COMPTOMETER
NEWS
Published by Felt & Tarrant Manufacturing Co., Chicago, U.S.A.
Frank T. Hess, Editor
Concentration
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IN a conversation the other day with an executive who employs a number of Comptometer operators, he told me that he was considering replacing one of his operators because she only turned out about two thousand extensions a day as compared with the average standard of four thousand on that particular kind of work.
His statement took me very much by surprise because I had previously watched the young lady manipulate the machine and thought she was a very good operator—particularly on addition. However, upon investigating I found his statement to be true.
This young lady was not reaching fifty per cent of the other operators' production because she apparently could not co-ordinate her mental and physical efforts. In other words, her operation was something like this: One look at the problem, then a glance at the machine, then back again to the problem and still no action. After these preliminaries, a fairly rapid operation of the machine; then a studied expression on her face while she pointed off. Two looks at the answer in the machine and a painful attempt to engrave the answer to her problem on the invoice. Her low production was due partly to a very apparent inability to concentrate on the work she was doing. There was a great deal of lost motion occasioned by looking back and forth, not being sure, and attempting to print her answer figures instead of quickly making a legible figure.
This young lady was brought back to the Comptometer school. Examples were given her, with the instruction that she do one at a time as they were laid down in front of her. By glancing at the problem, putting her fingers in the proper position and using a normal speed on the machine, in less than two hours this young lady learned to concentrate and eliminate lost motion, thereby bringing her production up to standard.
Too many of us think that the physical aspect of operating the Comptometer is the major part of the operator's job.
Copyright 1927. Felt & Tarrant Mfg. Co., Chicago, U.S.A.
