SEPTEMBER, 1918

How the Shortage
of Skilled Mechanics
Is Being Overcome
by Training the
Unskilled

SECTION ON INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
FOR THE WAR EMERGENCY
COMMITTEE ON LABOR
COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE.

SECTION ON INDUSTRIAL TRAINING FOR THE WAR EMERGENCY

National Committee

Representing Labor:

Frank Duffy, General Secretary, United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, Indianapolis, Ind.

Hugh Frayne, General Organizer, American Federation of Labor, 706 Council of National Defense Bldg., Washington, D. C.

[1]John Golden, President, United Textile Workers of America, 86-87 Bible House, New York.

Grant Hamilton, American Federation of Labor, Washington, D. C.

Arthur E. Holder, Member Federal Board of Vocational Education, Ouray Building, Washington, D. C.

Miss Florence C. Thorne, American Federation of Labor, Washington, D. C.

Charles H. Winslow, Federal Board of Vocational Education, Washington, D. C.

Representing Employers:

Frederick A. Geier, President, Cincinnati Milling Machine Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Henry M. Leland, President, Lincoln Motor Company, Detroit, Mich.

C. E. Michael, President, Virginia Bridge & Iron Company, Roanoke, Va.

[1]Percy S. Straus, R. H. Macy & Co., 1317 Broadway, New York.

[2]H. E. Miles, Formerly President, Wisconsin State Board of Vocational Education, Chairman, Com. on Industrial Education, National Association of Manufacturers, Racine, Wis.

C. U. Carpenter, Works Manager, Dayton Recording & Computing Machine Company, Dayton, Ohio.

G. B. Duffield (Chairman, Michigan Branch Committee), Detroit Lubricator Company, Detroit, Mich.

Representing Education and Welfare:

S. W. Ashe (Chairman, New England Branch Committee), Chairman, Education and Welfare Department, General Electric Co., Pittsfield, Mass.

John C. Frazee (Chairman, Pennsylvania Branch Committee), Member of State Committee of Public Safety, 704 Finance Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa.

[1]C. R. Dooley, Educational Department, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., East Pittsburgh, Pa.

R. O. Small, Deputy Commissioner of Education, State House, Boston, Mass.

Dr. Charles McCarthy, Ph. D., Chief, Reference Library, Madison, Wis.

Alvin E. Dodd, National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, 140 West 42d Street, New York City.

Training for War Industries, which was heretofore developed under the SECTION ON INDUSTRIAL TRAINING of the Council of National Defense, has been taken over by the

TRAINING AND DILUTION SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
618 17TH ST., N. W.
WASHINGTON, D. C.

to whom all correspondence should be addressed.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Executive Committee.

[2] Chairman.

INTENSIVE TRAINING OF UNSKILLED WORKERS AS A MEANS OF OVERCOMING LABOR SHORTAGE

The Committee on Labor, Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense, of which Samuel Gompers is chairman, authorizes the following from the Official Bulletin of August 14:

The grave situation of shortage of labor (it now being estimated that there is a shortage of 250,000 skilled workers[3]) is being met by a new quick method of training operatives. All over the country, day by day, one factory after another falls into line and puts in a training department to train its own people—the same sort of quick, intensive-training plan to meet the same sort of situation which the regulations in France prescribe for every manufacturer employing 300 people or more, and the English ministry of munitions requires in its contracts for materials. And the situation must be met in greater degree and substantially all factories must train their workers if the 750,000 new skilled workers which the country needs by January 1 are skilled and efficient and standing at their job by that time.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Note: September 30, now estimated 500,000.

PROVED BY THE FACTORIES

To-day 100[4] important factories making war orders are proving that it is possible to train their own men. They do not assume to teach a worker a whole trade in the brief time available. They do teach him by the methods of the training department how to master one process or one machine in a few weeks or a few days. These 100 factories are spending, or preparing to spend, at the rate of $1,500,000 solely in this business of intensive training of new workers. This training investment is not an expense, as the training is immediately upon production and the product from the training room is expected to equal that in the factory. All the training departments mentioned are on a production basis at all times, with speed and accuracy as the watchword.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] Note: September 30, now 200.

DECLARATION OF POLICY

One year ago that section of the committee on labor of the Council of National Defense which has been instrumental in developing the training department or vestibule schools above noted recorded the following as its declaration of policy:

“The Section on Industrial Training for the War Emergency is concerned with industrial training only as a war measure. It is not concerned with vocational education in general. In all cases in the existing crisis shortage of labor must be met first by training operatives from allied trades who are unemployed and by advancing operatives of ability from lower to higher positions in the occupation itself. For instance, apprentices should be advanced rather than outsiders. It is possible that many sewing women will be without work, and many men in the building trades. For all such, new and fitting places must be developed where possible. Non-wage earners must not be trained to take places for which unemployed wage earners may reasonably be trained.”

At the same time the section on industrial training stated the following to be its plan and scope:

1. Increased use of the public vocational schools through the co-operation of local manufacturers. This is being done very fortunately in Worcester, Bridgeport and some other cities.

2. Introduce new workers, men and women, into industry through these schools.

3. Arrange for the training of present mechanics and others in existing workrooms in connection with regular production, and by more scientific procedure than heretofore.

4. As of particular importance, act as a clearing house, that the judgment and experience, good and bad, in each locality may be available to all.

The section on industrial training, a part of the welfare division of the committee on labor, is composed of one-third representatives of labor, one-third employers and one-third experts in factory training. State committees similarly organized have been developed where war products are being made. There are at present nine associate branch committees of the section on industrial training, which are Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New England, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

KEEPING CHECK ON TRAINING

The section recommends three checks on the factory training department, to be made daily by report:

1. How many operatives are sent into the factory? (If this were the only test they might be sent in too fast and only partly trained.)

2. Cost, net, after crediting production which should equal the shop average.

3. Wastage.—There should be none. There should be 100 per cent. Government inspection.

These training departments, because of the thorough training given, have yielded from 10 to 40 per cent. increase in production, both for men and women, and the labor turnover has been reduced materially thereby.

