The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-08-29

system will be fully established In
the navy yards OF the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts.
The plan will eventually be extend
ed to the battleships themselves. In
selecting the navy yards for the first
application of the principles of scien-
tific management, Secretary Meyer
reasons thus:
The fleet is the thing. That is, ev-
erything done for the navy should
work toward the greater efficiency OIL
the navy as self-sustaining. seago-
ing aggregation of ships, with the
highest possible potential fighting
power The navy yards exist only for
the purpose of building and maintain
/ ing battleships and other naval YES
/ sells.
"Of themselves. the yards have no
reason Tor existence, and, therefore,
progress in the navy yards consists
in making them better able TO care
| for the fleet AS the battleships begin
and end their existence in navy yards
and visit them frequently for repairs
and alterations, upon the navy yards
rests primarily the efficiency of the
battleship. Therefore, to increase the
efficiency of the fleet, the yards them
t selves must first be improved to give
better and cheaper methods of con-
struction and repair
| Hence, the application of the prin-
ciples of scientific management to the
navy yards before extending it in all
| its details to the battleships them
selves.
| According to the present plan, each
yard will have as it's active head an
officer who will fill the requirements
of an efficiency engineer" There
will still be officers in charge of the
different details of the navy ward
plants, as the power plant, the depart
ment of design, the purchasing de-
partment, the shop department and
the constructing department, but it
will be the task of efficiency engi-
neers to coordinate all these factors,
and many others, for the one great,
central purpose of efficient and
economical production.
| He must supervise not only the di-
rection of the sources of power in ma
ture, but as working upon the ma
chimes which turn out the guns or 9th
er products used in battleship con-
! struction or repair. More than that,
| however, he must include under his
direction the human element, as rep
resented by the men operating the
! machines, now so infinite in their
variety and use as to perform almost
/ every task which was once done by
! hand. The industrial engineer, under
| scientific management, must not only
be man of technical skill in direct
| ing a great manufacturing plant, but
he must also be able to manage men
and determine policies in fields which
the financial or commercial men has
heretofore considered exclusively his
own
The first task of the efficiency engi-
neer, under scientific management, is
to make what are called, in the langu-
age of the new science assays"
That is, he must analyze the business
with which he is concerned. In the
navy yards, he will be obliged to col
lect and tabulate statistics about,
and determine accurately the cost OF
every operation from making a 14-in
/ gun to putting rivets in a piece Of ar
NOR plate.
! These costs as successfully de
termined with each job, must be com
pared with a standard, that he NAV
I determine whether they are normal
and, If not. see wherein they are
at variance with what they should
be. He must make inquiry into the
means and methods used for receiv-
ing, handling, and issuing materials
4 routing and transporting these mater.
fals from one process to another dur.
ing manufacture, the general arrange
ment of the plant. and the effect OF
this arrangement upon economy OF
operation.
A distinct feature of this assay
work, and in fact, what is considered
its real object, is the reduction OF
data thus gathered to graphic form
Experts declare that it is nothing less
than wonderful to see the amount OF
new knowledge manufacturer may
gain about business with which he
believes himself thoroughly familiar
by the plotting OF various sorts OF
data in charts
On these, for example, will be
chartered, SO as to visualize them, the
movements of various materials from
place to place in navy yard in con
nection with installing the electrical
system in a $1,000 ton battleship. By
, this method, it is claimed, wastes OF
time and labor which might remain
5 buried forever in page of statistics
r or page Of reports, become instant
ly revealed. Once discovered, it Is
h claimed the problem of rectifying
Y these errors, or eliminatisg waste
is easy.
l. The second phase of industrial en-
gineering, sometimes called the act
n i've or creative branch, as distinguish
ed from the assay Or passive side
7. Is that which effects improvements
when the ASSAY has shown whore