Industrial Engineering is System Efficiency Engineering. It is Machine Effort and Human Effort Engineering. 2.46 Million Page View Blog. 193,075 visitors.
Blog Provides Industrial Engineering Knowledge: Articles, Books, Case Studies, Course Pages and Materials, Lecture Notes, Project Reviews, Research Papers Study Materials, and Video Lectures.
Blog provides full IE Online Course Notes
Collecting materials for developing detailed history of industrial engineering in India.
Please share information you want to be included in it.
As industrial engineers and productivity managers, you might have many achievements. Your department has contributed lot to your organization. Please share your contribution and your colleagues and department contribution.
The article was started for the memory of Shri Ratan Tata. (10.10.2024)
Ratan Tata's Industrial Engineering - Process Design, Improvement, Excellence and Perfection.
"Break down your company or department's work into sub-processes and ensure each one is perfected. Build processes and strong quality control systems. The final result will only be excellent if the elements feeding into it are perfect." - Uttar Pradesh social welfare minister Asim Arun, a former IPS officer.
Compare it with Diemer - Taylor Explanation of Industrial Engineering.
He (Industrial Engineer) analyzes each process into its ultimate, simple elements, and compares each of these simplest steps or processes with an ideal or perfect condition. He then makes all due allowances for rational and practical conditions and establishes an attainable commercial standard for every step. The next process is that of attaining continuously this standard, involving both quality and quantity, and the interlocking or assembling of all of these prime elements into a well-arranged, well-built, smooth-running machine (process).
Prof. Hugo Diemer - Taylor's Industrial Engineering
According to me, Mr. Ratan Tata exactly repeated what the pioneers of industrial engineering F.W. Taylor and Prof. Diemer said. Focus on each element in the sub-process (operation) of the process. Design it with scientific and engineering knowledge and improve it further with the new knowledge and experience gained in operating or using the process. Excellence and perfection follow.
(Article to be developed. Requesting Tata Groups IEs for their experiences)
Industrial Engineers and Consultants Connected with Tata Group. Can you share your experience with Shri Ratan Tata. I want to include in the article.
Ratan Tata: Moving the Tata Group Beyond India
Stanford Graduate School of Business
1,030,792 views 5 Mar 2013
Ratan Tata, former Chairman of the Tata Group, has been credited with turning Tata from a largely India-centric company into a global business, with approximately 65% of revenues coming from abroad, accomplished in part through acquisitions.
Tata was interviewed by Charles Atkins, a second year MBA student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, as part of the View From The Top speaker series.
Tata was Chairman of the Tata Group from 1991 until his retirement in December 2012.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mySvo-EPT0
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It was on August 26, 1907 that Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) was registered in India.
The steel production started on February 16, 1912.
Tata Steel played an important role in development of industrial engineering in India.
The first director of NITIE was from Tata Steel
1957
Founded in 1957, the Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering is a non-profit organization for the profession of Industrial Engineering in India consisting of members specialized in the areas of Industrial Engineering - Work Study, O & M., Value Engineering, Production Planning & Control, Materials Management, PERT/CPM, Operations Research, Computer Sciences, Financial Management, Statistical Quality Control etc. and other emerging disciplines. It has been espousing and contributing to Productivity, Quality movement and Cost Competitiveness and other emerging needs of Undertakings in the country during the last five decades.
To make continuous contribution to the productivity of all branches of Economic and Social activities of the Nation. (Current 2024)
MISSION
Enhancement of image of Industrial Engineering Profession. Assimilation, creation and dissemination of knowledge base in the field of productivity related sciences. Providing customer service, design and installation of integrated system of resource utilisation through IE precepts and practices. (Current 2024)
National Productivity Council of India (NPC), established in the year 1958, is an autonomous organization under Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. Besides undertaking research in the area of productivity, NPC has been providing consultancy and training services in areas of Industrial Engineering, Agri-Business, Economic Services, Quality Management, Human Resources Management, Information Technology, Technology Management, Energy Management, Environmental Management etc., to the Government and Public & Private sector organizations. NPC is a constituent of the Tokyo-based Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an Inter-Governmental Body of which the Government of India is a founding member.
Vision
NPC to be the knowledge leader in productivity to provide state of our services to the Indian economy to become globally competitive.
Mission
Contribute to the sustainable, inclusive socioeconomic development of the country by enhancing productivity.
Objectives
To promote innovation - led productivity in a sustained manner in all spheres of national economy through holistic and inclusive approach by addressing the triple
bottom line – Economic, Environmental and Social.
To propagate productivity consciousness and culture amongst Govt., Business and Society.
To demonstrate value addition through generation and application of advanced productivity tools and techniques for multiplier effect.
To act as a total solution provider for Industry, Services, and Agriculture sectors for augmenting productivity through Training, Consultancy and Research wherever
needed through alliances and partnerships
To act as a catalyst in institution building and developing platforms for collaborative networking to strengthen the productivity movement.
To act as a think tank by providing productivity related evidence based policy support and advice in while tracking the emerging trends.
To be an independent oversight entity for various national programs, schemes and interventions.
To recognize productivity champions through awards, affiliations, certifications, accreditations etc.
To enhance international outreach for sharing the gains of productivity on mutual basis.
To be repository of productivity and competitiveness data across all sectors at the state and national level.
To devise national productivity standards across all sectors and self assessment web based measurement tools for productivity diagnosis.
Productivity Week Celebration at Tata Steel Jamshedpur. Every year, Productivity week is celebrated with great enthusiasm in Tata Steel. I was invited to be a speaker and was given the responsibility of chairing the session on one day. I was very happy with the presentation made by the Union leader about productivity and lean management initiatives in Tata Steel.
Lean Management - Management for Value and Productivity Enhancement
Lean Management for Productivity Enhancement Presentation at Tata Steel.
The Role of Industrial Engineering to make Make in India Campaign Successful - Explained in detail by bringing out the total activity of industrial engineering by Narayana Rao, KVSS., Professor of NITIE, Mumbai, India on 3 May 2015 as Prof Uday Amonkar Memorial Lecture at Goa Engineering College as part of IIIE, Goa Chapter Foundation Day celebration. Professor Narayana Rao identified 8 main methods as constituting IE and gave the popular techniques under each of the method thus describing the complete industrial engineering scope. He identified the three application areas for IE in any organization as engineering activities, business process activities and management process activities. He stated the purpose of IE as cost reduction at enterprise level and termed it as Total Cost Industrial Engineering. The lecture was appreciated as a Landmark Presentation in Industrial Engineering by the audience.
2017
Principles of Industrial Engineering were presented by Prof. K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao, Professor, NITIE in IISE 2017 Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, USA.
What is Industrial Engineering? What are its principles? #Productivity #Profit #Income #CostReduction #SocietyProsperity #Lean #Comfort #Health #Safety
IISE IndustrialEngineering 2017 Conference Presentation - Video. Very Popular - 9785+ Views.
