Making Both Ends Meet Part 18

G: Total shoveling and wheeling min.

H: Times per barrow min.

I: No obs J: Times per barrow min.

K: Time per pc. per shovel min.

L: No. shovels per barrow min.

M: Time wheeling 100 ft. min.

|A| B | C | D |A| B | C | D |A | B |C | D |A |B |C --------------------+-+----+----+---+-+-----+-----+---+--+----+--+---+--+--+- Department-- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Construction |a|1.37|1.37|15 |a|1.12 |1.12 |12 |a'|1.86| |11 | | | Men--Mike Flaherty |b|1.56|0.19| |b|1.39 |0.27 | |a'|1.81| |13 | | | |c|1.82|0.26| |c|1.58 |0.19 | |a'|2.14| |16 | | | Materials--Sand | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | requiring no pick |d|1.97|0.15| |d|1.70 |0.12 | |a'|1.98| |14 | | | Materials--Hard | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | clay in bank |e|1.97|0.15| |e|1.92 |0.22 | | | | | | | | Implements--No. 3 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | shovel; | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Contractors' | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | wooden | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | wheelbarrow |f|2.36|0.09| |f|2.36 |0.09 | | | | | | | | Conditions--Day-work| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | for a contractor. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | By previous | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | observation |a|1.24|1.24|13 |a|2.05 |0.13 |13 | | | | | | | An average barrow | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | load of sand is | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2.32 cu. ft. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | measured in cut |b|1.36|0.12| |b|1.38 |0.15 | | | | | | | | An average barrow | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | load of clay is | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 2.15 cu. ft. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | measured in cut |c|1.59|0.23| |c|1.60 |0.22 | | | | | | | | |d|1.83|0.24| |d|1.78 |0.18 | | | | | | | | |e|2.08|0.25| |e|2.05 |0.27 | | | | | | | | |f|2.23|0.25| |f|2.23 |0.18 | | | | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Time | Complete | | | | | Detail | | | | | | Operations | E | F | G | H | Operations |I | J | K | L | M ------+-------------+---+---+---+----+-------------+--+-----+-----+----+----- 7 A.M.|Commenced | | | | | | | | | | |loading sand | | | | | | | | | | 9.02 |43 loads |122| |122|2.84|a--Filling |4 |1.240|0.094|13.2| |wheeled to a | | | | | barrow with | | | | | |distance of | | | | | sand | | | | | |50 ft. | | | | | | | | | | 9.50 |Picking | 48| | | |b--Starting |4 |0.182| | | |hard clay | | | | | | | | | | 11.39 |29 loads clay|109| | | |c--Wheeling |4 |0.225| | |0.450 |wheeled to a | | | | | full--50 ft.| | | | | |distance of | | | | | | | | | | |50 ft. | | | | | | | | | | 11.46 |Picking clay | 7|55 | |1.67|d--Dumping |4 |0.172| | | |again | | | | | & turning | | | | | 12.01 |4 loads clay | 15| |124|3.76|e--Returning |4 |0.260| | |0.520 |wheeled to a | | | | | empty--50 | | | | | |distance of | | | | | ft. | | | | | |50 ft. | | | | | | | | | | | |301| | | |f--Dropping |4 |0.162| | | | | | | | | barrow & | | | | | | | | | | | starting | | | | | | | | | | | to shovel | | | | | | | | | | |g-- | |2.241| | | | | | | | |h-- | | | | | | | | | | |i-- | | | | | | | | | | |j-- | | | | | | | | | | |k-- | | | | | | | | | | |l-- | | | | | | | | | | |m-- | | | | | | | | | | |a'--Filling | | | | | | | | | | | barrow with | | | | | | | | | | | clay |4 |1.948|0.144|3.5 | ------+-------------+---+---+---+----+-------------+--+-----+-----+----+----

NOTE.--Comparison of "Detail" with "Complete" operations shows that about 27 per cent of the total time was taken in rest and other necessary delays. About the same quant.i.ty loose as at the start. Observer: JAMES MONROE.