Great care has been taken to advocate that unemployed men be adapted and trained in new trades for the period of the war and that unskilled men be educated wherever possible before resorting to the employment of women.

POSSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPMENT

As an indication of the possibilities of this development, the experience of the State of New Jersey co-operating with this section may be cited. In order to overcome possible objection which labor might have to the introduction of emergency training a program was agreed on, after a series of conferences, which was heartily approved by all the employers and by the representatives of the employees. Some of the clauses of this agreement are as follows:

“All skilled labor available within the surrounding territory should be brought into the essential war industries before it is unduly diluted by the introduction of unskilled labor. When such dilution is necessary, and in the opinion of the committee that time has already arrived, the more skilled activities should be supplied by training those already at work and successful in handling the lesser skilled activities of the same general type. The lesser skilled activities should be supplied by training those already skilled in non-essential activities and not engaged at present in essential war industries, and who, because of such skill, are peculiarly capable of quickly learning the rudiments of the new activities.

“Exploitation of labor and reduction of wages through dilution for war purposes is to be avoided, and to this end persons brought into an essential industry, or promoted from one grade of work to another, are to be paid the prevailing rate of wages for the class of work for which they have been trained, after a training period of reasonable duration.

“Dilution of labor by the employment of women when necessary is recommended, provided women receive wages equal to men for the class of work performed by them, and provided the working conditions surrounding their activities are carefully controlled for their comfort and well-being.”

ELIMINATING HOUSING PROBLEM

One interesting result of training resident unemployed is the practical elimination of the housing problem in certain instances.

This is exemplified in the city of Detroit, where it is estimated that 50,000 additional mechanics will be needed before the end of the year. If those now engaged in the war plants could be advanced to more skilled positions, and their places be filled by present residents of Detroit engaged in non-essential or unskilled industries, or those not now at work, the need for housing of the 50,000 mechanics with their families could be, if not entirely, at least, in part, eliminated.

All who have tried these intensive methods of training are happily surprised at the shortness of time required to make skilled operatives for precision work in tool room and factory of men from non-essential trades and of the more intelligent women now entering industry for the war.

ACTIVITIES OF THE CHAIRMAN

To stimulate effort and arouse interest in training the idle and potential workers in each community, as well as to facilitate the up-grading of the old operatives, the sectional chairman has traveled from one manufacturing center to another for the past 12 months, addressing leading metal, machine-tool, and other manufacturers’ associations. He has also actually assisted in the establishment of vestibule Training Departments in the plants.

Both single shops and great industrial communities are acting upon the advice of this section, which will furnish experts for investigation and planning upon request.

PRATT INSTITUTE’S NATIONAL SERVICE COURSES IN MACHINE WORK

As a contribution to industrial training for the war emergency, Pratt Institute is conducting day and evening courses in Machine Work, which have been especially organized to serve the present need for increased productive efficiency in this country’s machine shops. These courses are designed to aid ambitious machine shop workers of limited development, including machine operators, bench hands and machinists’ helpers, who wish to extend and broaden their practical ability as a means to personal advancement in the trade, increased earning power and fuller service to production. Pratt Institute’s Machine Shop has been continuously employed to maximum capacity for this instruction since the entry of the United States into the war.

The Machine Work comprises six graded courses, each of which requires for its completion six weeks, if taken as a full-time day course, seven hours per day, or if taken as an evening course, twenty-four weeks, three evenings per week, two hours per evening. Day students register and pay tuition for six weeks, and evening students for twelve weeks. New classes are started at frequent intervals. A student may start in any course for which he is qualified, and may enroll for additional courses, either consecutively, or at some later time, if he finds it desirable to withdraw temporarily. Students are permitted also to transfer at any time from the day to the evening course or vice versa, with full credit for work already performed.

The instruction is adapted to the individual. Men capable of following directions without excessive damage to material or equipment are put on productive work. Men who have not reached this degree of efficiency are commonly assigned exercises. About 75 per cent. of the work is productive. Production is introduced as a means to greater efficiency in training.

Courses in Wooden Boat and Shipbuilding, Marine Engineering, Gasoline Engine Maintenance and Operation, Machine Drawing and Design, Ship Drafting, Chemical Laboratory Practice, in addition to an extensive list of day and evening trade and technical courses, all of which are of special service in the war emergency, are being conducted.

(Signed) Samuel S. Edmands.

Pratt Institute’s Machine Shop has been employed to capacity since our entry into the war.

Pratt Institute. Note the “older men.”

Pratt Institute (Brooklyn) is conducting day and evening courses in machine work.

Pratt Institute. Ambitious machine shop workers go out from here to give fuller service in production.

BOARDMAN TRADE SCHOOL

The Boardman Apprentice Shop, under which name New Haven, Conn., operates a Trade School, is doing its share toward meeting the shortage of skilled and semi-skilled help and plans are being made to further this work.

The “Shop” teaches many trades under actual trade conditions, but as the most pressing need is for machine workers this trade only will be considered in this article even to the exclusion of the drafting department, second in importance, and results to the machine department.

Primarily this Trade School is operated to teach boys, but the evening continuation classes have grown in importance year by year until they have reached the present high standard of efficiency.

The machine department trains fifty boys in the day course and under normal conditions the boy graduates after 4,800 hours of study, seventy-five per cent. being trade practice and twenty-five per cent. academic study. At present many boys leave before the completion of their course to enter local munition factories. These boys are in great demand and even after a few months of training are found extremely useful in those factories.

The boys who complete their studies and receive their diplomas are largely sought for tool room work.

Thus the school is supplying more trained hands than the number of boys and length of course would indicate and that is but part of the story. These boys work eight hours a day, forty-four hours a week, fifty weeks a year, and produce real machinery practically all of which goes into the munition plants.

One lot of forty-five Horizontal Tappers was built and boxed and ready for shipment to Glasgow for use on British munitions long before cargo space was available.

The boys build two sizes of screw slotting machines, two sizes of horizontal tapping machines, lathes, slide rests, drill press vises and hundreds of small cutters.

