Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

THE INSTRUCTION CARD 121 of the feeds and speeds to be used, and of the par- ticulars about the bonus to be earned. It has often been asked, Why bother the workman with these elemental times at all ? Why not give him merely the total time in which the task has to be done ? The answer seems to be, first, that he may know exactly how the total time has been obtained —not by conjecture or guess—and, secondly, that, if he fails, he can more easily identify the particular element in which he does not make good, and get the foreman, whose duty it is so to do, to investigate the cause and remove it. Just as in a good cost- accounting system a cost that seems excessive can be tracked to the particular item which causes the excess, so in a good job-timing system any loss of time can be similarly tracked. The operator can challenge any entry in the column for elemental times, and ask to have his time on the particular element observed, or to have further instruction on the motions. Of course, if the worker finds he is making good time and producing satisfactory work on the correct methods, he will not take further interest in the elemental times; then they need not be issued to him every time the job is repeated, but they must be kept ready for reference, or for fresh workers. The efficiency engineer rejoices in the instruction card because it signifies to him the elimination of “ rule-of-thumb ” methods, either of doing a job or of calculating the time it ought to take. He contends, of course, that you cannot announce to a worker how long he should be over a long operation,