Here is an account of the effect the result of this time-study and these tests in strength produced on the output and wage of a group of men at the Bethlehem Steel Co., whose work Mr. Taylor reorganized after that of the Midvale Steel Company:--

The opening of the Spanish War found some 80,000 tons of pig-iron piled in small piles in an open field adjoining the Bethlehem Steel Company's works. Prices for pig-iron had been so low that it could not be sold at a profit, and was therefore stored. With the opening of the Spanish War the price of the pig-iron rose, and this large acc.u.mulation of iron was sold.

The ...steel company's ...pig-iron gang ...consisted of about 75 men ...good average pig-iron handlers, under an excellent foreman ...A railroad switch was run out into the field, right along the edge of the piles of pig-iron. An inclined plane was placed against the side of a car, and each man picked up from his pile a pig of iron weighing about 92 pounds, walked up the inclined plank, and dropped it on the end of the car.

We found that this gang were loading on the average of about 12-1/2 tons per man per day in this manner. We were surprised to find, after studying the matter, that a first-cla.s.s pig-iron handler ought to handle between 47 and 48 tons per day, instead of 12-1/2 tons, which were being handled.

This task seemed so very large that we were obliged to go over our work several times before we were sure we were absolutely right.... The task which faced us as managers under the modern scientific plan ...was ...to see that the 80,000 tons of pig-iron were loaded on the cars at the rate of 47 tons per man per day in place of 12-1/2 tons.... It was further our duty to see that this work was done without bringing on a strike among the men, without any quarrel with the men, and to see that the men were happier and better contented with loading at the new rate of 47 tons than they were when loading at the old rate of 12-1/2 tons.

The first step was the scientific selection of the workmen....

Under ...scientific management ...it is an inflexible rule to talk to and deal with only one man at a time, since we are not dealing with men in ma.s.ses, but are trying to develop each individual man to his highest state of efficiency and prosperity. The 75 men in the gang were carefully watched and studied for three or four days, at the end of which time we had picked out four men who were believed to be physically able to handle pig-iron at the rate of 47 tons per day. A careful study was then made of each of these men.... Finally one man was selected from among the four as the most likely man to start with.

This man, who had been receiving $1.15 a day, agreed to follow for $1.85 a day the directions of the time-student, who had determined the proportion and intervals of rest necessary for the regular accomplishment of the task, without overstrain or undue fatigue. The worker started to carry his accustomed load and at regular intervals was told by the time-student, observing the proper period for rest and work with a watch: "Now pick up a pig and walk. Now sit down and rest. Now, walk--now, rest, etc."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Courtesy of _Industrial Engineering_

THE NEW METHOD OF PROVIDING THE BRICKLAYER WITH MATERIAL]

He walked when he was told to walk and rested when he was told to rest, and at half past five in the afternoon had his 47-1/2 tons loaded on the car. And he practically never failed to work at this pace and to do the task that was set him during the three years that the writer was at Bethlehem.... Throughout this time, he averaged a little more than $1.85 a day; whereas he had never received more than $1.15 a day, which was the ruling wage at that time in Bethlehem.... One man after another was picked out and trained to handle pig-iron at the rate of 47-1/2 tons a day, until all of the pig-iron was handled at this rate, and all of this gang were receiving sixty per cent more wages than other men around them.

A very brilliant and extended investigation concerning the elimination of waste of human energy and labor by motion-study has been made independently of Mr. Taylor by Mr. Frank Gilbreth, whose discoveries in the field have already cut down the effort of the labor of bricklaying two-thirds. The two accompanying photographs show what Scientific Management and motion-study did in one case to serve the worker by an orderly and convenient arrangement of his material.

These extremely simple processes of bricklaying and carrying pig-iron have been selected as instances of the procedure of Scientific Management, because they reveal one of its most illuminating qualities.

Scientific Management makes an art of all work. It gives the most primitive manual task its right dignity, and turns knowledge, science, and the powers of direction from the position of tyrants of labor to that of its servitors.

Scientific Management, then, besides eliminating waste in human energy, or rather by way of eliminating this waste, eliminates waste in equipment, waste in machine power, and evolves through an extended planning department such better appliances, such an improved programme of work and recording of individual work as has been only very imperfectly indicated here.

