces on Fifth avenue, advertise the results of daring. It is not unnatural then that "nerve" has come to be at a premium. This was right, and as it should be as long as the country possessed vast tracts of undeveloped territory waiting for the pioneer. Since the beginning of this century, however, the effect of the change in conditions has become evident very rapidly. California long ago put up the notice of "No Pioneers Wanted" and Alaska is getting to the point where she will soon hang out a sign reading "Standing Room Only." 38 Centralized Control 39 Methods which succeeded in the last century the. cut and slash methods of the pioneer, the recklessness which continu- ally takes the long chance, running the railroad or the factory by guess must vanish into oblivion with those picturesque features of the past, with the red shirt of the "Forty-niner" and the Indian dug-out of Puget Sound. A new set of con- ditions has arisen, and those who survive must be prepared to meet them. The time was when a lucky guesser could run a manu- The Despatch Office The Home of Centralized Control Which Keeps the Superintendent in Touch with Every Detail of the Business, With the Least Demand Upon His Time facturing plant successfully in almost any part of the country. Harriman once said: "If you will guarantee that I will guess right fifty-one per cent, of the time, I will own the world in ten years." Lots of factories are conducted on just that principle and, if they happen to be in a part of the country where competition is at all keen, they are not paying dividends. An exact knowledge of just what is being done, and of just how near that is to the best that can be done, is essential at all times if the superintendent is to operate the factory in such a way that his cost of production will remain at the lowest possible level, if the general manager is to main- tain the greatest margin between cost and sales price and, 40 Scientific Industrial Efficiency if the president is to convey to his stockholders the full dividend to which they are entitled. CENTRALIZED CONTROL When the writer made his first great jump, cutting loose from the factory where he had served his apprenticeship with friends, and took charge of a plant which he was ex- pected to run without assistance from anyone, he naturally received several pretty severe jolts. In the first place, he found that previous superintendents had had no place which they could call their own no office, no desk, not even a table. They were evidently expected to go on and on, and never to possess 'a place to rest their head or the soles of their feet. The writer's predecessor, he was told, carried his papers in his vest pocket the first few months he was in control and, the last few months of his stay, slept off his previous night's "jag" every morning on a bench in the boiler room. Inasmuch as the writer had a trunk full of engineering data, he didn't fancy the vest-pocket-office plan and one trial of the boiler room bench, which was infested with fleas, con- vinced him that rest there would cost him more whisky than he could at that time afford. He, therefore, started in on a campaign of reform which very nearly cost him his job. He demanded a desk, a private office and a time-keeper who could use a typewriter. Such unheard of affrontery and ex- travagance was at first looked upon as ruinous. A little later he asked for copies of the factory cost sheets. He was promptly told that the costs were one of the firm's secrets that they didn't propose to have them become public property. He as promptly told the firm that, in that case, his resignation was at their disposal that he didn't propose to be judged, and perhaps damned, by a set of figures which he never saw. This was perhaps strong talk for a youngster of twenty- four, but its justification lies in the fact that, within eighteen months, several other superintendents of the old office-in- their-vest-pocket variety were furnished desks voluntarily by the firm, were ordered to send in a letter at least every two days covering operating conditions and were handed copies of the costs each month with the request that they furnish the management a complete written analysis of the reason for fluctuations. 'Subsequently, in traveling about the country, the writer found that the vest-pocket office system, which forces admin- istration by foot work rather than by head work, was by no Centralized Control 41 means uncommon, especially where the glorified foreman type, rather than the factory manager type of plant ex- ecutive, was encouraged by the supreme authority in the firm. Under the former system factory management by guess can only be expected. A CHEAP MAN DOES CHEAP WORK The efficient management of a factory employing two or three hundred men is a big job, and the firm which turns over two or three hundred thousand dollars' "Unscientific Management in a Staffordshire (England) Pot- tery. It Will Be Noted That the Work Is So Poorly Planned and Despatched That Four Employes Have Nothing to Do Until the One at the Right Fin- ishes His Task. Efficiency in This Instance, Therefore, Is Twenty Per Cent or Less worth of machinery, buildings and kilns to a hundred and twenty-five dollar a month man, with no assistance other than his one hundred and twenty-five dollar brains, ex- perience and courage and expects him to earn them forty or fifty thousand dollars a year by running foot races all over the plant, usually earns what it deserves to earn. Regardless of what a firm pays a man, however, they should strive to make it easier for him to do what he should do, than what he should not do. If they want him to use his feet principally and to spend his time rush- ing around from one crew to another they should insist on the vest-pocket office. If, on the other hand, they 42 Scientific Industrial Efficiency realize that no matter how good a foot racer he is, he can be with each crew only a fraction of his time, and while he is with that crew ten or fifteen other gangs An Example of the Lack of Proper Planning and Despatching. The Work for Which This Crew Was Assembled Was Not Ready for it Upon Arrival at the Job. Conse- quently, Seven Men are Standing Idle have an opportunity to loaf; if they want him to spend a portion of his time comparing what each crew did yes- terday with what it did the day before and a year ago, and devising ways and means to repeat star performances and to avoid past failures; if they want him to use his head rather than his legs, they should insist upon the superintendent having a place to which he can retire and, in peace and quiet, consider ways and means of reducing his costs, improving the quality of his product and in- creasing the firm's earnings. What a superintendent does, once he has retired to his office, depends, of course, upon his nature and the as- sistance or training he is given. He may withdraw to his office to smoke cigarettes, deeming it more safely re- moved from the eagle eye of the general manager, or he may use it as a center from which to control every detail of the business. This brings us to one of the most im- portant principles of Scientific Management, variously known as Planning and Despatching or Centralized Control. Centralized Control 43 A DETAILED EXPOSITION OF CENTRALIZED