Shop Management

82 SHOP MANAGEMENT 800 lbs. of steel chips in ten hours. In place of the 50 cent rate, that they had been paid before, the men were given 35 cents per piece when they turned them at the speed of 10 per day; and when they produced less than ten they received only 25 cents per piece. “It took considerable trouble to induce the men to turn at this high speed, since they did not at first fully appreciate that it was the intention of the firm to allow them to earn permanently at the rate of $3.50 per day. But from the day they first turned ten pieces to the present time, a period of more than ten years, the men who understood their work have scarcely failed a single day to turn at this rate. Throughout that time until the beginning of the recent fall in the scale of wages throughout the country, the rate was not cut. “During this whole period, the competitors of the company never succeeded in averaging over half of this production per lathe, although they knew and even saw what was being done at Midvale. They, however, did not allow their men to earn from over 82.00 to $2.50 per day, and so never even approached the maximum output. “The following table will show the economy of paying high wages under the differential rate in doing the above job: “COST OF PRODUCTION PER LATHE PER DAY Ordinary System of Piece Work Differential Rate System Man’s wages...............$2.50 Machine cost.............. 3.37 Total cost per day.... 5.87 5 pieces produced; Cost per piece.......$1.17 Man’s wages...............$3.50 Machine cost.............. 3.37 Total cost per day.... 6.87 10 pieces produced; Cost per piece.......$0.69