Part 14

Considering carefully the great scheme of manufacturing, and the immense industrial problem of supplying the wants of the people of this great country and providing for the vast volume of trade that goes abroad, by the modern manufacturing plants equipped with all that is latest and best in machinery for every conceivable purpose, it should not be forgotten that, as the very basis and foundation of the whole, stands the modern _machine tool_, and that it is principally to the great and important development of this that we owe primarily our industrial growth and prosperity as a manufacturing nation. To the machine tool may easily be traced the gradual but continued upward tendency of the mechanic and his methods, from the hard physical toil and small pay of the early days, to the immeasurably lighter exertion and increased compensation made possible by the highly developed condition of the automatic machines of the present day. It has been an oft─repeated victory of "mind over matter," wherein _brains_ have won where _hands_ made but little advance; _ideas_ have developed wonderful mechanisms that have revolutionized the earlier methods of manufacturing and raised the standard of mechanical excellence beyond what was thought possible years ago, and at the same time reduced the cost to a fraction of its former amount.

Here, again, the capitalist furnished the means whereby the practical realization of the ingenious designs of the mechanic's fertile brain became possible, and the successful combination of capital and labor brought success to both.

=Combinations of Capital.= But here comes our critical labor agitator again with the comment: "It is all very well to talk about the amicable relations of capital and labor, and how each ought to help the other, but how about the great combinations of capital that we ordinarily call "trusts"? To give a correct and intelligent, as well as a fair and truthful answer to this question, we must know the _conditions_ under which the combination is formed, the _plan_ upon which it is organized, and the _object_ of its formation. As these are not given, we must assume the conditions of some well─known combination. Let it be the United States Steel Corporation. One of the foremost men in this combination has defined his position on the subject, and in so doing has outlined the policy of the corporation, by saying:

"Any combination of capital which operates, _first_, to prevent competition; _second_, to increase the price of the product; and _third_, to reduce the wages of the workmen, is working under a trio of wrong principles that sooner or later will bring about disaster."

Let us see how the actual operation of this combination of capital really works out in practice.

_First_──The Steel Corporation has never sought to prevent competition. Steel mills, large and small, have operated when, where, and how they pleased, with no interference from the Steel Corporation.

_Second_──The price of steel has not been increased; on the contrary, it has been greatly reduced under its management. Thirty years ago a very indifferent quality of machine steel cost from 8 to 12 cents per pound. To─day ordinary machine steel of a much better quality than that mentioned above can be had for 2 cents a pound or less.

_Third_──The wages of workmen have not only not been reduced, but have actually been doubled since the labor troubles in the steel mills known as the "Homestead Strike" (1892). The Steel Corporation has gone much further than to double the wages of the steel workers. They have made it possible for the workmen to become partners in the great work of the corporation, by obligating themselves to sell to their workmen a certain amount each year of stock in the corporation, so that the men who labor in the mills may also become part owners and

## participate in the dividends resulting from their work on exactly the

same percentage as the capitalist himself does.

Our critic comes back to the charge by saying that "the Steel Corporation has bought up many steel plants in various parts of the country, and added them to its already enormous properties." Quite true. And for what purpose? Let us see what they do with these plants. How do they manage this part of the business? What is their plan of working? The conditions were these: Before the advent of the United States Steel Corporation, there were many isolated steel manufacturing plants, each being equipped for the making of a number of kinds of steel products──for instance, steel railroad rails, structural steel, merchant bar steel, steel boiler─plates, steel tank─plates, and so on. The equipment necessary for producing these different forms of steel was very expensive; and inasmuch as a considerable portion of this equipment for some particular kind of product would necessarily be idle on account of the fluctuations of trade, the expense burden was abnormally high on account of this idle equipment. How has this condition been handled by the Steel Corporation? This has been the plan: Suppose they have purchased five plants, each making the five classes of product indicated above, and working under the disadvantages of a variety of products. These plants are examined, and inventories made of their equipments. It is then decided which mill is best adapted for making each one of the five classes of products. Then there is a redistribution of the equipment of the plants, placing in the plant selected for it all that in the several plants is adapted to a certain product; removing all the machinery from this plant that is not adapted to the particular product to be turned out, to be distributed among the other plants according to the

## particular class of products for which each one is designed. Thus

each plant is equipped to turn out the single class of product which is most appropriate for it, by drawing upon the other plants for such machinery as they have which may supplement its own in this line.