They have built and shipped about six hundred machines, not including slide rests and vises.

The screw slotters and tapping machines are of a type in great demand for munition factories, being particularly serviceable for use on fuse parts, small arms and government hardware.

Thus, the school, while following its basic plan, is supplying the country’s vital needs in training boys and at the same time making an essential product.

In addition, further use of the equipment is secured by the operation of night continuation classes for twenty-five weeks in the year. The classes are operated six nights per week and Saturday afternoon with instructors taken from the local factories under one of the regular day force.

Men in all stages of experience, ambitious apprentices, unskilled clerks, drivers, porters, etc., who wish to enter the local munition factories come to these classes.

As an instance of extremes we may take the case of a painter of sixty who entered the Marlin Rockwell Corporation on machine work after two seasons of study; and the case of an experienced toolmaker taking advantage of the equipment to learn some new operations so as to fit himself for a higher grade of work. Both men made good. Machinists take the continuation course so that they may qualify as toolmakers. Four classes of fifty men—making a total of two hundred men—are taught in the night classes.

The results have been so satisfactory that these classes will be continued and if the demand warrants women will be given instruction upon specified evenings. The school management believes that the day is coming when women will receive a far greater share of trade instruction.

Plans are in operation to increase the efficiency of the school by teaching special classes. For instance, a class in the use of measuring instruments and gauges would prove valuable and reduce, in a great measure, the time taken in training the unskilled men and women taking up factory work. Large numbers can be handled in such courses.

The school is prepared to take crippled and disabled resident soldiers in any of its trade courses, night or day, when the demand comes.

Since this article was prepared, orders for fifty No. 1 screw slotters and twelve No. 1 vertical tapping machines have been booked at this school.

This order of twelve tapping machines will go directly into an optical factory for use on government supplies.

Frank R. Lawrence,
Acting Director.

September 16, 1918.

BOARDMAN APPRENTICE SCHOOL, NEW HAVEN.

Milling the “tailstock” on a motor-driven vertical milling machine. A natural mechanic (one out of every fifteen that apply can be classed as such), 14 years old. Has been an apprentice about four months. Is doing work usually done by boys of eighteen months’ experience.

BOARDMAN APPRENTICE SCHOOL, NEW HAVEN.

Boring is an advanced branch of the machine trade, and requires great skill to successfully complete an accurate piece of work.

A boy must complete 4,000 hours before he is advanced to this operation, and not then unless we consider him competent to do this accurate work.

The “head” and “tail” of this machine must “line” to .001 of an inch in 18 inches, and therefore must be bored until all the “spring” is out of the boring bar.

This boy, age 15, is making a measurement with a spring caliper to ascertain proper size before reaming.

BOARDMAN APPRENTICE SCHOOL, NEW HAVEN.

Scraping beds—a difficult art. Notice the standard Brown & Sharpe surface plate at the left. The surface of these beds must show an 85 per cent bearing, the tailstocks scraped to fit the same. These boys are about 14½ years old, and have served six months’ apprenticeship.

BOARDMAN APPRENTICE SCHOOL, NEW HAVEN.

Planing “head.” It is one of the advanced operations and requires much care in machining. The slot shown must be absolutely in line with the boxes, and they are tested with an aligning bar after planing. This boy is 16 years old, and will graduate in about two months.

DAYTON INDUSTRIAL INSTITUTE

Dayton, Ohio

The Dayton Industrial Institute was established to replace the vestibule schools in the following plants: The Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., the Domestic Engineering Co., the Dayton Metal Products Co., and the Dayton Wright Airplane Co.

Although the school has been fostered by the above companies, any manufacturer in Dayton is at liberty to send students to the school under certain regulations.

The Directors of the several companies thought it advisable to segregate the training school from the plants, and combine the school under one directing head. Most gratifying results have been obtained since the opening of the school January 1, 1918.

During the past seven months over 500 persons, from all walks of life, have been trained for factory work. About 200 of this number were women.

In addition to the large number of people trained, over 100,000 pieces of commercial product have been manufactured, which passed the most rigid factory inspection.

A large percentage of the work has been parts of war products, such as detonator bodies, Liberty motor ignition parts, inspection gauges for war materials, crank shafts, cam shafts, motor truck parts, etc., as well as airplane parts, consisting of ribs, fins, stabilizers, wheel covers, etc., for the DeHaviland fighting plane.

Would it not be advisable for manufacturers in some communities, and especially for small manufacturers, to pool their interests in regard to industrial training, in order that the schools may be a peace time asset, as well as to satisfy a war time emergency?

WRIGHT-MARTIN AIRCRAFT CORPORATION

The Wright-Martin Aircraft Corporation has two shop training departments, one at the Long Island City plant and the other at the plant in New Brunswick, N. J. Both plants are engaged in the manufacture of a high-grade aeroplane engine.

Each training department occupies about 10,000 square feet of floor space in buildings separate from the factories. They are equipped with modern machinery tooled up for production, the machines and equipment being of the same type as that in the factory proper.

The primary purpose of these departments is to train women, also men, for the needs of the factory, upon production work, assembly, inspection, shop clerk work and tool crib tending. It is the aim of the Instruction Department to train the learner to do her work habitually correct, both as to quantity and quality. With this in mind the training rooms are miniature factories equipped with lathes, automatic screw machines, hand screw machines, J. & L. Turret Lathes, hand millers, plain millers, sensitive drills, upright drills, radial drills, plain grinders, internal grinders and bench equipment. Jigs and fixtures and the operation tool equipment necessary for the production work are used on these machines, that those being trained may become entirely familiar with the tools they are required to handle when they go into the shop. The machines and the operation tool equipment were selected after the complete layout of the main operations had been carefully gone over and the operations that women could perform were listed.

