Increasing Efficiency In Business, Walter Dill Scott [best novels for teenagers .TXT] 📗
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of sleeping, and of caring for all the needs
of body and mind are for most persons mainly
a matter of habit, yet they, to a large extent,
determine the condition of health and the
length of days.
We become fond of doing things in the
manner to which we have become habituated.
This tendency manifests itself to an abnormal
degree in the drinking and the smoking habit.
In a lesser degree we see the same thing in the
attachment of the babe for his pacifier and the
child for his chewing gum. Habit creates a
craving for the good as well as for the bad.
The ways to which we have become habituated
seem pleasing to us whether they be good or
bad. There is truth in the proverb, “Train
up a child in the way he should go and when
he is old, he will not depart from it.” It might
be added that the child will not want to depart
from the way to which he has been trained, for
<p 323>
the habits thus acquired beget a fondness for
the acts themselves.
It is very unusual for any one to acquire
a language after the age of twenty so as to
speak it without a foreign accent. All other
personal habits are like the use of language in
that they are acquired during the early years
and are not easily changed. So far as personal
habits are concerned, but little change
need be anticipated after the twentieth year.
SOCIAL HABITS
Our treatment of others is largely a matter
of habit. We are affable or gruff according
to habit. Honesty and dishonesty in dealing
with others is, in the main, a matter of habit.
The honest man is the one who takes honesty
for granted and acts honestly from habit.
So soon as he begins to observe that he is an
honest man, to call attention to the fact, and
to be much impressed by the honor of his
choices—at that moment suspicion of him
should be entertained, for honesty has with
him ceased to be a habit.
<p 324>
We classify individuals largely by means
of their personal and social habits. By these
the gentleman is recognized as surely as the
boor. By means of them we select our friends
and engage new employees. Efficiency in
every life calling depends upon our success in
dealing with people. Such success is largely
dependent upon the social habits that we
acquire.
OCCUPATION HABITS
Until the recent rise of interest in psychology,
relatively little attention had been given
to the study of those habits which are developed
in business. When proper care is not
given to the formation of these habits developed
in connection with one’s daily occupation,
wrong habits are certain to appear. The mason
makes two motions with his trowel where
he should make but one. The accountant
substitutes “short cuts” in adding where all
the operations should be taken in regular order
and made as automatic as the few short cuts
previously developed. The executive has the
<p 325>
habit of depending upon “desultory” memory
where the logical should be developed. The
salesman in speaking to a critical customer
says “he don’t,” instead of saying “he doesn’t”;
“gents’ goods” instead of “men’s goods.”
Every investigation into the human actions
and the human methods of thinking as involved
in business reveals the presence of unfortunate
habits such as the examples here cited.
Therefore, one of the most noteworthy events
in the business and industrial world of the last
twenty years is the study of the occupation
habits of the workman to which reference was
made in the first paragraphs of this chapter.
The research has been especially successful
in dealing with the occupation habits of mechanics.
The fundamental discovery was made that
the workman’s occupation habits are not such
as enable him to accomplish his task in an
economical and efficient manner. To discover
what occupation habits should be developed,
experts in each of several typical
establishments were assigned the task of
<p 326>
making a careful study of every movement of
eye, hand, foot, and body, and the rate and
sequence of all the movements necessary for
performing single tasks most easily and efficiently.
The experts were also to study the
tools, the materials, and conditions best
adapted to the work. In general, the experts
found the greatest opportunity for improvement
in the *movements of the men. As a
result of this research, numerous processes
have been scientifically standardized. The
workmen have been taught the new and better
way and have been drilled till the processes
have been, so far as possible, reduced to occupation
habits. The workmen have been easily
induced to acquire the new habits, as their
earning capacity is thereby greatly increased.
Ordinarily, a considerable bonus is awarded to
all workmen who develop the desired habits
and perform the task exactly as prescribed by
the expert.
An investigation into the results secured
from the adoption of this scientific attempt
to study and to regulate the occupation
<p 327>
habits of workmen reveals most gratifying
success.
Mr. H. R. Hathaway, an expert engineer,
testifies that “under this system a workman
can turn out from two to four times as much
work” as he was able to accomplish when
working with his old habits,
Mr. Lewis Sanders, of the General Engineering
Company, New York, reports most
satisfactory results from the introduction of
this systematic attempt to regulate the occupation
habits of employees. A typical example
which he reports is the following: It
regularly took a man one minute and forty
seconds to set a piece in a jig. “After a study
of the exact motions required to pick the piece
up and set it accurately, we showed the same
man how to do it in twenty seconds.” This
workman soon reduced the correct movement
to habit, attained the specified speed, and
without in any way working harder than formerly
was assisted to increase his efficiency four
hundred per cent.
A well-known engineering company re-
<p 328>
quired the reading of twelve thermometers,
each every two minutes. The man assigned
to the task could rarely read so many as
eight of them in the two minutes. An expert
took up the problem and at first could
do no better than the first man. The expert
studied the most favorable position of the
head and eyes for reading, eliminated all
useless motions, and discovered that the
twelve thermometers could then be read in
one minute and fifty seconds. The workman
who previously had with difficulty read
eight thermometers in two minutes soon
acquired the proper occupation habits and
was enabled to read the twelve with perfect
ease. His efficiency was increased forty per
cent, and the task was rendered less exacting
than before.
