"cost of Production Per Lathe Per Day (2) · Shop Management

Shop Management · Chapter 4"cost of Production Per Lathe Per Day (2)

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The following is an outline of the duties of the four functional bosses who are located in the planning room, and who in their various functions represent the department in its connection with the men. The first three of these send their directions to and receive their returns from the men, mainly in writing. These four representatives of the planning department are, the (1) order of work and route clerk, (2) instruction card clerk, (3) time and cost clerk, and (4) shop disciplinarian.

Order of Work and Route Clerk. After the route clerk in the planning department has laid out the exact route which each piece of work is to travel through the shop from machine to machine in order that it may be finished at the time it is needed for assembling, and the work done in the most economical way, the order of work clerk daily writes lists instructing the workmen and also all of the executive shop bosses as to the exact order in which the work is to be done by each class of machines or men, and these lists constitute the chief means for directing the workmen in this particular function.

Instruction Card Clerks. The "instruction card," as its name indicates, is the chief means employed by the planning department for instructing both the executive bosses and the men in all of the details of their work. It tells them briefly the general and detail drawing to refer to, the piece number and the cost order number to charge the work to, the special jigs, fixtures, or tools to use, where to start each cut, the exact depth of each cut, and how many cuts to take, the speed and feed to be used for each cut, and the time within which each operation must be finished. It also informs them as to the piece rate, the differential rate, or the premium to be paid for completing the task within the specified time (according to the system employed); and further, when necessary, refers them by name to the man who will give them especial directions. This instruction card is filled in by one or more members of the planning department, according to the nature and complication of the instructions, and bears the same relation to the planning room that the drawing does to the drafting room. The man who sends it into the shop and who, in case difficulties are met with in carrying out the instructions, sees that the proper man sweeps these difficulties away, is called the instruction card foreman.

Time and Cost Clerk. This man sends to the men through the "time ticket" all the information they need for recording their time and the cost of the work, and secures proper returns from them. He refers these for entry to the cost and time record clerks in the planning room.

Shop Disciplinarian. In case of insubordination or impudence, repeated failure to do their duty, lateness or unexcused absence, the shop disciplinarian takes the workman or bosses in hand and applies the proper remedy. He sees that a complete record of each man's virtues and defects is kept. This man should also have much to do with readjusting the wages of the workmen. At the very least, he should invariably be consulted before any change is made. One of his important functions should be that of peace-maker.

Thus, under functional foremanship, we see that the work which, under the military type of organization, was done by the single gang boss, is subdivided among eight men: (1) route clerks, (2) instruction card clerks, (3) cost and time clerks, who plan and give directions from the planning room; (4) gang bosses, (5) speed bosses, (6) inspectors, (7) repair bosses, who show the men how to carry out their instructions, and see that the work is done at the proper speed; and (8) the shop disciplinarian, who performs this function for the entire establishment.

The greatest good resulting from this change is that it becomes possible in a comparatively short time to train bosses who can really and fully perform the functions demanded of them, while under the old system it took years to train men who were after all able to thoroughly perform only a portion of their duties. A glance at the nine qualities needed for a well rounded man and then at the duties of these functional foremen will show that each of these men requires but a limited number of the nine qualities in order to successfully fill his position; and that the special knowledge which he must acquire forms only a small part of that needed by the old style gang boss. The writer has seen men taken (some of them from the ranks of the workmen, others from the old style bosses and others from among the graduates of industrial schools, technical schools and colleges) and trained to become efficient functional foremen in from six to eighteen months. Thus it becomes possible with functional foremanship to thoroughly and completely equip even a new company starting on a large scale with competent officers in a reasonable time, which is entirely out of the question under the old system. Another great advantage resulting from functional or divided foremanship is that it becomes entirely practicable to apply the four leading principles of management to the bosses as well as to the workmen. Each foreman can have a task assigned him which is so accurately measured that he will be kept fully occupied and still will daily be able to perform his entire function. This renders it possible to pay him high wages when he is successful by giving him a premium similar to that offered the men and leave him with low pay when he fails.

The full possibilities of functional foremanship, however, will not have been realized until almost all of the machines in the shop are run by men who are of smaller calibre and attainments, and who are therefore cheaper than those required under the old system. The adoption of standard tools, appliances, and methods throughout the shop, the planning done in the planning room and the detailed instructions sent them from this department, added to the direct help received from the four executive bosses, permit the use of comparatively cheap men even on complicated work. Of the men in the machine shop of the Bethlehem Steel Company engaged in running the roughing machines, and who were working under the bonus system when the writer left them, about 95 per cent were handy men trained up from laborers. And on the finishing machines, working on bonus, about 25 per cent were handy men.

