Detroit, Mich.
The Burroughs Adding Machine Company established in 1907 an apprentice school (course four years) which from its inception has proved an unqualified success. Our apprentices have also attended classes in the Cass Technical High School in Detroit. In the year 1916 we instituted a course along similar lines to our apprentice course for our service men.
However, the general shortage of skilled male help, the loss of over 800 men through the draft, and the rapid expansion of our business has obliged us to supplement our force with a considerable amount of female help in order that the increased demand for our labor-saving product be met.
Early in the present year, therefore, we established a school for unskilled female labor in connection with one of our departments engaged in the simpler operations. As the young women pass through the Employment Department they are placed in this Training School under the supervision of a competent instructor and are thoroughly grounded in the operation performed in that particular department. While in this school their characteristics are studied and as they acquire proficiency and their ability develops, they are assigned to more intricate and important work in the other departments throughout the factory. The selection for these assignments is determined by their physical condition and their mechanical development and aptitude. The instructor explains thoroughly the nature of the new employment, points out the advantages accruing to the employees because of their increased earning capacities; introduces them into the new department, points out in detail the various operations conducted therein, and painstakingly explains the scope of their new duties.
The following day they are started at their new operation, and by frequent observation, instruction and encouragements improve to a degree where they become expert in the one operation.
In this manner girls are gradually developed from the simpler burring and filing operations until we now employ them in departments performing such varied operations as indicated below.
Spring-winding, riveting machines, drill-press and milling machines, straightening of parts, assembling of special features, assembling and fitting type, the erection of machines, adjusting and inspecting machines, assembling and adjusting motors, punch press and hand and automatic screw machine work.
As the girls graduate from the starting department, or school, they don the regular shop uniform, consisting of a suit of overalls, and take their place alongside the men and under the same general conditions as to hours of labor and rates of pay. This stepping-up method of training the unskilled females has been a success with us as far as it goes, and has enabled us to increase our production 50 per cent. for the current year in spite of the acute skilled labor situation.
From April 1, when the training school was established, up to the present time, 412 young women have been received in Department 35, and 260 have been trained and transferred to other departments. At all times there are about forty or fifty young women undergoing training. Only nine young women have been returned to Department 35 for further training since April 1. After receiving additional training these nine were again placed and in no case has one failed for the second time. It is just a matter of finding the right place for the right young women, and then there is no question about them making good on the jobs, as they are proving every day.
In conclusion, tribute must be paid to the 1,200 women in our factory whose earnest desire to help their country in its time of need, and whose mentality and courage have enabled them to make a success of a kind of employment entirely foreign to them on the general conception of their abilities.