CONTROL The Despatch Office is the home of the apparatus which shows the superintendent at all times just what is being ac- complished in each department and just how nearly this ap- proaches the standard of what should be accomplished. This apparatus is so arranged as to "make a big fuss," as it were, immediately when anything goes wrong. In the dark ages Nature provided babies with strong lungs, so that they would not be neglected when in need of attention. At other times the mother was free to clean out the cave, tend the fire or cultivate the garden patch with a crooked stick. This was efficiency. The mother could feel perfectly sure baby was all right so long as he did not howl and could go ahead with her other tasks. The moment baby needed attention he got it right away. Very well, we want our superintendent to be free to study his technical problems how to increase first quality More "Unscientific Management" in Staffordshire. Not* That the Runner's Work is So Poorly Planned That He Must Stand and Hold the Mold Until the Presser is Ready for It ware, how to change his paving-brick mix to decrease his rattler loss, how to handle his fires to increase tfee bright- ness of his sewer-pipe glaze, how to keep his big fire-brick shapes from cracking in the drying. His are the best paid 44 Scientific Industrial Efficiency and so, presumably, the best brains about the factory and should, if freed from unimportant detail, be best able to solve or plan the solution of these important problems. Moreover, when something goes wrong something which will interfere with the operation of the plant, decrease the output and send the costs up then he should be notified, and notified at once. If the only interruptions to plant out- put were perfectly obvious matters like boiler explosions, for instance, the superintendent would need little equipment to realize what was happening and to rush up with the best remedy possible. EFFICIENCY OF KILN LOADING Unfortunately, however, while many of the diseases of clay plant operation are much more subtle than boiler ex- plosions, they are none the less just as dangerous. Take, for instance, the matter of kiln loading. Every good super- intendent knows that it takes about so much coal (practi- cally, even if not .theoretically) to burn a kiln of ware an hour say on high fire regardless of whether that kiln is loaded to seventy or ninety per cent, of capacity. If it takes a ton of coal to burn a thousand brick when the kiln is loaded to capacity, it will take very nearly as much coal to burn the same kiln the same length of time loaded to ninety or seventy per cent, capacity. If the kiln holds 100,000 brick loaded to capacity (which would represent the carefully de- termined standard), it would require 100 tons of coal to burn it off. If the kiln continued 100,000 brick, the coal per thou- sand would amount to 1.00 tons. If it contained 90,000 brick, the coal per thousand would amount to 1.11 tons. If it con- tained 70,000 brick, the coal per thousand would amount to 1.42 tons. If your plant capacity is 50,000,000 brick a year and coal costs $1.50 per ton, it costs you $.46 a thousand or $23,250 more per year if you are getting only seventy per cent, of standard in your kilns instead of ninety per cent. In other words, if your "Efficiency of Kiln Loading" is sev- enty instead of ninety per cent., you are throwing away more than twenty thousand dollars a year. How many superin- tendents know every time a kiln is set just how nearly it Is loaded to capacity, in figures which cannot be mistaken? DRIER TURNOVER Another example : A great many sewer-pipe and fire-brick plants have insufficient drying space when operated in the usual way. Consequently, they are the greater part of the Centralized Control 45 time either cracking ware by putting the heat on it too soon, which means a heavy floor loss, or they are setting "green" ware, which means either a longer burning time with in- creased coal consumption or heavy loss in the kilns, or both. Merchants have what they call their "annual turnover," I lQut &Q Kilns in July 1915 krsm arier If, 8 3 G 10 18 14 2 I 7 II 3 15 5 13 4 I? (6 8 9 KILN TURNOVER CONTROL GRAPH Control Graph Showing Reduction in the Number of Hours Covering Kiln Turnover in the Burning and Cooling Periods. This Was Brought About in Four Months Thru the Application of the Principles De- scribed in the Accompanying Article which refers to the number of times they "turn," or com- pletely dispose of their stock each year. The more often a merchant can so turn his stock, the more money he can make on a given amount of capital invested. Thus, if he has $10,000 invested in groceries on which he makes ten per cent, every time he sells his whole stock, he makes $1,000. 46 Scientific Industrial Efficiency If he sells this stock three times a year, he makes $3,000. If he sells it four times, he makes $4,000 on the same invest- ment of $10,000.00. The same law applies to fire-brick, sewer- pipe and other floor-dried products. The quicker you can get them out of your shop, the quicker you get your money (payroll, material expense, etc.) out of it, and the more quickly you can put something new in its place, the more times you can turn your capital and the larger are your net profits. It is essential, therefore, that the superintendent know what his floor turnover is at all times and how nearly he is approaching standard both in total floor turnover and in turnover on each class of product. KILN TURNOVER In a later chapter we will go into the importance of keeping the burning time as short as possible and the econ- omies in coal consumption effected by so doing. In addition to this saving the principle stated in the preceding paragraph also applies, so that there is an additional reason for keep- ing down the kiln turnover. Where a plant is short on kiln capacity a reduction in kiln turnover (or, in other words, the burning time) often saves the investment of thousands of dollars in new kilns. About a year ago, the writer spent a week investigat- ing conditions in a plant which was making 60,000 brick per day, burning them in twenty-six kilns, which had cost about $225,000 to erect. They were contemplating in- creasing their output to 90,000 per day and the superin- tendent told me that the only way they could do it was to build more kilns, as the kilns were the limiting factor. An analysis of conditions proved- that certain changes in the kilns and methods of burning would make it possible to increase the capacity to 90,000 without erect- ing a single new kiln, that the expenditure of $112,500 for thirteen new kilns was wholly unnecessary. A knowledge of that factory's standard kiln turnover would have been very much worth while to that company. Yet how many superintendents know exactly what their kiln turnover is averaging at all times and just what percentage that is of the lowest practicable or standard turnover? TYPICAL INSTANCES OF WHAT A SUPERINTENDENT SHOULD KNOW, BUT OFTEN DOES NOT These three instances "Efficiency of Kiln Loading," "Drier Turnover" and "Kiln Turnover" are cited as typical in- Centralized Control 47 stances of what a superintendent should know, but very often does not know. There are any number of matters quite as important, the exact status of