Shop Management

6 FOREWORD of his work, in probably a majority of cases, resolves itself into a question of dollars and cents, of relative or absolute values. ... To ensure the best results, the organization of productive labor must be directed and controlled by persons having not only good executive ability, and possessing the practical famil- iarity of a mechanic or engineer, with the goods produced and the processes employed, but having also, and equally, a practical knowledge of how to observe, record, analyze, and compare essential facts in relation to wages, supplies, expense accounts, and all else that enters into or affects the economy of production and the cost of the product.” As pertinent to the subject of industrial engineer- ing, I will also quote the following from an address delivered by me, in February, 1905, to the graduating students of Purdue University: “The dollar is the final term in almost every equation which arises in the practice of engineering in any or all of its branches, except qualifiedly as to military and naval engineering, where in some cases cost may be ignored. In other words, the true func- tion of the engineer is, or should be, not only to deter- mine how physical problems may be solved, but also how they may be solved most economically. For example, a railroad may have to be carried over a gorge or arroyo. Obviously it does not need an engineer to point out that this may be done by filling the chasm with earth, but only a bridge engineer is competent to determine whether it is cheaper to do this or to bridge it, and to design the bridge which will safely and most cheaply serve, the cost of which