Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

EFFICIENCY METHODS hand if wanted at some future time, is entirely destructive of good stock-keeping and of economy. Any attempt to establish good habits with regard to storage and requisitions for things stored will naturally be met with the usual complaints about red tape,”—with the gibe, for instance, that a written order is required for a bolt or a pen-nib. But an establishment which sets out to foresee and forecast needs will not have occasion to requisition any trivial or casual quantities. Considering the matter from the psychological standpoint, “ red tape ” really ought to be given its due, for it cer- tainly tends to produce care and respect for articles which are the property of the firm, but are meant for general use. Everyone knows the annoyance of going to a post-office, where pens or pencils are supplied, with free access to them, and finding that as a matter of course implements of the kind are quite unfit to use. The moral is that people never have any respect for common property which is quite freely supplied, and everyone falls back on his own property as the alternative. In many cases some slight formalities, some indication that the articles are valued and counted, will alter the whole state of affairs.