Changes in Type of Work Demanded.
Through this adjustment the assembler used only his most skilled motions in doing his work. Meantime, the less skilled worker, or apprentice, who was loading the packet, was learning the assembly principle, and receiving an apprenticeship in assembly itself.
Change in Mental Attitude.
The effect of the adjustment was to establish easily and quickly a new set of efficient habits. The parts being arranged on the packet in an obvious sequence, and the tools being arranged on the table in the standard position, the worker necessarily performed the work according to the standard method, which was the quickest and least fatiguing method, every time that he did it. The result improved his working method, and acted as an incentive to him to do the largest quantity of work of the best quality that could be done with a reasonable amount of fatigue.
Value of This Example.
This example is even more valuable as a method of attack in the adjustment problem than it is as a specific illustration of a successful and rapid installation. The workers enjoyed the changes and accepted them in the best spirit of co-operation. Before using the method, eighteen braider base groups had been a large day’s work, per man. With the new method, sixty-six, per man, per day, were assembled with no added fatigue. The resulting saving pleased every one concerned, and has assured the maintenance of the method. Like all other methods, old or new, it must be submitted to certain definite tests. These it has passed with credit. The outlining of such tests is our next problem.
Fig. 29
This picture shows a Littlefield-Johnson carrier packet. In this carrier packet the carriers by their own weight travel downward to a standard position at the bottom for grasping without looking at them, as fast as they are individually removed. This packet was invented by two men in the New England Butt Company, after they had seen our method of attack, and had begun to think of their work in the terms of elementary and least fatiguing motions.