Tata Network Forums India - East organises a session on Role of HR in Cost Optimisation
PUBLISHED ON MAY 11, 2017
Around 55 participants from 22 Tata companies attended the session, which included presentations and an interactive panel discussion with HR experts from Tata companies
Tata Network Forums (TNF) India – East organised a session on the ‘Role of HR in Cost Optimisation’, which was attended by 55 participants from 22 Tata companies. The session, held on April 12, 2017 at the Golmuri Club in Jamshedpur, included various presentations and an interactive panel discussion with HR experts from companies including Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tinplate Company of India, TRF, JUSCO, Tata Sponge, Tata Steel Processing and Distribution and Tata Management Training Centre.
Productivity Development – Measures. Achievements, Challenges and Policy Suggestions
Prof K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao
Professor, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE)
Mumbai
Introduction
Productivity is defined as output divided by input giving us the measure of output per unit of input when the input is specified as one homogeneous item such as acres of land used in agriculture for cultivating a crop, say rice. We can define the productivity of rice cultivation in Maharashtra State, by giving the total production of rice in a year, say 2015-16 as numerator and the acres in which rice was cultivated in 2015-16 as denominator. The figure obtained can be compared with the figure of 2016-17 to determine whether the productivity has increased or decreased in 2016-17 compared to 2016-17. We want productivity to increase, as increase in productivity means we will have more rice from the same land. The increase in production of rice can be used to increase average consumption of rice by people in the state. The increase in the production of rice can also be used to provide extra rice to people in the bottom percentiles in the state. Whenever, the society provides extra inputs to the bottom percentiles of the population we say “antyoday” is taking place. Providing extra inputs for consumption to the bottom percentiles of the society is an important social activity which is taken up by individuals, social groups, business organizations and government. Productivity provides resources for “antyoday” activity by not reducing the consumption of other people in the society. When there is increase in production of any good, it can be exported and other goods can be purchased. Thus, the society will have more goods for consumption and we can say the society has become richer as its consumption has increased. Therefore, productivity increase is a desired outcome and policies of government and business sector are oriented towards productivity development in the society. Individuals also have to understand the need for productivity increase and participate in the productivity development activities as employed persons and consumers. Reduction of waste of any good, conserves the effort involved in producing that good and releases resources for production of other goods and services. The effect is similar to increase in productivity. Reducing waste of any good in consumption or production activity has a beneficial effect on the productivity of the society.
Productivity Measurement
Productivity needs to be measure to plan and execute productivity improvement programmes. Productivity is measured for single input, combinations of inputs and all inputs. Productivity measurements for single inputs are termed partial factor productivity measures, and measurement for all the inputs is termed total factor productivity. For certain economic sectors, specified partial factor productivities become very popular and they are measured and reported in various reports of the government, research institutions and industry & business associations. In the case of agriculture, productivity per acre of land is a very popular productivity measure. In the case of dairy farming, milk output per milch animal is a popular productivity measure.
Productivity of Labour, Capital and Technology
Production can be increased by increasing the number of people involved in an activity, increasing the raw materials used and the machines. When technology changes, more production can come from the same amount labour, raw materials and machines. Hence, the contribution of labour, capital and technology to increased production are measured. Whenever, the technology is modified to give more productivity of the process, productivity of labour and capital increase. The improvement in technology is sometimes captured in the machines and then, machines become more productive and capital becomes more productive. Labour becomes more productive when it learns skills better or when education of the labour increases or when process labour uses to operate the equipment is changed. So productivity of labour is increased by making it more educated and skilled. Productivity of capital or that of machines is increased when better machines are developed and produced in large number by engineers and managers. Productive processes and methods are also developed by engineers, executives and managers which give rise to increase in technical efficiency or productivity. Scientists discover the cause and effect relationships existing in nature ( in physical nature , biological nature and social nature) and provide the basis for engineering and management.
Productivity Development - Macro Measures in India
After the World War II, USA took the leadership of democratic and capitalistic countries (some have followed mixed economy model) and provided development assistance through various international agencies. International Labor Organization (ILO) provided productivity improvement services and assistance to developing countries. ILO Productivity Missions visited India, set up offices in India and assisted Government, many public sector organizations, and private sector organizations. Bombay Productivity Council, National Productivity Council and National Institute for Training in Industrial Engineering in Mumbai were set by them in collaboration with Government to take up productivity development activities in the country. So Government has taken up the issue of productivity improvement in the economy. It also organized productivity years in 1962 and 1982. National Productivity Council organizes productivity week every year in the country with a specific theme. This year, the theme was “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.” Industrial engineering is a management and engineering hybrid discipline with focus on productivity improvement in engineering organizations and activities. Industrial engineering can be explained industry expansion engineering. The discipline makes efforts to reduce the cost of new products that are accepted and desired by people. The cost reductions become price reductions and the market expands due to lower prices. Thus industrial engineering is industry expansion engineering. We can see its relevance in the current mobile industry as an example. If the cost of mobiles are low and the telecommunication charges are low, more people will use the services and the industry expands. Industrial engineering has the responsibility to lower the cost of mobile instruments, the cost telecommunication equipment and the cost of running the telecommunication system. Effective industrial engineering can achieve rapid cost reduction and help accelerated price reduction. But in practice, the productivity improvement activities are not taking place to the desired level in India and in sector after sector, reports say, productivity is very low in India. Government and policy research organizations in India have to assess the productivity situations in India and analyze the reasons for not achieving desired results at least in some sectors of the economy, which provides the spring board for transfer of expertise to more sectors.
Productivity Theory - Contribution from India
Industrial engineering is the subject of productivity improvement in engineering organizations. Industrial engineering is defined as system efficiency engineering and human effort engineering by Professor Narayana Rao (NITIE, Mumbai). This definition clearly brings out the role industrial engineering and makes a clear distinction between other branches of engineering and industrial engineering. Various branches of engineering develop new products and processes to manufacture or fabricate these products. Industrial engineering is concerned with redesign of these products and processes to reduce the resource consumption involved in making these products and operating the processes. The knowledge of industrial engineers is a big set of economic engineering alternatives and process to develop these alternatives which can be used effectively and efficiently to redesign products and processes and make them less costly or more productive. Industrial engineering was started in 1907 and thus the discipline completes 110 years. Professor Narayana Rao, proposed principles of industrial engineering along the lines of principles of management. The principles were presented in a conference in NITIE in the year 2016 and a presentation of a detailed list is scheduled for presentation in the Annual Conference of Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) in Pittsburgh, USA in the month of May 2017. The principles state that productivity science development, productivity engineering and productivity management are the main activities of industrial engineering. Further development of industrial engineering discipline in the country is going to facilitate first the productivity development in engineering industry and thereby provide the basis for productivity development in other industries like banking, insurance and hospitality. Industrial engineering already provides productivity improvement service to the hospital sector in a big way.
