Shop Management

SHOP MANAGEMENT 87 tory had been running for eight or ten years on ordi- nary day work, so that the various employés were “old hands,” and skilled at their jobs. The work of inspection was done entirely by girls — about one hundred and twenty being employed at it — all on day work. This work consisted briefly in placing a row of small polished steel balls on the back of the left hand, in the crease between two of the fingers pressed together, and while they were rolled over and over, with the aid of a magnet held in the right hand, they were minutely examined in a strong light, and the defective balls picked out and thrown into especial boxes. Four kinds of defects were looked for — dented, soft, scratched, and fire cracked — and they were mostly so minute as to be invisible to an eye not especially trained to this work. It required the closest attention and concentration. The girls had worked on day work for years, ten and one-half hours per day, with a Saturday half- holiday. The first move before in any way stimulating them toward a larger output was to insure against a falling off in quality. This was accomplished through over-inspection. Four of the most trust- worthy girls were given each a lot of balls which had been examined the day before by one of the regular inspectors. The number identifying the lot having been changed by the foreman so that none of the over-inspectors knew whose work they were examining. In addition, one of the lots inspected by the four over-inspectors was examined on the