which should be brought to his attention frequently and forcibly, if he is to operate the factory at its greatest possible effectiveness. This brings us to the consideration of how the usual superintend- ent of a large factory with innumerable and unavoidable demands upon his time can possibly find time to figure out such a lot of things every day no matter how important a factor the information is in the efficient operation of the plant. The answer is that he doesn't have time and he would be doing himself and the company a grievous wrong if he took the time. When Frank Gilbreth laid out bricklayers' work so that they were free to put all their time on the work for which they received high pay namely laying brick in the wall he hired unskilled and cheaper men to do the sort- ing and to so place the brick that the masons didn't have to carry them to the wall. When he taught his laborers to de- liver mortar in such condition that the masons didn't have to work it over and freed his high-class men from everything except the highest class of work, he cut the cost of brick- laying in half. Whenever a three hundred dollar a month superintendent does the work of a fifty dollar clerk he is rob- bing the company of forty cents an hour in wages and no one knows how much in high class thinking and in executive work left undone. Sometimes, of course, a factory is so small that the superintendent has to be shipping clerk, book- keeper, cost clerk and stenographer but, as a general rule, he should be freed from detail and clerical work of every sort. In no other way can he give consideration to the technical, mechanical and economic problems upon whose solution the very life of the plant sometimes depends. It. is necessary, therefore, to provide some sort of ma- chinery to relieve the superintendent of clerical work and of the details of plant operation, but at the same time to insure that matters which should come to his attention do come to his attention at once, and forcibly when necessary. This is done by organizing a Department of Central Control or Despatch Office. CHAPTER V Planning and Scheduling E DESPATCH -OFFICE, which is the physical and visible sign of scientific centralized control, should be located as near the plant's center of population as pos- sible so that whoever is called upon to visit it can do so with the least possible expenditure of time, for which, of course, the company pays. The building may be anything from a shack to an elaborate structure of brick contain- ing laboratories, first-aid hospitals and drafting rooms. The housing is immaterial. The principle is essential. The despatch office is the heart and medulla oblongata of the factory and must be equipped to insure the opera- tion of the entire plant at the highest possible efficiency at all times. I. COST SYSTEM This equipment consists, first, of an adequate cost sys- tem. The exact forms used do not matter, nor the names by which the various operations are called. Certain re- sults, tabulated below, are, however, vital: 1. The cost system must be accurate, otherwise its in- fluence in its sphere is no greater than that of any other liar in the community. 2. It must present the facts promptly. Inquests held a month after a murder is committed very seldom result in the capture of the assailant. Similarly, the superintendent who informs one of his foremen six weeks after it hap- pened that during a certain week the cost of operating his department was high, evokes little beyond stock excuses. The foreman, even if there was a good reason for the rise, has forgotten it, and the chance of analyzing the cause and eliminating it is slight when all details are lost in the dim past of six-weeks-old history. It is possible 48 Planning and Scheduling 49 to have accurate manufacturing costs two days after the close of the month. The cost of important operations for the previous day should be on the superintendent's desk by nine o'clock the following morning. 3. It must be complete. The cost of every operation should be shown. The use of such headings as "General Work," "Miscellaneous Supplies" and similar hold-alls should not be tolerated as they encourage inefficiency, and even graft. 4. It must be vital. A cost system should assist, ac- tively, in the administration of the factory. When things go wrong it should shout the fact and demand an imme- diate remedy. Costs which come to the superintendent alone, covering a single month, may be looked at with polite interest and laid aside. All costs should be ar- ranged in comparative form. Then, when the cost of clay goes up, the superintendent will know it, will inves- tigate and will, if possible, take steps to reduce the pit costs to their former level. When the burning cost falls, the fact must be brought forcibly to his attention, so that he will investigate and make the gain permanent. 5. It must be economical. A cost system to remain vital must be frequently pruned. Records which have outlived their usefulness must be discarded. There must be no unnecessary records kept. Forms should be no more elaborate than conditions demand. Otherwise, money is wasted for stationery and for clerk hire. The whole system should be gone over at least once a year and the axe applied ruthlessly to any portion that is not absolutely essential. II. GRAPHIC CONTROL This has, in a measure, been covered by the previous section on costs. The continuous follow-up on every de- partment secured by making it possible to compare the cost of an operation for one period with the cost for all other periods by the use of a curve which brings the whole thing before the superintendent at one time and allows the situation to be understood at a glance, is invaluable. When, in addition, the standard cost of every operation has been scientifically determined and the curve shows just how nearly the actual accomplishment approaches this stand- ard, a spur is provided which insures the operation of that plant at the highest possible efficiency at all times. 50 Scientific Industrial Efficiency III. THE EXCEPTION PRINCIPLE We have already spoken of the value of having the su- perintendent free to devote his time to technical and other problems. It is upon the despatch office that he IMPERIAL BRICK CO. LABOR SERVICE CARD Name Employee Man No. Dept. No. Date Started Continued Finished With No. Mach.No. Order No. Oper. No. Account No. Delay and Cause Operation Time Finished Quantit) Product PCS. Done Wt. Done Time Started Time Elapsed Rate Wages Burden Total Service Card Printed In Three Colors Which Allows Each Employe's Time to Be Quickly Distributed in Such a Way As to Insure an Accurate Payroll, Exact Depart- mental Costs and Easily Procured Job Costs depends to sound the warning bell. The routine of the factory is taken care of by the chief despatcher, who keeps in touch with all the details of manufacture. If the superintendent does not hear from the chief despatcher to the contrary, he is safe in assuming that the factory routine is going satisfactorily and that he is free to con- sider ways and means of increasing the quality of the product and of lowering the cost of production. In other words, everything is all right "except" what is brought to his attention by the central control office. IV. PLANNING Ordinarily, about a