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Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 1856-1915

"Shop Management"


If the works is a large one, the man in charge of introducing the system
should appoint a special assistant in charge of each of the above
functions just as an engineer designing a new plant would start a number
of draftsmen to work upon the various elements of construction. Several
of these assistants will be brought into close contact with the men, who
will in this way gradually get used to seeing changes going on and their
suspicion, both of the new men and the methods, will have been allayed
to such an extent before any changes which seriously affect them are
made, that little or no determined opposition on their part need be
anticipated. The most important and difficult task of the organizer will
be that of selecting and training the various functional foremen who are
to lead and instruct the workmen, and his success will be measured
principally by his ability to mold and reach these men. They cannot be
found, they must be made. They must be instructed in their new functions
largely, in the beginning at least, by the organizer himself; and this
instruction, to be effective, should be mainly in actually doing the
work. Explanation and theory Will go a little way, but actual doing is
needed to carry conviction. To illustrate: For nearly two and one-half
years in the large shop of the Bethlehem Steel Company, one speed boss
after another was instructed in the art of cutting metals fast on a
large motor-driven lathe which was especially fitted to run at any
desired speed within a very wide range.


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