This page needs to be proofread.
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
379


published in 1906 in the Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers under the title" The Art of Cutting Metals." In this Taylor distinguished 12 different factors as influencing the possible speed, and he established formulae expressing the effect which each had on the rate at which metal could be re- moved during a machining operation. He found that the maxi- mum speed of working could only be attained by a correct adjustment of each variable in relation to all the others. To enable this calculation to be made quickly, one of Taylor's assistants, C. G. Earth, devised a type of compound slide rule, by which the best adjustment of the 12 variables referred to could quickly be found, so establishing the combination of condi- tions under which the work could be done in the shortest time. An account of these slide rules was published in the Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1904). A special slide rule was needed for every variation of every type of machine, and in order to reduce this complication it was neces- sary to group together all machines capable of doing similar work and to modify them so as to make their movements identi- cal. One calculation and one slide rule would then serve for all the machines of a group. In other words, machines were, where possible, standardized.

To enable maximum cutting speeds to be attained Taylor established, as a result of the foregoing investigation, a set of standard cutting tools for the commonest kinds of machine opera- tions, such as lathe work. These standard tools were specified as to contour of cutting edge, all angles of cutting edge, size of shank and hardening treatment, etc.

Another piece of standardization work resulting from Taylor's investigations was in connexion with the design and use of belt \ drives. Obviously, if a machine was to be called on to give its maximum performance the means of driving it must be suitable to ensure adequate power. This necessitated an investigation into the laws of power transmission by belting and the drawing up of rules for the standardization both of the material of the belts themselves and of the conditions under which they should be used. One of the most important of these conditions is the tightness of the belt before starting up the drive. Besides laying down suitable rules for this, apparatus was designed for measur- ing and checking it. Accounts of this work were published by Taylor in 1894 and elaborated by Barth in 1908, both in the Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Concurrently with all this investigation another line of thought had been receiving attention, both from Taylor and others, again mostly in connexion with the engineering trade. This was the problem of obtaining from the workman a higher level of effort than he gave under ordinary methods of workshop management. Although " piece work " payment by the piece as against payment by the hour or day was in very general use in many industries, the practice of "cutting the rate" had reduced its efficiency as a stimulus to maximum effort. One of the earliest attempts was the development during the 'eighties by H. R. Towne of the Yale & Towne Mfg. Co., United States, of a scheme called by him " gain sharing," according to which improvements in the efficiency of a works department resulted in the payment to workers in it of a bonus on a prearranged scale. Other plans were the Rowan scheme, which consisted . in the fixing of a variable rate per piece, the rate falling ac- cording to a fixed scale as the workmen's output rose. By this plan, although the workman benefitted by extra effort, the rate of increase of benefit constantly diminished. The aim was to avoid the temptation to "cut the rate" while still making an attempt to fix a standard of expected output from the workman. This plan was published in 1891.

In 1895 Taylor published his Differential Piece Rate, which may be considered to be the basis on which all the multitudinous systems of payment by result of the Scientific Management movement are founded. Taylor's system contained two revo- lutionary ideas. The first was the careful specification in great detail of the work to be done, with standard times allowed for each element of the work as against the " overall " time hitherto specified for the complete job. The second was the offering of

an increased rate of return to the worker for increases in his efficiency exactly the opposite to the Rowan plan. This was achieved by offering two alternative piece rates, the lower to apply if the work was done at less than the standard speed and the higher if it were done at the standard speed or faster. The feasibility of this scheme depended entirely on the accuracy with which the "standard time" could be determined. So im- portant did this become that the idea of " time study," with its later development of " motion study," is probably the best- known feature of Scientific Management, and indeed is often taken to be synonymous with it.

Many modifications of Taylor's scheme of payment by result were developed by other workers in the movement. All retained as their basis the setting of a standard time by careful time study, the time being built up of the times for the elements of the work, and the nature of the work to be done and the methods to be followed being specified in great detail. All provided that the rate of incentive should increase at or about the efficiency needed to accomplish the task. The best known of these other schemes are the " Gantt bonus plan " by H. L. Gantt, published in 1901, and that of Harrington Emerson, published in 1909.

It will be realized that the characteristic features of Scientific Management so far touched on the standardization of appli- ances and methods, the detailed specification of the work to be done, time and motion study, setting the workmen's task, regu- lating his payment by his performance of it all lead to in- creased complication of management functions.

The material equipment of a works requires special attention to keep it in conformity with the standard. The quality of raw material must be more carefully regulated to enable it to be worked at the standard speeds and on the standard methods. The elimination of waiting between jobs requires elaborate planning of work; the making of time studies is the work of ex- perts; the studies themselves require constant revision to suit changes in design, working methods or material; the incentive to output necessitates systematic inspection of work to ensure the standards of accuracy or finish being maintained. In these and numberless other directions work of a much higher order than hitherto is demanded from the management staff if the system is to function at all.

In order to enable the works management to cope with the new demands made upon it, Taylor devised a new method of administrative organization known as functional control, and applied it particularly to the sphere of the shop foreman.

Under the usual methods of organization a foreman has com- plete charge of the men under him. All instructions from the higher management pass through him and reach the workman as though they were the foreman's own orders. Taylor's idea was that the instructions which had to be given to the workmen under his system were so much more detailed and elaborate, and dealt with so many more aspects of his work than hitherto, that it became impossible to pass them through a single foreman. It was impossible, he claimed, to find a foreman sufficiently expert in all the sides of the control work or having a sufficiently rich endowment of qualities to carry out the multiplicity of functions now embodied in management. Thus, he would have to be sufficiently skilled at the particular process to teach the men under him how to carry it out; he should have the impartial judgment of an inspector; he must have the assertiveness and force of character needed to get a good day's work out of his men; knowledge of character, sympathy and sense of justice to deal with matters of discipline; he must be methodical and sufficiently versed in clerical and statistical methods to plan out his work and avoid loss of time between one job and another. He must understand costing, methods of handling material, time study and the setting and adjusting of piece or bonus rates, and so on. Because of the obvious impossibility of creating a staff of foremen who should be experts in all these lines, Taylor re- placed the single foreman having complete charge of a group of men by a number of " functional foremen," each specializing on one aspect of management control. Each individual workman