Saturday, September 5, 2026

The SMED System: Shigeo Shingo's Detailed Explanation

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This lesson is part of Analysis of Flow - Delays sub-module of process industrial engineering or process improvement. Reducing set up time will reduce batch sizes and therefore reduces delay in flow of material in a process. Hence analysis of setups and reducing setup time/cost is important for productivity improvement


Set up Time reduction was an issue of interest right from the Taylor's time. It was developed into a specific procedure by Shigeo Shingo.

F.W. Taylor on Quick Setups


Taylor want a foreman to be incharge of setup activities and gave him the responsibility for doing setups in quick time. Taylor advocated study of motions of men and eliminating unnecessary motions in all activities.

The gang boss has charge of the preparation of all work up to the time that the piece is set in the machine. It is his duty to see that every man under him has at all times at least one piece of work ahead at his machine, with all the jigs, templates, drawings, driving mechanism, sling chains, etc., ready to go into his machine as soon as the piece he is actually working on is done. The gang boss must show his men how to set their work in their machines in the quickest time, and see that they do it. He is responsible for the work being accurately and quickly set, and should be not only able but willing to pitch in himself and show the men how to set the work in record time.



H.B. Maynard on Setup Analysis


In this article, the issue of collecting drawings, materials and tools as well as instructions from appropriate persons are discussed. Then the machine set up and loading of  the work piece are discussed. After the processing operation is over, the work piece has to be unloaded and it has to be moved to the next stage. At the end of the day, tools etc. are to be returned. In the process, care has to be taken to see that equipment is kept in proper order. All issues are raised in the check list of questions given below. 

________________________


Before any work can be done, certain preliminary or "make- ready" operations must be performed. These include such elements as getting tools and drawings, getting material and instructions, and setting up the machine or laying out material and tools about the workplace. When the operation itself has been completed, certain clean up or " put-away " elements must be done such as putting away tools and drawings, removing finished material, and cleaning up the workplace or machine.

Questions on "Make-ready" and "Put-away" Elements. The procedure followed to perform the " make-ready" and "put- away" elements should be questioned closely, particularly on small-quantity work, for these operations are usually fairly long. Many of them carry the operator away from his workplace. This is undesirable for several reasons, and the necessity for trips to other parts of the department should be minimized. The arrangement of the setup or the workplace layout is of primary importance, and the simple rules governing efficient workplace layouts should be clearly understood.

Typical questions which will lead to suggestions for improvement in this connection are as follows :

1. How is the job assigned to the operator?

3. How are instructions imparted to the operator?

4. How is material secured?

5. How are drawings and tools secured?

6. How are the times at which the job is started and finished checked?

7. What possibilities for delays occur at drawing room, tool- room, storeroom, or time clerk's office?

8. If operator makes his own setup, would economies be gained by providing special setup men?

9. Could a supply boy get tools, drawings, and material?

10. Is the layout of the operator J s locker or tool drawer orderly so that no time is lost searching for tools or equipment?

11. Are the tools that the operator uses in making his setup adequate?

12. Is the machine set up properly?

13. Is the machine adjusted for proper feeds and speeds?

15. If vises, jigs, or fixtures are used, are they securely clamped to the machine?

18. Is material properly positioned?

19. Are tools prepositioned?

21. What must be done to  put away all equipment used?

22. Can trip to return tools to toolroom be combined with trip to get tools for next job?

23. How thoroughly should workplace be cleaned?

24. What disposal is made of scrap, short ends, or defective parts?

25. If operation is performed continuously, are preliminary operations of a preparatory nature necessary the first thing in the morning?

26. Are adjustments to equipment on a continuous operation made by the operator?

27. How is material supply replenished?

28. If a number of miscellaneous jobs are done, can similar jobs be grouped to eliminate certain setup elements?

29. How are partial setups handled?

30. Is the operator responsible for protecting workplace over- night by covering it or locking up valuable material?


Make Ready. The methods followed in giving out jobs differ widely throughout industry. Where the same operation is worked day after day, the problem is not encountered; but on more miscellaneous work, some procedure for telling an operator what job he is to work upon next must be provided.

When the operator has received notification in one way or another of the job he is to do, he must next secure drawings, tools, and material. The way in which this is done also varies widely. In some cases, the operator must hunt everything for himself. In others, he goes to a tool- or drawing-room window and waits while an attendant gets what he requires. In still other cases, everything is brought to him, and he does not have to leave his work station.

The exact procedure that is followed will depend upon existing conditions; but if it is possible to work out an economical system for furnishing the operator with what he needs at his work station, it is desirable to do so. Besides reducing costs, this procedure increases the amount of time the equipment is utilized and thus increases the productive capacity of the plant. Often a low-rated worker can do the errands of the operators and bring tools, drawings, and materials.

Where the group system is used and no supply boy is available, the group leader commonly gets all necessary supplies and tools. By getting the necessary items for several jobs at one time, he is able to effect economies.

If a conveyer system specially designed is used, the jobs may be dispatched by the production department in the order wanted, and all material, tools, and drawings can be sent out at the same time on the conveyer. Thus the amount of time spent by the operator in getting ready to make the setup or workplace layout is reduced to a minimum.

The manner in which instructions are furnished with regard to how the job should be done is worthy of careful consideration. Instruction sheets can be used to instruct operators and, under certain conditions, their use is not too costly.  It gives complete and detailed instructions.

Setup. The setup of the machine and of any tools, jigs, or fixtures used should be studied in detail. The correctness and the adequacy of the setup should first be considered, followed by a brief review of the methods employed to make it. The correct setup is fixed by the nature of the operation, the nature of the part, the requirements of the job, and the mechanical features of the machine. Sometimes, it is possible to do a job in more than one way, and care should be taken to ascertain that the best way is being used.

When the setup is being made, certain tools are usually required. These should be suitable for the purpose. If each operator must make his own setup, he should be provided with the necessary tools. If only one or two wrenches are furnished to a group of 10 operators, for example, the time lost in hunting the wrenches and in waiting for a chance to use them will usually far offset the cost of additional equipment.

If setup men are employed to setup machines ahead of the operators, their setup work is to them fairly repetitive work, because they are performing the same elements day after day. It will therefore be desirable to treat it as such and to furnish the setup men with special-purpose quick-acting tools.


Put Away. The put-away elements usually consume less time than the make-ready elements. Tools are put away, the setup is torn down, and the workplace is more or less thoroughly cleaned up. Usually, some of the put-away elements can be combined with some of the make-ready elements for the next operation.

Tools for one operation, for example, may be returned to the toolroom when the tools for the next operation are obtained. The procedure that will prove most economical for the put-away elements will depend to a large extent upon the manner in which the make-ready elements are performed.

Where a number of similar operations are performed on a machine, it is sometimes possible to use 'the same or part of the same setup on two or more jobs. A part that is common to several assemblies may be ordered separately for each and appear on several different orders. If these orders are grouped, one setup will care for them all. Again, in milling-machine work, for example, it may be possible to use the same cutter for several different jobs. The elements of "get cutter from toolroom" "place cutter on machine",  "remove cutter from machine" and "return cutter to toolroom" will thus be performed but once for the several jobs.

Where possibilities of this sort exist, provision should be made when setting up the make-ready and put-away routine so that the economies will be made. If the operator does not know what job he is to do next, if he must completely tear down his setup before going for another job, and if neither the foreman nor the dispatcher attempts to group similar jobs, advantage cannot be taken of partial setups. This is wasteful, of course, and every attempt should be made to secure the benefit of partial setups. Whether or not the operator is paid for the complete setup or only for that part which he actually makes depends upon the difficulty in controlling setups and upon whether or not the saving is due to the operator's own initiative.  In either case, more time is available for productive work which is a distinct gain.

Shigeo Shingo


The efficiency of setup requires two things on the part of operators:

1. Knowledge relating to the structure and function of the machinery and equipment, as well as a thorough acquaintence with tools, blades, dies, jigs, etc.

2. Skill in mounting and removing these items, and also in measuring, centering, adjusting, and calibrating after trial runs.


The History of SMED

In 1950, Shingo was conducting an efficiency improvement survey at Toyo Kogyo's Mazda plant. As the large body-molding presses of 350, 750 and 800 tons were declared as bottlenecks, Shingo did a production study.

There was an incident of a missing bolt and one hour was wasted in finding the bolt. Shingo had written that gave him the idea that external set operations have to set up as standard procedures and one has to make sure that all items required for set up are there before one starts the set up procedure. Shingo established the external set up procedure of making all items required for a set up  and the efficiency was raised by 50% and the bottle neck problem disappeared.

The Second Idea

In 1957, Shingo was studying the operation of a large planer which is machining diesel engine beds. He noticed that centering and dimensioning of the engine bed had to be done and was being conducted on the planer table only. He came with the idea of buying an extra planer table on which this activity can be done while on the machine a job is getting machined. When the job was completed, the table was pushed out and the second table was pushed in ready with the job. This solution resulted in 40% increase in productivity.

The Third Important Event

In 1969, Shingo studied the set operation of 1,000 ton press at Toyoto Motor Company/s plant. The setup time was four hours and it was known that Volkswagen in Germany was doing the same set up in two hours. Shingo in association with Toyota engineers have identified the external setup operations and internal setup operations and improve the process to a time of 90 minutes. According to Shingo, it took six months of effort to reach that stage.

At this stage, Toyota management thought of a challenging goal. Can be reduced drastically to only  three minutes? This challenge resulted in the inspiring insight in Shingo. Can we convert much more internal activity (setup activity that was being done on the machine) to external activity. So a search began for eliminating activities from internal setup activity to move them the external activity. Shingo had written that 8 ideas came in quick succession and they developed these 8 ideas in 3 months time to reach the single digit setup time. So Shingo remarked that it took 19 years of time to make a drastic improvement to the setup operations.

The SMED System - Book by Shigeo Shingo - Chapter Summaries 


Foreword

SMED system is the most essential method for achieving Just-In-Time Production. SMED system will revolutionize existing production systems and I hope you will practice it after reading this book.

Introduction

In many factories, diversified low-volume production is a problem. The main difficulty is the setup operations and adjustments required - calibration, switching of tools or dies etc. Frequent setups of course are necessary to produce a large variety of goods in small lots.

But now I can tell you, you can cut your setup time and increase productivity. You can do setups in three minutes for tasks which had taken 3 hours earlier. The theory and techniques are made available to you in this book. Japanese industrial engineers have long understood the need to reduce setup times and many examples are made available by them in books. But in this book for the first time principles are provided so that you can apply them to your situation even though it does not match any of the previous examples or applications.

Why the setup times remained high for long. Managers and industrial engineers neglected the task and left it to the skill of workers.

People have to realize that high volume production and large lot production are the same. Even high volume production can be achieved through small lots and economy of manufacturing can be realized.  Traditional production planning assumes inventory as inevitable but new production system based on SMED works on the concept of confirmed production and eliminates inventory.

