Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

30 EFFICIENCY METHODS planning alone is so extensive that it has to be sub- divided to deal with different sections of output. The best general description of a planning depart- ment will be found in Taylor’s “ Shop Manage- ment,” pp. 111-126. He enumerates in detail seventeen functions. But these may readily be cut down; first, by separating the costs department, and also by omitting his headings Employment and Insurance, which will be differently treated and assigned in British industries. The other functions may be epitomized as— 1. Investigation of processes and operations. 2. Provision of material and tools, and their transport. 3. Planning and controlling the progress of the work. 4. Inspection of the product. These are, in fact, the practical outcome of the three principles of management that were afterwards formulated by Church and Alford. (See p. 20.) In an industrial plant where a uniform product is being turned out in large quantity, the amount of planning will naturally be very simple when all is running smoothly. But it will be worth while in this case to investigate and analyze the operations very thoroughly indeed, and to subject each item to time-study. Also constant enquiry should be going on into possible improvement of methods, development of new activities, manufacture of the necessary tools and accessories, and so on. The