Shop Management

SHOP MANAGEMENT 85 diameter of the tire. The effect of this subdivision was to increase the output, with the same men, methods, and machines, at least thirty-three per cent. As an illustration of the minuteness of this sub- division, an instruction card similar to the one used is reproduced in Figure 1 on the next page. (This card was about 7 inches long by 4 inches wide.) The cost of the additional clerk work involved in this change was so insignificant that it practically did not affect the problem. This principle of short tasks in tire turning was introduced by the writer in the Midvale Steel Works in 1883 and is still in full use there, having survived the test of over twenty years’ trial with a change of management. In another establishment a differential rate was applied to tire turning, with operations subdivided in this way, by adding fifteen per cent, to the pay of each tire turner whenever his daily or weekly piece work earnings passed a given figure. Another illustration of the application of this principle of measuring a man’s performance against a given task at frequent intervals to an entirely dif- ferent line of work may be of interest. For this purpose the writer chooses the manufacture of bicycle balls in the works of the Symonds Rolling Machine Company, in Fitchburg, Mass. All of the work done in this factory was subjected to an accurate time study, and then was changed from day to piece work, through the assistance of functional foreman- ship, etc. The particular operation to be described, however, is that of inspecting bicycle balls before