For an instance of the elimination of waste in equipment the account of the saving effected for one establishment by an efficient use of its belting may be narrated. This was the work of Mr. Harrington Emerson, widely known as a counselling engineer. In the '70's Mr. Emerson had become interested in the subject of Efficiency Engineering by his study of the successful conduct of the German Army during the Franco-Prussian War; and he has since then reorganized numerous large enterprises in accordance with the principles derived from his inquiry. Among these establishments was a machine shop where the belting[47]

"had cost (for maintenance and renewals) at one of the main shops about $12,000 a year--or $1000 a month--and it was so poorly installed and supervised that there was an average of 12 breakdowns every working-day, each involving more or less disorganization of the plant in its part or as a whole." The workmen in charge of the belts now received directions as to their charge from a general foreman, who received directions from an efficiency engineer. This engineer had derived his general information on the subject from a man who had made a special study of belts for nine years. He laid down a few general rules, requiring accurate records of breakdown, repair, and installation, full authority and responsibility for the special worker on belts, a better grade of work in installation and better operation of the belts. Under this method "the number of breakdowns declined from 12 each working-day to an average of 2 a day, not one of them serious ...and due to original defective installation, which it was impossible to remedy without unjustifiable expense.... The cost of maintaining belts fell from $1000 a month to $300 a month."

This elimination of waste of human power, and in connection with it the elimination of waste of equipment and of machine power, have, then, in the course of the last thirty years, been studied and applied in this country in the way roughly outlined by Mr. Taylor, Mr. Gilbreth, Mr.

Gantt, Mr. Sanford Thompson, Mr. Barth, Mr. Cook, and Mr. Hathaway; and in somewhat the same manner by Mr. Harrington Emerson, Mr. Edward Emerson, Mr. W.J. Power, Mr. Arion, Mr. Playfair, and Mr. Chipman. These engineers have developed methods which have made it possible for them to reorganize the various businesses mentioned which have consulted them, and to decrease their costs and increase their profits. It will be seen at once that the procedure of Scientific Management in determining by scientific a.n.a.lysis the rate of speed and the working conditions under which machine power and human energy can be at once most productively and continuously employed, is really new, and differs radically from former business management, however ably systematized.

"But these," said Mr. Taylor, in speaking of the methods of Scientific Management, "are incidents in the course of Scientific Management. Its great underlying purpose is the achievement of prosperity for the workers and for the employers." Mr. Taylor's definition of prosperity, given on another occasion, is one of the finest the present writer has ever heard.

"By a man's prosperity, I mean his best use of his highest powers."

It may be asked, after the efficiency of workers has been increased by scientific study, what provision is made by scientific study for their increased compensation. While Mr. Taylor was at the Bethlehem Steel Company, Mr. Henry L. Gantt, then engaged with him in reorganizing the Bethlehem Steel Works, first applied the Bonus and Task system of compensation, which may be described loosely as a premium paid if a certain predetermined amount be accomplished in a certain time. Its general principles are these:[48]--

1. "A scientific investigation in detail of each piece of work and the determination of the best method and the shortest time in which the work can be done."

2. "A teacher capable of teaching the best methods and shortest time."

3. "Reward for both teacher and pupil, when the latter is successful."[49]

II

About five years ago Mr. Gantt was consulted concerning the application of Scientific Management in a New England Cloth Finis.h.i.+ng house. The installation of the new system here began on the eve of a strike which the workers lost. The history of this strike and its causes is not a part of this account. Only these facts concerning it bear upon the present subject. The strike started among the men folders, then folding 155 pieces of cloth a day for $10 a week on week wages, and asking for ten per cent increase of wage without increase of output. The women folders'

wage on lighter work was $7.50. As will be seen, this request was met by Scientific Management. The wage was increased far beyond ten per cent.

The output was increased, both by improved mechanical methods, and by a standard of more expert work, to from 447 to 887 pieces a day. The engineers of Scientific Management had not on either one side or the other any part whatever in the strike. But undoubtedly one of its contributing causes was a distrust aroused by the rumor that a new system of work was to be inaugurated.