It took 19 long years for me to develop the SMED system.

Chapter 1 The Structure of Production


Production activities may best be understood as a process consisting of operations.

A process refers to a continuous flow by which raw materials are converted into finished goods. An operation is action performed by men, machine or equipment on raw materials, or intermediate or finished goods (for example packing). A process can have one or more operations.

Manufacturing processes can be further divided into four distinct phases (traditional IE categories)

1. Processing (termed as operation) 2. Inspection  3. Transportation 4. Storage.

The storage phase can be further categorised into:
1. Storage of raw materials.
2. Storage of finished goods
3. Lot waiting for process: The entire lot is in a queue before a machine
4. Waiting for a lot: Some of items of the lot are yet to be processed and some are processed.

Each operation on a lot will have preparation and clearing. These are termed setup operations.
The principal operation carried out on workpieces include essential operation, auxiliary operation like loading the workpiece and removing it and margin allowances (activities) that irregularly happen like sweeping up cuttings and personal activities of the operator like taking rest for fatigue and drinking water etc.

It is important to note that there are setup operations in inspection, transportation and storage also.

Chapter 2. Setup Operations in the Past


The blind spot: The unspoken assumption that drastic reductions in setup time are not possible. But with the development of SMED, the concept of economic lot size has diappeared from the profit-engineering agenda. Moreover, SMED has substantially reduced the level of skill required for setups and production operators themselves can do the setup.

3. Fundamentals of SMED


In the spring of 1950, Shingo was conducting an efficiency improvement survey at Toyo Kogyo's Mazda plant. At the presses were bottleneck machines, Shingo conducted a production analysis and observed a die change.  As he observed the time wasted after the machine was stopped for setup change, it dawned to him that setup operations fundamentally were two types: Internal setups which are to be done after a machine is stopped and external setups which can be conducted when the machine is in operation. The external set up were identified and only internal setups were done when the machine is stopped. The setup time reduced by 50%.

The first step of SMED was discovered and Shingo started advising companies on improving setups.

The second insight

Shingo was doing study of open-sided planer at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Shipyard for methods improvement. He observed that marking-off procedure for centering and dimensioning the engine bed ws being conducted on the planer table and it was taking significant time. The idea came came to install a second planer table and perform the setup operation on it separately. Then the table was shifted in less time and it saved time and increased productivity.

The third experience

In 1969, the divisional manager of body shop at Toyota Motor Company told Shingo that they were taking 4 hours to make a die change and they know that in Volkswagen they were doing in two hours. Shingo worked with them to separate internal and external setup items and got the die change time reduced to one and half hours.

After a month, Shingo was informed that management want the setup time to go to three minutes. Shingo was strartled but challenged. The thinking led to the idea that some more internal elements can be converted into external elements. In three months, three minute goal was reached and Shingo says, he named the method SMED.

This SMED concept then spread to all types of setups in Toyota.

Basic steps in the Setup Procedure

1. Preparation, checking of all required items, tools and materials   30%
2. Removing old tools and mounting new tools 5%
3. Centering, dimensioning and setting other conditions 15%
4. Trial runs and adjustments 50%
5. Returning Old tools - Negligible

The time taken for trail runs and adjustments can be shortened by improving the prior process of centering, dimension and setting.

Basic Steps of SMED

Separating Internal and External Setup
Converting Internal Operations to External Operations
Improving Internal Setup Operations
Improving External Operations

4. Techniques for Applying SMED





Separating Internal and External Setup

Doing External Setup Operations Efficiently - Preliminary Steps

Use a checklist

Make a list of all the parts required with names and specifications and make sure that they are there before the setup. For it to happen without any shortcoming, Shingo recommended that a drawing is made with all the parts pictures and keep the parts on those drawing.

Then there has to be one more list that specifies details of pressure, temperature and other settings that are part of external setup. One has to go through this checklist and ensure that every item is having the required specification and also functioning. These list of items and checklists have to be separate for every machine.

The old die and related items should be transported back either after the setup is completed or by people who are specific to transportation. The machine should not be made to idle due to the transport operation of old die and related items.


Converting Internal Operations to External Operations

The first step in converting internal operations to external operations is to create operating conditions of the dies externally. Then only internal operations are to push the dies and attach them to ram and body.


Preheating Dies

Old practice was to heat dies in die casting by injecting hot metal between them. Instead of that if dies were preheated using gas or electric heat externally, 30 minutes could be saved.

Standardization of dies of various sizes or items on a machine can be done by shape standardization to reduce setup time. But the dies of even small parts can be large because of that. Instead Shingo suggested function standardization.

Function Standardization

What are the functions in attaching die to machine? Clamping, centering, dimensioning, expelling,grasping, and maintaining loads.

Efficient function standardization requires that for each die, the function providing features are only standardized as required by examining the die feature by feature or element by element.

Clamping height can be changed by adding shims to smaller dies. Centering can be done centering jigs. The dies can be made as a set and they can be inserted and withdrawn like a casette so that die inserting time can be only 20 seconds. Various locating elements can be used to adjust the dies in the required positions externally.


5 Applying SMED to Internal Operations

Improving Internal Operations or Reducing Time of Internal Operations

Implementation of Parallel Operations

Die-change operations on plastic molding machines, and die-casting machines and large presses require work both at front and at the back of the machine. If two work parallelly  one at the back and one at the front lot of time is saved.

The Use of Function Clamp

The length of the bolt should be determined such that only one turn is required for fastening or loosening. Such bolt will be called functional clamp.

Examples of One Turn Attachments

The Pear Shaped Hole Method

The U Shaped Washer Method

The Split Thread Method

The U-Slot Method

The Clamp Method

One Motion Methods
  Cams and clamps
  Wedges, tapered pins and knock pins
   springs

Magnetism and Vacuum Suction

Interlocking Methods
(Punch and die assembly for making interlocking integral fasteners - Patent No. US2924312)

Instead of fastening, many times, two pieces can be interlocked and it is sufficient.

Interlocking Method for Press Dies

In a press, the upper die is attached to the machine ram and the lower die is attached to the machine tool. Why there should be same number and diameter of bolts in both sides. While the die attached to the ram has to be supported against gravity, the die attached to the machine bed need not be so supported. Shingo suggests holding plates and cradles for the holding plate to hold the die.


Seeing is believing. Watch in YouTube video die changes in less than 9 minutes
SMED - YouTube Videos


Related Development:

SMED 2.0 - April 25, 2023 by Christoph Roser.
https://www.allaboutlean.com/smed-2-0/

Design for changeovers
http://etidweb.tamu.edu/hsieh/ENTC410/Design%20for%20Mass%20Customerization/DesignForChangeOver.pdf
The paper is on original equipment manufacturer making design of machine that facilitates quick setup changes











Ud 29.4.2023,  10.10.2022,  9.10.2021
Pub 9,12.2013

Operation Batch Quantity Analysis


INTRODUCTION TO MODERN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING. EBook. FREE Download.
Most popular IE publication on Academia.Edu platform. Total  12,750+ Downloads/Views. 





Prof. K.V.S.S. Narayana Rao, NITIE Mumbai, Now IIM Mumbai 
5 September Teachers Day in India 


Process Improvement - Productivity Analysis and Productivity Engineering.

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 and modifies the element appropriately. - F.W. Taylor - Hugo Diemer.

Prof. Hugo Diemer  - Taylor's Industrial Engineering

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2020/05/prof-hugo-diemer-taylors-industrial.html


Operation batch quantity analysis is important due to the benefits of flow production. The flow has to be improved and efforts are made to reduce batch quantity to one economically. The earlier notion of economic batch quantity is still valid. But efforts have to be made to reduce ordering cost and setup cost to reduce economic batch quantity. This will reduce inventory buildup due to lot quantity.

Production lot quantity decision is affected by setup cost. The setup time reduction studies are initiated based on this analysis. Reduction in transport batch quantities was achieved through developing milk runs that reduced setup cost for sending a vehicle or using a vehicle for transporting materials from a supplier to the plant.

In machine shops cells are to be formed for groups of parts. 

Theory of constraints or bottleneck management highlights that batch quantity calculations are relevant for bottlenecks to minimize time spent in setups.  But for machines with surplus capacity, the setup cost calculations are more complex and simple calculations presently made are not appropriate. More time can be spent on setups to run small batches and facilitate maximum utilization of bottleneck machine to increase the sales throughput of the system.

Batch quantity analysis is important in operation analysis and process analysis.

Now the Toyota Product Systems is a World Class Benchmark for Batch quantities.

In the operation batch quantity analysis, industrial engineers have to answer the question whether the batch quantity can be set as one?






ud. 5.9.20206, 5.9.2024,  9.10.2022
pub. 5.9.2021

Industrial Engineering - Foundation of Toyota Production System

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Introduction to Modern Industrial Engineering.  #FREE #Download.

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Lesson 40 - Taiichi Ohno on Industrial Engineering. Toyota style Industrial Engineering - Waste Elimination 


Video Presentation by Prof. N.Rao
____________________


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUDpFpNKuKQ
____________________




Taiichi Ohno repeats what Taylor said. Improve every element of an operation/process for total cost reduction.


Improve machining processes,  install autonomous systems, improve tools,  rearrange machines,  improve  transportation methods. Examine available resources and  the materials at hand for manufacturing. optimize their use.

Prevent the recurrence of defective products, operational mistakes, and accidents, and by incorporate  workers' ideas."  


Toyota Industrial Engineering that is Ohno's Industrial Engineering is improving every element of the process and reducing every delay, defect and machine breakdown (Naryana Rao)


Toyota style Industrial Engineering - Ohno


"We have eliminated waste by examining available resources, rearranging machines, improving machining processes, installing autonomous systems, improving tools, analyzing transportation methods and optimizing the materials at hand for manufacturing. High production efficiency has also been maintained by preventing the recurrence of defective products, operational mistakes, and accidents, and by incorporating workers' ideas." Taiichi Ohno (P. 21)

Source: Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System: Beyond Large Scale Production, pp. 21-22.

Taiichi Ohno on Industrial Engineering. Toyota style Industrial Engineering - Waste Elimination
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/11/taiichi-ohno-on-industrial-engineering.html

Toyota Production System Industrial Engineering (TPS IE) Part 1


Toyota Production System - Main Objectives

Elimination of Waste
Low Inventory
Low Order to Delivery Period using low cycle time
.


Toyota Production System - Tools or Techniques


SMED
Poka Yoke

Now popular

TIE - Total Industrial Engineering.
TQM – Zero defects
TPM – High OEE
TPMgmt – Annual Planned Cost Reduction

Shigeo Shingo

A Study of Toyota Production System from an Industrial Engineering Viewpoint by Shigeo Shingo

Book published by Productivity Press

Two Pillars of TPS - Jidoka - JIT


Toyota Production System

A production system based on the philosophy of achieving the complete elimination of all waste in pursuit of the most efficient methods.
Toyota Motor Corporation's vehicle production system is a way of making things that is sometimes referred to as a "lean manufacturing system," or a "Just-in-Time (JIT) system," and has come to be well known and studied worldwide.