Considerable care has been used in selecting the learners and the class of women under training are of good type. A number of these have worked in shops before; others have been in offices. Our experience has been that our most successful women are those who have had to work for their living, either in shops or offices, up to the time they entered our employ. The range of ages preferred varies from 21 to 35. The first few hundred women selected were about 35 years of age, the maturity and judgment going with such an age being of value in stabilizing later conditions when hundreds more, of a more general sort, will be employed. Many of the women are mothers, wives, or relatives of those at the front.

The training is given upon actual factory production in the manufacture of parts that enter into the construction of the motor. Such manufacturing furnishes an excellent medium for instruction in the various branches above mentioned, and holds both the learner and the instructor up to the factory requirements. The standards of the factory are the standards of the training department both as to quantity and quality. Work is routed to the Instruction Department according to the regular shop forms and the finished product is transferred from the Instruction Department in the same manner as work is transferred within the factory, the Instruction Department receiving credit for what it does.

So far, women are being trained at a rate equal to the demands of the factory, which is fast approaching 120 per week, this being the approximate weekly training capacity of the training department. In some branches of work it takes four days to train, in others ten days, the length of time varying according to the time it takes the learner to reach the average hourly production.

Records of production, while under training, are plotted on cross section paper and when the learner has reached the average hourly production she is declared trained in that particular line. In some cases women after two or three days’ training have done 25 per cent. higher than the average hourly production stated for the job. Records of salvage are also kept as a check on such training, and every effort is made to combine a steep production curve and a minimum salvage curve with good training. The salvage records of the learners are remarkably low, some weeks averaging much less than 1 per cent., the highest being less than that in the factory itself.

After the women have been transferred to the factory their progress is kept track of for at least one week, to make sure that they are following the instructions given in the training room. Those who do not make good after training are assigned back to the training room for further instruction, or for such disposition as the chief instructor may see fit.

Regularly, during the week, the learners are given general lectures, talks and instructions on matters that relate to their training, that they may be more generally fitted for the line of work into which they are to be transferred.

The results obtained have been very interesting. The women are very enthusiastic and the foremen are highly pleased. In one branch the foreman advised, when asked how things were going: “You can give me thirty more women right away; they are all right,” In another branch a foreman advised that he would not exchange a good share of the women in his department for an equal number of the best men he had on his floor.

The instruction in each training room is given by four male instructors, with women assistants; the women assistants having been selected from the best of those who have been trained within the department. The men instructors are all first class mechanics, especially capable on production work and teaching.

The instructors are regularly interviewed from time to time, and the work they are doing is carefully reviewed, with the purpose of building them up as efficient instructors.

As a part of the training program at New Brunswick an evening school is conducted for the men in the company’s employ. The instruction work given consists of technical studies related to the mechanical trades, and includes blue-print reading, shop drawing, shop mathematics and clerical work in its different branches. This is used in conjunction with a promotion program, whereby men who are capable are promoted into various openings as they occur, requiring more skill of the same sort they already have.

(Signed) James F. Johnson,
Chief Instructor.

Being trained upon an engine lathe to accuracy of one-thousandth.

Learning to operate the radial drill presses Wright-Martin Aircraft Corp.

Training on the job in shop. Wright-Martin Aircraft Corp.

Being trained upon a James & Lamson machine. Wright-Martin Aircraft Corp.

WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS COMPANY

New Haven, Conn.

Manifestly, all large employers of labor must train their help to a greater or less degree. It has always been the practice of the Winchester Company to do a great deal of this training, but until the past few years it had all been done in the shops or office where the candidate was to work. For many years it has been the practice to take intelligent boys and young men in the office with the idea of continually promoting them to more responsible positions after they became competent and the positions developed where they might be used. Our graduate apprentices, adjusters and tool setters have been so well trained that they have always been sought for by competitive concerns. Since the war, and especially during the past six or eight months, it has become increasingly necessary to develop the training of employees to the greatest extent. Where formerly help might be obtained who had, at least, some knowledge of machines and shop practice, it is now necessary to take help who have absolutely no knowledge of factory work and teach them to become skilled. In addition, this must be done in the least possible time.

To take care of this condition, we have developed in addition to our regular apprentice course, a training course for administrative and executive positions, an Office School, a Gun Department Adjuster’s Shop, a Cartridge Department Training Shop and Tool Department Training Shop.

The regular apprentice course is designed to give complete training for machinists, gauge makers, tool and fixture makers, etc. The course which ordinarily requires three years to complete has recently been shortened so that some of the boys are graduated in two years. It is the desire to give thorough instruction in the practical work mentioned above. The average enrollment is approximately 90.

The training course for administrative and executive positions is designed to cover briefly such shop and office practice as will give the broadest general knowledge that is likely to be required of those in the more important positions in the administrative organization. This class consists of only about a dozen men who are picked with all possible care.

OFFICE SCHOOL

The Office School under competent instructors consists of a group of clerks who do the complete work of making up pay roll, labor distribution cards, etc., for a number of factory shops which were chosen because of their having respective classes of work. Prospective clerks are taken into this school, trained on pay roll work, transferred to the Central Pay Roll Division as help is needed. In addition to this school for pay roll clerks, model shop offices are being established in each of the major departments where correct methods will be carefully taught. It is our aim to have all shop clerks pass through one of these model shop offices to receive their training, as this will insure standard methods and proper following of procedures. These model shop offices will also act as reservoirs on which to draw to supply vacancies caused by absences among the regular shop office staff.

GUN DEPARTMENT ADJUSTER’S SHOP

The shop for training adjusters for the Gun Department is designed to teach men how to adjust the type of machines to which they are to be assigned for all classes of work which may be run upon them. This training should ordinarily take from two to four weeks, but many times it has seemed desirable to graduate candidates more quickly than this; if they are bright and intelligent it has proven satisfactory to do so. No attempt has been made to train operators in the Gun Department except in the shops where they are to work. Most of this work can be learned in a very few days under the instruction of a well trained adjuster.

