Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-01-31
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.


sT've found way to prevent favor
itism in my factory" said the president
Of the International Air Engine COM
pany. His friends who were dining
with him at the club, both of them be-
ing manufacturers, looked interested.
''In the old days." he went on, 'swhen
every little shop manufactured it's own
goods, the proprietor had at most a
couple of apprentices. He knew them
well, of course, and watched them
every day at their work. If one of
them got a good idea, he was at once
given credit for it. But under present
conditions such thing is not possible.
There are 1,600 men in my factory.
don't know half of them by sight. 1t is
impossible that l should. If one Of
these men gets good idea or makes a
valuable suggestion, how am to know
that he gets the proper credit or recog-
milton? Trust to my foremen and man.
ayers, you say. But you can't always
trust to foremen and managers any
more than you can always trust men
occupying other positions. But I've
found way to make sure that the
right man gets the credit for all he
does.
5Tnis is the way it came about: In
to every International air engine go 81
pieces which are exactly alike. They
are stamped out of sheet metal by a
punch press at the rate of so a min
ute. Ever since we started making
engines these pieces have then been
turned over to the men on the filing
job, who filed three little notches in
each piece with hand file. When we
started making our engines, these little
notches were the close working parts
of the machine and were therefore filed
by hand with great care.
"One day man on the file job got
an idea. He knew that the pieces he
was filing were no longer the close
working parts of the machine. He
wondered why the punch press fixtures
were not changed so that the little
notches should be cut out at the same
time with the restsef the pieces. He
lufun-t stop 10 tifizfH t4aflt pe1HaBs II ne
made such suggestion me nine men
on the filing be2en might be thrown
out Of work, at least in that depart
ment. At any rate, he spoke to his
foreman about it.
"'What's the use,' he said, of doing
all this work by hand when it might
as well all be done at the same time
bv the puncL presSP
'The foreman knew perfectly well
that he ought to have thought of that
same thing months before, and he was
not pleased with the suggestion. He
gave the workman little encourage
ment.
eff you'd work harder and spend
less time thinking about why we do
things the way we do, you'd get along
BETTER he said.
cat the same time he cherished the
suggestion, and he went to work and
figured out that if it was adopted the
company would save at least $1,000
a year. He even went so far as to
have a few pieces stamped with the
notches in them and tried them in
an engine. Nobody knew the differ
ence, and the machine worked as we'll
as the rest.
'It happened that we had new
superintendent at the time. Naturally
he was anxious to make good show
ing. The smart foreman went to him
with the suggestion he had stolen from
the workman on the filing job. He had
his figures and models all ready.
"'Here's a little idea of mine,' the
foreman said as lie laid his plan be-
fore the superintendent, which hope
you'll appreciate. If you adopt it, and
don't see how you can fail to adopt
it, it will save the company not less
than $4,000 a year. I'll trust to you to
see that it doesn't knock me out of a
job. We use 405 of these pieces every
day. At present the three little notches
on each piece are filed by hand. Nine
men do nothing else. We can just as
well have the notches cut by the punch
press at the same time that it cuts out
the piece. Doit that way, and you can
lay off nine filers for good. It'll save
the company $1,000 a year anyway
'It happened that the salary of the
new superintendent was just $1,000 a
year. 1t struck him that it would be
an extremely happy hit to save the
amount of his yearly salary in a single
stroke within less than two months Of
the time he went to work. At the same
time he didn't like the foreman of the
file job. That gentleman impressed
him as being tricky, which shows that
the superintendent was a good judge
of human nature. Besides being a
young and new man he didn't like
anything which might seem to indicate
that anybody could tell him anything
about the business. So he gave the
foreman little apparent attention. He
took care, however, to gather up all the
foreman's models and figures and dis
missed him with the statement that he
would look the matter over when he
got time.
Ixa II