Shop Management

SHOP MANAGEMENT 147 all along the line to rise to a higher plane of efficiency, involving at the same time more brain work and less monotony. The type of man who was formerly a day laborer and digging dirt is now for instance making shoes in a shoe factory. The dirt handling is done by Italians or Hungarians. After the planning room with functional foreman- ship has accomplished its most difficult task, of teaching the men how to do a full day’s work them- selves, and also how to get it out of their machines steadily, then, if desired, the number of non-pro- ducers can be diminished, preferably, by giving each type of functional foreman more to do in his spe- cialty; or in the case of a very small shop, by combin- ing two different functions in the same man. The former expedient is, however, much to be preferred to the latter. There need never be any worry about what is to become of those engaged in systematiz- ing after the period of active organization is over. The difficulty will still remain even with functional foremanship, that of getting enough good men to fill the positions, and the demand for competent gang bosses will always be so great that no good boss need look for a job. Of all the farces in management the greatest is that of an establishment organized along well planned lines, with all of the elements needed for success, and yet which fails to get either output or economy. There must be some man or men present in the or- ganization who will not mistake the form for the essence, and who will have brains enough to find out those of their employés who “get there,” and nerve