Shop Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor (top books to read .TXT) 📕

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

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

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

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

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

the middle of the works adjacent to the planning room.

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

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

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

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

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

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

month at a time.

The following are the leading functions of the planning department:

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

the company.

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

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

transportation, etc.

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

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

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

workmen.

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

department and promises for time of delivery.

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

and complete monthly comparative cost and expense exhibits.

(g) The pay department.

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

charges.

(i) Information bureau.

(j) Standards.

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

(l) Messenger system and post office delivery.

(m) Employment bureau.

(n) Shop disciplinarian.

(o) A mutual accident insurance association.

(p) Rush order department.

(q) Improvement of system or plant.

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

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

THE COMPANY.

This analysis should indicate the designing and drafting required, the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(b) TIME STUDY FOR ALL WORK DONE BY HAND THROUGHOUT THE WORKS, INCLUDING

THAT DONE IN SETTING THE WORK IN MACHINES, AND ALL BENCH AND VISE WORK,

AND TRANSPORTATION, ETC.

This information for each particular operation should be obtained by

summing up the various unit times of which it consists. To do this, of

course, requires the men performing this function to keep continually

posted as to the best methods and appliances to use, and also to

frequently consult with and receive advice from the executive gang

bosses who carry out this work in the shop, and from the man in the

department of standards and maintenance of plant (j) beneath. The actual

study of unit times, of course, forms the greater part of the work of

this section of the planning room.

(c) TIME STUDY FOR ALL OPERATIONS DONE BY THE VARIOUS MACHINES.

This information is best obtained from slide rules, one of which is made

for each machine tool or class of machine tools throughout the works;

one, for instance, for small lathes of the same type, one for planers of

same type, etc. These slide rules show the best way to machine each

piece and enable detailed directions to be given the workman as to how

many cuts to take, where to start each cut, both for roughing out work

and finishing it, the depth of the cut, the best feed and speed, and the

exact time required to do each operation.

The information obtained through function (b), together with that

obtained through (c) afford the basis for fixing the proper piece rate,

differential rate or the bonus to be paid, according to the system

employed.

(d) THE BALANCE OF ALL MATERIALS, RAW MATERIALS, STORES AND FINISHED

PARTS, AND THE NUMBER OF DAYS’ WORK AHEAD FOR EACH CLASS OF MACHINES AND

WORKMEN.

Returns showing all receipts, as well as the issue of all raw materials,

stores, partly finished work, and completed parts and machines, repair

parts, etc., daily pass through the balance clerk, and each item of

which there have been issues or receipts, or which has been appropriated

to the use of a machine about to be manufactured, is daily balanced.

Thus the balance clerk can see that the required stocks of materials are

kept on hand by notifying at once the purchasing agent or other proper

party when the amount on hand falls below the prescribed figure. The

balance clerk should also keep a complete running balance of the hours

of work ahead for each class of machines and workmen, receiving for this

purpose daily from (a), (b), and (c) above statements of the hours of

new work entered, and from the inspectors and daily time cards a

statement of the work as it is finished. He should keep the manager and

sales department posted through daily or weekly condensed reports as to

the number of days of work ahead for each department, and thus enable

them to obviate either a congestion or scarcity of work.

(e) THE ANALYSIS OF ALL INQUIRIES FOR NEW WORK RECEIVED IN THE SALES

DEPARTMENT AND PROMISES AS TO TIME OF DELIVERY. The man or men in the

planning room who perform the duties indicated at (a) above should

consult with (b) and (c) and obtain from them approximately the time

required to do the work inquired for, and from (d) the days of work

ahead for the various machines and departments, and inform the sales

department as to the probable time required to do the work and the

earliest date of delivery.

(f) THE COST OF ALL ITEMS MANUFACTURED, WITH COMPLETE EXPENSE ANALYSIS

AND COMPLETE MONTHLY COMPARATIVE COST AND EXPENSE EXHIBITS.

The books of the company should be closed once a month and balanced as

completely as they usually are at the end of the year, and the exact

cost of each article of merchandise finished during the previous month

should be entered on a comparative cost sheet. The expense exhibit

should also be a comparative sheet. The cost account should be a

completely balanced account, and not a memorandum account as it

generally is. All the expenses of the establishment, direct and

indirect, including the administration and sales expense, should be

charged to the cost of the product which is to be sold.

(g) THE PAY DEPARTMENT.

The pay department should include not only a record of the time and

wages and piece work earnings of each man, and his weekly or monthly

payment, but the entire supervision of the arrival and departure of the

men from the works and the various checks needed to insure against error

or cheating. It is desirable that some one of the “exception systems” of

time keeping should be used.

(h) THE MNEMONIC SYMBOL SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFICATION OF PARTS AND FOR

CHARGES.

Some one of the mnemonic symbol systems should be used instead of

numbering the parts or orders for identifying the various articles of

manufacture, as well as the operations to be performed on each piece and

the various expense charges of the establishment. This becomes a matter

of great importance when written directions are sent from the planning

room to the men, and the men make their returns in writing. The clerical

work and chances for error are thereby greatly diminished.

(i) INFORMATION BUREAU.

The information bureau should include catalogues of drawings (providing

the drafting room is close enough to the planning room) as well as all

records and reports for the whole establishment. The art of properly

indexing information is by no means a simple one, and as far as possible

it should be centered in one man.

(j) STANDARDS.

The adoption and maintenance of standard tools, fixtures, and appliances

down to the smallest item throughout the works and office, as well as

the adoption of standard methods of doing all operations which are

repeated, is a matter of importance, so that under similar conditions

the same appliances and methods shall be used throughout the plant. This

is an absolutely necessary preliminary to success in assigning daily

tasks which are fair and which can be carried out with certainty.

(k) MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM AND PLANT, AND USE OF THE TICKLER.

One of the most important functions of the planning room is that of the

maintenance of the entire system, and of standard methods and appliances

throughout the establishment, including the planning room itself. An

elaborate time table should be made out showing daily the time when and

place where each report is due, which is necessary to carry on the work

and to maintain the system. It should be the duty of the member of the

planning room in charge of this function to find out at each time

through the day when reports are due, whether they have been received,

and if not, to keep bothering the man who is behind hand until he has

done his duty. Almost all of the reports, etc., going in and out of the

planning room can be made to pass through this man. As a mechanical aid

to him in performing his function the tickler is invaluable. The best

type of tickler is one which has a portfolio for each day in the year,

large enough to insert all reminders and even quite large instruction

cards and reports without folding. In maintaining methods and

appliances, notices should be placed in the tickler in advance, to come

out at proper intervals throughout the year for the inspection of each

element of the system and the inspection and overhauling of all

standards as well as the examination and repairs at stated intervals of

parts of machines, boilers, engines, belts, etc., likely to wear out or

give trouble, thus preventing breakdowns and delays. One tickler can be

used for the entire works and is preferable to a number of individual

ticklers. Each man can remind himself of his various small routine

duties to be performed either daily or weekly, etc., and which might be

otherwise overlooked, by sending small reminders, written on slips of

paper, to be placed in the tickler and returned to him at the proper

time. Both the tickler and a thoroughly systematized messenger service

should be immediately adjacent to this man in the planning room, if not

directly under his management.

The proper execution of this function of the planning room will relieve

the superintendent of some of the most vexatious and time-consuming of

his duties, and at the same time the work will be done more thoroughly

and cheaper than if he does it himself. By the adoption of standards and

the use of instruction cards for overhauling machinery, etc., and the

use of a tickler as above described, the writer reduced the repair force

of the Midvale Steel Works to one-third its size while he was in the

position of master mechanic. There was no planning department, however,

in the works