To fully understand the importance of the work which was being done by these former laborers, it must be borne in mind that a considerable part of their work was very large and expensive. The forgings which they were engaged in roughing and finishing weighed frequently many tons. Of course they were paid more than laborer's wages, though not as much as skilled machinists. The work in this shop was most miscellaneous in its nature.

Functional foremanship is already in limited use in many of the best managed shops. A number of managers have seen the practical good that arises from allowing two or three men especially trained in their particular lines to deal directly with the men instead of at second hand through the old style gang boss as a mouthpiece. So deep rooted, however, is the conviction that the very foundation of management rests in the military type as represented by the principle that no workman can work under two bosses at the same time, that all of the managers who are making limited use of the functional plan seem to feel it necessary to apologize for or explain away their use of it; as not really in this particular case being a violation of that principle. The writer has never yet found one, except among the works which he had assisted in organizing, who came out squarely and acknowledged that he was using functional foremanship because it was the right principle.

The writer introduced five of the elements of functional foremanship into the management of the small machine shop of the Midvale Steel Company of Philadelphia while he was foreman of that shop in 1882-1883: (1) the instruction card clerk, (2) the time clerk, (3) the inspector, (4) the gang boss, and (5) the shop disciplinarian. Each of these functional foremen dealt directly with the workmen instead of giving their orders through the gang boss. The dealings of the instruction card clerk and time clerk with the workmen were mostly in writing, and the writer himself performed the functions of shop disciplinarian, so that it was not until he introduced the inspector, with orders to go straight to the men instead of to the gang boss, that he appreciated the desirability of functional foremanship as a distinct principle in management. The prepossession in favor of the military type was so strong with the managers and owners of Midvale that it was not until years after functional foremanship was in continual use in this shop that he dared to advocate it to his superior officers as the correct principle.

Until very recently in his organization of works he has found it best to first introduce five or six of the elements of functional foremanship quietly, and get them running smoothly in a shop before calling attention to the principle involved. When the time for this announcement comes, it invariably acts as the proverbial red rag on the bull. It was some years later that the writer subdivided the duties of the "old gang boss" who spent his whole time with the men into the four functions of (1) speed boss, (2) repair boss, (3) inspector, and (4) gang boss, and it is the introduction of these four shop bosses directly helping the men (particularly that of the speed boss) in place of the single old boss, that has produced the greatest improvement in the shop.

When functional foremanship is introduced in a large shop, it is desirable that all of the bosses who are performing the same function should have their own foreman over them; for instance, the speed bosses should have a speed foreman over them, the gang bosses, a head gang boss; the inspectors, a chief inspector, etc., etc. The functions of these over-foremen are twofold. The first part of their work is to teach each of the bosses under them the exact nature of his duties, and at the start, also to nerve and brace them up to the point of insisting that the workmen shall carry out the orders exactly as specified on the instruction cards. This is a difficult task at first, as the workmen have been accustomed for years to do the details of the work to suit themselves, and many of them are intimate friends of the bosses and believe they know quite as much about their business as the latter. The second function of the over-foreman is to smooth out the difficulties which arise between the different types of bosses who in turn directly help the men. The speed boss, for instance, always follows after the gang boss on any particular job in taking charge of the workmen. In this way their respective duties come in contact edgeways, as it were, for a short time, and at the start there is sure to be more or less friction between the two. If two of these bosses meet with a difficulty which they cannot settle, they send for their respective over-foremen, who are usually able to straighten it out. In case the latter are unable to agree on the remedy, the case is referred by them to the assistant superintendent, whose duties, for a certain time at least, may consist largely in arbitrating such difficulties and thus establishing the unwritten code of laws by which the shop is governed. This serves as one example of what is called the "exception principle" in management, which is referred to later.

Before leaving this portion of the subject the writer wishes to call attention to the analogy which functional foremanship bears to the management of a large, up-to-date school. In such a school the children are each day successively taken in hand by one teacher after another who is trained in his particular specialty, and they are in many cases disciplined by a man particularly trained in this function. The old style, one teacher to a class plan is entirely out of date.

