There is a large estimating department, where records of costs, rates, wages, etc., are of the most complete description. The card system adopted is admirably suited for enabling references to be made at any time as to the cost of units in any contract. Here also it is possible, by the simple process of comparison, to effectually check the economy of design and manufacture, without which a high premium is placed against efficiency.
The staff in these departments is largely recruited from the shops, and thus there is an incentive to the willing apprentice to excel. The great majority of the vacancies in the technical staff are filled by apprentices who have spent three and a-half years in the shops, and who are chosen as a result of examination and of a satisfactory record in the shops. Financial facilities are afforded to boys and to progressive workmen to attend special classes, not only in Greenock but in Glasgow. Competitions are instituted at intervals to encourage expertness in some branch of work—for instance, in the use of the slide-rule, etc. Thus in many ways the growth of an active esprit de corps is encouraged, apart altogether from the influence which the historical and present-day success of the firm engenders.
The same broad policy is pursued in the shops. Payment by merit to the tradesman is adopted as far as possible. In the engine works the bonus system—first adopted in 1902—is extensively applied. The arrangement is satisfactory from the point of view of tradesman, employer, and client.
Plate XXXVIII.
THE LAUNCH OF H.M.S. "ARGYLL."
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Long experience has enabled the firm to set equitable standard times for many operations, and there was from the beginning the guarantee that this standard would not be altered unless entirely new machines were introduced to greatly influence the rate of production. Now if a workman requires the full time, or more than the time set as a standard for a job, he is still paid his full-time wage as under the old conditions: but should he complete the work in less than the standard time, his rate of wage per hour is increased in direct proportion to the saving in time; the shorter the time taken, the greater the rate of bonus. The bonuses earned range as a rule from 20 to 30 per cent. over the time-rate wage. To quote actual cases, a workman who saves 26 hours on a job for which the standard time is 134 hours, increases his wage for the fortnight by 14s., while the money saved to the employer is only 2s. 9d. He who saves 30 per cent. on the time adds 21s. to his fortnight's wage.