By this plan, each plant makes but one class of product. Having the best machinery from all the plants for this purpose, and concentrating its energies on a single class, it is enabled not only to turn out a better product, but to turn it out much more economically than before. As the workmen become more expert on their single line of product, they work more efficiently and consequently earn higher wages. All these conditions, producing an economical output, enable the manufacturers to reduce the selling price.

The conditions of economy brought about in the management of the manufacturing operations and in marketing the product, are very marked when a large number of plants operate under one general head. Again, with the immense amount of capital at the disposal of such a corporation, it is enabled to secure the services of the best experts, and the most valuable processes in existence.

There are many other advantages, not only to the corporation and its employees, but to the users of its products, and so to the general public, when a combination of capital is _honestly made and honestly administered_.

=Betterment of Industrial Conditions.= What has been said of the Steel Corporation as to favoring of employees, has been duplicated in various ways by different manufacturers all over the country. Factory sites have been beautified by landscape gardening, and trees and shrubbery have made the surroundings of working men and women pleasant and attractive. Land has been purchased, and workingmen's homes built and rented to them at fair rates. Factory dining rooms are provided; reading rooms, libraries, gymnasiums, clubs, and social organizations are inaugurated; emergency hospitals or "first aid" rooms are arranged, with all or nearly all these services free except that provided in dining rooms, which is furnished at actual cost. More recently, a firm in Connecticut announces that it will furnish free medical attendance to all its employees and their families.

Schools have been established for apprentices, wherein they receive such technical instruction as may be necessary to their success in the trade they are learning──and this, not only without expense to themselves or to their parents, but they are paid by the hour for time spent in their school work, the same as for their time in the shop.

To foster a practical interest in the work of the shops, many concerns have what is called the _Suggestion System_, whereby the employees may make written suggestions of any improvements which they desire as to shop methods and routine, the design and construction of the product, and many kindred subjects, the best suggestions made each month receiving prizes.

All of these matters emphasize the fact that the mutual interests of the capitalist who manufactures and sells, and of the employee by the efforts of whose hand and brain the products are being turned out, are each year being recognized and in a very large majority of cases are being acted upon in good faith.

=Methods of Modern Manufacturing.= In former times, machines were built one at a time or in very small lots. Parts were made and fitted to the particular machine to which they belonged; and while the same general form and dimensions were practically maintained, there was no attempt made to render the several parts so exact as to fit upon any other machine than the one for which they were intended. Systems of gauges had not been developed, and the planer was yet a comparatively new tool; much work was still done by hand, the hammer, the cold chisel, and the file being the chief reliance of a large majority of machinists. This was the state of the machine shop and its methods nearly up to the year 1800.

=Interchangeable Manufacturing.= The use of milling cutters and the commencement of practically interchangeable manufacturing, came into machine shop practice at nearly the same time. It has been said that "but for the milling machine, there would have been no such thing as interchangeable manufacturing." It might be said with quite as much truth, that if the system of interchangeable manufacturing had not been conceived, there would have been little need for the milling machine. Each, to a great extent, depended very much upon the development of the other──and upon a third factor, the conception and development of the method of handling work (particularly small parts) in jigs and fixtures.

Milling cutters were made in America by one of the early machinists, a Frenchman named Vaucanson, who died in 1782. A sample of these had a hexagonal instead of a round hole, and the pitch of the teeth was very fine, so that the cutter resembled a saw rather than those at present in use. It is said that a man by the name of Bodmer, in Manchester, England, had made a milling machine in 1824.

It is altogether probable that Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, had built and used milling machines previous to this date, as the following item of mechanical history would seem to indicate. In January, 1798, Eli Whitney received from the United States Government an order to furnish ten thousand muskets, of which four thousand were to be delivered in one year, and the balance in two years. Mr. Whitney went at the undertaking in a very thorough and systematic manner. He first developed a water power; then erected suitable buildings; considered and developed ways and means for a larger and better product than had previously been realized; designed and built machinery to effect it; and trained workmen to a degree of skill necessary to success in their new employment.

The difficulties which Mr. Whitney encountered and the obstacles which he had to overcome, were so much greater than he anticipated that it was really eight years instead of two before he had succeeded in completing the government order for the ten thousand muskets. However, the progress which he had made in this new enterprise, and the character of the product which he turned out and delivered, were so satisfactory to the government officials that Congress treated him with the greatest courtesy and consideration.

