El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-03-10

r. Efficiency is the shibboleth Of
=, modern business. Everything
men and machinery, must be
brought to the highest point Of pro-
ductivity with no letdown in quality.
Every man is alert to eliminate risk
in business, so that each and every
year will show a profit To accomplish
this it is imperative that scientific
safeguarding methods must be main
tanned in office and factory, or intro
duced where they do not already ex-
list Hence new profession has
sprung into being within the last de-
cade-that of the efficiency engineer,
or business doctor.
In one of the packing rooms Of
wholesale candy concern, where the
choicest candies We're boxed by hand.
an efficiency engineer noticed girl
reputed to be the fastest packer on
that floor. The girls motions were
almost lightning-Iik and machine-like
in their rhythmic regularity. But
after watching her for some minutes
the expert detected at least six I'M
necessary motions to the filling OF ev-
cry box. He pointed out where she
might save her strength and increase
her efficiency by eliminating the
needless employment Of arms ana
hands, with the result that that partic-
ular girls output was increased by
full gross per day.
Helps Men Earn MOre.
A certain building contract called for
the laying of several millicn bricks
and the employment of large force
of bricklayers There was also
time-contract carrying penalty for
delay, with a corresponding bonus for
each delay saved in raising the walls.
An efficiency expert noticed that
when the wall was about waist-high
above the scaffold, a bricklayer went
through II distinct motions in laying
a single brick. He instituted the fol-
lowing reforms: All whole brick was
piled by a boy on a small platform at
the height of the brick1ayer's hand;
only sound and shapely brick were
selected; half bricks were placed with
in easy reach; so with the tray of NOR
tar. The two operations OF smoothing
off the superfluous mortar between
layers of brick were eliminated by
having the boy perform the operation
with a wide smoothing board. doing
three or four seams at once. BY these
simple means the number OF every
brickIayer's motions was cut in two,
with the result that each man could
lay a thousand more brick in each
days work with no increase of bod
fly energy, and the bricklayer who
formerly earned SIS now earns IS with
out working harder or performing
as many physical movements as under
the old system.
These examples show what is accom-
plished by the efficiency engineer IN
little things By the scope of his
work is usually much broader, far
reaching. and searching. There are
regularly organized firms of aggrega-
lions of experts in nearly every great
city, who for a stipulated retainer.
will take hold Of business, go
through it, tell why it lost or failed
TO make money last year, put a fling
er on leakage OF waste suggest the
installation of time and money saving
devices. plan short cuts" for this or
that process, advise the "scrapping'
of old yet efficient machinery and the
purchase of new, and actually guaran-
tee results If the advice is followed
In a town of central New York was
located a firm engaged in the manu-
facture of a staple mechanical de-
vice and employing about 100 hands
the year round. There was no COM
petition and no partners. Mr.. Manu-
facturer had built up the business
from the ground. and was rated as be-
ing worth million dollars. For
some years he estimated that his
factory netted him an annual net profit
OF SIS 600.
Business Doctor Called In.
But suddenly he awoke to the fact
that he was not making that profit
nor anything like it There was no
system OF accounting and never
had been, merely a taken for granted
liberal margin of profit. So business
doctor was called in to diagnose the
trouble. He found that almost the
entire working force in both factory
and office was composed of men who
had grown gray in the service and
low in efficiency. The machinery was
in only average condition. The meth
DDS of transmission from foundry to
finishing room were slow and anti
quated, wheel barrows and man power /
being ned where mechanical over
head carriers should have been adopt (
ed There was no record OF prices
paid for raw materials, and no allow
anee for overhead charges. As a mat
ter of fact the firm for 10 years past
had been uneonsciously but actually
losing money on every machine ship
ped
Makes Many Reforms.
The efficiency engineer at once in
stituted sweeping reforms in both fac
tory and office. Costly and wasteful |
methods were abolished
Outworn machinery was condemned to /
the scrap heap. Inefficient or ineffect-
i've employees were retired or pension
ed. A rigid system of work cards and |
cost accounting was installed. New
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