Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

THE COSTING DEPARTMENT 49 many are made weekly, and quite a large amount of reporting is done daily? In conclusion it may be emphasized that a good system of costing is necessary to the modern aims in management, as these cannot be compassed unless “ the net results of all endeavours,” as Emerson called them, are displayed and compared. Also the good system is to be attained by the modifica- tions introduced by the new management, for the latter ensures close examination and record of all the operations in an industry. The general benefits of good cost-accounting may be summed up as— Possible economy in use of material. Location of losses, leakage, and unused equip- ment. Records of individual work by men and by machines. A sound basis for right judgments in the sale of the products: which lines are profitable, which should be dropped, when adjustment of price is advisable, and whether the volume of product should be expanded or con- tracted.2 1 See H. L. Gantt’s paper, “ A Daily Balance in Manu- facture,” reprinted in C. B. Thompson’s Collection. Also see the article on the Bullard Machine Tool Co.'s Dispatching Department, Iron Age, vol. Ixxxix. 2 See a paper on Costing, by C. H. Scovell, read to the Indiana Engineering Society, 1916, in Engineering Magazine, April, 1916. •He says that this department should be the " eyes and ears of the Executive.” E