His shops were situated in the city of New Haven, Conn., and soon became the Mecca of government officials, manufacturers, traveling notables, and foreigners, who had heard of this wonderful American mechanic and came to see his work for themselves──to find that the system, the machines, and the tools which he had perfected were well worth the journey. His innovations in the manufacture of arms formed as great an epoch in mechanical history as had his invention of the cotton gin.

Jigs and fixtures were among his equipment; and it is altogether probable that milling machines were also in use, since he must have had practical knowledge of the utility of the milling cutter at this time, as it is generally assumed that the first practical use of the milling machine was in the making of parts of muskets.

The buildings which Mr. Whitney erected for his use were substantial stone structures, and stand in a part of the city called in his honor "Whitneyville." They form a part of the extensive plant of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

At this point and at this early day, therefore, was inaugurated the modern system of interchangeable manufacturing──or the manufacturing, in large numbers, of duplicate parts, within such a limited degree of variation as to admit of their ready interchangeability with one another. The system was not one that would be confined to the manufacture of arms, but was adaptable to the production of all kinds of small and moderate─sized machinery, and was the initial effort which in due time revolutionized the then existing shop methods, and which has since built up the American system of manufacturing to the proud distinction of being superior to anything of the kind in other manufacturing countries.

In the operations of modern manufacturing, the principal object sought is to turn out the product economically and accurately. To produce these results economically, the parts must be produced very rapidly. To produce them rapidly, not only must there be a very complete and efficient equipment of machines, attachments, tools, jigs, fixtures, and gauges or measuring devices, but there must also be a very complete system of shop methods by which the operation of this equipment is carried on.

It has been well said that "the man in whose brain the manufacturing system was born was he who first took a piece of scrap iron and drilled two holes in it, to guide a drill in making another piece with two holes in it the same distance apart as in the first piece." The men who now fill our drafting rooms and tool rooms, and who devise and construct tools for the production of interchangeable metal parts, are his descendants. They have made possible the manufacture of the breech─loading gun, the typewriter, the cheap sewing machine, the cash register, the machine─made watch, the automobile, as well as a thousand and one other mechanical articles, machines, and devices which form an integral part of our twentieth─century civilization.

To render these systems efficient and economical for these purposes, the work must be _repetition or duplicate work_. That is, there must be very large numbers of each of the different parts; and to carry out the scheme of operation for the division and subdivision of work; a single operation on a large number of parts is performed; then the work is handled again, perhaps in another machine, and another operation is performed; and so on until the part is complete. Thus a piece of comparatively simple form may require a large number of separate and distinct operations to complete it. But, as each single operation is performed by one operator, he may give his undivided attention to the accuracy of that operation; hence very accurate work can be produced.

[Illustration: A MACHINE SHOP WITH GALLERIES AT THE SHIPBUILDING PLANT OF THE GAS ENGINE & POWER CO. AND CHARLES L. SEABURY & CO., CONSOLIDATED]

In the development of these systems, the work has continually grown more and more complex, as have also the requirements as to the buildings in which manufacturing work is performed, and as to the equipment necessary to perform it. Conditions have been continually changing; greater speed as well as greater accuracy in all machine operations has been demanded; and a largely increased output per employee has been required. So great and urgent has been this demand that the employee of to─day will turn out from three to ten times the volume of product of a given kind that he did only a few years ago. Undoubtedly this result has been brought about in great measure by the great improvement in machines, tools, and fixtures. Much is also due to the use of tools composed of high─speed steel; still more, to the employment of improved systems for handling work.

But all of these do not fully explain the enormous increase in product per employee. This has been brought about by various methods of shop management. One of these is the specialization of operations and the division and subdivision of departments, whereby each operator has a certain well─defined and very limited number of operations to perform. These operations he performs over and over, hundreds and sometimes thousands of times daily, until he becomes so accustomed to each movement that the operations are performed not only with great rapidity but also with great accuracy. Still another factor in the question of individual output, is the efforts that have been made through systems of premiums, bonus, and similar methods of reward for individual effort when the output reaches or exceeds a certain fixed limit. These rewards are not confined to the operatives, but are often extended to the foremen, assistant foremen, gang bosses, and others of the "non─productive" force who have indirectly contributed to the efficiency of individuals and hence to departmental efficiency.

In the succeeding articles, these matters will be taken up and treated in detail, giving the actual practice as now prevailing in some of the best organized manufacturing plants.