The Cloth Finis.h.i.+ng establishment bleaches, starches, and calenders dimities, muslins, percales, and s.h.i.+rtings, and folds and wraps them for s.h.i.+pping. The factory has good light and good air and an excellent situation in open, lightly rolling country. About two hundred young women, Americans, Scotch, English, and French-Canadians are now employed here on the bonus and task system, most of them whom I saw living with their families in very attractive houses in pleasant villages near. One or two were on the gloomy, muddy little streets of a French-Canadian mill town. These girls, too, were in well-built houses and not living in crowded conditions. But all their surroundings were dingy and disagreeable. At the Cloth Finis.h.i.+ng factory and both the other establishments, every opportunity for the fullest inquiry among workers as to the result of the system for them was offered by the owning companies. Difficulties in the industry for the workers were frequently pointed out by managers; and the addresses and names of the less well-paid workers and those in the harder positions were supplied as freely as information about the more fortunate effects of the system.

Both this firm and that of the cotton mill are anxious to obtain first-cla.s.s work through first-cla.s.s working conditions as rapidly as trade conditions will allow.

The first process at which women are employed is that of keeping cloth running evenly through a tentering machine. The machine holds on tenter hooks--the hooks of the metaphorical reference--the damp cloth brought from the process of bleaching, and rolls it through evenly into a drier, where it slips off. There are two kinds of tentering machines. At one kind two girls sit, each watching an edge of the cloth and keeping it straight on the tenter hooks, so it will feed evenly. The newer machines run in such a manner that one girl who may either stand or sit can watch both edges. Because of the nearness of the drying closet, the air would be hot and dry here but that outside air is driven in constantly by fans through pipes with vents opening close to the workers.

The tentering machines used to run slowly. This slowness enhanced the natural monotony and wearisomeness of the work. The girls used to receive wages of $6 a week, and to rest three-quarters of an hour in the morning and three-quarters of an hour in the afternoon, with the same period for dinner at noon in the middle of a ten-and-one-half hour day. After Scientific Management was introduced, the girls sat at the machine only an hour and twenty minutes at a time. They then had a twenty-minute rest, and these intervals of work and rest were continued throughout the day by an arrangement of spelling with "spare hands." The machines were run at a more rapid rate than before. The girl's task was set at watching 32,000 yards in a day; and if she achieved the bonus, as she did without any difficulty, she could earn $9 a week. The output of the tentering machines was increased about sixty per cent.

The girls at the tentering machines praised the bonus system eagerly.

They said they could not bear to return to the former method of work; that now the work was easier and more interesting than before, and the payment and the hours were better. One of the "spare hands" showed me, as a memento of a new era at tenter-hooking machines, the written slip of paper the efficiency engineer had given to her, explaining to her how to arrange the intervals of rest, and to start the "rest" with a different girl on each Sat.u.r.day--a five-hour day--so that the same girls would not have three intervals of rest every Sat.u.r.day.

But in another part of the factory the girls at the tentering machines had wished to lump their rest intervals and to take them altogether in fifty-minute periods in the middle of the morning and of the afternoon.

Here the "spare hands" intervals at the machines fell awkwardly, and they were obliged to work for an unduly long time. The girls became exhausted with the monotony in these longer stretches of work; and further wearied themselves by embroidering and sewing on fancy work in the long rest periods. Here the girls were much less contented than in the other departments.[50]

After the cloth is dry and pa.s.sed through calendering machines where men are employed, it is run into yard lengths by a yarding machine or "hooker." At the yarding machines the girls stand under the frame holding the wooden arms that measure off the cloth back and forth. The workers here used to earn $7.50 a week. They watch the machine, mark defects in some kinds of cloth, by inserting slips of paper, stop the machine when the material runs out, and lift the pile of measured cloth to a table where it is taken up by the cutters and folders and inspectors.