CARTRIDGE TRAINING SHOP

The Cartridge Training Shop was designed to train adjusters and tool setters, and some operators. Due to the great number of new employees, it has been impossible to have all tool setters and adjusters pass through this school, but it is hoped that in the near future we may be able to train an increasing percentage of them here. Such men as have received this training have shown beyond doubt that they have been much benefited by it, and that it is most desirable to expand it to include as many of this class of workmen as possible. Some operators have been trained in the Cartridge Training School with excellent results, but most of the work is relatively simple and the training has been satisfactorily done in the shop to which the new employees have been assigned.

TOOL DEPARTMENT TRAINING SHOP

A new Tool Department Training Shop is just being started for the purpose of training operators on lathes, milling machines, planers, grinders, etc. At first we tried to train this kind of help in the Apprentice Shop, but because of the fact that the kind of instruction was so vastly different, it has been decided impractical. In the one case, we wish to give very complete, broad instructions, and in the other, the desire is to train for one kind of work only in the least possible time.

MANUFACTURING TOOL SHOPS

We have two shops working night and day offering facilities for the training of unskilled people in certain lines of tool work. These people are taken in totally without experience, and placed under the tutelage of our best mechanics, and trained quickly as specialists. Within a remarkably short time they are capable of producing all sorts of tools used in the production of guns and ammunition, thus relieving the general tool shop of a great volume of work which would otherwise require the services of skilled tool makers. From the forces in these shops we are able to recruit the more advanced men for gauge, jig and fixture work. We consider these shops one of the best examples possible of training upon a productive basis.

Aside from the regular training courses as outlined, there are many instructors throughout the shops whose duty it is to explain the best ways of doing the various tasks to which employees are assigned. It has been our intent throughout, in choosing instructors, to select those who are real teachers, having the necessary patience and human understanding required to successfully do work of this kind.

The regular source through which we train toolmakers is the Apprentice Shop. This shop has an enrollment of 125 boys, who are trained in a three-year course to become expert all-round mechanics.

In addition to this, two of our largest shops, of 250 men each, have during the past year and a half conducted special training courses for green men on the more elementary work of toolmaking. The purpose of these courses is to train men who have had no mechanical experience to the point where they can be used to free more expert men from all routine and simple work. These men are started on a lathe grinder or milling machine. Those men who show special aptitude are taught how to use two or more machines, while the rest are trained to operate only a single type. By means of our special course of instruction it is possible to train new men in a period of a week to four weeks, depending on the man and on the kind of work for which he is being trained. During the last year and a half over 500 men have been trained in this way. Recently 60 men were trained in one month. The best of these are advanced to more difficult work, and some of them even become third class toolmakers.

In addition to this work, we have been training girls since last March to do machine work. These girls have hitherto been sent directly to the Apprentice Shop and there given a week’s training on a lathe or a milling machine on repetition work. After this they were transferred to one of the regular shops where they have done extremely good work.

In addition to the training of expert toolmakers and mechanics for the Tool Department, we are also training mechanics for the Gun and Cartridge Departments. Each of these departments has a school or training department containing representative machines and in these schools men are given a course of instruction lasting from one to two months. This prepares them to go out into the shops and take care of a group of machines, keeping them in repair, supplied with proper tools, and generally in good running order.

Third, since the above was still not sufficient to fill our requirements, it was decided to start a regular training shop in which to train machinists and toolmakers, as well as gauge-makers. These men were to be trained in the use of three or four machines; the lathe, miller, planer, shaper and grinder. They were to do the more simple work on these machines, but still, work that was not repetition. In just three weeks after the plan had been accepted, the space was secured, and the equipment of 30 machines, tools, and everything which goes with a complete shop, including overhead shafting, was installed. Moreover, a complete set of drawings representing 40 typical operations was made and blue-printed, and these will serve as a plan of instruction. On Monday morning, three weeks after the plan was approved, the shop, with a complete personnel of foremen and instructors, began operation. It is planned to turn men out in from three to five weeks.

In all our work the emphasis is on production. Training wherever possible is given on actual production work. This not only makes possible training of a very practical nature, but also helps to lessen the cost of the instruction.

(Signed) L. O. Pethick,
Personnel Superintendent.

NEWLY TRAINED OPERATOR

—TOOL TRAINING SHOP—

GIRL LATHE OPERATOR

—CUTTING TOOL SHOP—

BROWN & SHARPE MANUFACTURING COMPANY

Providence, R. I.

In our own experience, without doubt, much more attention has been given by foremen and fellow-workmen to the supervision of women’s work than has been given to the average male employee in the past, the assumption being that a woman, having less mechanical background and intuition than a man, required more training and more specific instructions. This has been the reason advanced by some foremen in explaining why women were doing better work and had “broken in” more quickly than men, and they have added, “If we had given the same kind of attention to each new man employed, he would have done just as well as the girl”; this is, after all, an admission on the part of the foreman that he had not in the past helped all he could, and an indirect compliment to the girl having much significance. It may be noted, however, that at the time when such comparisons were made the average man who could be secured was of an unsatisfactory and irresponsible class, as so few trained or competent men were available for positions in the industries, while, on the other hand, in hiring girls a selection from a large number of applicants could be made, so that it was possible to obtain a much better average having the qualities to make successful workers.

Experience has shown that there are advantages in having both men and women in the same department, as it tends to hold the same standard of workmanship and speed for women as for men, while it is believed that having a separate department for women may establish a separate and lower standard, the tendency being to make more allowance for women because of sex. The results seem to show that it is not at all necessary that separate standards should be established and that in some lines of work even more can be expected of women than of men because of their nimble fingers and quickness of motion. As to questions of discipline, where the two sexes are employed in the same work-room, little or no difficulty is experienced under capable foremanship.

Actual results have proved that the fears in the minds of some that there would be opposition on the part of foremen and workmen to the employment of women in the shop were ungrounded. A foreman remarked to a visitor: “See that girl working beside the man assembling speed indicators? She is working with him so as to learn all the requirements, and he knows that she is to have his job as soon as she has become sufficiently proficient, but he is helping her in every way possible. Of course, we shall find other work for the man; and often, with the present shortage of help, such a change of work can be in the line of promotion.” This illustrates the spirit which is practically universal throughout the shop, and which has been an important factor in bringing about the success of the plan.

