Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

20 EFFICIENCY METHODS well arranged ; good machinery is used. Altogether strict criticism may be able to find few or no traces of bad work, and no serious errors. Different establishments will naturally differ in the degree of systematization. But manuals of factory organiza- tion and management are published in America as well as in the United Kingdom which make this use of “ system ” the central idea, and hardly admit the possibility of improvements. j What does the “ efficiency engineer want beyond this ? He wants developments definitely directed towards saving labour by ordering it properly. His demands have been expressed thus :1 (i) The systematic use of experience. Traditional knowledge, actual experience, and scientific study are to be combined. Records are to be fully kept, and standards evolved from them. (2) The economic control of effort. Operations are to be analyzed, and then replanned, definite tasks and instructions given, and workers trained. (3) The promotion of personal effectiveness. Everything possible is done, in the way of creating incentives and clearing away obstacles and delays, to make the best use of the powers of each worker. These new demands are not made only on the factory; they are made on the office and on every department. The first comment most people make is that the demands mean a great increase in the work of the office staff, for the activity entailed in 1 See A. H. Church and L. P. Alford, " Principles of Manage- ment.” Amer. Machinist, vol. xxxvi. p. 857.