The writer has found that better results are attained by placing the planning department in one office, situated, of course, as close to the center of the shop or shops as practicable, rather than by locating its members in different places according to their duties. This department performs more or less the functions of a clearing house. In doing their various duties, its members must exchange information frequently, and since they send their orders to and receive their returns from the men in the shop, principally in writing, simplicity calls for the use, when possible, of a single piece of paper for each job for conveying the instructions of the different members of the planning room to the men and another similar paper for receiving the returns from the men to the department. Writing out these orders and acting promptly on receipt of the returns and recording same requires the members of the department to be close together. The large machine shop of the Bethlehem Steel Company was more than a quarter of a mile long, and this was successfully run from a single planning room situated close to it. The manager, superintendent, and their assistants should, of course, have their offices adjacent to the planning room and, if practicable, the drafting 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.

(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.

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 at that time.

(l) MESSENGER SYSTEM AND POST OFFICE DELIVERY.

The messenger system should be thoroughly organized and records kept showing which of the boys are the most efficient. This should afford one of the best opportunities for selecting boys fit to be taught trades, as apprentices or otherwise. There should be a regular half hourly post office delivery system for collecting and distributing routine reports and records and messages in no especial hurry throughout the works.

(m) EMPLOYMENT BUREAU.

The selection of the men who are employed to fill vacancies or new positions should receive the most careful thought and attention and should be under the supervision of a competent man who will inquire into the experience and especial fitness and character of applicants and keep constantly revised lists of men suitable for the various positions in the shop. In this section of the planning room. an individual record of each of the men in the works can well be kept showing his punctuality, absence without excuse, violation of shop rules, spoiled work or damage to machines or tools, as well as his skill at various kinds of work; average earnings, and other good qualities for the use of this department as well as the shop disciplinarian.

(n) THE SHOP DISCIPLINARIAN.

This man may well be closely associated with the employment bureau and, if the works is not too large, the two functions can be performed by the same man. The knowledge of character and of the qualities needed for various positions acquired in disciplining the men should be useful in selecting them for employment. This man should, of course, consult constantly with the various foremen and bosses, both in his function as disciplinarian arid in the employment of men.

(o) A MUTUAL ACCIDENT INSURANCE ASSOCIATION.

A mutual accident insurance association should be established, to which the company contributes as well as the men. The object of this association is twofold: first the relief of men who are injured, and second, an opportunity of returning to the workmen all fines which are imposed upon them in disciplining them, and for damage to company's property or work spoiled.

(p) RUSH ORDER DEPARTMENT.

Hurrying through parts which have been spoiled or have developed defects, and also special repair orders for customers, should receive the attention of one man.

(q) IMPROVEMENT OF SYSTEM OR PLANT.

One man should be especially charged with the work of improvement in the system and in the running of the plant.

The type of organization described in the foregoing paragraphs has such an appearance of complication and there are so many new positions outlined in the planning room which do not exist even in a well managed establishment of the old school, that it seems desirable to again call attention to the fact that, with the exception of the study of unit times and one or two minor functions, each item of work which is performed in the planning room with the superficial appearance of great complication must also be performed by the workmen in the shop under the old type of management, with its single cheap foreman and the appearance of great simplicity. In the first case, however, the work is done by an especially trained body of men who work together like a smoothly running machine, and in the second by a much larger number of men very poorly trained and ill-fitted for this work, and each of whom while doing it is taken away from some other job for which he is well trained. The work which is now done by one sewing machine, intricate in its appearance, was formerly done by a number of women with no apparatus beyond a simple needle and thread.

There is no question that the cost of production is lowered by separating the work of planning and the brain work as much as possible from the manual labor. When this is done, however, it is evident that the brain workers must be given sufficient work to keep them fully busy all the time. They must not be allowed to stand around for a considerable part of their time waiting for their particular kind of work to come along, as is so frequently the case.

The belief is almost universal among manufacturers that for economy the number of brain workers, or non-producers, as they are called, should be as small as possible in proportion to the number of producers, i.e., those who actually work with their hands. An examination of the most successful establishments will, however, show that the reverse is true. A number of years ago the writer made a careful study of the proportion of producers to non-producers in three of the largest and most successful companies in the world, who were engaged in doing the same work in a general way. One of these companies was in France, one in Germany, and one in the United States. Being to a certain extent rivals in business and situated in different countries, naturally neither one had anything to do with the management of the other. In the course of his investigation, the writer found that the managers had never even taken the trouble to ascertain the exact proportion of non-producers to producers in their respective works; so that the organization of each company was an entirely independent evolution.