Shop Management

SHOP MANAGEMENT 93 manager through superintendents, foremen of shops, assistant foremen and gang bosses to the men. In an establishment of this kind the duties of the fore- men, gang bosses, etc., are so varied, and call for an amount o'f special information coupled with such a variety of natural ability, that only men of unusual qualities to start with, and who have had years of special training, can perform them in a satisfactory manneY. It is because of the difficulty — almost the impossibility — of getting suitable fore- men and gang bosses, more than for any other rea- son, that we so seldom hear of a miscellaneous machine works starting in on a large scale and meet- ing with much, if any, success for the first few years. This difficulty is not fully realized by the managers of the old well established companies, since their superintendents and assistants have grown up with the business, and have been gradually worked into and fitted for their especial duties through years of training and the process of natural selection. Even in these establishments, however, this difficulty has impressed itself upon the managers so forcibly that most of them have of late years spent thousands of dollars in re-grouping their machine tools for the purpose of making their foremanship more effective. The planers have been placed in one group, slotters in another, lathes in another, etc., so as to demand a smaller range of experience and less diversity of knowledge from their respective foremen. For an establishment, then, of this kind, starting up on a large scale, it may be said to be an impos- sibility to get suitable superintendents and foremen.