plant, trouble is dealt with when it arises. As a result, running a clay factory has been de- Planning and Scheduling 51 scribed as "just one darn thing after another." This will al- ways be the case as long as the possible troubles are not figured out beforehand and steps taken to prevent their arising. Take, for instance, the usual method of setting a kiln. The shop foreman, who is generally a much harassed individual, is sought by Bill, one of the head setters and, about eleven o'clock in the morning, is told that the gang is waiting to set another kiln. He tears himself away from the drying problem he is considering long enough to tell Bill to fill kiln No. 14 with eighteen, ten and four- inch pipe (or with bullnose, standard and shape brick numbered X24, Z23, H118 and M41,823, as the case may be) and returns to the consideration of whether the steam boss was drunk last night or whether the clay boss used the wrong mix to cause all that cracked "stuff." In about BONUS TICKET Imperial Brick Co. NAME Clock No Date. Amount of Bonus $ ......... Earned for period ending ......... rS ' ................. = .............. % Efficiency. To earn more, work more efficiently. Study your movements to increase your efficiency. Every move saved means more money on this ticket. Bonus Ticket. This Card Informs Each Employe at the Close of the Bonus Period Just How Nearly His Work Approached the Standard Set and Just How Much Additional Pay He Will Re- ceive in Consequence fifteen minutes Bill comes back and tells him that the drawing crew haven't finished drawing Kiln 14, or that the masons have the floor all torn up. The shop foreman leaves his drying troubles then and goes down to see about it. Meantime ten or fifteen men have stood around and waited twenty or thirty minutes at a cost of two or three dollars in wages and as much more in lost output, while the thing is being threshed out. He finally tells Bill to have his men help the drawing crew clean up 52 Scientific Industrial Efficiency No. 14 and the two crews fall all over each other for half an hour and lose four or five dollars more for the company getting things going again. At times, the largest part of the foreman's time is spent in "finding something for his men to do." Just consider that a minute finding something which his men may Despatch Board in the Central Control Office. Note the Service Cards in the Racks on Either Side of the Window waste time on until there is a demand for their services finding some way to throw the company's money away! MORE TIME AND MONEY WASTED Presently, Bill gets started. An hour later he returns. "Those eighteens aren't dry enough to set" or "there aren't enough tens." Then follows more "alarms and excursions," the shop foreman and Bill combing the floors until some more tens are found and the eighteens are pieced out with twenty-fours which, incidentally, means that the kiln must be burned on a twenty-four-inch sched- ule, thereby wasting coal and increasing the kiln turnover Planning and Scheduling 53 time. Meantime, of course, the crew has been waiting and more of the company's good money thrown away. This may seem an exaggerated case but, as a matter of fact, it is the kind of thing that is going on all the time even in comparatively well managed plants, as anyone who has been intimately connected with their manage- ment knows. And it is only one example of many which might be cited of kilns not cool enough to draw when wanted, of insufficient clay in the bins and the fact dis- covered when in the midst of a heavy tonnage run and a hundred other things all of "which mean interrupted out- put, waiting crews and increased operation costs. THE REMEDY The remedy, of course, lies in proper planning and proper scheduling. If the burning and cooling had been Graph Showing Effect of Four Weeks' Planning and Despatching in Reducing Interruptions to the Out- put in the Machine Room of a Brick Plant standardized with schedules for each sized pipe, or for different sorts of brick or terra cotta shapes, and with a reward in the form of bonus to the burning crew for burning and cooling in standard time it would have been possible for the chief despatcher to have predicted ten days ahead to within half a day when each kiln would be 54 Scientific Industrial Efficiency ready to draw. With this knowledge in his possession he would have scheduled the drawing of each kiln with a view to having a kiln always available. With the draw- ing standardized and the crew on bonus, he could predict within half an hour of just how long it would take to draw any sort of ware from any kiln. He would then have made a tentative schedule showing which kilns would be available the next morning, arranging for a choice, if possible. He would then have consulted his records and would have determined what size ware could be set to the best advantage and his planning sheet to see what ware was available. At four o'clock in the afternoon at the regular foreman's meeting he would have stated that there was plenty of twenty-four-inch pipe on the floors, that they needed that room two days later for a run of thirties, that by setting the twenty-fours with fifteens, eights and threes, of which they had plenty, they would get the greatest num- ber of tons in the kiln (and would consequently burn off with the least coal per ton of ware), that kiln No. 17 would be repaired and ready at ten o'clock in the morning, that the setting crew working on kiln No. 10 would be finished not earlier than 10:30 o'clock the next morning and that, therefore, unless the superintendent or one of the foremen had some objection, he would schedule kiln No. 17 for Bill and his crew the next morning. In this way, all the ineffi- ciency described would have been avoided, discipline would have been maintained and production costs held at the minimum. CAN PLAN WORK QUICKLY AND MEET CONTINGENCIES The chief despatcher, once he has been provided with proper tools and records, can, in a comparatively short time, plan the operation of the factory twenty-four hours ahead. In doing this he can provide alternate courses to follow in case of necessity and have ready at all times a detailed plan of action which can be carried out without a hitch. You all remember the story of the great Von Moltke who, lying asleep when the news of war with France in 1870 was brought him, simply rolled over and said: "You'll find the plan of campaign in the third drawer of my desk." Planning and Scheduling 55 The plan was followed and, only a few months later, Germany made peace on her own terms. The problems of brick yard operation are certainly no more intricate, and the chief despatcher, with his planning sheets spreading all in plain view before him, is prepared to meet arising contingencies much better and much more quickly than the foremen depending upon their memories and issuing orders (which may easily conflict with orders issued by others) wherever the man in search of instruc- tions may find them. A book could easily be written on "Planning" and the advantages to be gained therefrom. Enough has been said, however, we believe, to illustrate its value both in eliminating inefficiencies and in freeing the superintendent from detail. The installation of an effective planning system involves a careful