Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT 33 instructions issued by a planning department. Operations in heavy engine work often require days or weeks for their completion, and it is very possible, if time presses, that the planning clerk might place the time for one of these operations below the minimum, if he does not know very thoroughly what he is about. The issue of such an instruction to the shop would not only cause con- fusion and delay in the execution of that order ; it would create a distrust of the planning clerk, as an ignorant person whose instructions need not be followed—a state of things which produces deplorable results. The specification sheet is finally gone through carefully for the purpose of designating each part with its classification symbol (see chap, vi.), so that the sheet may be used properly, with each item identified, by all the members of the staff who have not sufficient technical knowledge (see p. 42). . Then copies are made (usually by hektographic mk and a duplicating machine, if the number is considerable). A copy is sent to each department which has to deal with any portion of the work. The arrival of the sheet is the formal intimation that work for execution is coming along; it gives the date when it is to be expected, the nature of the work, the date at which it must be finished, and where it is then to be sent. I rogress is now in the hands of an “ order-of- work clerk who makes detailed arrangements for