After the bonus system was introduced at the machines where the heavier material is measured, the yarding machines were all elevated to small platforms, so that the pile when finished would be on a level with an adjacent table, and the worker need not lift and carry the heavy weight of cloth to the table, but could slide the work. The machine was run more rapidly. The task was increased to about 35,000 yards, or from about 155 pieces to about 610. The wage with the bonus was now about $10 on full time, and the hours were lessened 45 minutes, as at the tentering machines.

The worker stops the yarding machine by throwing her weight on her right foot, on a pedal to the right. The girls interviewed said they did not feel this as a strain, as there was a knack in doing it easily. On consulting a neighborhood physician it was found that within the last ten years, however, several women, both at the yarding and tentering machines, had strained themselves, probably by the tread at the yarding machine and by the slightly twisted seated position the older tentering machines necessitated. The number of these cases traceable to any one process of work had not increased under the new system. The whole number of these cases in the factory had, on the other hand, either decreased under the new system, or else had not come under this doctor's care. He believed, however, that there was a reduction of the cases, and that this reduction was attributable to the better general health achieved by shorter hours, better ventilation, and better working conditions and appliances.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Courtesy of _Industrial Engineering_

THE USUAL METHOD OF PROVIDING THE BRICKLAYER WITH MATERIAL]

The increased task at the yarding machine seems to have increased the danger of accidents. A knife extends from the side of the machine; and when the girl's attention is concentrated on her work, she sometimes puts her fingers too near the blade, and cuts them, though no instance was known here of the loss of a finger or of serious injury.

The girls stand all day at the yarding machine and at most of the succeeding processes of preparation. These are various arrangements of inspecting, counting yards, folding in "book folds," of doubled-over material, or "long folds" of the full width, ticketing and stamping, tying selvages together with silk thread, or tying them to wrapping paper by means of a little instrument called a knot-tier--this process is called knotting--tying with ribbons, pasting on strips of silver tissue ribbon, further ticketing and stamping, and running the sets of tickets indicating the several yards in each piece through an adding machine, which then produces on a stamped card the total number of yards in each consignment, before it is finally rushed away for s.h.i.+pment.

The process of inspection is different for different qualities of material. Before the material is bleached, the number of yards and the character of treatment for each piece are specified on stamped orders issued from the planning room and sent with the cloth through the processes of production. It may as well be said here, that several girls have been promoted from manual work to work in this planning room, where they stamp orders, on a bonus at different rates, giving them a wage of about $10 a week in full time on office hours of 8 hours a day.[51]

The inspector receiving the bales from the yarding machines now counts off the number of yards and cuts the bale in accordance with these directions. Some material she inspects yard by yard for imperfections and dirt. After marking the yards on the cut piece, she sends it on to the folder if it is clean, and if it is spotted, to girls who wash out the spots and press the cloth.[52] On other material, imperfections are marked by the girl at the yarding machine, by the insertion of slips of paper. As the inspector has less to do on these pieces, she not only counts and cuts, but folds them.

Before the introduction of the bonus system, one girl used to fold, inspect, and ticket. She used also to carry her material from a table near the yarding machine. Boys now bring the material except where at the yarding machines for heavier stuffs it is pushed along the table. The hours, as for almost all of the bonus workers, have been shortened by 45 minutes. The wages which were $7.50 a week are now between $10 and $11 on full time. Almost all the workers here said they greatly preferred the bonus system and would greatly dislike to return to other work.

But in dealing with the heavier materials the work was tiring, and more tiring under the new system than before, as the number of pieces lifted had been increased. It was said while there was every intention of fairness on the part of the management in arranging the work; it was sometimes not evenly distributed in slack times, the same girls being laid off repeatedly and the same girls chosen to work repeatedly instead of in alternation.

In the further processes of folding, some of the work and the lifting to the piles of the sheer, book-folded stuff is light, but requires great deftness; other parts of the work and the lifting to the piles are heavier.[53] The wage before the bonus was introduced was $7.50 a week, and with the bonus rose to $11 a week, in full time. As with the inspectors, the work was now brought to the folders, and the hours were shortened by 45 minutes. Here there was great variation in the account of the system.