LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 January 1926, Page 4

LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT.

“ According to tho National Institute of Industrial Psychology, an investigation has recently been carried out in a workshop where twenty-five men were engaged in assembling and repairing gas stoves,” states tho •• Daily Telegraph.” “It has been found that during a week of forty-six hours, on -> 15 oc-i ensions one or other of the men had j to borrow a tool from his neighbour. | Each of these 513 delays averaged;’ thirty-four seconds. The suggestion I that each man should be provided with a complete tool kit has now been adopted. J

It was also found that the men were delayed through congestion at) the lift about 000 times in a week, j and each delay averaged ‘5.88 seconds.

These delays have now been entirely eliminated. In order to fetch stove parts and materials from stores at the other end of the shop 1591 journeys had to he made in a week by the twenty-five men, occupying on the average 3.12 minutes a journey.

11 A lad with n truck has now been j employed to act as a. runner, and , the time lost hv the men has been [ reduced from 7.1? to about 2 per cent, j ft was found that if he used a flat brush instead of a round one, a man

could save 20 per cent of the time for 2.49 hours per week) that he ordinarily spent in painting the stoves. “By introducing other new implements in one case, there was a saving of 47 per cent of the men’s time. It is pointed out by the expert inves- 1 tigator that the greater the number of delays the more a piece worker inclines to exaggerate their duration and consequence. “He hurries his work, he wastes energy, and he becomes tired and discontented. ‘ There can l>e no doubt,’

states T)r G. H. Miles, assistant director of the institute, ‘ that such a state of things is very prevalent.’ ”