Productivity – Agriculture
The food grain production has increased more than fourfold - from 51 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 212 million tonnes during 2003-04. The grow rate is an annual average rate of more than 2.4 percent per annum. It further increased to 252.23 million tonnes in the year 2015-16. In Agriculture, productivity is measured as output per acre or output per hectare and it is low in India when compared to the best producing countries. Production increases per acre takes place due to increase in inputs like irrigation water, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, high yielding seeds etc. The productivity of each of these inputs is also important because continuous increase in these inputs is not possible and unless cost of unit output decreases, consumption of an item does not take place in any economy. Increase in agricultural productivity is important to improve the standard of living of farmers also. Productivity improvement as an activity has to be given to village panchayats for the lowest level and also ground level contribution to the effort. The village panchayat can collect the details of the land used for various crops and the output. So village level productivity of each crop can be measured and publicized by the panchayat. Every year, the panchayat can be assisted in developing productivity improvement plan by higher level authorities and agriculture department personnel. Panchayat level productivity improvement competition can be conducted and farmers who achieved higher productivity can be recognized at the panchayat level. They become role models and mentors for others in the village in the coming years. From these village level events, block level, district level, state level and national level events can be conducted. Research is taking place in the agricultural universities and agricultural research laboratories to increase productivity of agriculture. But more needs to be done. Agricultural productivity statistics are widely available for the country as a whole. But what is required is the information regarding productivity of the highest productive farms and the practices in those farms at lower levels. Once productive farms at lower levels are identified, field trips can be arranged for farmers to visit these high productivity farms for learning good practices of farming. This information can be publicized better so that more people come to know of it and in turn pass on the message to the farmers when they interact with them periodically during the visit to their native places. The word of mouth needs to be promoted as productivity improvement channel.
Productivity - Dairy farms
Agriculture and animal husbandry are important rural economic activities. In the dairy farms also, the milk productivity per animal is low in India. Measures similar to the ones suggested in the case of agriculture are relevant in animal husbandry.
Productivity – Mining, Manufacturing and Construction
The country has invested lot of resources in developing the engineering industries in mining, manufacturing and construction sectors. They are expected to provide employment to large number of people and thereby facilitate shifting of agricultural workers with low levels of income to better paid jobs. Also, employment in engineering organizations requires more skills and thus people become more skilled by learning various engineering trades like machining, fitting and maintenance of various manufactured products. Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoted the “Make in India” initiative to realize the objectives of rapid development of manufacturing sector to provide increase in GDP and employment. Productivity is very important in this sector, because this sector produces essential equipment that is used in service industry also. Services sector today provides larger chunk of GDP (higher than 50%) and it requires the output of engineering sector like transport equipment, buildings, medical equipment and medicines, books, computers, electrical distribution systems, telecommunication systems. In engineering sector, there are many large companies and the companies can invest and actively engage in productivity improvement. Industrial engineering is the productivity discipline in the engineering industry and the companies have to employ and involve industrial engineers in larger numbers to increase productivity. Japan in its reformation phase learned lot from the USA and Europe. They learned industrial engineering also, and leveraged it with further improvement unique to Japan. Japan developed low inventory manufacturing and in the process became a productivity leader. Shigeo Shingo, an industrial engineer solved the problem of reducing the die set-up times to minutes to facilitate low inventory manufacturing. He also created the Poka-Yoke (error detection mechanism) method to reduce defects, which also helped in low inventory manufacturing. India is adopting Japanese industrial engineering and productivity management practices now. Japanese professors and consultants are visiting India and advising Indian Government and companies. There is big scope for creative deployment of productivity management practices in India. Engineering colleges are being criticized by various company managements for producing graduates with poor knowledge and skills. This is ineffective and inefficient education process. College administrators, faculty and students have to become more involved to identify the deficiencies on the part of each of them and correct them. Poka-Yoke developed by Shigeo Shingo is to be used to identify where gaps are occurring and to remind everybody the need for correction. An error should be detected before it becomes a defect. The expected effort from the student to learn, the expected effort from the faculty member to facilitate learning and the effort of the college administration to provide library and laboratory facilities and the required mentoring to the students to develop them into educated and capable knowledge workers have to be better specified and managed by the education regulation mechanism in the country. The universities, UGC, AICTE and Ministry of Human Resource Development have to evolve the strategy. Better educated and skilled engineers will develop the engineering industry in the country better and in the area of productivity development also there will be good results.
Productivity in Services and Public Administration
Services now comprise more than 50% of the productivity. The figure should not surprise us, if we think marketing, selling and distribution cost is 50 per cent of production cost. If production of goods constitutes 50 per cent of the GDP, marketing and distribution sector will have 25% of the GDP. Public administration, education, health, transport are always important sectors. New sectors like banking, insurance, telecommunications, and software appeared in recent years and became important sector. Hence, services contributing more than half of the GDP, is not an unexpected phenomenon. But the goods producing sectors of agriculture, animal husbandry, manufacturing, construction and related sectors are the foundation for the economy. Productivity is important in services also. Management theory clearly says effectiveness and efficiency are the two important performance dimensions of management. Management theory has neglected the productivity dimension and MBA curriculums do not have adequate content in the productivity area. This is a shortcoming which needs to be noticed by management curriculum designers at the national level.
Productivity improvement in public administration is discussed in public administration texts and governments of various countries did appoint committees to examine productivity improvement. In India, administration reforms commissions have tried to improve productivity. The pay commissions for central government employees constituted every 10 years also comment on productivity. National Productivity Council needs to be strengthened with wings catering to agriculture, manufacturing, services and public administration. Alternatively productivity councils can be started for each sector and interlinked through a collaborative mechanism that helps in transmitting best practices across sectors and productivity specialists in each sector are developed through special educational institutions and provided opportunities to work in relevant sectors.
Conclusion
Productivity development is important for economic development of India. The need to develop productivity was recognized in the country and some institutions were set up. In the Parliament, discussions do take place regarding productivity in various industries. Still, the productivity achievements of India are not up to the desired levels when compared to the countries which made rapid strides in productivity. Productivity is a very important significant area needs to be recognized by the government and one can even suggest that to start with a minister can be put in charge of productivity improvement at the centre and state levels. Such an organization can provide the required visibility to the important dimension of productivity, essential for the nation’s rapid progress and growth. National Productivity Council can be under that ministry and other organizations can be set up as required to take care of various sectors and also organization structure to involve village panchayats and municipalities in spreading productivity awareness and activity at the lowest levels in a systematic manner.
DPIIT, India presents #UdyogManthan a webinar marathon for promotion of quality and productivity in Indian Industry starting on 4 January 2021. Every Day (except Sunday) for 42 days
Be a part of India's largest sectoral brainstorming exercise led by experts and Industry leaders!
Join the discussions. Understand the need of the industry. Give your suggestions. I request all industrial engineers to participate actively. Registration is FREE.
Register Now https://tinyurl.com/UMparticipation
According to me it is great initiative and all industrial engineers having interest in Indian industry have to give their suggestions to Government, industry associations and directly to various companies and firms.
Schedule - Industry Sector of the Day
Links are to articles that I am preparing on each sector. I request IEs to indicate important machines in the sectors you know so that machine effort industrial engineering ideas can be collected and compiled.
Toys (4th Jan)
Leather and Footwear (5th Jan)
Furniture (6th Jan)
Sporting Goods (7th Jan)
Chemicals and Petrochemicals (8th Jan) Make in India
Gym Equipment (9th Jan)
Food Processing (10th Jan) Make in India
Tourism and Hospitality Services (11th Jan) Make in India
Steel (15th Jan)
Drones (16th Jan)
Textiles and Apparels (18th Jan) Make in India
Audiovisual Services (19th Jan)
Gems and Jewellery (21st Jan)
Transport and Logistics Services 22nd Jan)
Capital Goods (23rd Jan)
Legal Services (25th Jan)
IT & ITeS (27th Jan) Make in India
Medical Value Travel (28th Jan)
Accounting and Finance Services (29th Jan)
Communication Services (30th Jan)
Construction & Related Engineering Services (1st Feb)
Environmental Services (2nd Feb)
Financial Services (3rd Feb)
Education Services (4th Feb)
Railways (5th Feb) Make in India
Automotive and Auto Components (6th Feb) Make in India
Pharma and Medical Devices (8th Feb) Make in India
Biotechnology (9th Feb)
ESDM (10th Feb) Make in India
Closed Circuit Cameras (11th Feb)
Shipping (12th Feb) Make in India
Construction (13th Feb)
New and Renewable Energy (15th Feb) Make in India
Air Conditioners (17th Feb)
Fisheries (18th Feb)
Aluminium (19th Feb)
Set Top Boxes (20th Feb)
EV Components & Integrated Circuits (22nd Feb)
Ethanol (23rd Feb)
Ceramics and Glass (24th Feb)
Robotics (25th Feb)
Televisions (26th Feb)
Aerospace and Defence (27th Feb) Make in India
Quality in Government Processes (1st and 2nd Mar)
Udyoug Manthan Discussions - Shri Piyush Goyal
Steel Industry - Growth, Productivity and Quality - 2021 Udyog Manthan
To make continuous contribution to the productivity of all branches of Economic and Social activities of the Nation. (Current 2024)
MISSION
Enhancement of image of Industrial Engineering Profession. Assimilation, creation and dissemination of knowledge base in the field of productivity related sciences. Providing customer service, design and installation of integrated system of resource utilisation through IE precepts and practices. (Current 2024)
THE human race is old and its upward progress slow; how old, no one knows. French, Italian, Spanish speech are de-scended from Latin dialects already differen-tiated twenty-four hundred years ago, yet the
modern languages are so much alike that the educated foreigner, having learned to read one, can forthwith read and understand the other. Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Irish, German, Russian, although developed from a common language, are so very far apart that it may easily have taken fifty-thousand years for their divergence. How far back beyond this time were the black, red, and white races one, how much further back when homo sapiens branched off? Egypt is historically the oldest nation, yet the begin-nings of Egypt were on geologically the most recent of ground, the river bottom and delta of
the Nile. Two hundred and fifty thousand years to bring about the difference between
man and an ancestral being probably as intelli-gent as a chimpanzee ! Counting three genera-
tions to a century, the human race has behind it 7,500 generations, and astonishingly little advance per generation to show.
The upward progress of man has been doubly hindered. Compared to animals, birds and,
above all, insects, his brain cells mature very slowly. A dog two years old knows far more
than a child of five, and a five-year-old dog usually has more wisdom than a man of
twenty-five. The silkworm, the spider, the firefly, the bee, and the ant develop marvelous
skill in a few weeks. The progress of insects is therefore due partly to the rapid succession
of generations, a cause Darwin pointed out, and partly to the rapidity of mental processes
in each short life. Man has intelligence, but
it works with distressing slowness, and each
generation has failed to transmit more than a
very small part of the advance to its successor.
Rapid progress can be made in a generation.
The child is born a rank animal, it is a savage
until its fifth year, a barbarian more or less
until maturity, yet ripens and mellows into a
civilized being. When one considers medical
students with their disreputable pranks and
practices, one wonders where the comforting
and respectable family physicians come from!
It actually takes only thirty years to pass from
animalism to semi-divinity, yet the race, after
7,500 times 33 years, is still far below this
standard. Why has progress been so exceed-
ingly slow ? There have been high ideals in the
past ; there have been leaders of great common-
sense, from the seven wise men of Greece to
Franklin; there have been competent counsel-
lors, the sages, seers and prophets, the sibyls
and saints of all ages ; there has been discipline,
even severe, cruel, exterminating; there has
been the fair deal taught by the Buddha and
by the Christ, by the St. Vincent de Pauls, by
the Elizabeth Frys, and by the Florence Night-
ingales; there have been records graven in
stone; there have been plans, schedules and
despatching; conditions and operations here
and there down through the ages have been
standardized — but all this has been spasmodic ;
little, so little has endured! There was no
ratchet, the tide rose and fell, the children
repeated the mistakes of their fathers; those
full of years and wisdom became dust, and took
their knowledge with them. We failed to hold
as a genus or as a race what each individual
had learned. Within the last five-thousand
years there has been progress. The art of
drawing, of carving imperishably, has trans-
mitted a little of what our ancestors achieved
and knew. More often, inspired with vanity,
these great ones commemorated their own mis-
deeds. Knowledge was the carefully guarded
secret of the priestly caste, but in the finally
published sacred books, our own and other
Bibles, we do find moral and practical wisdom
written and transmitted. Printing, less than
five-hundred years old, has been called the art
preservative of all arts. That, of course, de-
pends. Most of our daily papers and most of
our books embody and preserve nothing of per-
manent value ; they are merely an extension of
the babel of Bander log, they are merely
printed simian chatterings, but nevertheless
printing has given us the possibility of creating
an eleventh edition of the Encyclopedia Britan-
nica.
Pumpelly tells a story of a Japanese student
of metallurgy, who about 1870 possessed an
English work on blast furnaces, an English-
Dutch dictionary, and a Dutch-Japanese dic-
tionary, and with these as guides he construct-
ed and operated a fairly successful blast fur-
nace for smelting iron ore. This shows what
can be done by Standard Permanent Written
Instructions.
We have no accurate description of the engines of destruction invented by Archi-medes for the defense of Syracuse against the Romans. They must have been interesting since they lifted whole ships and dropped them endwise into the sea or onto the rocks.
It would seem as if maps and charts would be an easy task. A stranger on an unknown
coast, in an unknown land, an unknown city, knows more about it if he has a good chart
or map than the native.
I have insisted that a map of Boston shall be properly oriented and displayed in our Bos-
ton office, for, excepting professional criminals who have to be versed in devious paths and
ways, there is probably no modern Boston native who could readily and accurately lay a
rational course from point to point in that city. Roaming and navigating savages who really
need maps are very skilful in drawing them. Sir Edward Parry discovered Hecla Strait
from a map drawn off-hand for him by an Eskimo woman ; but the higher the civilization
of the map-maker, the more in the past he sub-stituted imagination and arts for facts. There
are Egyptian maps dating from 1400 B. C, but in spite of this long history it has been aston-
ishingly difficult to make progress in charts until very recent times. Errors are perpetu-
ated, truth is forgotten, advance is slow. As late as 1900, charts of the Alaskan coast issued
by the United States were said to be thirty miles wrong, and nearly all commercial map
makers still represent mountain chains as cater-pillars, and the fringe of the shore is adorned
with a blue wavy frill. As for railroad maps, the less said the better.
The early land-survey maps of our western
plains were concocted in central offices, not on
the ground; therefore on the Colorado and
Nebraska line they do not tie in by four miles
and a half east and west. The Government
paid the full price for accurate surveys, but
with a man in charge of a keg of whiskey gal-
loping ahead on a mule, with several investi-
gating Indians in war paint galloping behind,
burnt matches stuck in the ground did duty
as the required and sworn to charred stakes.
The maps made from the surveys were not
standard permanent instructions of much
value. Modern geodetic and geological-survey
charts, modern coast-survey charts, are ad-
mirable and useful beyond criticism ; but it has
taken a long while to reach this perfection.
On one occasion I was invited to invest in
a gold placer in Wyoming to be washed out by
hydraulicking. The geological-survey contour
chart showed conclusively that it would be im-
possible to secure sufficient water with suffi-
cient head to wash the gravel. What has been
done with the prospect since dredges have been
put into successful operation I do not know.
On another occasion I reported adversely on
an Alaskan ditch proposition. The watershed
tributary to the ditch was easily integrated
from the Government contour chart, the yearly
precipitation was also known. The promoters
claimed 5,000 miner's inches ; I could not figure
more than 500; investors nevertheless went
ahead. The next year they reported that the
season had been one of unusual drought, and
the year after that the company was in the
hands of a receiver.
American law is in most States the out-
growth of English common law, and in our
Spanish and French States, of Roman law.
The common law in England is the outcome of
custom finally passed on by the courts or de-
fined by acts of Parliament. In many of our
State codes we have attempted to reduce the
principles to statutes governing particular
cases. This is often helpful and often not.
Moses laid down principles: Thou shalt not
kill; Honor thy father and thy mother — but
the enforcement became specific. Codes sup-
plemented principles.
"If any man smite his neighbor mortally,
then the elders of his city shall deliver him
into the hand of the avenger of blood that he
may die."
"Thine eye shall not pity, life for life, eye
for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot
for foot."
"If a man have a stubborn and rebellious
son all the men of his city shall stone him with
stones that he die."
It was from snap decisions in specific cases
that the laws of the Medes and Persians grew
up, laws that changed not.
Lord Wolseley credits Napoleon with the
greatest intellect the human race has ever pro-
duced* Bonaparte, First Consul, personally
worked over the wording of the Civil Code, He
wanted its provisions so clear that even the
most ignorant peasant could understand. As
French is an admirably definite and clear lan-
guage, as the French have a passion for logic,
as the greatest legal minds of France aided
and were aided by Bonaparte in evolving this
code, it furnishes an admirable example of
Permanent Written Standard-Practice Instruc-
tions. It was, moreover, only one of seven
great organizing acts which he made into spe-
cific standard-practice instructions, these in-
structions having persisted almost unchanged
to the present time.
The standardizing operations, the ratchet
action, is of very great importance. A python
will swallow a deer, a garter snake will swal-
low a large frog. The snake's teeth are set
slanting backward. One jaw moves forward
over the flesh, takes hold and draws until the
other jaw can slip forward and sink the
curved teeth in. In this way the large body is
drawn into and forced through the small gullet.
The more difficult the operation the less is
there any slip back. It is easier to draw a fish
hook through a wound than out of it. In most
human affairs efficiency is in the end gained by
going forward and through rather than by
struggling forever on the near side.
An American weakness is to be discouraged
by difficulties and to back-water instead of
overcoming troubles and going forward. All
the world knows that compound steam-engines
use less coal and water than simple engines.
The compound principle was successfully ap-
plied in France and Germany to locomotives.
The steam pressures were naturally much
higher. American railroads rushed into com-
pounds with inadequate preparation, knowl-
edge, or designs. Difficulties of all kinds de-
veloped, due partly to the high pressures, partly
to the added dependent and increasingly ineffi-
cient sequences. A case dwells in memory in
which it took 80 hours to renew an interme-
diate packing. Compounds as tried proved ex-
pensive and troublesome both to operate and to
repair. Instead of being perfected as in France
and in Germany, in order to gain the advan-
tages of the principle, they have been aban-
doned by American roads almost without ex-
ception. Temporary expediency governs — not
ideals.
The marvelous results due to standardization
of gunnery practice in the American fleet have
already been referred to. These results were
achieved by the ratchet process, by holding
onto every gain and by never allowing any slip
back, these results being secured by a volumin-
ous book of instructions and suggestions. In
this book best ways as ascertained to date are
specifically prescribed, by written, permanent
standard-practice instructions, but these in-
structions are subject to a bombardment of
suggestions and all these suggestions, however
foolish, are tabulated, printed, and confiden-
tially published.
The grains of wheat are winnowed from the
chaff, common sense finds its own reward in
approval, and the makers of foolish sugges-
tions are ridiculed and shamed by their own
comrades. Those in charge of these instruc-
tions, of the analysis of practice and results,
waste no time in finding out what European
rivals are doing. They know that the way to
discover the North Pole is to go there as fast
as possible, not to waste time and money
watching the preparations of others; they
know that the way to shoot quick and straight
and far in a heavy sea is to attain high speed
and shatter targets at long ranges, rather than
to spy on what the other fellow is about.
The feeling about this naval practice is akin
in spirit to the attitude of an American grain
exporter who showed a Hungarian investigator
our whole elevator and grain shipment installa-
tions, from the wheat fields of Dakota to At-
lantic steamers. He was asked, "Why do you
show foreigners, future competitors and rivals,
our methods ?" "Because they can't understand
half they see, they can't remember half they
understand, and by the time they have copied
all we have, it will be obsolete with us and we
shall be ten years ahead." This applies, how-
ever, equally to our own backwardness com-
pared to foreigners in so many other directions.
The way to forge ahead is to get busy, not to
copy.
It is not only in its charts, in its naval gun-
nery, in its agricultural department, that the
United States Government has established per-
manent written instructions.
The specifications of the purchasing depart-
ment of the navy are at once the most com-
plete, the most modern, and the best I have ever
seen. That the plans were evolved and per-
fected by graduates of Annapolis speaks highly
for the practical value of the general education
there imparted.
There are many hundred different specifica-
tions covering everything that the navy regu-
larly uses; the specifications for eggs covered
several pages; the specifications for potatoes
are as follows:
Potatoes, Irish (East Coast) in sacks or barrels. —
To be selected stock of standard market sorts, sound,
fresh, free from scab and mechanical injuries. One
price only shall be quoted by bidders for both old and
new potatoes^ either of which may be delivered at the
option of the contractor. Potatoes shall measure not
less than 2 inches in smallest diameter.
To be delivered in either sacks or barrels, according
to the ordinary commercial usage of the locality in
which delivery is made. Each barrel or bag to be
marked with the net weight.
Copies of the above specifications can be obtained
upon application to the various Navy pay offices or to
the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts, Navy Depart-
ment, Washington, D. C.
When advances are not only definitely re-
corded but when the best practice is carefully
and systematically reduced to writing, progress
made is held and built upon in an industrial
plant or any other undertaking. Every shop,
every institution, has its great body of common-
law practices that have gradually crept in, com-
mon law variously understood and variously in-
terpreted by those most affected. Often the
traditions of the past are treasured up in the
brain of some old employee, who transmits
them, much as the memories of old bards were
formerly the only available history.
We have known foremen to refuse deliber-
ately to tell a new official how certain work was
done. The defiant stand assumed was that this
was a personal secret. The history of brass
castings is filled with these secrets of composi-
tions. An English tool forger pretended he
could smell good steel and he imposed the same
conviction on his employers. Whenever, in any
plant, Bonaparte's most lasting work is under-
taken — namely, written codification of current
practices — it is astonishing how much is found
that is contradictory, how much is vague and
indefinite, how much is involved and compli-
cated that might be direct and simple, how
much is wholly lacking.
Each one of the ten preceding efficiency prin-
ciples can and should be reduced to written,
permanent standard-practice instructions so
that each may understand the whole and also
his own relation to it. In some plants the only
rules obtainable or visible are certain subsi-
diary conduct rules, offensively expressed and
ending with the threat of discharge.
I remember a wily superintendent who, when
asked by a manager to post some additional
offensive rule, modestly suggested it would
have more force if signed by the manager him-
self. The latter fell into the trap and posted the
rule, which was soon obliterated by abusive and
scurrilous amendments, comments, and epi-
thets. The superintendent himself did not lose
prestige. The ideals of a plan or undertaking
can be expressed in a few words. One of the
mottoes of American naval practice is: "Ef-
ficiency and Economy." This is amplified into
special rules governing all kinds of activities.
I have before me the following :
Navy Department
Washington, April 22nd, 1911.
Attention is invited to General Order No. 86 of August
20, 1909.
G. v. L. Meyer,
Secretary of the Navy.
The effort to save coal shall not be allowed to dimin-
ish the efficiency of the ship or to affect adversely the
health or comfort of the personnel. It is strictly for-
bidden to save coal by curtailing the use of the turrets
or steamers or by unduly reducing light, ventilation,
or the supply of fresh water.
It is to be noticed that the rule is not one of
spur toward higher effort, but to hold back the
over-zealous ; it is not one to stimulate the in-
efficiency of depression, but to restrain the over-
efficiency of joyous exaggeration. It is not a
rule "that enforces a high-speed process in
which none but the strong survive," but it is a
rule protecting the interests of all.
Discipline and the fair deal do not require
voluminous initial instructions, although both
discipline and the fair deal should curtail au-
tomatism.
Standard-Practice Instructions are the per-
manent laws and practices of a plant. What
these laws, practices and customs are should
first be carefully ascertained and be reduced
to writing by a competent and high-class inves-
tigator, and it will be all the better if he has
had legal training. It will take considerable
work to find out what the practices are, as dif-
ferent officials from president down may have
different opinions and theories and also the
practice may vary from month to month. It
is quite usual to find the actual practice quite
different from what the general manager or
president supposes it is. Men do what they can,
not what they have been told. The purpose is
to find out what current practice is, not what it
is supposed to be.
The next step in the work is to harmonize
the discrepancies, to cut out what is useless or
harmful, and to supplement the resultant body
by needed additions.
When this constructive work has been per-
formed there will be a preliminary code. In
actual practice it will be found that it is still
defective, incomplete or contradictory. It is. to
be made workable not by throwing it to the
winds and reverting to the previous state of
semi-anarchy every time a difficulty arrives,
but by carefully considered amendments. The
code being made up of a number of different
statements and enactments can be amended by
sending out notice of withdrawal of any enact-
ment, at the same time issuing the amended
enactment, the substitution being effected as in
the illustration that follows : —
On and after receipt, substitute Rule 5a, dated June
1, 1911, for Rule 5, dated September 28, 1909. Read
carefully the new rule, note the changes made and
send signed receipts to head office.
The maintenance of the code is the duty of
a qualified, interested minor official to whom all
suggestions should be referred. The code itself
is not his creation but the outgrowth of the
plant's operating needs. The code goes out over
the signed signature of the highest available
official. There may be supplementary signa-
tures of the department officials. For example,
rules for the installation and maintenance of
belting should be drawn up by the official in
charge of maintenance, should be collated and
put in standard form by the codifier, should be
promulgated over the signatures of the super-
intendent, of department head, even of belt
foreman as well as of general manager or presi-
dent. The belt foreman's business, if he does
not like the rules, is not to sign them until he
has fought the matter out, but it is not his busi-
ness to disregard them. The natural inclination
is to prefer individual anarchy, but anarchy
never leads anywhere.
In time quite a body of standard-practice in-
structions will grow up, most of them suggested
and evolved by the employees. Records will re-
quire many pages of specific instructions, if the
records are to be reliable, immediate and ade-
quate. Standardized conditions also ultimately
require a large volume, but the largest volume
of all is the book covering standardized opera-
tions. It is pathetically and ignorantly sup-
posed that standard instructions destroy a
man's initiative and make of him an automaton.
Compared to the drop of the sparrow through
the air, or the scamper of the squirrel down a
tree, a staircase does indeed limit the initiative
of a man going from the roof to the ground.
He who prefers it may let himself down from
the window by a rope. I prefer the limitation,
common-sense, safety and ease of the staircase.
A ferryboat limits the initiative of a commuter
entering the city and a tunnel even more limits
this initiative. Those who prefer it are wel-
come to the right to swim the Hudson or to use
a small skiff of their own. The flanges of the
locomotive and car wheels confine the train to
the steel rails, and this is a great curtailment
of initiative compared to the free path of the
buffalo or of the bull-whacker across the plains.
The fact is that the limitation of initiative
professedly so dreaded is wholly imaginary. To
follow the better and easier way is to lessen
effort for the same result, to leave more oppor-
tunity for higher initiative to invent or evolve
still better ways.
The aviator flying 72 miles an hour is the
greatest initiator in the world to-day, yet to a
degree never before experienced he is limited
by his engine, and nothing would be so welcome
as standard-practice instructions that would
help keep his engine going, as automatic stabil-
ity for his plane, gladly relinquishing his own
initiative in favor of tested standard practice
in both these respects.
Any undertaking run without written standard-practice instructions is incapable of progressive advance, but by means of written instructions advances far more rapid than those attained by insects and birds are possible. Wireless telegraphy is but suggested, experi- ments described, and inside of ten years our
coast is fringed with the masts of rival systems and messages are transmitted across the ocean !
The first flights of aeroplanes were but eight years ago, and to-day they are carrying twelve
passengers or flying 72 miles an hour. Five years of planned, attained, and recorded prog- ress will accomplish more than twenty years of rule of thumb tucked away under the hats of shifting employees.
Commentary by KVSSNRao
Any undertaking run without written standard-practice instructions is incapable of progressive advance, but by means of written instructions advances far more rapid than those attained by insects and birds are possible.
With the above statement, Emerson brings into picture knowledge management, a popular theme today.
THE larva, grub, or worm crawls from the egg and its existence is governed by the accident of its birth site and surroundings. Usually it stays where it was hatched, eats and grows, and it arouses neither enthusiasm by the interest of its life nor admiration for its beauty. It is elementally dull and prosaic, for it has neither standardized itself to command conditions nor standardized conditions to suit itself. At last, having reached the limit of its growth, it passes into the pupa or chrysalid state of coma, and emerges, physically, spiritually and mentally a different individual. Who would recognize in the purple emperor butterfly the caterpillar of its previous existence? The butterfly is as beautiful as the worm was repulsive, as mobile as the worm was slow, a creature of the sunlight and sky instead of the shadows and of the earth.
The water-beetle is the lord of the elements. It runs on land with speed, under the water it is one of the quickest and most graceful of swimmers, and through the air it is the fastest of flyers; it seeks its food in the water, it emerges at dusk, and after dark flies toward the moon, or to its destruction in some electric light. More perfectly than any other creature it has standardized itself to play with and command all the elements but fire.
The spider, not so standardized to earth, water, and air, as the water-beetle, has not to the same degree conquered the elements. The beetle swims, runs, flies without effort because its ancestors had aspirations and early achieved victory. The spider works consciously, much as men might work. She drops from a height, not with wings to sustain her, but holding on to a thread made for the occasion, strong and elastic. In mid-fall she can stop, the factor of safety being nothing, yet I have never seen the silken thread break. She can regain, if she wishes, her exact starting point, or, reaching the ground, can cut loose and run. The spider would disdain as clumsy a suspension bridge, for she constructs a canopy whose outlying guy stays have, in proportion to her length, greater reach than the span of the Brooklyn Bridge, whose strength in proportion to construction is greater than that of the best steel wire. The balloon spider, if at all interested in human balloons, must despise them! She, on a calm, sun-lit summer day, will spin out a filament which, warmed by the sun rises straight into the air. Whether the spider, like the soaring birds, first locates an upward air current and then spins her thread, or starts an upward air current though the warmed molecules adhering to the thread I do not know; but in any case the filament rises, rises, until the spider knows it will lift her, and then loosening hold, she soars skyward to be swept by some upper air drift miles away in a few hours, her relatively great weight carried upward and sustained by a thread weighing not the hundredth part of what she weighs. Standardized conditions there must be of almost inconceivably delicate adjustment, of sunlight, of calm, of length and make of thread.
Both soaring birds and balloon spiders and many floating seeds and spores use directly the heat of the sun to sustain them. What bird ever soared at night or upward through a fog?
There are other insects that have solved deeper mysteries than either the water-beetle or the spider. Men can run on the earth, not as well as the beetle ; they can swim, not as well as the beetle; they can glide through the air, not as well as the beetle; they can climb down or up ropes, not as readily as the spider; they can stretch suspension bridges not comparable to the canopy of the spider; they can soar in balloons, not as safely or as conveniently as the balloon spider — for these are all mechanical operations. But the firefly produces light by a chemistry of whose laws and operations we have no grasp. The firefly has not standardized itself to the daylight. It wanted light when it was night, not general, diffused and impersonal light, so it creates in the velvet darkness the momentary and intermittent personal flash, for the moment making itself the centre of the visible universe. It not only refused to acquiesce in the standard light of day and darkness of night, but it remade the conditions of the universe to suit itself.
This is not all of the marvel. The firefly and the human both have eyes, and in these eyes are minute nerves which make us aware of light and interpret to us the shape and color and distance of all the outside world.
There are, therefore, two distinct methods of standardizing conditions — to standardize ourselves so as to command the unalterable extraneous facts, earth, water, air, gravity, wave vibrations; to standardize the outside facts so that our personality becomes the pivot on which all else turns. With the living example of the beetle who commands earth, water and air, with the example of the firefly, which, without effort makes light where there was none, with the lesson of our own eyes which have given us a beginning of command of infinite space and time, shall we fear to attempt standardizations of conditions now but dimly conceivable?
The easiest way for any individual to live his own life in fullest measure is either to standardize himself to suit the environment or to standardize the environment to suit himself. The horse and other animals stay where they are in winter and grow thick and long fur to meet the rigors of the climate. The bird of passage changes itself not at all, but suits the climate to its taste by picking out the one it wants and going to it. Either way is an easy way, but man, the youngest of nature's brood, has attempted to satisfy great wants without standardizing either himself or the environment.
To build the Great Pyramid absorbed the lives of 100,000 men for 20 years, and it is the greatest monument of inefficiency the world bears because condition of building were not standardized; yet the Egyptian builders had eyes which reached out and recognized, through billions of miles of empty intervening space, the groupings of the stars. Without sweat on our brows, nor callosities on our hands, supplementing the same human eyes with telescope, with spectroscope and with camera, we tear the distant stars apart, we dissect them, we drag them into light out of the depth of darkness, we assist at their birth, trace their lives and predict their extinction. Thus, at last has man begun to make himself
infinite and the universe small.
In the building of the pyramids, of the Parthenon, and of St. Peters, man followed a law-less fancy and not an efficiency need, or the work and time and expense would not have been so lavish for so small return. Man has, in fact, until very recently remained in the larval state. He put on clothes to keep out the bitter cold, but little further advanced than the Tierra del Fuegan who shifts a patch of fur between his naked body and the wind. He huddled over a fitful fire to banish the cold, and these two feeble steps upward in the adjustment of self and the conquest of environment were almost all. At best, until recently he has tried to imitate the beetle and the spider rather than imitate the firefly. He invented shoes that he might travel along the rough trails, he invented skates that he might glide over the ice, he invented boats and sails that water and air might carry him. But at last he has awakened.
Roads were built that a barefooted multitude might travel in slow comfort. The distance from Paris to Bordeaux is 323 miles, and this the fastest walker once covered in 114 hours and 42 minutes, or at the rate of 2.8 miles an hour. Even after a standardized path had been created it took many generations before a bright mind evolved the idea that a revolving wheel would be more adapted to the road than alternating footsteps, so we had the roller, the cart, the wheelbarrow, and at last the bicycle was perfected; but even this last step took three generations. In the bicycle man still used the alternating swing of the legs, but he propelled himself nearly seven times as fast, so that Huret made the 323 miles in 16 hours and 45 minutes, at the rate of 19.8 miles an hour. But why should a man use his own efforts ? He cannot trill his legs as he can his fingers, and even if he could, the leg cannot push much harder than 200 pounds. He had already used steam to propel locomotives on their more mi-nutely standardized road, so he finally attached an explosive reciprocating engine to his road vehicle, an engine capable of making 1,200 strokes a minute for each of four, eight, four-teen, cylinders, as compared to the 140 strokes of each of two legs ; an engine capable of kicking 100 pounds per square inch for as many inches as the piston surface has area, as against the man's total power of push of less than 200 pounds. So that in his cushioned seat, with mere pressure of hand or foot, Gabriel, in the race from Paris to Madrid, made Bordeaux in 5 hours 13 minutes, or at the rate of 62.5 miles an hour. In this race the automobiles were con-fined to the road, the road was narrow, the people many, so a number were killed. Why there-fore be bound by the limitations of a road? Captain Bellinger, on an aeroplane, makes the same trip in 5 hours 21 minutes, actual flying time, at a speed of 60.35 per hour. Flying speed will soon be 80 miles an hour and already the French mathematicians are pointing out that many of the present difficulties of flight will vanish at the higher speed.
