Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

48 EFFICIENCY METHODS one-third of material cost. A variation of even 25 per cent, in the estimation of the former would then be only 5 per cent, on the whole. But in many forms of product the labour cost will be considerably greater than the material cost, and the effect of error very much greater. Taylor says that the contractor in concrete work does not know with any degree of accuracy the time or proper cost of doing each kind of work. And also that when the fundamental data are deter- mined, it is “ possible to determine in advance how fast each element of the work ought to be done.” 1 The allocation of all indirect or overhead ex- penses is, of course, a problem of extreme im- portance, and this applies to the distribution of administrative charges as much as to any. The reader must be referred to treatises on costing for the newer methods of performing this distribution. Most recent literature on the subject in the United States contains constant reference to scientific management; and, conversely, several important contributions to the literature on scientific manage- ment are to be found in journals devoted to accounting. To the engineers who make efficiency their primary object the first test of a good costing department is that it should produce results which are reliable very promptly. Monthly summaries of certain facts and comparisons are essential, but 1 “ Concrete Costs,” p. 54.