6. Status of work in progress.—In all quantity manufacture—for example, for stock where the con-. tract work is divisible into working units, such as certain railroad work where an embankment can be divided into cubic yards—a regular proportion must be completed in each unit of time if the entire contract is to be finished punctually. If the shop is unable to produce its quota at the start, it will surely be unable to make up the shortage in addition to the regular allotment at the end. It is, however, in the assembling industries that the progress of work must be most carefully watched. On the first indication that any one part is falling behind, it should be brought up to date either by employing men overtime or by increasing the force. Comparative figures are always more intelligible and therefore it is better, if possible, to combine the progress report and the time schedule, which show, at all times, the state of the job in relation to the schedule.
The American Locomotive Company's progress re port is shown in Figure 20. The upper and lower heavy black lines indicate the time schedule and cor respond with the start and finish dates on the Thomp son-Starrett schedule. They are printed in red on the original form and are known as the danger lines. A black line is ruled under each department when all the work is finished to indicate this fact to the chaser. Figure 21 shows the same form as used in the machine shops. The starting and stopping lines have been omitted to avoid confusion. It will be noticed that the different operations follow one another in regular sequence. If any department holds up the work the fact is shown, for in such an event the figures do not follow those of the preceding department.
The information with which to keep such a report up to date may be obtained from the shop by means of the coupon form of order (Figure 22). This order, which follows, and which is usually wired fast to the piece, with a coupon for each department, resembles a railroad ticket. When the work in any one depart ment is completed a coupon is detached and returned to the dispatcher, who enters the fact on his report. In this way it is possible to know by noon of any day the exact state of all work in progress up to quitting time of the day before, and so it is possible to push work which is falling behind. But in shops where the planning department is fully developed, the state of work is indicated on a "progress-of-work sheet" by the record clerk when the job is given out and when the ticket is returned by the worker. In outside work and work done by contractors it is customary to get tbe information by personal inspection. Thus one of
the most important duties of Thompson-Starrett's "chasing department" calls for regular visits to the subcontractors and exact reports as to how their work stands with reference to the time schedule.
7. How to route office work.—The New York Clearing House illustrates the value of routing in office work. Each bank has a numbered desk and is represented by a delivery clerk and a settling clerk.
The settling clerk remains at the bank's desk and receives, records and receipts the checks returned by the other banks. The delivery clerk takes his place in front of his bank's desk, and on the man ager's signal moves to the desk on his left, delivers the packages of checks, drafts, etc., drawn on that bank and deposited in his own bank, and after re ceiving a receipt for the package moves forward to the next desk, and so around the room. By this method the banks are enabled to exchange over $300,000,000 in about ten minutes.
8. Time schedule of the clearing house.—The dis patcher is the manager of the clearing house. He directs the operations from his raised balcony at the end of the room. The following schedule indicates the promptness with which business is done : 9:59 Clerks must be in their places. Failure will be punished by fine.
10:00 Delivery starts.
10:45 Time up for making proof. Fines will be imposed for all mistakes remaining unlo cated.
11:15 Fines will be doubled for all mistakes remain ing unlocated.
12 :00 Fines will be quadrupled for all mistakes re maining unlocated.
1:30 Time up for settling debit balances. A fine will be imposed on all debtor banks that have failed to settle their accounts with the clearing house.
1:30 Credit balances will be paid by the clearing house, but no credit balances will be paid until all the debit banks have settled.
The efficiency of this schedule is proved by the fact that altho the annual clearings have sometimes ex ceeded $100,000,000,000, the greatest annual total of all the fines imposed was $1,422 (1889) and it has fallen as low as $280 a year (1904).
9. How organization saves time.—The purpose of organization is to enable each employe to work under the best possible conditions of team-play. The man agement should remove all obstacles to the worlunan's best performance and supply all the aids necessary. Delays not only waste the workman's time but shut down his machine. It is well to remember that an employe is not working for himself, and any assistance which an employer can give him enables him to do the concern's business more intelligently.