Shop Management

90 SHOP MANAGEMENT Saturday a half-holiday, while they had formerly worked 10J hours per day. (d) An accurate comparison of the balls which were inspected under the old system of day work with those done under piece work, with over-inspection, showed that, in spite of the large increase in output per girl, there were 58 per cent, more defective balls left in the product as sold under day work than under piece work. In other words, the accuracy of in- spection under piece work was one-third greater than that under day work. That thirty-five girls were able to do the work which formerly required about one hundred and twenty is due, not only to the improvement in the work of each girl, owing to better methods, but to the weeding out of the lazy and unpromising can- didates, and the substitution of more ambitious individuals. A more interesting illustration of the effect of the improved conditions and treatment is shown in the following comparison. Records were kept of the work of ten girls, all “old hands,” and good inspec- tors, and the improvement made by these skilled hands is undoubtedly entirely due to better manage- ment. All of these girls throughout the period of comparison were engaged on the same kind of work, viz.: inspecting bicycle balls, three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter. The work of organization began in March, and although the records for the first three months were not entirely clear, the increased output due to better day work amounted undoubtedly to about 33 per