Shop Management

SHOP MANAGEMENT 127 broader lines of policy and to study the character and fitness of the important men under him. The exception principle can be applied in many ways, and the writer will endeavor to give some further illustrations of it later. The writer has dwelt at length upon the desirability of concentrating as much as possible clerical and brain work in the planning department. There is, however, one such important exception to this rule that it would seem desirable to call attention to it. As already stated, the planning room gives its orders and instructions to the men mainly in writing and of necessity must also receive prompt and reliable written returns and reports which shall enable its members to issue orders for the next movement of each piece, lay out the work for each man for the following day, properly post the balance of work and materials accounts, enter the records on cost accounts and also enter the time and pay of each man on the pay sheet. There is no question that all of this information can be given both better and cheaper by the workman direct than through the intermediary of a walking time keeper, providing the proper in- struction and report system has been introduced in the works with carefully ruled and printed instruction and return cards, and particularly providing a com- plete mnemonic system of symbols has been adopted so as to save the workmen the necessity of doing much writing. The principle to which the writer wishes to call particular attention is that the only way in which workmen can be induced to write out all of this information accurately and promptly is by