Shop Management

FOREWORD 7 should be compared with that of an earth fill. There- fore the engineer is, by the nature of his vocation, an economist. His function is not only to design, but also so to design as to ensure the best economical result. He who designs an unsafe structure or an inoperative machine is a bad engineer; he who designs them so that they are safe and operative, but needlessly expensive, is a poor engineer, and, it may be remarked, usually earns poor pay; he who designs good work, which can be executed at a fair cost, is a sound and usually a successful engineer; he who does the best work at the lowest cost sooner or later stands at the top of his profession, and usually has the reward which this implies.” I avail of these quotations to emphasize the fact that industrial engineering, of which shop manage- ment is an integral and vital part, implies not merely the making of a given product, but the making of that product at the lowest cost consistent with the maintenance of the intended standard of quality. The attainment of this result is the object which Dr. Taylor has had in view during the many years through which he has pursued his studies and inves- tigations. The methods explained and the rules laid down in the following monograph by him — probably the most valuable contribution yet made to the literature of industrial engineering — are intended to enable and to assist others engaged in this field of work to utilize and apply his methods to their several individual problems. The monograph which is here republished was Dr. Taylor’s first great contribution to industrial engi-