Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

22 EFFICIENCY METHODS It may be useful at this stage to quote, almost in full, the sketch of the three kinds of management given verbally by Mr. H. L. Gantt to the Interstate Commerce Commission on Industrial Relations.1 It is colloquial, but very graphic and convincing, although we must allow a little for the prejudices of an enthusiast. “ The unsystematized business is where the order is issued from the office to the shop, and the office feels that their entire responsibility ends when they have issued the order to the shop . . . until the date on which they wish goods to be shipped passes; and then they feel that it is their duty to go out and raise row with the shipping clerk first, and then with the one next higher up . . . and so on. “ The systematized business ... is where they have a regular routine by which these orders shall proceed, from the office to the different depart- ments . . . and in many cases they have a proper sequence worked out, so that the method of filling the order is not entirely left to the subordinates. “ The scientific management comes . . . when each of the steps has been investigated by the best expert available, be it a mechanic or . . . other person. . . . When that has been done, when each of the steps through which the work has progressed has been studied in detail, and a specific definite route has been laid out, reduced to writing, and the returns come to the office to show how this work has 1 Docket No. 3400. Re " Investigation of Proposed Ad- vances in Freight Rates.' L. D, Brandeis. Counsel, 1911.