Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

144 EFFICIENCY METHODS In “ Concrete Costs ” Mr. Sanford Thompson and Dr. Taylor state that carpenters engaged on con- crete work got 35 per cent, increase on day wage. (They worked on the Gantt Task and Bonus system.) Mr. Thompson, in an article in the Journal of Political Economy? says that in a certain industry girls on hand-labour earned about 40 per cent, more than their day wage, while reducing labour cost 50 per cent. ; men on machine work got the same percentage increase in wages, and reduced the cost 35 per cent. Another consideration which will come into the adjustments made for the new conditions is whether the selling price of the article is to be lowered or not. Mr. Brandeis’ brief gives instances where this has been done; at the Tabor Manufacturing Co. and the Link Belt Co. the selling prices have been lowered 10 or 15 per cent, in the last few years (P- 58). It seems clear that, as under the premium-bonus systems, there must be a good deal of variation in practice as to the division of the extra profit between employer, employe and customer, and that no general principle will be of any avail. Some writers on efficiency have tried to evolve a principle, never- theless. Such rough-and-ready methods as one- third to workman, one-third to employer, one-third to customer have been suggested.2 Mrs. Gilbreth in “ Psychology of Management ” suggests (p. 297) 1 Vol. xxi. 2 See F. E. Cardullo, “ Industrial Organization under Scientific Management,” Machinery, vol. xix., p. 20.