The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-07-04
BUSINESS EFFICIENCY.
BY H. J. Barrett.

"(ireat strides have been taken in
the past 20 years in applying efficiency
principles to production problems" re-
marked a young efficiency expert who
is in charge Of what is termed the
planning department Of q great de-
partment store.
'The opportunities for effecting vast
savings in this direction are immense.
Take my own case. for example. The
books indicate that reforms which I
have instituted during the two years I
have been connected with this concern
have cut expenses to the tune Of near
~ 100000 annually--this with no sac
rifice Of sales or service.
II came in here behind the counter
as n youngster Of 81. felt that here
was a chance for the exertion Of my
efficiency training. I began to sug-,
gest reform after reform and II was
not long before was assigned
rowing commissioned consider the
entire establishment my field and to
effect changes wherever they seemed
practicable.
zone Of my first steps was to study
the messenger service. The boys d.
vided into squads. were located at va
rious convenient points about the
store. subject to call from any ono
who wanted a message delivered. I
felt that this idea was wrong. but
knew that before could devise q
better method l must ascertain just
how their time was consumed. Over
30 per cent of their time. it developed.
was devoted to obtaining sales books
from the central station at which they
were deposited. An analysis of the
situation revealed the fact that it was
perfectly practicable to keep the books
where they could be secured with little
effort. thus saving over 30 per cent of
the boys time.
Another plan was the installation
OF an inter-dcpartmental mailing sys-
tenn. Whenever one wished to COM
municate with a distant department he
called messenger boy and despatched
him with the note. Most OF these
epistles were not Of an urgent char
acter. They could just as we'll wait
an hour for delivery.
1T was a simple matter to lay out
a route without ovcrlaps which could
be covered hourly by couple Of girls.
4 central office eQuippd with pigeon
holes serves for the sorting Of the mail
matter. As a consequence Of the in
stallation Of this simple system, a
couple Of carriers take care OF thou
sands OF messages which were pre-
,yiously despatched by scores Of boys.
This step still further reduced the
duties OF our force of messenger boys.
My next step was to ccntralize the
messenger service. Instead of having
the boys located in, squads about the
store I had them assembled at CEN
trail point under the direction of a
dispatcher. who sits at switchboard.
Before him Is a long board divided into
numbered compartments. one for each
boy. Suppose a call comes for a mes
senger. The despatcheE sends one. at
the same time filling out a slip which
has blank spaces for Time Left, Time
Returned, Dept. No. -. Date, Mes
sengers No. -, and placing it in
the boys pigeon hole. Upon the lat
ter's return the time consumed is en-
tered and the slip is placed in a num-
bered box corresponding to the COM
partn,ent which is assigned him. The
accumulated slips at the days end
represent the days activities.
AT the end of each week the time
consumed per GRAND is averaged and
three prizes awarded the boys making
the best showing. Today our mes
sengcr force numbers over 100 less
than when I assailed the problem and
the service is Improved
"Thc daily payroll OF over 100 boys
is an item of Importance. A few
weeks study upon my part. coupled
with efficiency experience, resulted In
this saving