study of the conditions prevailing in each particular plant. The equipment must be adequate without being extravagent. The chief despatcher must be carefully selected and carefully trained, and the foremen must be taught to take the fullest advantage of the assist- ance offered. Under such circumstances, the saving is sufficient to cover the trouble and expense many times over. V. DESPATCHING This feature of centralized control is closely allied to planning. The planning department determines what is best to be done and places the result of its labors before the factory executives for criticism, approval and execu- tion. The despatching department notifies these executives in case of a hitch in carrying out the plan adopted. In a clay plant the planning and despatching depart- ments are usually consolidated under one head and, in some cases, the duties are performed by one man. In either case, the work consists largely in checking up the progress of the adopted plan as it proceeds, of securing a clear track for it and of calling for assistance from the proper executive in case of obstruction. It is the duty also of the chief despatcher, who is on bonus, to see that all equipment, tools material and everything tending to the smooth and uninterrupted carrying thru of the plan adopted is ready when wanted. VI GENERAL . Various other matters are taken care of at the despatch office. Anyone wishing supplies ordered, goes there to 56 Scientific Industrial Efficiency Chief Despatcher's Desk, Showing Various Records, Stand- ard Practice Instructions, Schedules and Graphic Control Charts Planning and Scheduling 57 make out his requisition. The chief despatcher sees that it is in proper form and that it has been properly authorized before turning it over to the purchasing department. He watches the distribution of charges, provides men for crews which are short handed, rather than allow the fore- man, who needs a man, to go begging from crew to crew, or to ask the superintendent to hunt one up for him. The chief despatcher schedules work for the repair crew and sees that the work is not released until the material is on hand. He schedules work for the extra gang, making sure that the work done is important and that the extra gang is as small as is compatible with efficient operation. In fact, his duties are legion and he earns his salary and his bonus if any man about the factory does. SCIENTIFIC CONTROL FOR THE MANAGEMENT Once the factory is under scientific control the work of the general manager at once becomes infinitely easier. The exception principle frees him from an immense amount of detail and the time so gained is at the disposal of the sales department and free for the consideration of those larger problems of business which determine its success or failure. The theory is this the records, graphs, and so forth, with which he is provided show him each day, each month and each year, just how nearly the factory is reaching the standard set in terms of efficiency percentage. If his con- trol sheet shows him that the day before the factory was operated at ninety-eight per cent, efficiency, he may feel free to depart for the golf links to recuperate from the strain of the big deal he swung the night before or to take time, to study certain selling problems which need attention. If, on the other hand, the factory's efficiency fell to eighty-eight per cent, he will turn over to his next sheets which are arranged in the order of their importance, and find perhaps that nine of his departments ran over ninety per cent, but that the tenth fell to sixty per cent. He has then put his finger on the exact trouble and can investi- gate the circumstances responsible for the drop in the total efficiency. He avoids wasting his time digging thru a lot of departments which do not need his attention, and so saves nine-tenths of his time for better and more profit- able uses. Actually, it is perhaps not as simple as this 58 Scientific Industrial Efficiency Year of 1916 Month of l Quarter April Moy June July The Effect of Four Months of Centralized Control Upon the Number of Brick Per Man Per Day Pro- duced. Same Kiln Capacity in April as in July Planning and Scheduling 59 but that is the principle of the thing. The graphs in his Administrative and Executive Record give him a grasp of operating conditions in sufficient detail each morning to allow him to use his time to the best advantage. Once a month the operating, selling and administrative costs are entered in such a way as to make a thoro analysis of the business possible and changes in policy can be made fear- lessly in the light of full knowledge. The same system of control has been applied to the sell- ing and the executive who is so equipped may assure him- self that there is nothing of importance that can escape his attention. Where the bonus reward has been applied in all departments he may be sure that every man .in his organ- ization be he laborer, salesman or clerk is looking upon the company's business as his own business and, accord- ing to his ability, is doing his best to make the earnings of the company all that the stockholders desire. CHAPTER VI Standardized Technical Control A COUPLE of years ago, the president of one of the largest clay manufacturing concerns in the country was asked what he would establish as an ideal if he were required to set a standard of attainment for his head burner and assistants. His reply, without ever batting an eye, was : "One hundred per cent. No. 1 ware, with no labor and no fuel!" There is no question that high ideals are commendable in a man, but the millennium isn't here yet at least not around the usual brick yard. The determination of attainable ideals or stand- ards, however, and the inducement of the burning crew to attain these standards, expresses, in a few words, the applica- tion of Scientific Management to burning. Just what constitutes a reasonable standard in each case must be determined by local conditions the kind of clay, the sort of coal even the climate and the type of labor play an important part m arriving at a conclusion as to what results may be reasonably 'expected, ultimately. The prin- ciples in every case are the same, and the ideal is the same the highest percentage of first class ware, with the least coal and with the least labor. This goal must be kept con- tinually in mind and every step taken must be a step in that direction. In that way, and in that way only, can the larg- est possible dividend be earned for the stockholders who in- vest their money and who have a right to expect every man from the water-boy to the president of the company to do his utmost to guard against loss. STANDARDIZED CONDITIONS The first step is to standardize conditions. To a great many owners of clay plants "kilns is kilns" in much the same way as "pigs were pigs" to the Irish freight agent in the story and, if they only knew it, the results of failing to differ- entiate are quite as serious to them and to their stockholders, 60 Standardized Control 61 as the results were in a personal way to that unfortunate Hibernian who asserted that the guinea pig, and the variety which furnishes us with pork chops and ham, were one and the same, as far as he was concerned. A great many clay plants, especially those