This production control system was established based on many years of continuous improvements, with the objective of making the vehicles ordered by customers in the quickest and most efficient way, in order to deliver the vehicles as swiftly as possible. The Toyota Production System (TPS) was established based on two concepts: "jidoka" (which can be loosely translated as "automation with a human touch"), as when a problem occurs, the equipment stops immediately, preventing defective products from being produced; and the "Just-in-Time" concept, in which each process produces only what is needed for the next process in a continuous flow.

Based on the basic philosophies of jidoka and Just-in-Time, TPS can efficiently and quickly produce vehicles of sound quality, one at a time, that fully satisfy customer requirements.


Shigeo Shingo said
80% of the TPS is waste elimination in facilities, processes and inventory, that is industrial engineering (facilities and processes improvement, Jidoka)),
15% - production management (production batch quantities planning, JIT material and production planning) and
5% - kanban (sign board) communications

What is Industrial Engineering?

Industrial Engineering is eliminating Muda, Muri and Mura (Japanese explanation).

IE is developing science that explains productivity (Productivity Science development)

IE is improving technical processes  for cost reduction (Machines and Men) (Fundamental - Productivity Engineering).

IE is improving management processes of planning, organizing, resourcing, executing (accepting and releasing orders, leading, directing, communicating) and controlling (associated activity - Productivity Management).

IE is improving business processes (Augmented).

For some more details visit:  Functions of Industrial Engineering



In Preface to the Japanese Edition

Shigeo Shingo had written that management consultants were not allowed to disclose any confidential or proprietary information. Taiichi Ohno authored two books describing Toyota Production System (TPS).  That allowed Shigeo Shingo, to use the published material as the basis to explain industrial engineering principles behind TPS.

Shigeo had as his objectives in writing the book:

1. Explaining the principles of the Toyota Production System based on Industrial Engineering Theory.
2. Explanation of the system of practicing these principles.
3. Description of the practical application of the methods following these principles.

Chapter 1 Introduction


Production is a network of processes and operations.
Process – transforming material into product is accomplished through a series of operations.
Process – flow of material in time and space.
Process analysis examines the flow of material or product.

In an operation a transformation occurs.
Process analysis questions whether that transformation is required.

Operation Analysis
Operation analysis examines the work performed on products by workers, machines and tools.
Process analysis, operation analysis, motion study and time study form part of methods efficiency engineering.
Process analysis and operation analysis are engineering activities specific to each branch of engineering.
http://nraoiekc.blogspot.in/2012/04/method-study-methods-efficiency.html

Shingo wrote "When we look at operations, we see the work performed to accomplish the transformation of the material - the interaction and flow of equipment and operators in time and space."

I keep insisting that after a process chart is made, for each operation in the process chart, the machine effort and human effort are to be recorded in detail. Motion study, provides two handed operator chart for recording work of every operator involved. For machine effort, for each machine a machine effort sheet has to be prepared to improve machine work.

Chapter 2 Improving Process

Improve process before improving individual operations.
Process is flow of material through operations.

Process Chart - Gilbreth

Processing operation
Inspection operation
Transport operation
Storage operation – Temporary, Permanent (Delay operation)

Process Improvement
Process can be improved in two ways.
The first improves the product itself through design efficiency engineering (value engineering, design for manufacture, design for assembly, and design optimization techniques).
The second improves manufacturing method through methods efficiency engineering, motion studies and production optimization and variability reduction methods.

ECR Method of Process Improvement

Eliminate the operation – sometimes it is found to be not necessary or sometimes it is due to improvement of earlier operation.
Combine operations with earlier one or latter one.
Rearrange the sequence of operations


Processing Operations Analysis

Examples in the book
Manufacturing operations can be improved by alternatives related to proper melting or forging temperatures, cutting speeds or tool selection.
Examples related to vacuum molding, plating and plastic resin drying are given in the book.
Eliminating Flashing in Castings (Die)
Flashing in die castings occurs due to escape of air.
Removing the air in mould with a vacuum pump eliminated flashing.
Removing Foam in High-Speed Plating
Spraying or showering the surface to be painted resulted in a 75% reduction.
Drying Plastic Resin
Letting the resin dry a little at a time by allowing it to float to the surface resulted in a 75% reduction of electric power consumption.


Analysis of Inspection Operations

Shingo said normal inspection is judgment inspection.
It separates good and defective items.
Rework done on defective items if possible
Informative inspection asks for process improvement.
It is like medical examination that leads to treatment.
Statistical Process Control
SPC is sampling based informative inspection.
But Shingo says even it is not sufficient to assure zero defects.
To assure zero defects we need to inspect every item but at low cost per item.
Shingo’s Suggestions
Informative Inspections

Self Inspection
Successive Inspection
Enhanced Self Inspection – Inspection enhanced with devices  - poka-yoke

Example 2.4 – Vacuum Cleaner Packing
Cleaner along with attachments and leaflets to be packed.
When a leaflet is taken from the pile,  a limit switch is operated.
When attachments are taken from the container, a limit switch is operated.
Then only, the full package is allowed to be sealed.
Principle
The purpose of inspection is prevention of the defect.
Quality can be assured when it is built in at the process and when inspection provides immediate and accurate feedback at the source to prevent the defective item to go further.
Self Inspection
It provides the most immediate feedback to the operator.
He can improve the process and also rework on the item.
Disadvantage inherent.
There is potential for lack of objectivity.
He may accept items that ought to be rejected.
Successive Inspection
The operator inspects the item for any defect in the previous operation before processing it.
Shingo says, when this was introduced defects dropped to 0.016% in Moriguchi Electric Company in television production
Inspection enhanced by Poka Yoke
Human operation and inspection can still make errors unintentionally.
Poka Yoke will take care of such errors.
Ex: Left and right covers are to be made from similar components with a hole in different places.
The press was fitted with a poka yoke which does right cover pressing only when the hole is in proper place.
Source Inspection
This is answering the question: What is the source of the defect in the process/operation?
Two types proposed.
Vertical
Horizontal
Source Inspection – Vertical, Horizontal
Vertical source inspection traces problems back through the process flow to identify and control conditions external to the operation that affect quality.
Horizontal source inspection identifies and controls conditions within an operation that affect quality.
Poka-yoke Inspection Methods
Poka-yoke achieves 100% inspection through mechanical or physical control.
Poka-yoke can either be used as a control or a warning.
As a control it stops the process so the problem can be corrected.
As a warning, a buzzer or flashing lamp alerts the worker to a problem that is occurring.

Three types of control poka-yoke
Contact method - identify defects by whether or not contact is established between the device and some feature of the product's shape or dimension
Fixed value method - determines whether a given number of movements have been made


Motion step method - determines whether the established steps or motions of a procedure are followed

Choosing/Designing  Poka Yoke
First decide stage of inspection – Self or Successive
Second – Type of regulation
Control or warning.
Third decide Error Sensing type – Contact, fixed number or motion step


Analysis of Transport Operations

Transport within the plant is a cost that does not add value.
Hence real improvement of the process eliminates the transport function as much as possible.
This involves improving the layout of process.

Ex – 7. Transport Improvement
Tokai Iron Works – process layout -  presses, bending machines, embossing
Layout Change: Flow based layout.
A 60 cm wide belt conveyor with ten presses on either side.
WIP reduced. Production time shortened. Delays disappeared.
200% increase in productivity.
Principle
Only after opportunities for layout improvement have been exhausted should the unavoidable transport work that remains be improved through mechanization.

Eliminating - Storage Operations (Delay)


Process Delay – Permanent storage – Whole lot is waiting
Lot Delays – Temporary storage – One item is being processed. Other items in the lot waiting.
Another classification is storage on the factory floor and storage in a controlled store.
Eliminating - Storage Operations (Delay)
There are three types of accumulations between processes:

E storage - resulting from unbalanced flow between processes  (engineering)
C storage - buffer or cushion stock to avoid delay in subsequent processes due to machine breakdowns or rejects (control)
S storage - safety stock; overproduction beyond what is required for current control purposes

Eliminating E-Storage

E-storage is due to engineering/planning/design of the production-distribution  system
This can be eliminated through leveling quantities, which refers to balancing flow between high and low capacity processes and synchronization.

Leveling would mean running high-capacity machines at less than 100% capacity, in order to match flow with lower capacity machines that are already running at 100% on short interval basis.
At Toyota, the quantity to be produced is determined solely by order requirements (Takt time).

Principle
Presence of high capacity machines should not be used to justify large lot processing and resulting inventory.
Process capacity should serve customer requirements/production requirements and should not determine them
synchronization.
The lots especially one piece lot is processed without delay in a flow.
It is efficient production scheduling that ensures that once quantities are leveled (output is matched), inventories do not pile at any stage due to scheduling conflicts.
Synchronize the entire process flow.


Eliminating C storage - Cushion

Cushion stocks compensate for:
machine breakdowns,
defective products,
downtime for tool and die changes and
sudden changes in production scheduling.

Eliminate Cushion Storage
Prevent machine breakdowns:
Determining the cause of machine failure at the time it occurs, even if it means shutting down the line temporarily.
Total Productive Maintenance movement.

Eliminate Cushion Storage
Zero Defect Movement.
Total quality management.
Use better inspection processes:
Self Inspection.
Successive Inspection.
Enhancement to inspection through Poka Yoke
Eliminate Cushion Storage
Eliminate Lengthy setups and tool changes
Implement SMED to eliminate long set-up times and tool changes
Running smaller batch sizes to allow for quick changes in production plans

Eliminate Cushion Storage
Absorb Change in Production Plan
Running smaller batch sizes allows for quick changes in production plans without disturbing flow production to significant extent.

Eliminating Safety (S) storage

Safety stock is kept not to take care of any predicted problem but to provide additional security
It may guard against delivery delays, scheduling errors, indefinite production schedules, etc.
Ex. 10 Delivery to stores
In example 2.10 Shingo mentions a company wherein vendors supply to store and from store components are supplied to assembly line.
Shingo suggested that vendors should directly supply the day’s requirements to assembly floor and in case of any problem, components in the store can be used.
Less Need for Safety Stock Observed
That practice led to the observation that very less safety stock is needed in the store.

Shingo recommends keeping a small controlled stock that is only used when the daily or hourly scheduled delivery fails or falls behind.
In case of unexpected defects also it can be used.


The safety stock can then be replenished when the scheduled materials arrive, but the supply of materials due for the process go directly to the line, rather than normally going into storage first.
This is the essence of the just-in-time supply method.


Eliminating lot delays
While lots are processed, the entire lot, except for the one piece being processed, is in storage (is idle).
The greatest reduction in production time can be achieved when transport lot sizes are reduced to just one; the piece that was just worked on.

SMED
Using SMED (single-minute exchange of dies), set up time is decreased so large lot sizes are no longer necessary to achieve machine operating efficiencies.
SMED facilitates one item lot sizes.




Layout Improvement - Flow
Transportation changes can be accomplished through flow  layout and using gravity feed Chutes which result in shorter production cycles and decreases in transport man-hours.

Reducing Cycle Time
Generally, semi-processed parts are held between processes 80% of the time in a production cycle time.
It quantity leveling is used and synchronization of flow is created, the cycle time can be reduced by 80%.
By shifting to small lot sizes will further reduce cycle time.


TPS – Reduction of Delays or Storage
Methods of reducing production time delays (JIT) is the foundation of Toyota Production System.
It clearly brings down production cycle time and thereby offers small order to delivery time.

Process Improvements in Toyota
Mixed model small lot production was attempted in Toyota to compete with American manufacturers.
First, inefficiencies in processing operations, inspection operations and transport operations were removed.
Then storage operations were attacked and inventories eliminated.
Toyota surpassed American manufacturers.

Now TPS is promoted as Lean System



Chapter 2 End

Ch. 3 Improving Operations

Operation may be classified as follows:

Set up operations - preparation
Principal operations - performance
Margin allowances - machine breaks
Personal allowances - worker breaks


Improving Setup
SMED

Improving principal operations
The easiest way to improve principal operations is to separate the worker from the machine.
Reduce involvement of man in machine running and production.
This involves the "one worker, many process" theory.
One worker attends 5-6 machines,
The principle is that cost reduction is more important than high machine operating rates.
Machines should not unnecessarily function and produce excess inventory.
But the operable time of the machine should be high.
Whenever needed machine must be ready for production.

Autonomation
Machine detects problem and stops.
Workers correct the problem.
The next step is to make the machine correct the problem

Improving margin allowances

Main operations are automated by marginal activities like removing chips, feeding materials and stocking products are still done by hand by men.
They also need to be automated.
Lubrication: Consider automatic lubrication, use of oil impregnated metals etc.
Cutting oil – Consider automatic oiling or cutting without oil.
Chip removal – Consider powdering chips or automatic lubrication and chip removal.

Workshop allowances

Automate the following:
Automate feeding for materials.
Automate product storage.
By adopting the SMED system, Toyota achieved dramatic reductions in setup time and inventory cost.
Adding multi-machine handling and autonomation further increased productivity.

Chapters 2 & 3 to be used in analysis of value stream map (VSM)

Toyota Production System Industrial Engineering (TPS IE) Part 2

Summary of Remaining Chapters of the Book

http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/12/toyota-production-system-industrial.html

Updated 11.7.2024,  11.9.2022,  16.2.2022,  11 July 2021,  14 June 2020,   21 August 2019,  22 August 2017,  9 Sep 2015
First published 9 Sep 2014

September - Goldratt - TOC Month of Industrial Engineering and Productivity Management



Productivity management started by F.W. Taylor in 1895. It is an important function of industrial engineering.


Productivity Management - Evolution - Importance - Practice - Narayana Rao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dqVIVjVSoA

____________________




____________________


31 March - Birthday of Eliyahu Goldratt - Read about his contribution to industrial engineering in March Issue of Modern Industrial Engineering. 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/march-2026-issue-taylor-month-ie-contribution-fw-industrial-kvss-71nlc


Theory of Constraints - Principle, Theory and Bundle of Practices in Productivity Management and Operations Management

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2024/09/theory-of-constraints-principle-theory.html


Has Industrial Engineering formally ignored Theory of Constraints Based Productivity Improvement?

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7238549696183422976/


Why is TOC not widely practiced in the industry, compared to #lean? Where is the missing link? 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/opexconsult_lean-activity-7236227018399346689-mRvZ


Summary - Book - The Goal - A Process Ongoing Improvement - Eliyahu Goldratt

https://nraomtr.blogspot.com/2024/09/summary-book-goal-process-ongoing.html


Do we designate one as Bottleneck Industrial Engineer? To implement TOC approach? He can ask for assistance from other IEs as required. #Toc #Bottleneck

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/narayana-rao-kvss-b608007_still-trying-to-fix-everything-in-your-process-activity-7367084947506987008-YFFV





Picture Source - Goldratt’s genius framework explained. -  Sergio D'Amico. 

Sergio D'Amico, LinkedIn Post

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7270785966766788608/




Harrington Emerson - A Pioneer Industrial Engineer -  12 Principles of Efficiency - Principles of Productivity Management.   Lesson 29 - Industrial Engineering ONLINE Course.

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2012/02/harrington-emerson-pioneer-industrial.html


Industrial Engineering Principle  18. Productivity Management Principle of Industrial Engineering.

18A. Productivity Management has to be part of Industrial Engineering Curriculum

Every industrial engineer is a productivity manager. 

He has to plan for productivity and achieve productivity improvement year after year.

As a part of productivity management, he has to assess management actions of the organization for effect on productivity and has to recommend changes if they have an adverse effect on productivity or if there is scope for increasing productivity by modifying them.

http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2017/06/productivity-management-principle-of.html



Principles of Industrial Engineering - Taylor - Narayana Rao - IISE 2017 Pittsburgh Conference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU8CdWfZZdU

10,500 views so far.

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________________


2023 - For CEOs at Davos, Efficient, Profitable Operations Take Center Stage.
Companies say they are giving priority to profitability and efficiency amid concerns about macroeconomic conditions. 
In many cases, executives say they are looking to deploy new technology to help cut costs. 
“We have to be much tougher on costs and achieve the same growth plans with a lot less investment,” Uber Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi. 
“We in the tech industry will have to get more efficient." -  Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft Corp.
Creating long-term value and efficiency is key to any organizational transformation, said Ernst & Young CEO Carmine Di Sibio.  
https://www.wsj.com/articles/for-ceos-at-davos-efficient-profitable-operations-take-center-stage-11674151208?st=8gffac5pq3i9x4f&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

The bottleneck conundrum


Breaking up logjams can be key for process plant production


By Peter L. King


If you are an industrial engineer trying to make your operation lean, you must understand bottlenecks and how to manage them. One of the primary objectives of lean is to achieve smooth continuous flow of material through the process, and bottlenecks can inhibit flow, cause unnecessary inventories and prevent throughput from matching customer demand (takt). So in order to make progress toward lean goals, bottleneck resources must be identified, managed and improved. From a financial point of view, effective management of bottlenecks can reduce inventory and operating cost, increasing throughput, revenue and profitability.


https://www.iise.org/details.aspx?id=23266


Module of Industrial Engineering FREE ONLINE Course

1000 persons accessed in the first year (2020-2021). 

Second time daily sharing (2021-2022). (1 June 2021 - 31 May 2022). 

Present circulation (2024-2025). (1 June 2024 - 31 May 2025).  - 5th year circulation

Present circulation (2026-2027). (1 June 2026 - 31 May 2027).  - 7th year circulation

12560 hits so far for the course page.




Why Focus on Productivity and  Productivity Management?

Chapter of Productivity Management in Engineering Organizations - Online Book



For a Society or  a nation to raise the standard of living of its population, it must strive to maximize the return from its resources or improve productivity so that the economy can grow and sustain a better quality of life.  (ILO, Introduction to Work Study).

The management of an enterprise is responsible for seeing that the enterprise resources ... are combined in the best possible way to achieve the highest productivity. (ILO, Introduction to Work Study).

The Japanese economy successfully weathered the oil crises of the seventies without suffering serious damage ... This success has been attributed primarily to Japan's high productivity. (Shigeo Shingo)

Productivity is a long-term survival issue. Unless a company focuses on productivity as a key
ingredient of their corporate philosophy, it won't survive. (Ian Rolland and Robert Johnson)

Companies must plan for productivity. Productivity does not just happen. It requires a strategy that is comprehensive, long-range, and monitored. It requires rational, purposeful behavior on the part of everyone.  (Ian Rolland and Robert Johnson)

We can easily state that productivity is the only source of real economic growth and progress. A nation must maintain competitive levels of productivity in key industries to even maintain its standard of living in what is becoming an increasingly competitive world market. (D. Scott Sink)

The manufacturing sector of the Japanese economy has led the world in productivity growth rates for almost 30 years. In a number of key industries, Japan has far surpassed the United States in absolute levels of productivity. One factor contributing to Japan's success is its focus on improving competitive capability, efficiency, and "striking power" in strategically selected target industries.  (D. Scott Sink)

Japan's government and industry cooperate to manage industrial policy strategically. As part of the strategy, growth, productivity, quality, and innovation are managed systematically in target industries. (D. Scott Sink)


(C) Narayana Rao K.V.S.S. 2019

Review of the Concept and Importance of Productivity 



337. Functions of Productivity Management

338. The Evolution of Productivity Management

339. Productivity Management - F.W. Taylor

340. Productivity Management in Operations Management Since 1886

341. Productivity Management - Improving Productivity - Stevenson in Operations Management Book

342. Functional Foremanship - F.W. Taylor

        Productivity - Basic Concepts

Harrington Emerson - 12 Principles of Efficiency - Productivity Management

343. Harrington Emerson - The Twelve Principles of Efficiency - Part 1 - Principles of Productivity Management

344. Harrington Emerson - The First Efficiency Principle: Clearly Defined Ideals (Objectives and Goals)

345. Industrial Engineering #Data. Harrington Emerson - The Sixth  Efficiency Principle: Reliable, Immediate, Adequate, and permanent Records. 

346. Harrington Emerson's The Seventh Efficiency (Productivity Management) Principle: Despatching.

347. Harrington Emerson's Eighth Efficiency (Productivity Management) Principle: Standards and Schedules 

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/10/chapter-10x-eighth-principle-standards.html

348. Harrington Emerson's Ninth Efficiency (Productivity Management) Principle: Standardized Conditions. 

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/10/chapter-11-ninth-principle-standardized.html


349. Harrington Emerson's Tenth Efficiency (Productivity Management) Principle: Standardized Operations. 

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/10/chapter-12-tenth-principle-standardized.html


350. Harrington Emerson's Eleventh Efficiency (Productivity Management) Principle: Written  Standard-Practice Instructions. 

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/10/chapter-xiii-eleventh-principle-written.html

351. Harrington Emerson's Twelfth  Efficiency (Productivity Management) Principle: Efficiency Reward. 

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/10/chapter-14-twelfth-principle-efficiency.html

352. Harrington Emerson:  12 Efficiency Principles  Applied to Measurement and Cure of Wastes. 

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/10/chapter-15-efficiency-principles.html


354.  Industrial Engineering - Its Role in Productivity Improvement

355.  Productivity Planning

356.  Manufacturing Cost Reduction Policy Deployment - Introduction.

357. Organizing for Industrial Engineering Department and Function

358. Resourcing for IE Department and Productivity Improvement Projects

359. Productivity - Communication

360. Productivity Training by Industrial Engineers

361. Productivity Control - Productivity Management - Koontz & O'Donnell

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2022/03/productivity-control.html

362. Principles and Practices of Productivity Management

https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2021/06/principles-of-productivity-management.html



366. Industrial Engineering Strategy

367. Success Stories - Industrial Engineering, Productivity Improvement and Productivity Management



Ud.  21.3.2026, 1.9.2025

Pub. 9.9.2024


Monday, July 6, 2026

New standard for high-speed milling - SECO ER HP Collet Chucks - 2026

 


News


Launch of ER HP Collet Chucks sets new standard for high-speed milling

 

26 May 2026




Fagersta, May 26th - Engineered for high-speed milling and 5-axis machining, Seco® has enhanced the ER HP Collet Chuck range. Now with a finely balanced, rigid design, the ER HP delivers smoother finishes, longer tool life, and unmatched reliability.




Tool clamping for demanding applications

The new ER HP Collet Chuck is designed to address the challenges of modern machining where tool slippage, vibration, and unreliable clamping can lead to costly downtime and wasted material. With exceptional run-out accuracy and a robust, symmetrical build, the ER HP ensures consistent results, reduced tooling costs, and faster cycle times. Its high clamping force and secure grip provide process security even during heavy-duty operations, while the intuitive roller key system makes setup quick, safe, and accessible for every team member.




Effortless implementation

Implementing the ER HP Collet Chuck is quick, safe, and straightforward. Unlike complex toolholder systems that require specialized training or risky setups, the ER HP uses a simple roller key for installation making changeovers fast and minimizing downtime.




“Our ER HP Collet Chuck is all about giving manufacturers the confidence to push their processes further without sacrificing precision or reliability. By combining fine balancing, high clamping force, and easy implementation, we’re helping our customers achieve smoother finishes, longer tool life, and greater sustainability in their operations,” says Yves Heitz, Global Product Manager for Machine Solutions.




With its origins in Fagersta, Sweden and present in more than 75 countries, Seco is a leading global provider of metal cutting solutions for indexable milling, solid milling, turning, holemaking, threading and tooling systems. For nearly 100 years, Seco has driven excellence throughout the entire manufacturing journey, ensuring high-precision machining and high-quality output.

















Thursday, June 18, 2026

Industrial Engineering Work Study - Machine Work Study - Human Work Study - F.W. Taylor - Frank Gilbreth

 

Machine Shop  Productivity Improvement by  F.W. Taylor

Doubling of Production from a Machine

A number of years ago a company employing about three hundred men, which had been manufacturing the same machine for ten to fifteen years, sent for us to report as to whether any gain could be made through the introduction of scientific management. Their shops had been run for many years under a good superintendent and with excellent foremen and workmen, on piece work. The whole establishment was, without doubt, in better physical condition than the average machine-shop in this country. 

The superintendent was distinctly displeased when told that through the adoption of task management the output, with the same number of men and machines, could be more than doubled. He said that he believed that any such statement was mere boasting, absolutely false, and instead of inspiring him with confidence, he was disgusted that any one should make such an impudent claim. He, however, readily assented to the proposition that he should select any one of the machines whose output he considered as representing the average of the shop, and that we should then demonstrate on this machine that through scientific methods its output could be more than doubled.


Preparation for productivity improvement through scientific management.


The machine selected by him fairly represented the work of the shop. It had been run for ten or twelve years past by a first-class mechanic who was more than equal in his ability to the average workmen in the establishment. 

In a shop of this sort in which similar machines are made over and over again, the work is necessarily greatly subdivided, so that no one man works upon more than a comparatively small number of parts during the year. A careful record was therefore made, in the presence of both parties, of the time actually taken in finishing each of the parts which this man worked upon. The total time required by him to finish each piece, as well as the exact speeds and feeds which he took, were noted and a record was kept of the time which he took in setting the work in the machine and removing it. After obtaining in this way a statement of what represented a fair average of the work done in the shop, we applied to this one machine the principles of scientific management.

First - Machine Effort Industrial Engineering

Improvement of Machine and Tools/Accessories

Determination of optimum cutting parameters - Speed, Feed and Depth of Cut - Development of scientific machine work


By means of four quite elaborate slide-rules, which have been especially made for the purpose of determining the all-round capacity of metal-cutting machines, a careful analysis was made of every element of this machine in its relation to the work in hand. Its Pulling power at its various speeds, its feeding capacity, and its proper speeds were determined by means of the slide-rules, and changes were then made in the countershaft and driving pulleys so as to run it at its proper speed. Tools, made of high-speed steel, and of the proper shapes, were properly dressed, treated, and ground. (It should be understood, however, that in this case the high-speed steel which had heretofore been in general use in the shop was also used in our demonstration.) 

A large special slide-rule was then made, by means of which the exact speeds and feeds were indicated at which each kind of work could be done in the shortest possible time in this particular lathe. After preparing in this way so that the workman should work according to the new method, one after another, pieces of work were finished in the lathe, corresponding to the work which had been done in our preliminary trials, and the gain in time made through running the machine according to scientific principles ranged from two and one-half times the speed in the slowest instance to nine times the speed in the highest.

The physical improvements in the machines necessary to insure large gains, and the motion study followed by minute study with a stop-watch of the time in which each workman should do his work, can be made comparatively quickly.


Productivity Management


But the change in the mental attitude and in the habits of the three hundred or more workmen can be brought about only slowly and through a long series of object-lessons, which finally demonstrates to each man the great advantage which he will gain by heartily cooperating in his every-day work with the men in the management. Within three years, however, in this shop, the output had been more than doubled per man and per machine. The men who were given training in higher productivity work had been carefully selected and so instructed by their teachers (the functional foremen) that they were able to earn higher wages than ever before. The average increase in the daily earnings of each man was about 35 per cent., while, at the same time, the sum total of the wages paid for doing a given amount of work was lower than before. This increase in the speed of doing the work, of course, involved  the quickest hand methods based on an elaborate analysis of the hand work done by each man. (By hand work is meant such work as depends upon the manual dexterity and speed of a workman, and which is independent of the work done by the machine.) The time saved by scientific hand work was in many cases greater even than that saved in machine-work.


Productivity Science of Machine Effort



The art of cutting metals involves a true science of no small magnitude. 

The real problem is how to remove chips fast from a casting or a forging, and how to make the piece smooth and true in the shortest time, and it matters but little whether the piece being worked upon is part, say, of a marine engine, a printing-press, or an automobile. 

When men, whose education has given them the habit of generalizing and everywhere looking for laws, find themselves confronted with a multitude of problems, such as exist in every trade and which have a general similarity one to another, it is inevitable that they should try to gather these problems into certain logical groups, and then search for some general laws or rules to guide them in their solution.

Under scientific management, it becomes the duty and also the pleasure of those who are engaged in the management not only to develop laws to replace rule of thumb, but also to teach impartially all of the workmen who are under them the quickest ways of working. The useful results obtained from these laws are always so great that any company can well afford to pay for the time and the experiments needed to develop them. Thus under scientific management exact scientific knowledge and methods are everywhere, sooner or later, sure to replace rule of thumb of individual work man, whereas under the old type of management working in accordance with scientific laws is an impossibility. The development of the art or science of cutting metals is an apt illustration of this fact. In the fall of 1880, about the time that the writer started to make the experiments above referred to, to determine what constitutes a proper day's work for a laborer, he also obtained the permission of Mr. William Sellers, the President of the Midvale Steel Company, to make a series of experiments to determine what angles and shapes of tools were the best for cutting steel, and also to try to determine the proper cutting speed for steel. At the time that these experiments were started it was his belief that they would not last longer than six months, and, in fact, if it had been known that a longer period than this would be required, the permission to spend a considerable sum of money in making them would not have been forthcoming.


A 66-inch diameter vertical boring-mill was the first machine used in making these experiments, and large locomotive tires, made out of hard steel of uniform quality, were day after day cut up into chips in gradually learning how to make, shape, and use the cutting tools so that they would do faster work. At the end of six months sufficient practical information had been obtained to far more than repay the cost of materials and wages which had been expended in experimenting. And yet the comparatively small number of experiments which had been made served principally to make it clear that the actual knowledge attained was but a small fraction of that which still remained to be developed, and which was badly needed by us, in our daily attempt to direct and help the machinists in their tasks.


Experiments in this field were carried on, with occasional interruption, through a period of about 26 years, in the course of which ten different experimental machines were especially fitted up to do this work. Between 30,000 and 50,000 experiments were carefully recorded, and many other experiments were made, of which no record was kept. In studying these laws more than 800,000 pounds of steel and iron was cut up into chips with the experimental tools, and it is estimated that from $150,000 to $200,000 was spent in the investigation. (The important points of the 26 years of research are available in: Taylor - Productivity Science and Art of Metal Cutting - Important Points)


Work of this character is intensely interesting to any one who has any love for scientific research. For the purpose of this paper, however, it should be fully appreciated that the motive power which kept these experiments going through many years, and which supplied the money and the opportunity for their accomplishment, was not an abstract search after scientific knowledge, but was the very practical fact that we lacked the exact information which was needed every day, in order to help our machinists to do their work in the best way and in the quickest time.

Development of Science for Machine Elements

Two Important Questions regarding Machine Tools to be Answered through Scientific Research


All of these experiments were made to enable us to answer correctly the two questions which face every machinist each time that he does a piece of work in a metal-cutting machine, such as a lathe, planer, drill press, or milling machine. These two questions are:

In order to do the work in the quickest time,

1. At what cutting speed shall I run my machine? and

2. What feed shall I use?

They sound so simple that they would appear to call for merely the trained judgment of any good mechanic. In fact, however, after working 26 years, it has been found that the answer in every case involves the solution of an intricate mathematical problem, in which the effect of twelve independent variables must be determined.

Each of the twelve following variables has an important effect upon the answer. The figures which are given with each of the variables represent the effect of this element upon the cutting speed.

For example, after the first variable (A) we quote,

"The proportion is as I in the case of semi-hardened steel or chilled iron to 100 in the case of a very soft, low-carbon steel." The meaning of this quotation is that soft steel can be cut 100 times as fast as the hard steel or chilled iron. The ratios which are given, then, after each of these elements, indicate the wide range of judgment which practically every machinist has been called upon to exercise in the past in determining the best speed at which to run the machine and the best feed to use.

(A) The quality of the metal which is to be cut; i.e., its hardness or other qualities which affect the cutting speed. The proportion is as 1 in the case of semi-hardened steel or chilled iron to 100 in the case of very soft, low-carbon steel.

(B) The chemical composition of the steel from which the tool is made, and the heat treatment of the tool. The proportion is as 1 in tools made from tempered carbon steel to 7 in the best high-speed tools.

(C) The thickness of the shaving, or, the thickness of the spiral strip or band of metal which is to be removed by the tool. The proportion is as 1 with thickness of shaving 3/16 of an inch to 3.5 with thickness of shaving 1/64 of an inch.

(D) The shape or contour of the cutting edge of the tool. The proportion is as 1 in a thread tool to 6 in a broad-nosed cutting tool.

(E) Whether a copious stream of water or other cooling medium is used on the tool. The proportion is as 1 for tool running dry to 1.41 for tool cooled by a copious stream of water.

(F) The depth of the cut. The proportion is as 1 with 1/2 inch depth of cut to 1.36 with 1/8 inch depth of cut.

(G) The duration of the cut, i.e., the time which a tool must last under pressure of the shaving without being reground. The proportion is as 1 when tool is to be ground every 1 1/2 hours to 1.20 when tool is to be
ground every 20 minutes.

(H) The lip and clearance angles of the tool. The proportion is as 1 with lip angle of 68 degrees to 1.023 with lip angle of 61 degrees.

(J) The elasticity of the work and of the tool on account of producing chatter. The proportion is as 1 with tool chattering to 1.15 with tool running smoothly.

(K) The diameter of the casting or forging which is being cut.

(L) The pressure of the chip or shaving upon the cutting surface of the tool.

(M) The pulling power and the speed and feed changes of the machine.

It may seem preposterous to many people that it should have required a period of 26 years to investigate the effect of these twelve variables upon the cutting speed of metals. To those, however, who have had personal experience as experimenters, it will be appreciated that the great difficulty of the problem lies in the fact that it contains so many variable elements. 


And in fact the great length of time consumed in making each single experiment was caused by the difficulty of holding eleven variables constant and uniform throughout the experiment, while the effect of the twelfth variable was being investigated. Holding the eleven variables constant was far more difficult than the investigation of the twelfth element.

As, one after another, the effect upon the cutting speed of each of these variables was investigated, in order that practical use could be made of this knowledge, it was necessary to find a mathematical formula which expressed in concise form the laws which had been obtained. As examples of the twelve formulae which were developed, the three following are given:

        P = 45,000* D^(14/15)* F^(3/4)

        V = 90/T^(1/8)

        V = 11.9/ (F^0.665)(16D)^(0.2373 + (2.4 /(18 + 24D))

After these laws had been investigated and the various formulae which mathematically expressed them had been determined, there still remained the difficult task of how to solve one of these complicated mathematical problems quickly enough to make this knowledge available for every-day use. If a good mathematician who had these formula before him were to attempt to get the proper answer (i.e., to get the correct cutting speed and feed by working in the ordinary way) it would take him from two to six hours, say, to solve a single problem; far longer to solve the mathematical problem than would be taken in most cases by the workmen in doing the whole job in his machine. Thus a task of considerable magnitude which faced us was that of finding a quick solution of this problem, and as we made progress in its solution, the whole problem was from time to time presented by the writer to one after another of the noted mathematicians in this country. They were offered any reasonable fee for a rapid, practical method to be used in its solution. Some of these men merely glanced at it; others, for the sake of being courteous, kept it before them for some two or three weeks. They all gave us practically the same answer: that in many cases it was possible to, solve mathematical problems which contained four variables, and in some cases problems with five or six variables, but that it was manifestly impossible to solve a problem containing twelve variables in any other way than by the slow process of "trial and error."

A quick solution was, however, so much of a necessity in our every-day work of running machine-shops, that in spite of the small encouragement  received from the mathematicians, we continued at irregular periods, through a term of fifteen years, to give a large amount of time searching for a simple solution. Four or five men at various periods gave practically their whole time to this work, and finally, while we were at the Bethlehem Steel Company, the slide-rule was developed which is illustrated on Folder No. 11 of the paper "On the Art of Cutting Metals," and is described in detail in the paper presented by Mr. Carl G. Barth to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, entitled "Slide-rules for the Machine-shop, as a part of the Taylor System of Management" (Vol. XXV of The Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers). By means of this slide-rule, one of these intricate problems can be solved in less than a half minute by any good mechanics whether he understands anything about mathematics or not, thus making available for every-day, practical use the years of experimenting on the art of cutting metals. This is a good illustration of the fact that some way can always be found of making practical, everyday use of complicated scientific data, which appears to be beyond the experience and the range of the technical training of ordinary practical men. These slide-rules have been for years in constant daily use by machinists having no knowledge of mathematics.

A glance at the intricate mathematical formula which represent the laws of cutting metals should clearly show the reason why it is impossible for any machinist, without the aid of these laws, and who depends upon his personal experience, correctly to guess at the answer to the two questions,

    What speed shall I use?

    What feed shall I use?

even though he may repeat the same piece of work many times.

It must also be remembered that the metal-cutting machines throughout our machine-shops have practically all been speeded by their makers by guesswork, and without the knowledge obtained through a study of the art of cutting metals. In the machine-shops systematized by us we have found that there is not one machine in a hundred which is speeded by its makers at anywhere near the correct cutting speed. So that, in order to compete with the science of cutting metals, the machinist, before he could use proper speeds, would first have to put new pulleys on the countershaft of his machine, and also make in most cases changes in the shapes and treatment of his tools, etc. 

The high-class mechanic who does a different kind of work each day, in order to do each job in the quickest time, would need, in addition to a thorough knowledge of the art of cutting metals, a vast knowledge and experience in the quickest way of doing each kind of hand work. And the reader, by calling to mind the gain which was made by Mr. Gilbreth through his motion and time study in laying bricks, will appreciate the great possibilities for quicker methods of doing all kinds of hand work which lie before every tradesman after he has the help which comes from a scientific motion and time study of his work.

For nearly thirty years past, time-study men connected with the management of machine-shops have been devoting their whole time to a scientific motion study, followed by accurate time study, with a stop-watch, of all of the elements connected with the machinist's work. When, therefore, the teachers, who form one section of the management, and who are cooperating with the working men, are in possession both of the science of cutting metals and of the equally elaborate motion-study and time-study science connected with this work, it is not difficult to appreciate why even the highest class mechanic is unable to do his best work without constant daily assistance from his teachers. And if this fact has been made clear to the reader, one of the important objects in writing this paper will have been realized.

It is hoped that the illustrations which have been given make it apparent why scientific management must inevitably in all cases produce overwhelmingly greater results, both for the company and its employees. than can be obtained with the management that leaves work method to employees.  And it should also be clear that these results have been attained, not through a marked superiority in the mechanism of one type of management over the mechanism of another, but rather through the substitution of one set of underlying principles for a totally different set of principles, by the substitution of one philosophy for another philosophy in industrial management.

Philosophy of Scientific Management - Industrial Engineering



To repeat them throughout all of these illustrations, it will be seen that the useful results have hinged mainly upon (1) the substitution of a science for the individual judgment of the workman; (2) the scientific selection and development of the workman, after each man has been studied, taught, and trained, and one may say experimented with, instead of allowing the workmen to select themselves and develop in a haphazard way; and (3) the intimate cooperation of the management with the workmen, so that they together do the work in accordance with the scientific laws which have been developed, instead of leaving the solution of each problem in the hands of the individual workman. In applying these new principles, in place of the old individual effort of each workman, both sides share almost equally in the daily performance of each task, the management doing that part of the work for which they are best fitted, and the workmen the balance.

-----------------------

It is for the illustration of this philosophy that this paper has been written, but some of the elements involved in its general principles should be further discussed.

The development of a science sounds like a formidable undertaking, and in fact anything like a thorough study of a science such as that of cutting metals necessarily involves many years of work. The science of cutting metals, however, represents in its complication, and in the time required to develop it.  an extreme case.  Yet even in this very intricate science, within a few months after starting, enough knowledge had been obtained to much more than pay for the work of experimenting. This holds true in the case of practically all scientific development in the machine work and mechanic arts. The first laws developed for cutting metals were crude, and contained only a partial knowledge of the truth, yet this imperfect knowledge was vastly better than the utter lack of exact information or the very imperfect rule of thumb which existed before, and it enabled the workmen, with the help of the management, to do far quicker and better work.

For example, a very short time was needed to discover one or two types of tools which, though imperfect as compared with the shapes developed years afterward, were superior to all other shapes and kinds in common use. These tools were adopted as standard and made possible an immediate increase in the speed of every machinist who used them. These types were superseded in a comparatively short time by still other tools which remained standard until they in their turn made way for later improvements.*

[*Footnote: Time and again the experimenter in the machine work and mechanic arts will find himself face to face with the problem as to whether he had better make immediate practical use of the knowledge which he has attained, or wait until some positive finality in his conclusions has been reached. He recognizes clearly the fact that he has already made some definite progress, but sees the possibility (even the probability) of still further improvement. Each particular case must of course be independently considered, but the general conclusion we have reached is that in most instances it is wise to put one's conclusions as soon as possible to the rigid test of practical use. The one indispensable condition for such a test, however, is that the experimenter shall have full opportunity, coupled with sufficient authority, to insure a thorough and impartial trial. And this, owing to the almost universal prejudice in favor of the old, and to the suspicion of the new, is difficult to get.]

The content is from F.W. Taylor, Scientific Management

F.W. Taylor, Scientific Management - All Chapters
F.W. Taylor Scientific Management - With Appropriate Sections


The role of data and analysis in scientific management was highlighted by Taylor with this footnote in another place

[*Footnote: For example, the records containing the data used under scientific management in an ordinary machine-shop fill thousands of pages.]
THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT



Human Work Study

Development of Science in Mechanic Arts  =  Productivity science of human effort


                                                        Source: Wikipedia 



Continued from
Scientific Management in Machine Shop - Productivity Improvement - F.W. Taylor



The Science of Human Motions


The science which exists in most of the mechanic arts is, however, far simpler than the science of cutting metals. In almost all cases, in fact, the laws or rules which are developed are so simple that the average man would hardly dignify them with the name of a science. In most trades, the science is developed through a comparatively simple analysis and time study of the movements required by the workmen to do some small part of his work, and this study is usually made by a man equipped merely with a stop-watch and a properly ruled notebook. Hundreds of these "time-study men" are now engaged in developing elementary scientific knowledge where before existed only rule of  thumb. Even the motion study of Mr. Gilbreth in bricklaying (described on pages 77 to 84) involves a much more elaborate investigation than that which occurs in most cases. The general steps to be taken in developing a simple law of this class are as follows:

First. Find, say, 10 or 15 different men (preferably in as many separate establishments and different parts of the country) who are especially skillful in doing the particular work to be analyzed.

Second. Study the exact series of elementary operations or motions which each of these men uses in doing the work which is being investigated, as well as the implements each man uses.

Third. Study with a stop-watch the time required to make each of these elementary movements and then select the quickest way of doing each element of the work.

Fourth. Eliminate all false movements, slow movements, and useless movements.

Fifth. After doing away with all unnecessary movements, collect into one series the quickest and best movements as well as the best implements.

This one new method, involving that series of motions which can be made quickest and best, is then substituted in place of the ten or fifteen inferior series which were formerly in use. This best method becomes standard, and remains standard, to be taught first to the teachers (or functional foremen) and by them to every workman in the establishment until it is superseded by a quicker and better series of movements. In this simple way one element after another of the science is developed.

In the same way each type of implement used in a trade is studied. Under the philosophy of the management of "initiative and incentive" each work-man is called upon to use his own best judgment, so as to do the work in the quickest time, and from this results in all cases a large variety in the shapes and types of implements which are used for any specific purpose. Scientific management requires, first, a careful investigation of each of the many modifications of the same implement, developed under rule of thumb; and second, after a time study has been made of the speed attainable with each of these implements, that the good points of several of them shall be united in a single standard implement, which will enable the workman to work faster and with greater ease than he could before. This one implement, then, is adopted as standard in place of the many different kinds before in use, and it remains standard for all workmen to use until superseded by an implement which has been shown, through motion and time study, to be still better.

With this explanation it will be seen that the development of a science to replace rule of thumb is in most cases by no means a formidable undertaking, and that it can be accomplished by ordinary, every-day men without any elaborate scientific training; but that, on the other hand, the successful use of even the simplest improvement of this kind calls for records, system, and cooperation where in the past existed only individual effort.

F.W. Taylor, Scientific Management

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Study of Motives of Men - F.W. Taylor

Notes by Narayana Rao


1. "With this explanation it will be seen that the development of a science to replace rule of thumb is in most cases by no means a formidable undertaking, and that it can be accomplished by ordinary, every-day men without any elaborate scientific training."

Taylor expressed the opinion that identifying the operator who is doing the job quickest and further improving the method by identifying waste motions and motions not required does not require persons with indepth training in science and engineering. It can be done by persons with lesser education. 

2. "Even the motion study of Mr. Gilbreth in bricklaying (described on pages 77 to 84) involves a much more elaborate investigation than that which occurs in most cases."

Taylor considers motion study advocated by Frank Gilbreth to be a more elaborate investigation than his recommendation.

3. "This one implement, then, is adopted as standard in place of the many different kinds before in use, and it remains standard for all workmen to use until superseded by an implement which has been shown, through motion and time study, to be still better."

Taylor coined the term "motion and time study" in 1911 itself.

4. "The science which exists in most of the mechanic arts is, however, far simpler than the science of cutting metals."

For science of machine, you require engineers with interest in development of science - productivity science of machines as well as science of machine work.





F.W. Taylor:  Productivity Science of Human Effort and Productivity Improvement of Pig Iron Handling  



This work is chosen for illustration because it is typical of perhaps the crudest and most elementary form of labor which is performed by man. This work is done by men with no other implements than their hands. The pig-iron handler stoops down, picks up a pig weighing about 92 pounds, walks for a few feet or yards and then drops it on to the ground or upon a pile. This work is  crude and elementary in its nature. But the writer firmly believes that it would be possible to develop science and train handlers to become more efficient pig-iron handlers. 

It will be shown in the illustration that the science of handling pig iron is so great and amounts to so much that it is impossible for the ordinary men to develop the science. Better educated persons have to take up the task.  And the further illustrations to be given will make it clear that in almost all of the mechanic arts the science which underlies each workman's act is so great and amounts to so much that managers and scientists have to take up this responsibility.  

One of the first pieces of work undertaken by us, when the writer started to introduce scientific management into the Bethlehem Steel Company, was to handle pig iron on task work. The opening of the Spanish War found some 80,000 tons of pig iron placed in small piles in an open field adjoining the works. Prices for pig iron had been so low that it could not be sold at a profit, and it therefore had been stored. With the opening of the Spanish War the price of pig iron rose, and this large accumulation of iron was sold. This gave us a good opportunity to show the workmen, as well as the owners and managers of the works, on a fairly large scale the advantages of task work over the old-fashioned day work and piece work, in doing a very elementary class of work.

The Bethlehem Steel Company had five blast furnaces, the product of which had been handled by a pig-iron gang for many years. This gang, at this time, consisted of about 75 men. They were good, average pig-iron handlers, were under an excellent foreman who himself had been a pig-iron handler, and the work was done, on the whole, about as fast and as cheaply as it was anywhere else at that time.

A railroad switch was run out into the field, right along the edge of the piles of pig iron. An inclined plank was placed against the side of a car, and each man picked up from his pile a pig of iron weighing about 92 pounds, walked up the inclined plank and dropped it on the end of the car.

We found that this gang were loading on the average about 12 and a half long tons per man per day. We were surprised to find, after studying the matter, that a first-class pig-iron handler ought to handle between 47, and 48 long tons per day, instead of 12 and a half tons. This task seemed to us so very large that we were obliged to go over our work several times before we were absolutely sure that we were right. Once we were sure, however, that 47 tons was a proper day's work for a first-class pig-iron handler, the task which faced us as managers under the modern scientific plan was clearly before us. It was our duty to see that the 80,000 tons of pig iron was loaded on to the cars at the rate of 47 tons per man per day, in place of 12 and a half tons, at which rate the work was then being done. And it was further our duty to see that this work was done without bringing on a strike among the men, without any quarrel with the men, and to see that the men were happier and better contented when loading at the new rate of 47 tons than they were when loading at the old rate of 12 and a half tons.

Our first step was the scientific selection of the workman. In dealing with workmen under this type of management, it is an inflexible rule to talk to and deal with only one man at a time, since each workman has his own special abilities and limitations, and since we are not dealing with men in masses, but are trying to develop each individual man to his highest state of efficiency and prosperity. Our first step was to find the proper workman to begin with. We therefore carefully watched and studied these 75 men for three or four days, at the end of which time we had picked out four men who appeared to be physically able to handle pig iron at the rate of 47 tons per day. A careful study was then made of each of these men. We looked up their history as far back as practicable and thorough inquiries were made as to the character, habits, and the ambition of each of them. Finally we selected one from among the four as the most likely man to start with. He was a little Pennsylvania Dutchman who had been observed to trot back home for a mile or so after his work in the evening about as fresh as he was when he came trotting down to work in the morning. 

The task before us, then, narrowed itself down to getting Schmidt to handle 47 tons of pig iron per day and making him glad to do it. 


He was questioned. "Well, if you are a high-priced man, you will load that pig iron on that car tomorrow for $1.85.  Tell me whether you are a high-priced man or not."

"Vell, did I got $1.85 for loading dot pig iron on dot car to-morrow?"

"Yes, of course you do, and you get $1.85 for loading a pile like that every day right through the year. That is what a high-priced man does, and you know it just as well as I do."

"Vell, dot's all right. I could load dot pig iron on the car to-morrow for $1.85, and I get it every day, don't I?"

"Certainly you do--certainly you do."

"Vell, den, I vas a high-priced man."

"Now, hold on, hold on. You know just as well as I do that a high-priced man has to do exactly as he's told from morning till night.  You will do exactly as this man tells you tomorrow, from morning till night. When he tells you to pick up a pig and walk, you pick it up and you walk, and when he tells you to sit down and rest, you sit down. You do that right straight through the day. And what's more, no back talk. Now a high-priced man does just what he's told to do, and no back talk. Do you understand that? 

When this man tells you to walk, you walk; when he tells you to sit down, you sit down, and you don't talk back at him. Now you come on to work here to-morrow morning and I'll know before night whether you are really a high-priced man or not."

Schmidt started to work, and all day long, and at regular intervals, was told by the man who stood over him with a watch, "Now pick up a pig and walk. Now sit down and rest. Now walk--now rest," etc. He worked when he was told to work, and rested when he was told to rest, and at half-past five in the afternoon had his 47 and a half tons loaded on the car. And he practically never failed to work at this pace and do the task that was set him during the three years that the writer was at Bethlehem. And throughout this time he averaged a little more than $1.85 per day, whereas before he had never received over $1.15 per day, which was the ruling rate of wages at that time in Bethlehem. That is, he received 60 per cent. higher wages than were paid to other men who were not working on task work. One man after another was picked out and trained to handle pig iron at the rate of 47 and a half tons per day until all of the pig iron was handled at this rate, and the men were receiving 60 per cent. more wages than other workmen around them.

The writer has given above a brief description of three of the four elements which constitute the essence of scientific management: first, the careful selection of the workman, and, second and third, the method of first inducing and then training and helping the workman to work according to the scientific method. Nothing has as yet been said about the science of handling pig iron. The writer trusts, however, that before leaving this illustration the reader will be thoroughly convinced that there is a science of handling pig iron.


Pig Iron Handling - Further explanation


The law is confined to that class of work in which the limit of a man's capacity is reached because he is tired out. It is the law of heavy laboring, corresponding to the work of the cart horse, rather than that of the trotter. Practically all such work consists of a heavy pull or a push on the man's arms, that is, the man's strength is exerted by either lifting or pushing something which he grasps in his hands. And the law is that for each given pull or push on the man's arms it is possible for the workman to be under load for only a definite percentage of the day. For example, when pig iron is being handled (each pig weighing 92 pounds), a first-class workman can only be under load 43 per cent of the day. He must be entirely free from load during 57 per cent of the day.

And as the load becomes lighter, the percentage of the day under which the man can remain under load increases. So that, if the workman is handling a half-pig, weighing 46 pounds, he can then be under load 58 per cent of the day, and only has to rest during 42 per cent. As the weight grows lighter the man can remain under load during a larger and larger percentage of the day, until finally a load is reached which he can carry in his hands all day long without being tired out. When that point has been arrived at this law ceases to be useful as a guide to a laborer's endurance, and some other law must be found which indicates the man's capacity for work.

When a laborer is carrying a piece of pig iron weighing 92 pounds in his hands, it tires him about as much to stand still under the load as it does to walk with it, since his arm muscles are under the same severe tension whether he is moving or not. A man, however, who stands still under a load is exerting no horse-power whatever, and this accounts for the fact that no constant relation could be traced in various kinds of heavy laboring work between the foot-pounds of energy exerted and the tiring effect of the work on the man. It will also be clear that in all work of this kind it is necessary for the arms of the workman to be completely free from load (that is, for the workman to rest) at frequent intervals. Throughout the time that the man is under a heavy load the tissues of his arm muscles are in process of degeneration, and frequent periods of rest are required in order that the blood may have a chance
to restore these tissues to their normal condition.

-----------------------

To return now to our pig-iron handlers at the Bethlehem Steel Company. If Schmidt had been allowed to attack the pile of 47 tons of pig iron without the guidance or direction of a man who understood the art, or science, of handling pig iron, in his desire to earn his high wages he would probably have tired himself out by 11 or 12 o'clock in the day. He would have kept so steadily at work that his muscles would not have had the proper periods of rest absolutely needed for recuperation, and he would have been completely exhausted early in the day. By having a man, however, who understood this law, stand over him and direct his work, day after day, until he acquired the habit of resting at proper intervals, he was able to work at an even gait all day long without unduly tiring himself.

The writer trusts that it is now clear that even in the case of the most elementary form of labor that is known, there is a science, and that when the man best suited to this class of work has been carefully
selected, when the science of doing the work has been developed, and when the carefully selected man has been trained to work in accordance with this science, the results obtained must of necessity be overwhelmingly greater than those which are possible without the support of science.



[*Footnote: Many people have questioned the accuracy of the statement that first-class workmen can load 47 1/2 tons of pig iron from the ground on to a car in a day. For those who are skeptical, therefore, the following data relating to this work are given:

First. That our experiments indicated the existence of the following law: that a first-class laborer, suited to such work as handling pig iron, could be under load only 42 per cent of the day and must be free from load 58 per cent of the day.

Second. That a man in loading pig iron from piles placed on the ground in an open field on to a car which stood on a track adjoining these piles, ought to handle (and that they did handle regularly) 47 1/2 long tons (2240 pounds per ton) per day.

That the price paid for loading this pig iron was 3.9 cents per ton, and that the men working at it averaged $1.85 per day, whereas, in the past, they had been paid only $1.15 per day.

In addition to these facts, the following are given:

  47 1/2 long tons equal 106,400 pounds of pig iron per day.
  At 92 pounds per pig, equals 1156 pigs per day.
  42 per cent. of a day under load equals 600 minutes; multiplied by   0.42 equals 252 minutes under load.
  252 minutes divided by 1156 pigs equals 0.22 minutes per pig under  load.

A pig-iron handler walks on the level at the rate of one foot in 0.006 minutes. The average distance of the piles of pig iron from the car was 36 feet. It is a fact, however, that many of the pig-iron handlers ran with their pig as soon as they reached the inclined plank. Many of them also would run down the plank after loading the car. So that when the actual loading went on, many of them moved at a faster rate than is indicated by the above figures. Practically the men were made to take a rest, generally by sitting down, after loading ten to twenty pigs. This rest was in addition to the time which it took them to walk back from the car to the pile. It is likely that many of those who are skeptical about the possibility of loading this amount of pig iron do not realize that while these men were walking back they were entirely free from load, and that therefore their muscles had, during that time, the opportunity for recuperation. It will be noted that with an average distance of 36 feet of the pig iron from the car, these men walked about eight miles under load each day and eight miles free from load.  If any one who is interested in these figures will multiply them and divide them, one into the other, in various ways, he will find that all of the facts stated check up exactly.]

To go into the matter in more detail, however: As to the scientific selection of the men, it is a fact that in this gang of 75 pig-iron handlers only about one man in eight was physically capable of handling 47 1/2 tons per day. With the very best of intentions, the other seven out of eight men were physically unable to work at this pace.  Although in this particular gang only one man in eight was suited to doing the work, we had not the slightest difficulty in getting all the men who were needed--some of them from inside of the works and others from the neighboring country--who were exactly suited to the job.



The idea, then, of taking one man after another and training him under a competent teacher into new working habits until he continually and habitually works in accordance with scientific laws, which have been developed by some one else, is directly antagonistic to the old idea that each workman can best regulate his own way of doing the work.  Thus it will be seen that with the ordinary types of management the development of scientific knowledge to replace rule of thumb, the scientific selection of the men, and inducing the men to work in accordance with these scientific principles are entirely out of the question. And this because the philosophy of the old management puts the entire responsibility upon the workmen, while the philosophy of the new places a great part of it upon the management.



Although the reader may be convinced that there is a certain science back of the handling of pig iron, still it is more than likely that he is still skeptical as to the existence of a science for doing other kinds of laboring. One of the important objects of this paper is to convince its readers that every single act of every workman can be reduced to a science. With the hope of fully convincing the reader of this fact, therefore, the writer proposes to give several more simple illustrations from among the thousands which are at hand.

Illustration of Shoveling


For example, the average man would question whether there is much of any science in the work of shoveling. Yet there is but little doubt, if any intelligent reader of this paper were deliberately to set out to find what may be called the foundation of the science of shoveling, that with perhaps 15 to 20 hours of thought and analysis he would be almost sure to have arrived at the essence of this science. On the other hand, so completely are the rule-of-thumb ideas still dominant that the writer has never met a single shovel contractor to whom it had ever even occurred that there was such a thing as the science of shoveling. This science is so elementary as to be almost self-evident.

For a first-class shoveler there is a given shovel load at which he will do his biggest day's work. What is this shovel load? Will a first-class man do more work per day with a shovel load of 5 pounds, 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20, 25, 30, or 40 pounds? Now this is a question which can be answered only through carefully made experiments. By first selecting two or three first-class shovelers, and paying them extra wages for doing trustworthy work, and then gradually varying the shovel load and having
all the conditions accompanying the work carefully observed for several weeks by men who were used to experimenting, it was found that a first-class man would do his biggest day's work with a shovel load of about 21 pounds. For instance, that this man would shovel a larger tonnage per day with a 21-pound load than with a 24-pound load or than with an 18-pound load on his shovel. It is, of course, evident that no shoveler can always take a load of exactly 21 pounds on his shovel, but nevertheless, although his load may vary 3 or 4 pounds one way or the other, either below or above the 21 pounds, he will do his biggest day's work when his average for the day is about 21 pounds.

The writer does not wish it to be understood that this is the whole of the art or science of shoveling. There are many other elements, which together go to make up this science. But he wishes to indicate the important effect which this one piece of scientific knowledge has upon the work of shoveling.

At the works of the Bethlehem Steel Company, for example, as a result of this law, instead of allowing each shoveler to select and own his own shovel, it became necessary to provide some 8 to 10 different kinds of shovels, etc., each one appropriate to handling a given type of material not only so as to enable the men to handle an average load of 21 pounds, but also to adapt the shovel to several other requirements which become perfectly evident when this work is studied as a science. A large shovel tool room was built, in which were stored not only shovels but carefully designed and standardized labor implements of all kinds, such as picks, crowbars, etc. This made it possible to issue to each workman a shovel which would hold a load of 21 pounds of whatever class of material they were to handle: a small shovel for ore, say, or a large one for ashes. Iron ore is one of the heavy materials which are handled in a works of this kind, and rice coal, owing to the fact that it is so slippery on the shovel, is one of the lightest materials. And it was found on studying the rule-of-thumb plan at the Bethlehem Steel Company, where each shoveler owned his own shovel, that he would frequently go from shoveling ore, with a load of about 30 pounds per shovel, to handling rice coal, with a load on the same shovel of less than 4 pounds. In the one case, he was so overloaded that it was impossible for him to do a full day's work, and in the other case he was so ridiculously
underloaded that it was manifestly impossible to even approximate a day's work.

Briefly to illustrate some of the other elements which go to make up the science of shoveling, thousands of stop-watch observations were made to study just how quickly a laborer, provided in each case with the proper type of shovel, can push his shovel into the pile of materials and then draw it out properly loaded. These observations were made first when pushing the shovel into the body of the pile. Next when shoveling on a dirt bottom, that is, at the outside edge of the pile, and next with a wooden bottom, and finally with an iron bottom. Again a similar accurate time study was made of the time required to swing the shovel backward and then throw the load for a given horizontal distance, accompanied by a given height. This time study was made for various combinations of distance and height. With data of this sort before him, coupled with the law of endurance described in the case of the pig-iron handlers, it is evident that the man who is directing shovelers can first teach them the exact methods which should be employed to use their strength to the very best advantage, and can then assign them daily tasks which are so just that the workman can each day be sure of earning the large bonus which is paid whenever he successfully performs this task.

There were about 600 shovelers and laborers of this general class in the yard of the Bethlehem Steel Company at this time. These men were scattered in their work over a yard which was, roughly, about two miles long and half a mile wide. In order that each workman should be given his proper implement and his proper instructions for doing each new job, it was necessary to establish a detailed system for directing men in their work, in place of the old plan of handling them in large groups, or gangs, under a few yard foremen. As each workman came into the works in the morning, he took out of his own special pigeonhole, with his number on the outside, two pieces of paper, one of which stated just what implements he was to get from the tool room and where he was to start to work, and the second of which gave the history of his previous day's work; that is, a statement of the work which he had done, how much he had earned the day before, etc. Many of these men were foreigners and unable to read and write, but they all knew at a glance the essence of this report, because yellow paper showed the man that he had failed to do his full task the day before, and informed him that he had not earned as much as $1.85 a day, and that none but high-priced men would be allowed to stay permanently with this gang. The hope was further expressed that he would earn his full wages on the following day. So that whenever the men received white slips they knew that everything was all right, and whenever they received yellow slips they realized that they must do better or they would be shifted to some other class of work.

Dealing with every workman as a separate individual in this way involved the building of a labor office for the superintendent and clerks who were in charge of this section of the work. In this office every laborer's work was planned out well in advance, and the workmen were all moved from place to place by the clerks with elaborate diagrams or maps of the yard before them, very much as chessmen are moved on a chess-board, a telephone and messenger system having been installed for
this purpose. In this way a large amount of the time lost through having too many men in one place and too few in another, and through waiting between jobs, was entirely eliminated. Under the old system the workmen were kept day after day in comparatively large gangs, each under a single foreman, and the gang was apt to remain of pretty nearly the same size whether there was much or little of the particular kind of work on hand which this foreman had under his charge, since each gang had to be kept large enough to handle whatever work in its special line was likely to come along.

When one ceases to deal with men in large gangs or groups, and proceeds o study each workman as an individual, if the workman fails to do his task, some competent teacher should be sent to show him exactly how his work can best be done, to guide, help, and encourage him, and, at the same time, to study his possibilities as a workman. So that, under the plan which individualizes each workman, instead of brutally discharging the man or lowering his wages for failing to make good at once, he is
given the time and the help required to make him proficient at his present job, or he is shifted to another class of work for which he is either mentally or physically better suited.

All of this requires the kindly cooperation of the management, and involves a much more elaborate organization and system than the old-fashioned herding of men in large gangs. This organization
consisted, in this case, of one set of men, who were engaged in the development of the science of laboring through time study, such as has been described above; another set of men, mostly skilled laborers themselves, who were teachers, and who helped and guided the men in their work; another set of tool-room men who provided them with the proper implements and kept them in perfect order, and another set of clerks who planned the work well in advance, moved the men with the least loss of time from one place to another, and properly recorded each man's earnings, etc. And this furnishes an elementary illustration of what has been referred to as cooperation between the management and the
workmen.