As indicated above, the chief work of this committee will be a discussion of systems. While the comptroller prescribes all systems of record, reports, statistics, and accounts, he should make no radical changes without discussing the proposed change with those whose work will be directly affected.
Many systems, good in theory and which with coöperation would work out in actual practice, have failed because they were forced on the business. A systematizer may install a good system and get it into operation, but unless he has secured the coöperation of those upon whom its operation will devolve, he will very likely find that after he leaves there is a gradual disintegration until conditions are worse than before the change was attempted.
It is seldom that a foreman or a clerk will resent a change if he is made to feel that he is, in part at least, responsible for the change. When new systems are introduced in the shop, the foremen are quite likely to look upon them as a means of checking up their departments—a sort of police supervision. The writer has had considerable experience in the introduction of systems into factories, and has invariably found that the coöperation of the shop foreman could be secured by asking for his advice. Before prescribing a form or a system of records for a department, he has made it a point to discuss the difficulties with the foreman, always leading the foreman to put forward what seemed to him the greatest difficulties, and then when these have been apparently solved, to ask the foreman if he does not think such and such a plan would work. When dealing with particularly obstinate foremen he has even gone so far as to suggest a plan which is plainly impracticable, for the very purpose of leading the foreman to suggest a practical solution. Needless to say, in such cases the foreman gives the plan his hearty support, because he has been made to feel that the importance of his suggestions has been recognized.
Committee Meetings. The frequency of meeting of the committees herein suggested must be decided by each manufacturer. No hard-and-fast rules can be laid down, but generally these suggestions will apply:
General factory committee, weekly.
Departmental factory committees, once in two weeks.
Job bosses and general foremen's meetings, monthly.
Sales committee, weekly.
Advertising committee, monthly.
Organization committee, monthly.
Committee Secretaries. At each committee meeting, a stenographer should be present to act as secretary. When no record is kept, discussions are quite likely to be rambling rather than confined to a specific subject. Then, too, matters which were discussed at the last meeting have grown hazy, and if a man who is responsible for putting into operation a given suggestion has failed in his duty, there is always the chance that no one will think of it at the next meeting unless he brings it up. If, however, an exact record is kept of these discussions and full reports are delivered to every member of the committee before the next meeting, a foreman, or other member, will be very careful about making statements or promises unless he knows that they can be fulfilled.
Where possible, it is best to have the same stenographer act as secretary to all committees, as he will become familiar with their work and can handle it much more expeditiously.
THE SUGGESTION PLAN
35. In many factories, and even in mercantile establishments, a modification of the committee idea has been successfully introduced in the form of what is known as the suggestion plan. This plan consists in asking for suggestions from all workmen, these suggestions to pertain to manner of handling their own work, improvements for the benefit of the business as a whole, safety appliances, sanitary conditions, and anything that may be of benefit to the business.