While the money question—the earning power—is uppermost in the minds of the majority, many of the women show also a distinct ambition to equal or excel men in the work they do. Soon after the employment of women was begun in the gear department, a girl who was cutting sprockets on a gear-cutting machine became discouraged and said she was afraid she could not make a success of the job. Her foreman was surprised and said to her, “We have not made any complaint as to your work, have we?” “No,” she said, “but the man who worked on the night job turned out 105 pieces, while the best I could do was only 85 pieces a day.” Her foreman asked if she realized that the man on the night force was working three hours more per day than she was, and after learning this she felt less discouraged with the results she had obtained.

In the gear department where a number of girls have been “broken in” in operating gear-cutting machines, the foreman said that they had taken hold as quickly as the average man, and some of them are doing exceptionally good and intelligent work. This has partly resulted from the girls being thrown as rapidly as possible on their own resources, being taught to set up their machines, working from a blue-print, to measure their work, and do everything that had previously been required of the operator. A criticism has recently been made of some of the departments to the effect that the foremen were giving so much supervision to the women’s work that they were not thrown sufficiently on their own resources, and thus were not trained to be responsible for the work in hand. This again speaks well for the women, as showing that there is a growing appreciation of their ability to do more advanced work than had at first been expected.

In inspection work a field has been found for women in which they are making an exceptionally good showing. The chief inspector was asked whether women were learning to read the micrometer caliper. He replied that they learned to read it and read it accurately, in a very short time, and that the work passing through their hands showed much discrimination as to the points criticised. He pointed to a pile of work rejected by one of the women inspectors and said, “I have just had a man go over this work, and he has found that while the work failed to pass inspection for many reasons, they were all good reasons.” He said further that in inspecting grinding work he was surprised at the quickness with which some of his women inspectors would pick out batches of work identifying them as coming from particular workmen whose work was known to be above the average. In another department, in inspecting measuring tools, a similar condition was noted by the foreman, and he stated that one of the girl inspectors recently told him that she liked to inspect the work of Mr. Blank, because it required so few rejections. “And,” remarked the foreman, “she sized the situation up just right.” He also showed the writer the notes attached to a number of tools which had been held out by the woman inspector for corrections, these criticisms showing much discrimination on her part, and as good a degree of judgment as would have been expected from the experienced inspectors who had previously been doing the work. It is thus found that in the class of inspection work where women are employed the standard is not lowered because of their employment.

Already several women are employed in the toolmaking department. One of these employees, who was operating a lathe turning out tool-steel blanks for bits and reamers, doing her own setting up and measuring, evinced enthusiasm for machine shop work, showing, in reply to questions, that her work was opening up a new field in which she took especial interest and she remarked, “No more housework for me,” with such feeling that it was evident her interests strongly leaned in a mechanical direction. Girls in the toolmaking department are working on universal milling machines, surface grinders, etc., as well as lathes. Some of the younger girls throughout the works are employed as messengers.

(Signed) L. D. Burlingame.

Operating automatic gear-cutting machines. The girls are taught to set up their machines and make all measurements, working from a blue-print. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.

Girls employed on polishing machines. “When they become proficient on polishing, they are given more advanced work at “hand-tooling,” etc., on these machines. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.

Fluting reamers, etc., on Universal milling machines in the toolmaking department. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.

Operating hand milling machines in the production of duplicate parts. Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co.

TOOLROOM ANALYSIS

What does tool room work consist of? It can be separated into two divisions, namely, that which only the skilled toolmaker can do, such as laying out, fitting, assembling and devising special setups. The balance is machine work. Let us consider the latter and see what it consists of.

Machines. The machines used are generally the engine lathe, the horizontal and vertical millers, planers, shaper, plain, flat and universal grinders, drill press and filing machines. Hobbing and bench lathes may be added.

The Lathe. The lathe work usually consists in machining work preparatory to hardening and grinding. This may be roughly divided into turning, chucking and faceplate work. The toolmaker frequently does all of this work. Let us relieve him of this work and use our semi-skilled man to do it for him. Let one man do the turning, another the chucking and another the faceplate work. Where buttons are used the toolmaker sets them at the bench, but the lathe hand can be instructed on the set-up and the use of the warbler and indicator. The same method can be used on the milling machine in boring holes for bushings, etc. If there is not enough turning the same man can do the boring. The whole result is the toolmaker can supervise, or carry through, a number of jobs at the same time. The lathe hand saves time because he has his tools ground, his straps, parallels, etc., ready at hand and he knows his machine. It is the writer’s experience that more time is lost by the toolmaker in hunting for these accessories than it frequently takes to do the job.

The Shaper. On the shaper the work can be divided into roughing out and following an irregular line. Let us take a blanking die for an example. The diemaker (who works at the bench) lays out the die on rough stock. Then it is roughed out to this layout. Next the tap-holes and swivel pins are drilled, tapped and reamed. Now the diemaker can set his die up and lay it out more accurately to his turnplate. The better shaper hand now machines the pieces to his lines and all the diemaker has to do is file the clearance on the cutting edge and remove tool marks. In a sectional die he frequently leaves this for the grinder to do. Now the punch, which has been roughed out, is “sheared” and the machine hand machines the surplus stock from it to make it easier for the diemaker. The head block, shoe, knockout plate, sub-press pins, and stripper have been machined and are ready for him. The drill press hand does the drilling and reaming for the pins and springs, also the tapping. By this method of using the semi-skilled machine hands the skilled man can carry on five and more dies at the same time and not lose any time waiting for machines.

The Miller. The milling machine work can be divided into flat work, cutting teeth in cutters, reamers, gears, etc., spiral cutting, boring jigs and special outline work.,

Take the first two groups. The semi-skilled operator can be easily trained for this work, as it does not call for more difficult work than the use of the dividing head, and there is always a chart for that. Spiral cutting can be taught, as there is a chart for that. Cutting cams is more difficult but if there is enough of it the operators can be taught to do it.