constructed a number of years ago, have been the training school for every clay worker out of a job who happened along and who had nerve enough to call himself a superintendent. As a result every kiln and every kiln bottom, in a good many plants, is different. Each successive foreman or superintendent has tried out some of his pet ideas until every kiln burns differ- ently from every other kiln and turns out very different re- sults both in percentages and in coal consumption. Obviously, there can be only one best result. Money has been lost and is being lost right along on every other kiln which uses more coal or turns out less No. 1 ware than the best kiln. The ideal way to remedy this would be to tear out every kiln bottom and put in a standard bottom designed by an expert. This would undoubtedly give uniform results and all the kilns would be "best kilns." Unfortunately, most own- ers of clay plants are not in the millionaire class and, if they are, they are not inclined to incur an expenditure of five or six hundred dollars a kiln merely on the recommendation of an engineer the first time they meet him. Standardized conditions, then, must resolve themselves at first into a per- sonal expedition into the not-too-cool depths which lie be- neath each kiln. The personal inspection of each kiln bottom is not pleas- ant, but it is generally productive of results. These results, in the writer's experience, have varied anywhere from find- ing a long abandoned iron wheel barrow in the main flue, where some worthy laborer had been loading it when the whistle blew, to encountering a tepid stream of water thru which it was necessary to splash on the hands and knees for thirty or forty feet. Neither one of these phenomena were good for the draft nor for the percentage of first-grade brick. EXPERT NOW READY TO PROCEED After the kiln bottoms have been cleaned out and "drained and both these things should be done much oftener than the executives of clay plants have any idea the expert is ready to proceed with his standardization. It is essential not only that all kiln bottoms should be as nearly alike as 62 Scientific Industrial Efficiency possible in order that the method of burning which gives the best results on one kiln will give it on all kilns but it is also necessary that this standard design shall be one which will give satisfactory results. Otherwise the results might be uniform but they would be uniformly bad. Kiln designing is a profession in itself and no attempt can be made at this time to go into the details. Un- fortunately,, there is very little literature on the subject, altho an attempt was made to reduce flue proportioning and regu- lation to a science in a paper published in Volume Thirteen of the Transactions of the American Ceramic Society.* The mistake is made in the article, however, of assuming that the movement of hot gases follows the same laws as do those of cold gases which is not the case. Fairly satisfactory results, however, can be obtained by following the rules set down in the article, as the writer has occasion to know. The two results which must be aimed at are: I Flues large enough to obtain sufficient draft at all times. II Flues so arranged that the burning can be absolutely and easily regulated by the burner. (Hot spots and cold spots are entirely unnecessary. The kiln bottom should be so designed that a competent burner, after observing the result of a burn or two, may easily, quickly and accurately effect a change in the draft by closing off certain flues, or by opening certain flues, which will give an absolutely even burn in all parts of the kiln.) As we have stated, these results are easily attained if the owners are ready to spend the money. Even, however, if their resources are unlimited and their generosity is of equal magnitude, common sense dictates that the results should be obtained as cheaply as possible. If every clay plant would adopt for its motto : "No Improvements unless they will pay for themselves in Two Years," there would be fewer busi- ness failures. We must follow common sense then and, after a careful survey of the kiln bottoms, the stack and the fire holes, decide upon what can be done to secure the best possible results with the least possible expense. In other words our standard must be : "Uniformly perfect kilns with- out spending any money." The final result may be a com- promise but it must always be borne in mind that real effi- ciency is economy. See "Kiln Flue Regulation According to Some Ventilation Formu- lae." by Dwight T. Farnham. Standardized Control 63 TECHNICAL CONTROL While the kilns are being analyzed and standardized a record of exactly how the burning is conducted is built up. The Pyrometer A pyrometer is perhaps not absolutely necessary, but anyone who has used one in burning would never be without it, if he could help himself. The writer fired kilns and was head-burner for nearly a year on a yard where technical control might be said to exist and where no pyrom- eter was used, and knows from personal experience that very satisfactory results can be obtained on sewer-pipe, brick and conduits by using a thermometer registering up to 500 degrees, pyrometric cones, and by keeping a careful record of just where the fires are on the grates, when the ware begins to show red, and so forth. However, there is no doubt in the writer's mind that even where careful records are kept and the burning is in charge of experienced men, that a pyrometer 'I f \3 |4 |S |6 |7 |8 |9 |10 0369W8 3b 48 60 7Z 84 % 108 l?0 13? 144 156 U>8 IflO IX ? 216 2500 ?400 e^oo ^^oo ^ooo rn5 / 1 2 Started Hay rns 17*18 Started June e Brick Kilns - Works rometer Installed Junt CURVED 31. 1916 14 t- Jun J 1 1 TZ ft el 5. 1916, 1.19 Py /te -17 1900 n ,'-' _.^ y^ ^,^3 ^~\ '^ 1 1800 ,' ~ ^> y" .' 1700 /' -^ 1600 ' ^ -^ ^ ^ x ^1500 IB,' X 'l7 / /2 2 / i Burn Q5I300 // /' i -4-^ [ 1 '/ i fln \ 'H 1100 / Cocr /JJgl ojlOOO / 7 c 70 ^> 3 900 ,-- A ,' j V 0x300 ,' ^ *^x / A -^. Q 700 x y> r / \ 600 '/ $ X 500 ; /; 400 ' / *7 300 ._,.' ^ , 100 E -'/ 3 ' * 17 2 Graph A system will pay for itself in from a year to eighteen months. This saving is entirely aside from any saving effected by the use of technical methods of handling the burning, or by the 64 Scientific Industrial Efficiency application of the principles of scientific management. The reasons for this are briefly as follows: I Coal consumption varies almost directly with" the num- ber of hours the kiln is burned. If a steady advance in Days 2500 #00 2200 2100 2000 1900 1800 1700 1600 t-1500 .f 1400 S/300 $ 900 0,800 700 600 500 400 300 ?oon 1 2 f> 4 j P ( n ? 