Typewriting is carried on by habits. The
habit of writing most naturally formed is
that known as the sight system. Recently,
attempts have been successfully made to enable
the operators to form the habit of writing
by touch rather than by sight. The
<p 329>
operator who acquires the habit of locating
the keys by touch writes much faster and
with less nervous strain than the operator
who writes from sight.
No one has been more successful in studying
occupation habits than Mr. Frank B.
Gilbreth, an expert in the building trades.
He discovered that in constructing a brick
wall a good mason can lay one hundred
and twenty bricks in an hour and that in
laying each brick he makes eighteen distinct
motions. The motions were not made in an
economical sequence; some of them were
useless, and merely exhausted the energy
of the workman. Mr. Gilbreth attempted
to apply to the industry of bricklaying the
principles of billiard playing. Every motion
of the mason should be a “play for position.”
He should make each motion so
as to be ready for the next. For example,
the motion of placing the mortar for the end
joint should end with the trowel in position
ready to cut off the hanging mortar. When
the motions are made in the correct sequence,
<p 330>
two or more of them can be combined and
performed in but little more time than would
be required to make each of the separate
motions. Thus, cutting off mortar, buttering
the end of the laid brick, and reaching for
more mortar can all be performed as a single
movement. In this way the motions of the
mason have been reduced from eighteen to
five per brick. All this change has been
brought about from a study of the occupation
habits of masons. In discussing the results,
Mr. Gilbreth says: “It has changed the entire
method of laying bricks by reducing the kind,
number, sequence, and length of motions.
The economic value of motion study has been
proved by the fact that we have more than
tripled the workman’s output in bricklaying
and at the same time lowered cost and increased
wages simultaneously, and the end
is not yet.”
Attempts to develop beneficial occupation
habits in executives have not yet been
exhaustively and scientifically carried out.
Such experiments are, however, sure to be
<p 331>
successful, and it is quite probable that before
another decade has passed the habits
of executives will have been as successfully
studied and controlled as have the occupation
habits of mechanics cited above.
The introduction of physics and chemistry
have led to marvelous results in methods
of manufacture and transportation. Those
who have given most attention to the advances
of psychology during the past two
decades are confident that by the proper
application of psychology the efficiency of
men is to be increased beyond the idle dream
of the optimist of the past. Since by a study
of habits the efficiency of men in fundamental
occupations has been increased from forty
to four hundred per cent, it is hard to prophesy
what results are to be secured from more extensive
studies.
{The remaider of this etext (Index + Advert.) is raw OCR}
INDEX
Ability, potential, 231.
Accidents, mine, 96.
Acclimated, 17.
Acclimatization, 18.
Accountant, experienced, 319.
Advance, periods of, 232; of
learning, 242.
Africa, 189.
Air, 172; foul, 180.
Alertness, mental, 44.
Alphabet, repeating, 284.
Altruistic, 203.
American, business, 24; steel—
makers, 48, 206; executives,
118; ideals, 205; people, 209 f.,
219.
Architecture, 174.
Armour, 87.
Athletic, contest, 9; events, 169;
trainer, 2 11.
Attention, 3; passive, 109 f.;
secondary passive, 112 ff.;
voluntary, III ff., 123, 234,
249 ff., 279.
Attitudes, 132 ff., 177; receptive,
182, 183, 187; promotion of,
193, 202, 215; “do-or-die,”
250; personal, 279 ff.
Authority, plenary, 88.
“Bad days,” 207.
Bessemer converters, 48.
Bicycles, 194.
“Big” selling months, 72.
“Bogy” in golf, 55 f.
Bohemian woman, 288.
Bonus, 35, 142, 145, 165, 178,
252, 304; system, 297, 326.
Book, W. F., “Psychology of
Skill,” 227.
Bookkeeping, experience in, 282.
Boor, 324.
Boss, 49, 83, 178, 253.
Boy, messenger, 7; errand, 277.
Brain, 309.
Breakdowns, 208.
“ Breaking in,” 41, 232, 237.
British Iron and Steel Institute,
49.
Brooding, habit of, 216.
Bryan & Harter, _Psychological
Review_, 230.
Cabinet meetings,” 119.
Campaign, educational, 102, 155;
advertising, 238.
Capacities, mental, 134, 178.
Capitalizing
experience, 303 ff.
Carnegie,
Andrew, 49 ff.; mills,
57 f., 87; his cabinet, 94 f.,
221.
Caution in competition, 61.
Cells, brain and muscle, 172,
173.
<p 333>
<p 334>
Chemistry, 4, 7, 331.
Christ,
85, 206.
Clauston, Dr., 206.
Cleveland, Grover, 188.
Clubs, local, 220.
Coach, 9, 303.
Coaching, effect of, 9, 10.
College grades, 16.
Combustion, 171.
Commendation in competition,
62 f., 73.
Competition, 48 ff .
Concentration,
104 ff .
Connection,
body and mind, 121.
Consciousness, 172.
Conservation of individuality,
94.
Consumption,
comparative, 50,
172,173.
Contests, 68; shooting match, 69;
balloon race, 70.
Co<o:>peration of employees, 80.
Cost of living, 160.
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