Shop Management

144 SHOP MANAGEMENT ing another man to fill his position before asking for advancement. The first of the functional foremen to be brought into actual contact with the men should be the inspec- tor; and the whole system of inspection, with its proper safeguards, should be in smooth and success- ful operation before any steps are taken toward stimulating the men to a larger output; otherwise an increase in quantity will probably be accompanied by a falling off in quality. Next choose for the application of the two princi- pal functional foremen, viz., the speed boss and the gang boss, that portion of the work in which there is the largest need of, and opportunity for, making a gain. It is of the utmost importance that the first combined application of time study, slide rules, instruction cards, functional foremanship, and a premium for a large daily task should prove a suc- cess both for the workmen and for the company, and for this reason a simple class of work should be chosen for a start. The entire efforts of the new management should be centered on one point, and continue there until unqualified success has been attained. When once this gain has been made, a peg should be put in which shall keep it from sliding back in the least; and it is here that the task idea with a time limit for each job will be found most useful. Under ordinary piece work, or the Towne-Halsey plan, the men are likely at any time to slide back a consid- erable distance without having it particularly noticed either by them or the management. With the task