Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

40 EFFICIENCY METHODS When it is an industry and not a game, one may add waste of time, waste of money, and waste of material. The human element will doubtless keep the result always somewhat short of the ideal, especially when more than one human being’s frailties enter the equation. But we can perceive the same vivid certainty of action in trained teams of men, above all in the British Navy. The ideal of the efficiency engineers is certainly to have things " according to schedule ” ; and they quote for example, to show how possible this is, the precision of a railway time-table. As a rule, within quite small limits, each locomotive and each driver do exactly what they are intended to do each day ; although the number of auxiliary activities which must be marshalled and controlled to produce the effect is barely imagined by the public. Moreover, no diminution in the quality of this work can be contemplated, with all the momentous issues at stake. It is true that the actual administration of many railways is much criticized by the efficiency reformers as being wasteful. But the idea of running to scheduled time as an essential stipulation is the one which they wish to extend to other industries. And they are able to quote notable examples of its having been effected. This is the prime reason for all the careful storage and examination of materials and tools, followed by equally careful conducting of them through the establishment, to arrive at the right time at their destination.