4 ? fl P J Hours 4 afc I0.fi 1 <0 I !2 I- 7 f '' 1 1 r TEMPERATURE AHO COflL CURVES Kiln He Burn A Burn I Works in Jul) ax to 6 to 5 , /# f <3"vSewe 6 /r? iA//y /3 /3 in ftpnl Pyrornef r P/oe /5 -I 10 19/6 ?r / nsfallec ?ro til J ' oi f / ra 066 / / / Tor s Coc/ Per Ton ft/o fiorns //a 66 f^o 51 / / J / fl ) ,' / 1 ^1 i ' A \ ' f 1- ^ r V 1 y | X / / 1 D . / / f oM. / ^* J ta^^ ^~ 1 Graph B temperature is maintained and there are no setbacks (except, of course, such as may be intentional for the purpose of driv- ing the heat to the bottom, etc.) the burning time is obviously not as long as if the heat is allowed to go back every little while and then has to be raised again. (See Graphs A, B and C.) The pyrometer, therefore, saves coal. II Many sorts of ware, such as sewer-pipe and paving- brick when of a particularly vitreous variety are injured by letting the heat go back. With the pyrometer the heat advance is steady. The pyrometer, therefore, increases the percentage of first grade product. Ill The longer each kiln is burned the more kilns there are on fire at one time the more labor there is required all the time. Anything, therefore, that cuts down the burning time reduces the labor expense. The pyrometer then reduces burning costs. Standardized Control 65 GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION OF PYROMETER SAVINGS Graph A shows at the right the first two burns which were recorded on a pyrometer. At the left are shown two burns made two weeks later. Results obtained are as follows : 1 On the first two burns the temperature went back on Burn No. 1 eight times and on Burn No. 2 five times. Two weeks later on Burn No. 17 and No. 18 the heat went back only once on each kiln. 2 The watersmoking time was cut from ninety-six to eighty-four hours and the high fire period from one hundred ana eight to eighty-eight and eighty-two hours for the respective kilns. This represents a total saving in the burning time of thirty-six hours on each kiln or of sev- enteen per cent. .5 This cut in the burning time alone meant an increase 01 ten per cent, in the output of this particular factory, with a corresponding increase in the returns (in the form of profits) available for dividends, a decrease in the cost of manufacture and saved an expenditure of over six thou- sand dollars for new kilns. Just how much of this saving was due to the use of the pyrometer, to the installation of an effective record sys- tem, and to the application of technical knowledge and the principles of scientific management, it is impossible to say. The fact remains, however, that in two weeks the presence of the pyrometer so clarified the whole situation that all concerned knew exactly what they were doing at all times and it was possible to secure the maximum of progress and to effect the greatest economy in the shortest time. The Draft Gauge If the wind always blew from one direc- tion at the same velocity, if the temperature and humidity were always the same and if there was always the same amount of moisture in the clay, the coal and the ground sur- rounding each kiln, there would be little use for the draft gauge. This is not the case, however, and consequently to secure standard operating conditions we must have some means of gauging the effect fluctuations in these various fac- tors have upon the circulation of air in the kiln upon which we have to depend to dry our ware during the watersmoking period, to assist in the removal of various sorts of deleterious matter during the oxidation period, as well as the effect they have upon the behavior of the gases during the vitrification or settle period upon which we must rely to drive the heat to the bottom of the kiln. Theoretically, much more complicated 66 Scientific Industrial Efficiency apparatus is needed than the Seger gauge, but practically, once the kilns have been standardized, sufficiently accurate results can be obtained by an intelligent and consistent use of the Seger gauge if the damper is manipulated as the gauge directs. The result is a maintenance of that draft which guarantees the shortest watersmoking, the shortest oxidation and the shortest finish all of which mean minimum burning Days 2300 |3 | 14 I 48 60 Tt 84 % M \ V I PI PIP 120 1 3? 144 I b Ifa8 fgO 19? Z.04 Z\ S V / > ^^ \ / Hen Sewt in / ^ t t r Pip / e .. ** E > as -X ** 7 \ \ E 1 Lbs . fewer Pipe Per I 1 1an t i t i * \ i t . -"- \ What Scientific Management Did for One Factory in Nine Months for whose correctness the writer is able to vouch, are given below : Sewer-pipe Factory eighteen months work. Labor cost cut twenty to thirty per cent. Output increased fifty per cent. Quality of product increased twenty per cent. Combination Plant six months work. Cost of paving- brick . production cut Output increased thirty per cent. Burning time cut over forty per cent. Quality increased thir- teen per cent. Sewer-pipe labor cost cut nine per cent, out- Principles and Results 95 put increased sixteen per cent, quality improved eleven per cent. Paving-brick Factory labor cost cut fifteen per cent. Output doubled. Percentages increased thirty-eight per cent, and rattler loss lowered from nineteen to sixteen per cent. Fire-brick Factory cost of production reduced thirty per cent. Output increased thirty-three per cent, without in- creasing the equipment. Percentage increased seven per cent. Hollow-ware Plant cost of production cut seventeen per cent. Percentage of first-class ware increased twenty-five per cent. Automobile Accessory Plant economies affected amount- ing to over $200,000 per year. Steel Mill cost of grinding switches reduced from $0.21 to $.037. Cost of forging braces from $0.612 to $0.258 per one hundred pieces. Cost of bending plates, from $3.18 to $1.34 per one hundred pieces. Cost of counter-sinking holes cut from $0.031 to $0.012 per one hundred pieces. Cost of drilling eighteen holes cut from $0.17 to $0.10 per one hun- dred pieces. Cost of threading bolts cut from $0.21 to $0.046 per one hundred pieces. Cost of welding and bending bars, cut from $0.74 to $0.33 per set. Cost of planing plates cut from $0.336 to $0.148 per one hundred pieces, and so forth. Miscellaneous Steel Work, Steel Castings cost of labor per good ton cut from $7.50 to $4.80 in seven months. Defec- tives reduced twenty per cent. Number of pounds of good castings per molder increased from 1,050 to 1,700. At an- other plant the output was increased 190 per cent, the good castings per molder were increased sixty per cent, and the cost per ton was decreased thirty-four per cent. Riveting cost per hundred rivets reduced from $1.60 to $0.75. Rivets per gang per day increased from 400 to 1,050. Structural Work cost per ton cut from $14.00 to $4.50 in seven months. Average number of tons per man increased from 4.90 to 12 for the month. Yard Work force reduced, each man handled 3,600 tons instead of 1,800 tons and wages were increased from $1.75 to $2.00 per day. Saw Mill labor cost reduced thirty per cent. Power cost reduced forty per cent. Supply cost cut twenty-five per cent, and light cost reduced fifty-six per cent, bringing the total cost of sawing down thirty per cent. Planing Mill cost of hauling to planer reduced twenty- 96 Scientific Industrial Efficiency six per cent., light and power cut forty-four per cent., labor cost twenty-two per cent., reducing the total planing cost twenty-two per cent. Logging bucking and falling cost reduced thirty-eight per cent. Loading cost thirty per cent., yard and hauling forty per cent. Supply expense cut thirty-seven per cent. Clothing Manufactory output increased sixty per cent., working force reduced twenty-five per cent., wages increased 115 1915 Aug. Sept Oct 15 31 15 30 15 31 1916 Nov Dec Jan Feb. nar Apr flay June July Aug 15 30 5 3l 15 31 15 ^9 15 31 i5 30 15 Jf 15 30 IS 31 15 31 " 110 CRtW EFFICI[NCY Graph Press No. I 100 95 90 85 60 75 70 t>5 60 No I Press; An Actual Example of What Scientific Management Accom- plished