Tracing these lines from the head of the establishment through the various offices and officials to the different departments, we get a fundamental idea of Shop Management.
This system will be rendered somewhat simpler by reference to the Chart, Fig. 3, which shows the path or official channel of communication and authority from the Superintendent down to the workmen. It also emphasizes the fundamental idea of all official business passing through the officials in charge of intermediate departments.
Thus, if the Factory Manager desires a certain thing done, he does not give the order to one of the workmen, nor to a foreman, but to the Superintendent. The Superintendent will give his orders to the foreman of the department wherein the work is to be done. If this is a department in which there are gang bosses, the Foreman will give his orders to the proper gang boss, who will select a suitable workman, or as many of them as may be necessary, and instruct them as to the work, and will personally see that it is performed promptly and in the proper manner. When the work is completed, he will report the fact to the foreman, who will in turn report to the Superintendent, who informs the Factory Manager that his orders have been executed.
This process may seem unnecessarily complicated, and in consequence it is sometimes referred to as red tape. It is, however, necessary to have a well-defined and properly understood system and channel for all routine business, some of the reasons for which are as follows:
First—it has been said that "no man can serve two masters," and this is quite true in all questions of shop management. Every loyal workman has learned by precept and tradition to look to his immediate superior for all orders and instructions relating to his work, and he naturally and properly resents any attempt to ignore or belittle his legitimate "boss."
Second—As the efficiency of the workmen depends to a great extent upon their loyalty to the management, and as that loyalty can be secured and maintained only by a spirit of justice and fair-dealing to all, including officials and workmen, all authority and responsibility should be sharply defined and properly limited, to the end that the business and work may proceed in an orderly and efficient manner; that all officials and workmen may know when they are within their proper limit of rights; and doing their duties without fear of overstepping their due bounds or interfering with the rights and privileges of their fellows.
Nearly all rules are subject to some exceptions, and the above have theirs. The discipline of the shop, or what is sometimes referred to as the police regulations, are expected to be enforced by all officials at all times.
Two of these exceptions are of such a general nature and application that they are here noted.
First—Any official noticing an infraction of the discipline of the plant may call the attention of the employee offending, without regard to the department in which he works, and require him at once to cease violating the rules. But the official should, as soon as possible, report the matter to the head of the department in which the offending employee works.
Second—Any official noticing work being wrongly done, or material wasted, or machinery obviously injured, or the safety of the workmen, the building, or the machinery endangered, may peremptorily order the action to cease, and at once report the fact to the head of the department or to the Superintendent, as he may judge proper.