writing, simplicity calls for the use, when possible, of a single piece of paper for each job for conveying the instructions of the different members of the planning room to the men and another similar paper for receiving the returns from the men to the department. Writing out these orders and acting promptly on receipt of the returns and recording same requires the members of the department to be close together. The large machine shop of the Bethlehem Steel Company was more than a quarter of a mile long, and this was successfully run from a single planning room situated close to it. The manager, superintendent, and their assistants should, of course, have their offices adjacent to the planning room and, if practicable, the drafting room should be near at hand, thus bringing all of the planning and purely brain work of the establishment close together. The advantages of this concentration were found to be so great at Bethlehem that the general offices of the company, which were formerly located in the business part of the town, about a mile and a half away, were moved into the middle of the works adjacent to the planning room.
The shop, and indeed the whole works, should be managed, not by the manager, superintendent, or foreman, but by the planning department. The daily routine of running the entire works should be carried on by the various functional elements of this department, so that, in theory at least, the works could run smoothly even if the manager, superintendent and their assistants outside the planning room were all to be away for a month at a time.