in Nine Months twenty-five per cent. $2.00 per week over and above those paid by the thirty-five other concerns in the district. Qual- ity of work increased. Profits were more than double those of the best previous year and the usual loss on spring busi- ness was turned into a profit of over $50,000. Miscellaneous a printing house doubled its business and saved $10,000 on paper stock in one year alone. A ship yard discovered that it was carrying 350 men on the payroll who did not exist. Draying costs were cut twenty-five per cent, in a jobbing concern. In a machine shop it was dis- covered that some men could have made $18 per day on existing piece rates. In an axle factory men were discov- Principles and Results 97 ered selling surplus work to their fellow workers at reduced rates, because they did not dare turn them in as their own work for fear the piece rate would be cut. A glass factory in one department replaced six boys by two men and cut the breakage from forty to ten per cent. An output of seventy- nine kegs of railroad spikes per machine was increased to one hundred and twenty-four kegs in sixty days. Scientific Man- agement saved a pipe foundry $120,000 in two years. The principles have been successfully applied to automo- bile factories, to motor engine plants, axle, fender, body and accessory plants, to railroads, foundries, steel mills, depart- ment stores, packing houses, paper box" factories, textile mills, paper mills, agricultural machinery plants, to jobbing concerns, furniture factories, publishing houses, mines, hotels, clubs, city government, public service corporations and even to farms. Every phase of industrial activity is to some ex- tent amenable to 1 the system. The results obtained depend only upon the efficiency of application. INDEX Page BONUS, PRINCIPLE OF 14, 15 Determining amount of 69, 71 Efficiency, ticket form of 51 Value of 15, 19, 24, 27, 28, 33, 34, 37, 82 BRICK AND CLAY RECORD QUOTED, BONUS PLAN VALUE 82 CENTRALIZED CONTROL, WHAT IT MEANS 38-47 CHARTS Increase of labor output in four months' time 58 Pyrometer, savings by ... 63, 64, 66 Reduction in delays by bonus system 30 Reduction in labor hours in four months* time 45 Reduction of interruption in four weeks' time 53 Results of scientific management, nine months*. ...94, 96 COSTS, SCIENTIFIC, SYSTEM OF 48ff DEPRECIATION, NEGLECT TO PROVIDE FOR, SPELLS FAILURE 21-22 DESPATCHING, SCIENTIFIC 55 See whole of Chapter V. ECONOMY, INDUSTRIAL, HOW EFFECTED 23-25 EFFICIENCY B'onus, Principle of 14, 50 Bonus, Value of 15, 19, 24, 27, 28, 33, 34, 37, 82 Cost Determination, and 16 Co-operation between employer and employee 18-20 Causes of 18, 20, 22, 23 Cost System 48 Definition, scientific 1 4 (See also Principles) Depreciation and.. ..2 1 -22 Delivery by schedule 15 Despatch office, and 43 Emerson, Harrington, on 1 I Employee, how it helps ...14, 17, 28 98 Index 99 Page EFFICIENCY Continued Economy, industrial, how effected 23-25 Equipment, now, not first essential of 23 Exception principle the, and 50 Examples, specific, of r 16, 24, 27, 28, 34, 43, 44, 46, 47, 53, 54, 57, 59, 62, 63, 68, 71, 78, 79, 82, 86, 94, 96 Example of (See also under Inefficiency) Favorite advertising term 9 Factories and 20 Factory manager, and 73-84 Factory staff organization 76-77 Failures, individual, investigation of 20 German, beginnings of 10 Gilbreth, Frank, and 47 Graphic control, and 49, 57 Guessing, bane of 38-39 Importance of analyzing, for, U. S. Reports, 1914- 15, summary of current industrial faults....2 1 -22 Intensive labor development ... 81 Meaning of, for consulting engineer 9 Meaning of, Edward G. Jones, on 89 Motion study, and 32 Piece work, and 12 Planning and scheduling 48-59 Pyrometer, control of, and 63-68 Principles of ....14, 17, 28, 85-97 (See also Definition) Results of ..85-97 Spread of, in industry 1 6 Summary of, current industrial faults 21-22 Standardized technical control 60-72 Scientific hiring of labor 82-83 Summary of scientific management theory 90-92 Taylor, Frederick W., on 1 1 Time, study, analytical, and,.., 29-37 Vest pocket management, vs 40-42 Von Moltke, and 54 Wage system, and .....:.... 12 Welfare work, and 84 EFFICIENCY TICKET, FORM OF 51 EMERSON, HARRINGTON, ON EFFICIENCY.... . 1 1 100 Scientific Industrial Efficiency Page EMPLOYER, HOW SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT HELPS 17-28 EMPLOYEE, HOW SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT HELPS 14, 17-28 ENGINEERING MAGAZINE, ON STAFF ORGANIZA- TION AND 77 FACTORY OWNERS' ATTITUDE TOWARD SCIEN- TIFIC MANAGEMENT 20 FACTORIES, FAILURE OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGE- MENT, CAUSE OF 20 FARNHAM, D. T., "KILN FLUE REGULATION," ARTICLE ON 62 FEDERAL COMMISSION ON INDUSTRY, TESTIMONY BEFORE '. 1 8 Why seventy-five per cent, of U. S. corporations are unsuccessful 2 1 -22 GUESSING, BANE OF EFFICIENCY 38-39 GILBRETH, FRANK, ON LABOR EFFICIENCY 47 HARRIMAN, ON GUESSING 39 INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT IN AMERICA 11-16 INEFFICIENCY, CONCRETE EXAMPLES OF, AND WHY 25, 26, 27, 40, 41, 42, 52, ILLUSTRATIONS A three-man dump car 90 Bonus plan efficiency 25 Bad despatching increasing costs 42 Bonus ticket form, for 5 I Charts (See under Main Line "Charts") Central control office arrangement... 52 Chief despatcher's desk arrangement 56 Correcting mold handling 88 Despatch office, centralized control headquarters 39 Drier roof 77 Eliminating loss in method of hacking 79 Kiln lining torn out, preventable loss 75 Labor time lost 41 Labor and material waste 87 More labor time lost 43 Oil house inefficiency 33 Piece work inefficiency 26 Index 101 Page ILLUSTRATIONS Continued Piece work inefficiency (2) 27 Pyrometer register 68 Service card form, for scientific management use. .. 50 Standard instruction order form 83 Standardized oil house 35 Taking draft gauge reading 70 Waste by unscientific saving 72 Waste of time by drier poorly handled 81 Waste of metal scraps 86 "Wheelers" working without bonus 36 JONES, EDWARD D., ON SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT, MEANING OF 89 KIPLING ON GUESSING 38 MOTION STUDY, VALUE OF 32 ORGANIZATION OF STAFF 76-79 PIECE WORK, WHERE IT FAILS 12 REWARDS (SEE BONUS) SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT (SEE EFFICIENCY) SCHEDULE DELIVERIES BY COST DETERMINATION. 1 6 STRAIGHT, H. R., SUCCESS WITH BONUS PLAN 82 TAYLOR, FRED'K, ON SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.... I 1 THOMPSON, C. BERTRAND, SUMMARY OF FOUR YEARS' FACTORY INVESTIGATION 20 TURNOVER, KILN 46 Drier, turnover 44-45 Designing of 6 1 TARBELL, IDA, TESTIMONY BEFORE FEDERAL COMMISSION 1 8 TIME STUDY, ANALYTICAL 29-37 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE FINDINGS, 1914-191 5 22-23 WASTE REDUCTION 16 WELFARE WORK AND EFFICIENCY.... .. 84 RETURN TO: CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 198 Main Stacks LOAN PERIOD 1 Home Use 2 3 4 5 6 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS. Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. Books may be renewed by calling 642-3405. DUE AS STAMPED BELOW. MAY 3 2003 FORM NO. DD6 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY 50M 6-00 Berkeley, California 94720-6000 YC 24390 396639 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY