F.W. Taylor - Definition of Management - Principles of Task Management for High Wages with a Low Labor Cost - 1903
Definition of Management - F.W. Taylor (in Shop Management)
The art of management has been defined, "as knowing exactly what you want men to do, and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way.'" No concise definition can fully describe an art, but the relations between employers and men form without question the most important part of this art. In considering the subject, therefore, until this part of the problem has been fully discussed, the other phases of the art may be left in the background.
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Modern engineering can almost be called an exact science; each year removes it further from guess work and from rule-of-thumb methods and establishes it more firmly upon the foundation of fixed principles.
The writer feels that management is also destined to become more of an art, and that many of the, elements which are now believed to be outside the field of exact knowledge will soon be standardized tabulated, accepted, and used, as are now many of the elements of engineering. Management will be studied as an art and will rest upon well recognized, clearly defined, and fixed principles instead of depending upon more or less hazy ideas received from a limited observation of the few organizations with which the individual may have come in contact. There will, of course, be various successful types, and the application of the underlying principles must be modified to suit each particular case.
The writer has already indicated that he thinks the first object in management is to unite high wages with a low labor cost. He believes that this object can be most easily attained by the application of the following principles:
(a) A LARGE DAILY TASK. --Each man in the establishment, high or low, should daily have a clearly defined task laid out before him. This task should not in the least degree be vague nor indefinite, but should be circumscribed carefully and completely, and should not be easy to
accomplish.
(b) STANDARD CONDITIONS. --Each man's task should call for a full day's work, and at the same time the workman should be given such standardized conditions and appliances as will enable him to accomplish his task with certainty.
(c)
HIGH PAY FOR SUCCESS. --He should be sure of large pay when he accomplishes his task.
(d)
LOSS IN CASE OF FAILURE. --When he fails he should be sure that sooner or later he will be the loser by it.
When an establishment has reached an advanced state of organization, in many cases a fifth element should be added, namely: the task should be made so difficult that it can only be accomplished by a first-class man.
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Laws of Management - Gillette & Dana - 1909
Cost keeping and Management Engineering
A TREATISE FOR ENGINEERS, CONTRACTORS AND SUPERINTENDENTS ENGAGED IN THE
MANAGEMENT OF ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION
BY
HALBERT P. GILLETTE
Managing Editor, of Engineering-Contracting, Member American Society of Civil Engineers, Member American Society of Engineering Contractors, AI Member American Institute of Alining
Engineers, Member Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education
AND
RICHARD T. DANA
Consulting Engineer, Member American Society of Civil Engineers, Member American Society of Engineering Contractors, Member American Institute of Mining Engineers Ox/
1909
CHAPTER I. THE TEN LAWS OF MANAGEMENT.
The managing of industrial enterprises, such as construction work in the field, is still an art, and there are few who realize that it can be reduced to a truly scientific basis. Nevertheless, there are certain underlying principles of effective management of men which may be expressed in the form of laws. Application of these laws leads invariably to a greater output on the part of workmen, and this invariability of result proves the scientific basis of the laws. The most important of them can be grouped under ten general headings, which are as follows:
1. The law of subdivision of duties.
2. The law of educational supervision.
3. The law of coordination.
4. The law of standard performance based on motion timing.
5. The law of divorce of planning from performance.
6. The law of regular unit cost reports.
7. The law of reward increasing with increased performance.
8. The law of prompt reward.
9. The law of competition.
10. The law of managerial dignity.
Below are given the main characteristics of each:
The Law of Sub-Division of Duties. — Men are gifted with faculties and muscles that differ extremely. One man will excel at running a rock drill, another is better at lifting loads, a third is clever in the application of arithmetic, a fourth is a born teacher — and so through the gamut of human occupation. More-over, practice serves to accentuate these inborn differences. It is clear, therefore, that the fewer duties any one man has to per-form, the easier it is to find men who can do the task well. But give a man many duties to perform, and he is almost certain to do at least one of them poorly, if, indeed, all are not miserably attended to. Hence the following law of management: So organize the work as to give each man a minimum number of duties to perform.
This law needs little emphasizing as to its general truth, but it is nevertheless ignored frequently by those who have not applied a scientific treatment to management. Thus, a foreman is often charged with a multitude of duties. lie is expected, for example, to watch the workmen and spur them to action when slothful, to teach his men how to do their work in a more economic fashion, to discover and remedy defects in the machines and tools employed, to plan the arrival of materials at the proper time and in the proper amount, to keep records of daily performance, etc., etc.
Mr. Fred W. Taylor was the first, we believe, to urge the subdivision of the duties of foremen and to have what he calls "functional foremen." One foreman, for example, is the machinery and tool foreman. It is his sole duty to study the work done by machines and tools, to effect improvements, to reduce delays, and to supervise repairs.
Another foreman is the gang foreman. His function is to organize the gangs, to direct their operation, and to instruct them in the performance of their work.
A material foreman is employed on large jobs. His function is to confer with other foremen and ascertain what materials, machines and supplies will be needed. He orders the materials, arranges for their shipment, and follows up the manufacturing and railway companies to secure prompt delivery. If necessary, he sends men to the factory, to the stone quarry, or to the freight yard, to see to it that deliveries are made with dispatch. Such a man is often invaluable, for upon him may depend the entire progress of the work.
According to the magnitude of the contract there may be different kinds of foremen, all coming in contact with the same men, perhaps, but all performing different functions. Such an organization as this differs radically from a military organization wherein each man reports to only one superior officer on all matters.
Most industrial organizations today resemble military organizations, with their generals and intermediate officers, down to corporals, each man reporting to but one man higher in rank. There is little doubt that the present tendency in, industrial organizations is to abandon the military system to a very large extent, and for the following reasons:
A soldier has certain duties to perform, few in number, and simple in kind. Hence the man directly in command can control the actions of his subordinates easily and effectively. Control, moreover, should come invariably from the same officer, to avoid any possibility of disastrous confusion, and to insure the instant action of a body of men as one single mass. On the other hand, industrial operations do not possess the same simplicity, particularly where men are using machines ; nor is there the necessity of action in mass. The military organization, therefore, should be modified to suit the conditions; and one of these modifications is the introduction of two or more foremen in charge of certain functions or duties of the same men or groups of men.
On contract work it is often impossible to subdivide the duties of men to as great an extent as can be done in large manufacturing establishments. The smaller the contract, the less the subdivision of duties possible. In such cases, an approach to the ideal system of subdivision is secured not by employing different men for different purposes, but by a systematic assignment of duties to the same men to be performed at specified hours of the day or days of the week. Thus, a small gang of carpenters is engaged in bulling forms for concrete, in repairing wooden dump cars, and in framing and erecting trestle work. By timing the men, and by planning their work upon the timing records and the requirements of the work, this carpenter gang can be assigned certain hours or days for each class of work. Thus is avoided the intermittent and uncertain shifting of the gang from one class of work to another, involving not only a loss of time in frequent shifting but a loss of interest in work that is done piecemeal. Moreover, a methodical change of occupation permits a methodical record of the number of units of each class of work performed, and thus leads to the use of the bonus system of payment.
The Law of Educational Supervision. — It is not alone sufficient to give instructions to workmen and foremen from time to time by word of mouth, but the gist of all important instructions should be reduced to written or printed form. Among contractors the pioneer observer of this law is Mr. Frank B. Gilbreth, whose "Field System" is a 200-page book of rules for his superintendents, foremen and others to follow. His "Brick-laying System" is another set of rules for the guidance of his brick masons and foremen.
Among manufacturers there are many examples of those who have prepared more or less elaborate sets of rules to be followed, but the most interesting of these compilations that have come to our attention is the one furnished to its salesmen by the National Cash Register Co. In this book are gathered a vast number of useful hints and practical suggestions and arguments to be used in selling National cash registers. Each possible objection that a prospective purchaser may raise is met with one or more specific answers. This company not only provides its salesmen with a text-book but has a school for training salesmen. At regular intervals all the salesmen meet together and discuss their respective methods of selling cash registers. Any new suggestions that are good become subsequently a part of the book of instructions. Thus the combined wisdom of hundreds of salesmen is preserved and delivered to every salesman that the company employs. This plan is followed also by many of the life insurance companies. Railway companies have long made it their practice to furnish their civil engineers with printed sets of rules for railway location, as exemplified in McHenry's "Railway Location." All these are forms of educational supervision, and some are very elaborate. The small contractor need not necessarily have a printed book of rules of his own making, but he can supplement some such book of rules and hints by a typewritten or mimeographed set of sheets containing the most important of his own instructions. In this manner the repetition of a costly blunder by a foreman or workman can be avoided by a special rule or hint, while a labor saving "trick" can be passed on to other men in the contractor's employ.
In developing a system of educational supervision, the greatest assistance can be obtained from articles in engineering and contracting periodicals, for there will be frequently recorded labor saving methods well worthy of trial by other contractors. In a long article it may be only a small hint that is worthy of being abstracted and placed among the hints for foremen.
In preparing a set of rules and hints, take pains to distinguish sharply between what is a rule always to be followed and what is a hint to be followed optionally. It is well to have a set of rules, each with its specific number, and a separate set of hints, also numbered.
The second law of management is briefly this :
Secure uniformity of procedure on the part of employees by providing written or printed rules, supplemented by educational suggestions or hints to guide them in their work.
The Law of Co-ordination.— vSc> schedule the performance of each gang of men that they will work in perfect coordination with other gangs, either adjacent or remote.
Perfect coordination involves the working of each man to his capacity all the time. This necessitates not only the organization of gangs of just the right size, but the prompt arrival of standard supplies and materials, and freedom from breakdowns of plant.
An examination of almost any piece of construction work in progress will disclose the fact that most of the men spend a considerable portion of their time waiting either for somebody else to do something or for materials to arrive, before they can proceed. The cause is improper coordination of the work. One gang may have too many men, and therefore may be able to work considerably faster than another, and be continually catching up with it. They will then adopt a slower pace, keep seemingly busy, and manage to kill a large percentage of their working time. These delays are chargeable to lack of coordination, although a careless inspection of the work may seem to indicate that everything is going smoothly. A job can look smooth and at the same time be so badly coordinated as to be uneconomical.
The necessary adjuncts to proper coordination of work are briefly as follows:
1. A carefully drawn schedule of performance.
2. Regular arrival of material and supplies.
3. Prompt and proper repairs to equipment.
4. The proper quality of supplies.
The best method that has so far been devised for making things happen on time is first to prepare a time table, and then to live up to it as far as the interruptions of the weather and the limitations of human nature will permit. To prepare a time table properly, it is necessary to know how fast work can be done under the conditions which are to govern it. xA.t the best, there will be a considerable variation to be accounted for by ignorance on the part of the planning department on the one hand, and by the interference of the elements on the other. A form of chart, made on tracing cloth, with various symbols to indicate the kinds of work to be done, has been found very useful. As the work progresses the performance can be checked off on the chart, and thus indicate whether the work is proceeding on time. Where the work is such as that of building construction, and there is but little storage capacity for materials, it is best to have the chart prepared a considerable time in advance, so that materials will arrive when they are needed and yet not so much in advance of the proper time as to require large storage capacity at the site of the work.
The principal railroads now use, for preparing time tables, a large blackboard on which the locations of stations are represented by ordinates and time by abscissas. Pins, over which are stretched threads of different colors, indicate trains, and the running speed of each train and its direction can be noted at a glance from the angle made by the thread with the horizontal. The principle of this arrangement can well be applied to the preparation of time schedules which can be afterward made up in more permanent form for record. Like the operation of a railroad, but more so, a piece of construction will always be ahead of time or behind time, and some parts may be ahead while others are behind the schedule. For this reason a form of chart which will admit of many alterations and additions is to be preferred to one on which changes cannot easily be made.
On a large piece of contract work it is often not easy to have on hand a very large supply of material, and the progress of the work is thus dependent upon its regular arrival. The man whose business it is to distribute and handle material will have to be placed upon some other sort of work or laid off altogether if the material fail. This can rarely be done without considerable loss of time and impairment of the efficiency of the men. When a man has been handling reinforcing bars until he has become quite proficient in it, when he knows what sizes of bars go in the different elements of the work, and what lengths are called for in different parts of a structure, a portion of the time spent in educating him to this point is likely to be lost if he has to be unnecessarily thrown upon another kind of work, and it is very difficult to tell by ordinary inspection how much loss of efficiency is involved. By shifting men on emergency in this manner it is impossible to keep the work coordinated unless each department has more than its economical number of men assigned to it and a continual process of shifting takes place.
When times are dull and the railroads are not overloaded with business, it is fairly easy to get railroad deliveries on time, by seeing to it that shipments are promptly made ; while in times of financial prosperity, when the railroads are congested with freight, some consignees are sure to suffer from tardy delivery. Therefore, under such circumstances, it is essential to have larger stock piles and more storage capacity than when the railroads are not busy.
It needs no argument to demonstrate that a derailed car, or a broken steam shovel, or a wrecked derrick, is a sure obstacle to any proper coordination of the work. The best way to avoid break-downs is to keep the equipment in repair. Every engine-man on the job should make a daily report in writing of the condition of his engine when he leaves it at night, and these reports should be filed just as regularly as any other records on the work. It should be the business of some one daily to go over these records and call the attention of the equipment foreman, or some one acting in that capacity, to any trouble which may cause interruptions to the service. Thus the equipment foreman becomes responsible for a large proportion of the break-downs, and he will see to it that these break-downs are as rare as possible.
Poor supplies are likely to cause disarrangement of work. There are few more expensive blunders than that of having the wrong grade of dynamite for rock work, unless it may be to have the right grade in the wrong condition, as when dynamite is frozen.
Bad coal will upset the temper of the blacksmith and of his steel, thus disorganizing the drilling operation sufficiently to cause delays to that and to blasting. Where boilers are worked under an "overload'' and require careful nursing on the part of the fireman with good fuel, bad coal will cause a startling falling off in performance and greatly impede the processes involved. A 30 H. P. boiler with the best of fuel may be worked to a 35 H. P. rating, but then come down to a 20 H. P. rating upon feeding it from a shipment of slaty coal.
Systematic inspection of supplies that have been purchased under specification as to quality will eliminate most of this sort of trouble.
The Law of Standard Performance Based on Motion Timing. — Nearly every operation performed by a workman involves several motions, although at first sight it may often seem that there is but one.
Mr. Frank B. Gilbreth has coined the term "motion study" to denote his method of observing the number and kind of motions made by a man — a bricklayer, for example — in performing a given operation. His plan is to analyze the motions, assigning a name to each motion. His next step is to endeavor so to arrange the supply of materials, the position of tools, etc., as to reduce the number of motions and the distance of each motion to a minimum.
Mr. Fred W. Taylor was the first, we believe, to adopt the practice of invariably studying each motion by the aid of a stop-watch. A large number of stop-watch observations not only give the average time of a motion, but, what is of far greater importance, they Indicate what the minimum time for each motion may reasonably be expected to be. It then follows that the sum of these minimum times for the different motions represents a standard time of accomplishment of the entire process. Hence our law of motion timing :
In the performance of every process, the sum of the minimum times observed for each motion gives a standard of performance possible of attainment under sufficient incentive.
Mr. Harrington Emerson calls this standard of excellence 100%, and has developed the plan of rating all actual performances in percentages. Thus, if the standard time for drilling a ID- ft. hole in a certain rock were 60 minutes and, if the actual time were 90 minutes, this performance would be rated at 60/90 = 66.67%.
In establishing a standard time of performance, the first step is to ascertain the unit times upon the work as ordinarily performed. The next step is, by study of the time elements and the local conditions, to eliminate as many motions as possible and to reduce the time of others, either by shortening the path of motion, or by accelerating the velocity of the motion.
To illustrate by an example, we give the following time study, which was made by one of the authors some time ago on some cableway work. Since this was done the Lidgerwood Mfg. Co. have completely redesigned their cableway engine and fall rope carriers and have introduced new features in control (notably in the Gatuii cableways in Panama). Therefore, while the data are correct as history, they must not be taken as indicating the limit of present possibility. A considerable number of studies was made, but one only is given for purposes of illustration :
TABLE I.
1908. Cableway No. 2, Handling Concrete.
Efficiency.
Observations. Min. Ave. Max. Standard Percent.
Process. time. time. time. time.
Rl 40 -ft 30 6.0 10.5 17.3 6.0 57.1
Tl 470 ft 33 31.0 47.3 63.0 31.0 65.5
Fl 123 ft 37 22.0 30.8 44.7 22.0 71.5
D 37 16.8 61.7 140.4 16.8 27.2
Re 123 ft 36 19.4 23.7 29.3 19.0 80.4
Te 470 ft 36 26.5 37.2 64.5 26.5 71.2
Fe 40 ft 35 11.0 42.9 96.0 11.0 25.6
L 28 12.0 '73.2 234.0 9.4 12.8
144.7 327.3 689.2 141.7
Totals, 1,266 ft.
TABLE II.
1908. Cableway No. 3, Handling Concrete.
Efficiency.
Observa- Min. Ave. Max. Standard Per
Process. tions. time. time. time. time. cent.
Rl 40 ft 18 8.0 13.6 18.2 6.0 44.1
Tl 470 ft 17 35.5 39.3 68.0 31.0 78.0
Fl 123 ft. 21 25.0 39.4 77.0 22.0 55.9
D 22 20.0 62.5 119.0 16.8 26.9
Re 123 ft 22 19.0 28.5 36.0 19.0 66.8
Te 470 ft 22 30.0 46.6 102.0 26.5 56.9
Fe 40 ft 20 18.0 29.1 48.0 11.0 37.8
L 16 38.0- 75.6 220.0 9.4 12.4
193.5 334.6 688.2 141.7
The first column gives the abbreviations of the processes, distances, etc. ; the second gives the number of recorded observations on each process; the third gives the minimum observed time in seconds for each process in that table; the fourth gives the average; the fifth gives the maximum time; the sixth gives the minimum of all the observed times for each process. While this is by no means the shortest possible time in which the process could be accomplished, it is the shortest one observed, and has here been taken to represent standard (100%) efficiency. By dividing the standard time by the average for each process the average efficiency as observed is obtained. This is shown in the seventh column.
As a result of this time study, it was possible to make an estimate of the probable increase in efficiency that could be obtained by rebalancing the engines. A further improvement was discovered in the method used in signaling to the operator, and an estimate of the saving to be obtained in this manner was made. A further improvement in regard to the position of the operator was discovered. A collateral improvement was perceived in the line of altering the design of the towers, so that the cost per unit of handling materials could be reduced, and further suggestions of a confidential nature, which we are not at liberty to discuss here, were made.
5. The Law of Divorce of Planning From Performance. — As a corollary to the law of the subdivision of duties, we have the law of divorce of planning from performance, first formulated by
Mr. Taylor.
According to the old style method of management, each foreman is left largely to his own resources in planning methods, in addition to his other functions. This multiplicity of duties can be properly performed only by a foreman possessed of a multiplicity of talents. Since few men can comply with such a specification for brains, it follows that good foremen of the old style are rare indeed. The modern system of management consists, as far as possible, in taking away from the foremen the function of planning the work, and in providing a department to do the planning. Under planning we include inventing, that is, the improvement of existing methods and machines.
A common error in management is the assumption that the man on the job in direct charge of the work is the man best fitted to plan and improve. Nothing is further from the truth. Rare, indeed, is the man possessed of a trained inventive faculty, and it requires such a faculty not only to develop new methods and machines but to plan the use of any machine with greatest economy. Nearly every piece of contract work presents new conditions, and this solving of new economic problems is beyond the power of any but the trained and skilled economist. But even where the problems remain identical, the necessity of a divorce of planning from performance exists, as we shall indicate.
The brain is an organ that requires frequent exercise in doing the same thing before it becomes proficient enough not to suffer great fatigue. Thus, the man who is learning to ride a bicycle finds that half an hour's lesson has tired him more than ten hours' work at his accustomed occupation. Attempting to do something new is wearisome beyond measure, except to the mind whose training has been in solving new problems. Hence the ordinary man finds much fatigue and little pleasure in attempting to do his work in a fashion that differs at all from that to which he has long been accustomed. The mental inertia that resists a change in methods of performing work is almost beyond comprehension, and it is found not only in the lowest type of work-man but in the highest.
Repetition develops skill, and skill gives pleasure. To a strong man used to his work there is actual pleasure in mowing hay, as Tolstoy has admirably pictured in one of his novels. Conversely, fatigue merges into pain and is repulsive.
In addition to these fundamental reasons why men adhere to precedent in their performance, there is the fear of ridicule in case of failure to succeed in any new attempt. The child learns to speak a foreign language more rapidly than an adult not only because of a more ''flexible tongue" but because it does not fear laughter at its blunders. Partial failure is expected of the child, and it is not ridiculed. But an adult seems witless if he does not immediately learn the new word and its pronunciation ; hence the laughter. So it is with every new performance. Further-more, a serious mistake may lead to the loss of a position, thus adding another reason for sticking to the "good old way."
Finally, there is no method so fruitful in effecting improvements in methods and machines as a study of the time required to perform each movement or operation. A workman or foreman rarely studies his own work in this manner. Hence his experience, upon which he is wont to brag, is like the experience of the swallow building its nest — an unchanging adherence to precedent, regardless of possibilities of improvement.
It is a significant fact that nearly all the great inventions have been the product of brains divorced from the actual performance of the machines that they have invented. Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin, was a lawyer, and not even a southern planter. Smiles' "Self Help" is a volume full of instances of important inventions made by men remotely, if at all, connected with the class of industry in which their machines are used. Nothing, therefore, is more ridiculously illogical than the common belief that the ''men behind the gun" are either capable of being the inventors of the gun or the ones most likely to improve it. Yet it is this illogical belief that prevents railway companies, manufacturers and contractors from making hundreds of radical economic improvements.
There is another difficulty, one which is most insidious and not generally recognized among contractors. It depends upon a mental peculiarity, to which we know of not a single exception, which becomes increasingly evident as a man's familiarity with the work develops. The fact referred to is this: A field chief can see inefficiencies in operation and prescribe remedies far more unerringly when his personal active touch with any one piece of work is intermittent than when one job is his constant care. The ultimate reason for this fact belongs to the science of psychology rather than engineering, and its theoretical investigation is not our present concern, but the fact is there and it has got to be respected. Coming back to a job after two or three days spent on another kind of work, with another kind of responsibility and among another set of men, things are seen that were not before suspected, and the prejudices of practice, as they may be called, are offset by the distraction of other fields, without the analytical perception having had the opportunity to grow rusty from disuse.