The boring of drill jigs, and similar work, can be done by an operator because it is laid out beforehand by the toolmaker, or diemaker in case it is a die.

The Drill Press. The drill press work presents the same solution. The skilled tool or diemaker makes the layout and then drills the holes to the layout. Why use the skilled man’s time when a lower-priced, and less valued, operator can be used to drill to this same layout?

Grinders. The horizontal, the plain (or flat) and the universal grinding machines have always had specially trained men so we need not consider them here.

Special Machines. The remaining machines in the toolroom are generally special machines with men to operate them. The toolmaker uses, for the most part, only the machines considered in this article.

Training. The question now arises, “Where will these men be trained and who will train them?” I offer this answer. Men on these machines throughout the factory are semi-skilled in their use and are mostly on repetition work. Take the best of them and train them in the Training Department, or in the tool room, and replace them by new men in the factory.

Results. This method results in: First, enabling the skilled tool or diemaker to handle more work than if he had to do all the machine and layout work; second, increasing the output per machine, for it stops the time lost through the machine’s being idle and the tools being separated from the machine. In this matter alone it presents a saving, as it calls for only one set of tools per machine, against a set for every man in the room who keeps them in his bench drawer most of the time; third, it eliminates the time lost by the skilled man’s waiting around for a particular machine. He is now able to plan one job after another and turn it over to the machine operator and thus devote all his time to work that an unskilled man cannot do.

(Signed) Walter F. Maddison,
Director of Industrial Training.

THE BLANCHARD MACHINE COMPANY

64 State Street, Cambridge, Mass.

As you know, we have been running our Training Department for about five weeks only, hence we are not in position to give you any definite information as to the value of it, etc., but from what we can see it will be undoubtedly a great help to us, because all the unskilled help go to the instructor before being put into the shop. Those who have had some experience are put into the shop, with the instructor to give them detailed information for as long a time as is necessary, and to teach them the important parts of the work in hand. This, as you can imagine, is more difficult in this shop where we do not manufacture large quantities than it would be in a shop where there was a uniform operation, such as there would be on shells, and work of that kind.

We have taken cabinetmakers and taught them to run boring mills; blank book salesmen to assemble units for our SURFACE GRINDERS; shoemakers to assemble units for SURFACE GRINDERS; carpenters to run turret lathes, and plain helpers or sweepers to break in on Surface and Floor Motor Grinders.

We also have a number of women in the shop whom we have taken in without their having any previous experience in machine work, and taught them various operations, such as broaching, bench work, drilling, turning bevel gears, vise work, cutting long threads, and work of a similar nature, and have found them very satisfactory on this class of work.

We have endeavored to teach them the rudiments of this work before putting them on to regular production work, but after they master the first part of it, all the work that is done is on a regular production basis, and we have found in a great many cases that they have been able to reduce the time taken per piece to a very marked degree over what has formerly been taken by men.

I send herewith eight photographs of our operatives that have been broken into skilled work of various kinds throughout our shop, that has previously been done by men skilled in the particular line involved.

We think that some of these are almost remarkable, when we consider what our attitude was two years ago on work of this kind, refusing absolutely to put anyone on who had not been skilled in the particular line involved.

(Signed) Winfield W. Blakeman,
Superintendent.

Assembly of our caliper device used in connection with our high-power vertical-surface grinder, for fine measurements on parts being surface ground.

Done by “a man 63 years old, a shoemaker by trade, who has been on this work since June 27, 1918, and has learned in that time to completely assemble these delicate instruments, making the proper adjustments, lapping and doing a quality of work that passes a rigid inspection.” Blanchard Machine Co.

Thread-cutting operation on a feed screw for our surface grinder, which is made from a forty-carbon steel, is 26½ inches long and has one-quarter inch pitch acme thread about two-thirds of its length that must be a close fit in a bronze unit.

Done by “a young lady, who has been on this class of work since May 9, 1918, has been able to take these screws from the rough stock, turn them to grinding size and finally finish cutting the thread in a time that is less than was formerly taken by skilled machinists. We think that this is one of the most remarkable jobs done by the women in our shop, as this work requires very careful attention and unusual skill.” Blanchard Machine Co.

Assistant Inspector. Blanchard Machine Co.

Done by “a young girl of twenty years, who has been assistant inspector since April 29, 1918, and while she does not understand all the technical phrases used in connection with, work of this sort, there is a very large percentage which is merely routine, and if it does not pass the gauges provided she refers it to another man to put on production work.”

Machinist. Operation of Turret Lathe. Blanchard Machine Co. Done by “a young man, carpenter by trade (not in draft), having no previous experience on machinery but by keeping a uniform line of work going through this machine, and giving him careful instructions, he is able to almost equal that of a skilled operator. He has been in our employ since January 9, 1918.”

Finish turning of steel bevel gears to accurate dimensions, using compound slide and producing a quality of work that will pass the most critical inspection.

Done by “a woman who had no previous experience on lathes and came to work in June of this year.” Blanchard Machine Co.

Graduating of the segment plates used on our high-power vertical surface grinder. It calls for the use of an index head and making every fifth line three-sixteenths of an inch longer than the balance of the lines in the section, using a gauge shown on the front of the machine for this purpose. Blanchard Machine Co.

DONE BY “a young lady who had a small amount of experience assembling on automobile starters before she came to work for us on June 24, 1918. By setting up the machine and not giving her too difficult jobs, she is able to about equal the time taken by the average man.”

Jig drilling on a 20-inch upright drill that has previously been done by men. Blanchard Machine Co.

DONE BY “women operatives who are usually able to practically reach the time taken by the men on this work. In a few cases where the men have had a longer period of experience they have been able to improve on the time taken by the women. A great deal of this work calls for drilling and tapping, as well as counterboring and spot facing.”

THE AMERICAN SHELL COMPANY

Paterson, N. J.

In reference to our method of producing toolroom outfits most economically and with a large output:

This is chiefly accomplished by anticipating our machine shop requirements or demands far enough in advance so that the majority of work passing through the toolroom can be manufactured in quantities great enough to be produced economically, and also bringing the toolroom work nearer to an actual manufacturing basis. This also eliminates a lot of down or lost time, including the unnecessary losses, such as occur between jobs on work of this nature.

