Shop Management

148 SHOP MANAGEMENT enough to make it unpleasant for those who fail, as well as to reward those who succeed. No system can do away with the need of real men. Both sys- tem and good men are needed, and after introducing the best system, success will be in proportion to the ability, consistency, and respected authority of the management. In a book of this sort, it would be manifestly im- possible to discuss at any length all of the details which go toward making the system a success. Some of them are of such importance as to render at least a brief reference to them necessary. And first among these comes the study of unit times. This, as already explained, is the most important element of the system advocated by the writer. Without it, the definite, clear-cut directions given to the workman, and the assigning of a full, yet just, daily task, with its premium for success, would be impossible; and the arch without the keystone would fall to the ground. In 1883, while foreman of the machine shop of the Midvale Steel Company of Philadelphia, it occurred to the writer that it was simpler to time with a stop watch each of the elements of the various kinds of work done in the place, and then find the quickest time in which each job could be done by summing up the total times of its component parts, than it was to search through the time records of former jobs and guess at the proper time and price. After practising this method of time study himself for about a year, as well as circumstances would per- mit, it became evident that the system was a success.