Still another fact, equally important, equally elusive, equally difficult to demonstrate to the theorist who has not had field experience and to the old-timer who is hide-bound by precedent, is this : A man, no matter who he is, can do his work better, vastly more efficiently, when he is being coached than when he is his own guide, philosopher and friend. Why this is true we will not here take the time and the space to discuss. It is true at a rifle range, on the baseball diamond, on the football field, in rowing, in track athletics, in the machine shop, and in field construction work. A man can steal third base better under coaching, even with the handicap of the impressions having to go through the mind of the coach before he can make use of them, a matter involving a considerable interval of time. The coach must know his business, of course, and have the confidence of the worker; and in its field application the cost of the coaching must not be excessive, nor need it be. A coach can act in that capacity to a good many men at once, and, if he be allowed to confine himself to just one function for a considerable time, he can obtain a control of other men on this function that is astonishing. This is the basis of the employment of functional foremen first developed by Taylor.
We might multiply instances indefinitely, but it is clear from the above that the economic systemizing of any specific piece of work of any considerable size must be done by a thoroughly disciplined and well trained staff under the leadership and direction of the best man available ; and it is further evident that if the services of the field chief on any one job can be made intermittent, visits being at reasonably short intervals, his efficiency will be a maximum. The superintendent in charge of the work has a continuous responsibility and a continual care. His coach, his friend and his chief must have a broader and a less confining field.
Not being on the job continuously, the chief will obtain unfair impressions unless fortified by an efficient and well ordered cost keeping system.
In agreement with the three preceding paragraphs, it has been found that the reorganizing of work is done much more efficiently by men who have not been a part of the permanent organization, than when attempted by an old employee on the work. This statement applies to large organizations as well as small, and has been proven true on the railroad, in the shop and in the construction field time and time again; and the fact frequently offers a particularly unfortunate obstacle to the employment of the best men for the work, because many men in the construction business dislike to entrust their trade secrets to an outsider. As a matter of fact, the trade secrets on construction work that are worth concealing, if shaken up in an ordinary peanut shell, would make a distinct rattle; but a contractor seldom likes to have his precise costs known outside of his own organization, lest someone else might have an advantage in bidding against him. He has confidence that the men in his own employ will not give away his figures to his business rivals and he has not the same confidence with regard to a rank outsider. In practice, however, it works out differently. The employee who has gained such knowledge of the business as to make his information valuable can, and often does, better his job by going over to another contractor. The outside expert is under the strictest obligation of professional honor not to betray to one client the secrets of another, and we have yet to learn of such a thing being done by men with a reputation to sustain. A contractor's "costs" are safer in the hands of his consulting engineer than in his own office.
Summing up, we have this law :
For maximum economy of performance, the planning of methods of doing work should be the sole function of a manager who is not a workman himself nor in direct charge of the workmen.
6. The Law of Regular Unit Cost Reports. — Having planned a method of performance, it becomes necessary to secure daily, weekly and monthly reports of such completeness that a manager can tell, almost at a glance, what the actual and relative performances are. This systematic reporting is more fully treated under the head of cost keeping. The success of nearly all large corporations, such as the Standard Oil Company, is due, in large measure, to a system of regular reports that put the various managers in constant touch with the performance of the men under them. Reports to be of much value must come at short, regular intervals, must be in the same form, and must show quantitative results that admit of instant comparison with previous reports. To permit comparison there must be either similarity of conditions, or there must be a reduction to units that are themselves practically identical. For example, a weekly record of the number of yards of earth excavated and hauled at a given unit cost is usually of little or no value to the manager unless there is a further subdivision of units of cost. The cost of loading per cubic yard should be segregated from the cost of hauling, so that the cost of hauling can itself be expressed in the unit of the yard-mile or ton-mile hauled.
The law of regular unit cost reports may be formulated as follows : Report all costs in terms of units of such character that comparison becomes possible even under changing conditions, and let these reports be made daily if possible, weekly in any event, and with a monthly summary.
It is in the adherence to the terms of this law that managers of contract work in the field will find their greatest difficulty. First, there is the difficulty of selecting suitable units upon which to report costs. In pavement work, the square yard is a convenient unit and the number of units is easily measured daily. But in reinforced concrete building construction, there is needed not merely the cubic foot or cubic yard unit, but many others, some of which are not easily ascertained every day.
For example, the pound of steel reinforcement is one unit upon which reports should be made, for the number of pounds of steel per cubic yard of concrete differs widely. The thousand-feet board measure in the forms is another necessary unit, and the square foot of concrete area covered by the forms is still another. Yet these and other units must be used to admit of any rational comparison of performance from day to day and week to week.
Furthermore, such units must be properly selected for the still more important purpose of paying the workmen according to any bonus system. In another chapter we discuss this problem of selecting nits of measurement at considerable length, for upon such selection depends the success of contract work under the modern method of management.
7. The Law of Reward Increasing With Increased Performance. — All pay in cuts for work should he proportionate to the work done. This is the fundamental law of economic production. When this law is ignored — and it is partly ignored to-day on practically every class of work — the producer ceases to take keen interest in his work. Under the common wage system of payment, one brick mason receives as much as another, regardless of skill and energy. Individual incentive is lacking, save as it is supplied by fear of discharge. When laborers, working under the wage system, are put at the task of shoveling earth into a wagon, each man seeks to do as little as his neighbor, and the slowest becomes the pacemaker for the rest. Such ambition as any individual may possess is stifled by the knowledge that his increased output will never be known by his employer, and consequently never rewarded. Moreover; an ambitious man in such a gang is chided by his fellows who warn him not to set a "bad example" by working himself out of a job.
The wage system is responsible in the first place for lack of sufficient incentive to good performance, but its vicious effects have been greatly augmented by the stupid actions of many labor unions, such as the restriction of daily output, the limiting of the number of apprentices, the demanding of wages that have no relation whatever to the output of individuals, the refusal to work under foremen who are not also members of the union, the refusal to do any sort of work except that prescribed by the union, and the like. In the long run, all such restriction of out-put, whether due to the lack of sufficient incentive, or to the rules of labor unions, or to the customs of a country crystallized into castes such as exist in India, lead to a reward commensurate with the output. Summing up : The wage received becomes ultimately proportionate to the output. The high wages prevalent in America are due neither to labor unions, as some profess to suppose, nor to abundance of natural resources, but to the fact that in America labor unions have not thus far greatly restricted the output of individuals except in a few trades, and more particularly to the fact that they have not opposed the introduction of labor saving machinery. In addition, American managers are far in advance of all others in their recognition of the fundamental law of management — namely, that the reward should be proportionate to the performance. Hampered though they have been by the wage system, American managers have been liberal in their policy of payments for work performed. In recognition of his share in the greater output of earth excavation, the steam shovel engineman in the United States receives $125.00 to $175.00 a month.
Within the past decade still further strides have been made by American managers toward a more effective recognition of this fundamental law of proportionate reward. Various systems of payment, known as the bonus system, the differential piece rate system, and the like, have come into more general use, and even the old piece rate system has received a new lease of life, all tending wonderfully to stimulate the energy and wits of workmen, because they are in accord with the law of proportionate reward.
8. The Law of Prompt Reward. — Any reward or punishment that is remote in the time of its application has a relatively faint influence in determining the average man's conduct. To be most effective, the reward or punishment must follow swiftly upon the act. Hence a managerial policy that may be otherwise good is likely to fail if there is not a prompt reward for excellence. Most profit-sharing systems have failed, principally be-cause of failure to recognize the necessity of prompt reward, as well as because of failure to recognize the necessity of individual incentive.
The lower the scale of intelligence, the more prompt should be the reward. A common laborer should receive at least a statement of what he has earned every day. If, in the morning, he receives a card stating that he earned $2.10 the previous day, he will go at his task with a vim, hoping to do better. But if he does not know what he has earned until the end of a week, his imagination is not apt to be vivid enough to spur him to do his best.
A daily or weekly statement of earnings, followed by prompt payment, is a stimulus essential in securing the maximum output of workmen.
9. The Law of Competition.— The pleasure of a competitive game lies in conquering an opponent, and this follows logically from the fact that competitive games are an evolution from the primitive chase or battle. Work conducted as a competition becomes a game, and thus stimulates those engaged not only to strive with great energy but to derive keen pleasure from the contest. The business man who continues to pile up millions, long after his wealth is sufficient to satisfy every possible want, does so from pure joy in the contest to excel others engaged in the same business. He is following the law of competitive work.
By pitting one gang of workmen against another gang, the spirit of contest is easily aroused. But it is impossible to maintain this spirit indefinitely without following the seventh law of management of men — namely, by making the reward proportionate to the performance. When, however, this seventh law of management is observed, an added spirit is given to men by pitting one gang against another. Thus, in laying concrete by hand for a pavement, the best method is to have two distinct gangs working side by side, each gang concreting from the center of the street to the curb. When this is done under a bonus system of payment, the output is astonishing.
Where competing workmen cannot see one another's output, a bulletin board should be used, whereon the number of units of work performed by each man or each gang of men should be posted.
Convert work into a competitive game by organizing competing gangs of men and by posting their performance.
10. The Law of Managerial Dignity. — That there should be anything like caste among managers seems, at first, repulsive to democratic principles of government, whether the government be political or industrial. Nevertheless, a study of the personality of the most successful managers usually discloses a characteristic of firmness coupled with a sort of austere dignity. The best manager is never "one of the boys."
Managerial control reaches its acme of excellence in the army, and there we find class distinctions most scrupulously observed. The officers do not "mess" with the men, nor do they form close friendships with the soldiers in the ranks.
Familiarity breeds contempt, or it breeds at least a feeling that the great man is not so great after all. All managers are under the constant fire of criticism of their subordinates, whether they realize it or not. The best shield that a manager can wear is distance. His little foibles — and all men have them — may thus be kept concealed. It is essential that they be concealed, for men of less mental endowment will always seize upon the little defects of greater men's character or attainment as evidence of lack of any real superiority. The eye of criticism is a microscope for human frailties. Being a microscope, it is wise to keep beyond its range, so that the whole character may be viewed by the naked eye in its true perspective.
Discipline in an industrial army is as essential as in a military organization, and it is best secured by military methods. This involves: (i) The social separation of the officers from the men; and (2) a sequence of responsibility from the man in the ranks to the highest officer.
For every act on the work every man should be responsible to some particular man higher in authority. There should never be any doubt as to whom a man is responsible ; but it does not follow that a man should be responsible to only one person, except for certain acts. As we have previously shown, an industrial organization may have several classes of foremen, to each of whom each workman is responsible for certain acts. What we now emphasize is the importance of not dividing the responsibility for any particular act. A contractor, for example, should rarely give any orders to a workman. All orders should come through the proper foreman. To do otherwise results not only in reducing the workman's respect for the foreman, but it frequently angers the foreman, who feels that he has lost dignity in the eyes of the workmen.
It is often wise to change foremen from one gang to another, in order to preserve the class distinction between foremen and men. As foremen become acquainted with the men, they generally want to be regarded as good fellows, and will then permit infractions of rules and a general decrease in activity. Who has not noticed that short jobs usually move with a "snap" that is not always characteristic of longer jobs?
We may sum up thus :
Discipline is best secured by managerial dignity, and dignity is best preserved by social separation of managers from subordinates and by an invariable sequence of responsibility.
The Principles of Scientific Management - F.W. Taylor (in Scientific Management)
Under scientific management the "initiative" of the workmen (that is, their hard work, their good-will, and their ingenuity) is obtained with absolute uniformity and to a greater extent than is possible under the old system; and in addition to this improvement on the part of the men, the managers assume new burdens, new duties, and responsibilities never dreamed of in the past. The managers assume, for instance, the burden of gathering together all of the traditional knowledge which in the past has been possessed by the workmen and then of classifying, tabulating, and reducing this knowledge to rules, laws, and formulae which are immensely helpful to the workmen in doing their daily work. In addition to developing a science in this way, the management take on three other types of duties which involve new and heavy burdens for themselves.
These new duties are grouped under four heads:
First. They develop a science for each element of a man's work, which replaces the old rule-of.-thumb method.
Second. They scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop the workman, whereas in the past he chose his own work and trained himself as best he could.
Third. They heartily cooperate with the men so as to insure all of the work being done in accordance with the principles of the science which has been developed.
Fourth. There is an almost equal division of the work and the responsibility between the management and the workmen. The management take over all work for which they are better fitted than the workmen,
while in the past almost all of the work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrown upon the men.
It is this combination of the initiative of the workmen, coupled with the new types of work done by the management, that makes scientific management so much more efficient than the old plan.
Three of these elements exist in many cases, under the management of "initiative and incentive," in a small and rudimentary way, but they are, under this management, of minor importance, whereas under scientific management they form the very essence of the whole system.
The fourth of these elements, "an almost equal division of the responsibility between the management and the workmen," requires further explanation. The philosophy of the management of initiative and incentive makes it necessary for each workman to bear almost the entire responsibility for the general plan as well as for each detail of his work, and in many cases for his implements as well. In addition to this he must do all of the actual physical labor. The development of a science, on the other hand, involves the establishment of many rules, laws, and formulae which replace the judgment of the individual workman and which can be effectively used only after having been systematically recorded, indexed, etc. The practical use of scientific data also calls for a room in which to keep the books, records*, etc., and a desk for the planner to work at.
http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-principles-of-scientific-management.html
Ud. 3.10.2022
Pub. 19.7.2019
