Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

I06 EFFICIENCY METHODS sounds strange to most of us.1 Mr. Emerson has said in an interview that he “ hates the word ‘ task.’ ” There is not much difference in meaning between standard task and schedule time, except that the former specifies the work to be done in a fixed time, arid the latter specifies the time to be taken for a definite operation. The latter is certainly free from any prejudice or misunderstanding. The idea is inherent already in a large amount of engineering, if not other industrial, work. Many operations, like the driving of a locomotive for passenger-traffic, must be performed in their allotted time, and in scientific management the process of routing, and the endeavour to formulate a strict time-table for each shop, necessitates as much as possible of the whole industry being “ scheduled ” as to time. Nevertheless, we must treat chiefly of the “ stand- ard task,” as the expression has been adopted so completely by the Americans. This standard has to be set up with extreme care and forethought, because the whole system of records and rewards is based upon it as an unalterable foundation. All that can cause it to change is a serious change in the method, or the conditions of work. Otherwise, it is 1 See Schloss, “ Methods of Industrial Remuneration,” chap. i. Schloss refers (pp. 48-49) to the existence of a task- wage in certain English industries, in which a definite amount of work was insisted on to obtain the day-wage, and says it was regarded with " extreme dislike ”—another unlucky circum- stance for the use of the word.