In the meantime, however, because conditions have been standardized, instead of building pyramids nearly 500 feet high in 20 years, our skyscrapers go up 600, 700, 800 feet in 10 months; we tunnel through mountains and, laughing at wind and wave, we send a floating palace, larger than St. Peters, through the ocean from continent to continent at the rate of nearly 29 miles an hour.
The principles under which the methods and practices of efficiency are grouped have been compared to the skeleton framework of a dome. The ribs of the dome are the principles, but the first layer can be started with one part of each rib in place, and with filling of various devices to complete the circle. As layers are added the ribs rise until they come closer together and at last coalesce. Some ribs may be carried to the top, others may stop part way up, their burden carried by others. In this series of essays each of the earlier ribs has been separately carried to the top, so that now there is less space for the later principles, much of their duty having been transferred to the principles already in place. To maintain reliable, immediate and adequate records we must have standardized conditions; to put in schedules we
must have standardized conditions; so the standardizing of conditions should precede schedules. But unless we have already adopted ideal schedules, how do we know what conditions, and the extent to which they must be standardized? Also, unless we have ideals as to standards, how can we create a high schedule?
It is perhaps because schedules and conditions react so on each other that progress is so disappointingly slow. We make a mean little schedule and meanly standardize conditions to suit. Francis Galton points out that the Basutos in Africa have the greatest difficulty in finding oxen fit for the forespan. The ox who stays in the centre of the herd is not the one struck down by the lion; so through many generations the independent bulls and cows have been eliminated until it requires careful watching to select, and careful training to develop, a calf capable of walking ahead and leading the others.
In human affairs, however, when we are on any schedule there are some who are not afraid to beat it, although the herd puts up a clamor that the effort is killing and should be prevented by combination. Perhaps the effort is temporarily killing; but ultimately some progressive soul aspires to a yet better schedule, and instead of foolishly trying to beat the record under the old conditions, restandardizes the conditions and thus makes an advanced schedule easier than the former schedule.
Records are again broken by effort, far less at its maximum than on the old schedule, but nevertheless discountenanced by the conservatives, until conditions are again restandardized and effort is still further diminished. Who has the harder time, the runner who precedes the cavalcade of an Oriental magnate, or the engineer of our fastest trains ? Who puts forth the greater effort, the peon who twelve hours a day carries load after load of ore in sacks on his back up a notched pole out of a deep Mexican mine, or the fireman who for two hours and a half between New York and Albany, calling it a day's work, shovels coal for the fastest train ? In the locomotive runs across Arizona where oil burners are used, even the fireman's work, usually so hard, has been converted into watching the water glass, watching the smoke, and with his fingers turning on and off water and oil supply.
The grub acquiesces in the obvious ; and until the last century, all but very few men acquiesced in the obvious. By force of ancestral habit this acquiescence is still the curse of most of us. Our ideals, our schedules, have been and are too low instead of too high. The 18-hour trains between the two largest American cities are on the highest regular long-distance schedules thus far attained; but on an open speed-way not comparable to the steel track in smoothness, an automobile with its little engine, and one man guiding, ran faster and longer, so that in comparison 18 hours seems slow; and, quite surely somewhere, some time — perhaps in China or Africa — Brennan's gyroscope car on a monorail, indifferent to both grades and curves, shortening distances one-fifth, will do in 8 hours what now takes 18.
In planning for standardized conditions, it is difficult not to skip the present and plan for the future; but even in the greatest American plants, the conditions imposed by an ignorant and inefficient past are accepted, schedules are toned down, and painful effort crowds out intelligent control. In one large plant where the heaviest and slowest piece took only 40 days for completion, the managers acquiesced for many years in a 9-month schedule, and after much special work felt pride instead of humiliation in a 6-month schedule. A 15-day schedule for general repairs to a locomotive is considered fast time and the average is more nearly 30, but if the time for each item is separately entered in a summary, it is hard to discover why 3 days would not be enough.
The battleship "Kansas" of the American Navy under an eminent efficiency commander went into dry-dock, water was pumped out of the dock, hull cleaned, scraped, painted, rudder post repacked, and the vessel floated again in less than 24 hours. For a steamer immediate repairs are otherwise important than for an isolated locomotive. The railroads, on the other hand, show marvelous speed, generally of the main-strength order, in clearing away a wreck or an earth slide or opening a snow blockade.
If a large publishing house could have freed itself from its own entangling traditions, it could have added a million dollars a year to its net income. The organization was tried out on some insignificant minor matters; it hesitated and balked and trembled for six months over what elsewhere was put into operation in six days and could go into operation in six hours, so the larger plans were not even submitted to it. A great superintendent of another plant had uncontrollable fear of boats of any kind; an-other large and successful manufacturer had fear of the subway in New York and could not be induced to go below ground. Similar fears overcome occasionally even the most wideawake men, and often the main obstacles in the path of progression are not the real and tangible difficulties, but the imaginary specters that terrorize and paralyze some part of the soul.
Ideals of standardized conditions are not Utopian, but are immediately and intensely practical, but ideals must precede selective action. The Greek sculptors in their studies took a hand from one, a foot from another, the torso from a third, the face and head from others, and aggregated them all into an ideal ; but this ideal existed in the mind or the sculptor could not have selected.
Who can tell why one hand is beautiful and another not, why one curve is pleasing and an-other disturbing? We recognize some forms of beauty as unerringly and without previous personal or race experience as we recognize that one note harmonizes with another.
It is far easier to demonstrate and to prove experimentally the value of standardized conditions than it is to prove beauty, especially for the small advances that are immediately possible, because all these advances are in successful operation somewhere ; but often it is easier to break away from all traditions, to put the eye in the point of the needle, to load the gun from the breech, to write with both hands, to photo-graph instead of drawing, to make half-tones instead of engravings, to pick cotton by a whirling serrated pencil instead of with fingers, to turn over 640 acres of land with gang plows hitched behind mechanical tractors, than it is to improve on the old way.
The artist must have aesthetic ideals, the musicians, musical ideals ; but the man who would bring about standardized conditions, either in himself or in his surroundings, must have conceptions of time, of effort, of cost; he must instinctively recognize that for each operation there is one combination of these three that is best for the ideal result. That ideal result may be an embroidered scarf which the lady with unlimited time, simple materials, and graceful, soothing effort has wrought. The ideal result may be the destruction of an enemy's battle-ship, twelve million dollars sunk in five minutes, by guns loaded, accurately aimed, and fired so as to hit, at the rate of two salvos a minute. Time minimum at whatever cost and effort !
In our individual lives, in our shops, in our nation, what are we trying to accomplish ? Are we taking too much time, is it costing too much, are we squandering our strength? Are we standardizing conditions so that time will not be wasted, so that money will not be thrown away, so that effort will not be in vain?
Harrington Emerson - The tenth Principle of Efficiency - Standardized Operations.
