Fig. 4. Form for Ordinary
Official Communications.
A carbon copy is made
on tinted paper.
Official Communications. For ordinary communications other than General or Special Orders, Production Orders, letters, etc., a written form should be habitually used. The usual form is shown in Fig. 4. These forms are put up in pads of alternate sheets of white and light-tinted paper, the former being perforated at the top so as to be readily torn out while the tinted sheet remains fast at the stub. Both sheets are printed with the same form, and all are serially numbered in pairs of one white and one tinted sheet. Carbon paper is used, the white sheet being written upon and the tinted one receiving the carbon impression. Each official is supplied with these pads, and by their use he always retains a copy of any memorandum or communication he makes to another official or department. The serial numbers are intended to aid in the identification of any memorandum that may have become somewhat illegible. The use of these blanks saves any misunderstanding that might occur from giving and receiving verbal orders; and serves to prevent errors and mistakes, and to fix the responsibility for their occurrence upon the party in error.
Successful Management. The spirit of shop management should always be a spirit of leadership. This cannot usually be obtained unless the manager possesses natural ability as a leader. Successful military chieftains are examples of this condition. They lead the men instead of driving them, and the result is a condition of enthusiastic loyalty.
It is also quite as necessary that a leader should be a practical man with sound technical training and practical experience in the business which he undertakes to manage. If he is not thus equipped for his duties, the facts soon become apparent to his subordinates, and his reputation suffers accordingly. The workmen lose confidence in his leadership, and lack enthusiasm in the performance of their duties, going about their work in a listless and perfunctory manner that is very detrimental to the efficiency of the plant.
Still another quality necessary in the successful manager, is the ability to judge men and their capacities for various duties. To get always the right man for the position, the machine, or the job, is a valuable trait in any man who is to direct the work of even a moderate-sized establishment. The larger the plant and the more diversified the business carried on in it, the more valuable and indispensable this characteristic will become. The manager who is continually or frequently changing his subordinate officials, and consequently producing changes in the working force, will always find his duties arduous, and will also find it well-nigh impossible to get the plant up to the degree of efficiency that is to be reasonably expected. The volume of output will continually fall below the normal point, and the quality of the work will also deteriorate. The work of management should be a constant upbuilding of the force, and of development and education along the lines of advancement in the special output of the concern. This cannot be carried on if the composition of the force, or the officials who handle it, are in a transition state of change, doubt, and uncertainty.
SHOWING USE OF PIT LATHE IN MACHINING A CENTER OF SWING BRIDGE Chicago Bridge & Iron Works, Chicago, Ill.
There is, on the part of many officials having charge of men, a propensity to interfere too much with workmen and their work, and thus to hinder rather than help them. While it is quite true that every official from the Gang Boss up to the Factory Manager can, at various times, help the workmen in their allotted tasks by timely advice and suggestions, it is also true that this is a matter that can be easily overdone, until it becomes an annoying nuisance and unnecessarily interferes with the men in the discharge of their legitimate duties.