MACHINE SHOP MANAGEMENT

=Modern Meaning of Shop Management.= The present understanding of the term _Shop Management_ is quite different from the sense in which it was used years ago. Formerly the management of the shop was vested in a _superintendent_ whose duties consisted in purchasing material, inspecting it when it was received, turning it over to the foreman, and in a general way looking after the work as it was being performed. In addition to these duties, he frequently handled the selling of the product, the collection of accounts, and the proper provision for meeting the pay─roll on pay─days. He also had a general supervision over the grounds and buildings and their care and maintenance, as well as the provision for power, lighting, and heating. By this arrangement of duties, it will be seen that comparatively little time was devoted to actual shop operations, and much time to different lines of duties that might more economically and often quite as efficiently be performed by assistants at a much lower rate of pay.

In the modern methods of shop management, all these things are changed. The specialization of workmanship, the division of duties, the limiting of responsibilities──each restricted within narrow limits by sharply defined regulations──have reduced the variety of operations of the workman, and of responsibilities and duties of the men who direct manufacturing work.

We find the purchasing of material and supplies in charge of a _Purchasing Agent_. We find these purchases checked by a _Receiving Clerk_, turned over to a _Storekeeper_, and subject to examination by a regular _Inspector_. They are then put into the storeroom, whence they are drawn as needed for the different departments, the foremen of which sign definite orders for such kinds, quantities, and qualities as may be needed, specifying the purposes for which they are to be used or the particular orders to which they are to be charged. When issued, they are receipted for by the person receiving them. All this is conducted with the same regard for business rules as if the foreman were making a purchase on his own account and paying for the goods. We find the selling of the product in the hands of an expert _Sales Manager_, often assisted by a corps of engineers, draftsmen, bookkeepers, and clerks, numbering more persons than the entire factory's force of non─producers twenty years previously. A _Credit and Collection Department_ attends to all collections, and the _Treasurer_ and _Cashier_ see to it that the money for the pay─roll is on hand when wanted. A _Production Engineer_ regulates the volume of work going into the shop, and the sequence of mechanical operations by which each piece or part is to be machined and perfected. An assistant to the Superintendent looks after the condition and maintenance of grounds and buildings, yards, and the transportation facilities of the plant.

By these developments of the system of management into a division of duties and responsibilities, the time, attention, and abilities of the Superintendent may be devoted to his legitimate purposes of _superintendence_ or _supervision_, planning and directing the work of the assistants and heads of departments.

=A Typical Manufacturing Plant.= For the purpose of taking up the question of Management in a systematic and practical manner, we must first assume that we have a shop to manage; and secondly, that it is of the usual type of manufacturing plant, built, organized, and managed at the present day. The plan of such a plant is given in Fig. 1.

In planning a plant of this character, provision must primarily be made for the various departments for the following purposes:

1. An _Engineering Department_, wherein the machines forming the product may be designed and the drawings made for the various classes of mechanics who are to perform the work of turning out the product.

2. A _Pattern─Making Department_, in which the necessary patterns are made for use in the foundry for producing the castings.

3. A _Forge Shop_, capable of producing such forgings as are required in the machinery to be built.

4. An _Iron and Brass Foundry_, in which may be produced the rough castings of the parts that are to enter into the machines constituting the product.

5. _Manufacturing Departments_, in which all parts (large and small) of the product are made from the rough stock──such as castings, forgings, bar stock, and the like, to the completed parts ready for assembling.

6. _Assembling and Erecting Departments_, in which individual parts may be assembled into groups of related parts, and these erected into complete machines.

7. A _Power Plant_, containing the proper equipment for furnishing the necessary power for driving the machinery in these various departments, and for providing lighting and heating facilities for the plant.

[Illustration: Fig. 1. Typical Layout of a Manufacturing Plant.]

The _General Office_ of the concern is of course understood; but, as it cannot properly be classed with departments of the plant, it is not included in the above enumeration.

In addition to the above list of principal departments, there will be the following──quite as necessary, but secondary in importance:

1. The _Transportation System_, including shop and yard tracks and cars, elevators, cranes, hoists, and all similar appliances for handling material.

2. The _Tool Room_, for making tools, jigs, and fixtures, and for properly storing them in a convenient manner for issuing when they are called for.

3. An _Experimental Room_, which all progressive concerns find necessary in the development of their product.

4. The _Store─Room_, in which are stored the raw material and the purchased stock, either partly or completely manufactured, which are issued to the different departments as needed for their daily routine work.

5. The _Finished Parts Store─Room_, in which the smaller parts of the product, as fast as they are completed, are stored and held until wanted for the process of assembling.