It also decreases the percentage of losses due to spoiled work as workers become more skilled in performing one kind of work rather than a number of different classes of work, which is invariably the case in toolrooms.

We also find this gives us the opportunity to take advantage of present conditions and hire a man who sometimes is inclined to call himself a toolmaker, although he is not an all-around man but is still quite suitable under our conditions of working.

We find, too, that on quantity production in toolroom, we are in a position to effect some very great savings in time and money, as it permits standard jigs and fixtures, such as in ordinary manufacturing; for instance, we at one time machined all our flat tool bits made of high speed steel before hardening and grinding, while our present method is to heat bars of steel in gas furnace and then punch out with die under heavy hammer or press. This method alone in a couple of hours gives us a supply ahead that would ordinarily take one machine or more in continuous operation to produce.

The classes of work in toolroom are also segregated as much as possible; we have one gang for machine repair and reconstruction only. Another gang does all the roughing work on tools and gauges so that the finishing work only on gauges is done by the gauge-makers who are also practically a separate gang. The grinding of tools is under one skilled mechanic who is a working gang boss and leader of men trained to do this work only.

Our tool supply is never permitted to get below the fixed minimum quantity, and record of this condition is always before the toolroom foreman and maintained by his clerk. His clerk is advised hourly on this through the disbursements which he receives from various shop cribs.

We also make a daily record of these same disbursements as against operations and production, thereby keeping in close touch with this situation, obviating any unnecessary tool wastage which very quickly may become extremely expensive, and which also may cause dangerous delays in production in shop due to shortages in tool supply.

(Signed) George de Laval,
Vice-President and General Manager.

WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC AND MANUFACTURING CO.

East Pittsburgh, Pa.

Until recently we have confined our training, as such, very largely to trades apprentices. We have a four-year course for these as mechanics, electricians and patternmakers.

Until recently it has been our plan to train new employees in the section to which they were assigned, upon the machines and work with which they were to be regularly connected. The various shop departments have instructors picked from the best workmen to demonstrate machines and their operation, when necessary.

What has already been said applies to both men and women, and up to the present time we have done nothing more than this in the way of training men employees.

Recently we have inaugurated a training course for women machine operators and a department has been equipped wherein these women are instructed in the operation of machine tools, such as lathes, drill press, screw machines, grinders and milling machines. This department is also to train women who are to work on mechanical fitting.

In addition to this we have a training school for instructing women employees in electrical work, such as winding, taping, soldering, connecting and insulating.

These schools are primarily for beginners and it is the plan to obtain women for these training sections through our centralized Employment Department. Then, when any manufacturing department wishes help, it will obtain it from the training section.

The instructor from these training sections is a high-grade man assisted by women, and these instructors are carefully selected from our own best employees.

The length of the training period runs from two to three days

up to three to four weeks, depending upon the difficulty of the occupation and the adaptability of the woman being trained.

We have also recently inaugurated a training school for women clerks and we have had for some time a training school for stenographers, typists, tracers and dictaphone operators.

We believe that preliminary training is very desirable for both men and women and that if equipment and space are allowable, special training departments should be established wherever the nature of the work will permit it.

(Signed) Robt. L. Wilson,
Assistant General Superintendent.

NORTON GRINDING COMPANY

Below is a list of men from the Norton Co., Worcester, taking a summer course in the Worcester Trade School to qualify in an eight weeks’ course as all round machine hands. Five other factories are sending similar groups of employees. Their wages will soon be from 30 per cent. to 100 per cent. more than ever before, which indicates in a measure their increased service in the war emergency.

Could anything indicate better than this group in training for all round machine hands, and the statement of their previous experience which follows, the necessity of bringing men like them into our factories, first giving them an intensive training which develops their latent abilities?

Vertical Milling—two weeks in school. Previous experience, plumber and punch press operator. Norton.

Sharpening Milling Cutter on Norton Tool Grinder—seven weeks in school. Previous experience, two years boiler factory and teamster. Norton.

MACHINISTS’ CLASS, NORTON COMPANIES, AT WORCESTER TRADE SCHOOL, SUMMER OF 1918.

MACHINISTS’ CLASS, NORTON COMPANIES, AT WORCESTER TRADE SCHOOL, SUMMER OF 1918.

Taking an eight-weeks’ course of intensive training fitting them to take places in a general machine shop. This course carries them much farther than machine operators.

FEMALE EMPLOYEES AT NORTON COMPANY, WORCESTER, MASS., JULY, 1918, IN KHAKI UNIFORM.

Grinding on Brown & Sharpe universal machine; 5 weeks in school; previous experience, designer in corset shop (Norton).

Operating Warner & Swasey turret lathe; no previous experience in machine shop; 8 weeks in school and now earns 45 cents per hour p. w. (Norton).

Learning bench work; one of these men in school 6 weeks; previous to coming here owned a butcher shop (Norton).

DETROIT STEEL PRODUCTS CO.

Detroit, Michigan

Some time ago it became necessary to increase the number of skilled mechanics in the steel spring business and a company in Detroit segregated a group of handymen under a skilled mechanic to see if they could acquire the necessary skill in a period less than three years which was then the admitted necessary time for complete apprenticeship. The plan had the assistance of a man trained in teaching methods but without large knowledge of the special business in hand. After four weeks’ training an operator was put on production work who equalled the average mechanic in this line of work and who in three months was leading the production of the shop. This initial success led to the establishment of schooling as the proper method of securing skilled help in this factory.

The elements most desirable in industrial training are:

1. Separation of the training department from production so as to avoid interference with production and also interference with the operators in training.

2. Supplying a full knowledge of the special business or trade through an instructor fully trained.

3. Supplying a full knowledge of teaching methods through an instructor who can act as a vehicle for the transfer of trade information in simple language to the new operators.

4. Application of the students’ time to learning one simple operation, preferably on a subdivided operation.