Few Written Records Under Traditional Management. — For the purposes of this preliminary study of records, emphasis will be laid on the fact that the record is written. Under Traditional Management there are practically no such labor records. What records are kept are more in the nature of "bookkeeping records," as Gillette and Dana call them, records "showing debits and credits between different accounts." In many cases, under Traditional Management, not even such records of profit or loss from an individual piece of work were kept, the manager, in extreme cases, oftentimes "keeping his books in
his head" and having only the vaguest idea of the state of his finances.
Importance of Records Realized Under Transitory Management. — As has been amply demonstrated in discussing Individuality and Standardization, the recognition of the value of records is one of the first indications of Transitory Management. Since this stage of management has Scientific Management in view as "a mark to come to," the records evolved and used are not discarded by Scientific Management, but are simply perfected. Therefore, there is no need to discuss these transitory records, except to say that, from the start, quality of records is insisted upon before quantity of records.
No "Bookkeeping" Records Under Scientific Management. — Under Scientific Management there are no "bookkeeping records" kept of costs as such. Instead, there are "time and cost records," so called, of the time and efficiency of performance. From these, costs can be deduced at any time. Items of cost without relation to their causes, on work that is not to be repeated, have little value. Cost records, as such, usually represent a needless, useless expenditure of time and money. It must be emphasized that Scientific Management can in no way be identified with "cost keeping," in the sense that is understood to mean aimlessly recording unrelated costs. Under Scientific Management costs are an ever-present by-product of the system, not a direct product.
Records Must Lower Costs and Simplify Work. — The quantity of records that should be made depends on the amount, diversity and state of development
of the work done. No record should be made, which does not, directly or indirectly, actually reduce costs or in some way increase efficiency. The purpose of the records, as of Scientific Management in general, is to simplify work. Only when this is recognized, can the records made be properly judged. Numerous as they may at times seem to be, their number is determined absolutely by the satisfactory manner in which they —
1. Reduce costs.
2. Simplify work.
3. Increase efficiency.
Records of Work and Workers. — Records may be of the work or of the worker [2] — that is to say, of material used, tools used, output produced, etc., or of individual efficiency, in one form or another. Records of efficiency may be of workers, of foremen, and of managers, and a record may be made of any man in several capacities; for example, a record is kept of a functional foreman in the form of the work of the men who are under him, while another record might be kept of him as a worker himself; for example, the time being taken that it took him to teach others their duties, the time to learn what was to be done on any new work, etc.