SYSTEM AND EFFICIENCY.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1921, Page 9

SYSTEM AND EFFICIENCY.

SEVEN PRACTICAL RULES. GOOD BUSINESS MEANS PLEASANT WORKING. (Contributed by the N.Z* Welfare League.) The following seven towards efficiency are taken from the writing of Doctor Henry Chellew, Lecturer London School of Economics. We commend them to all having to do with industrial and office management. At a time When there is call for more and better work it is well to consider the thought of those who have specaliscd on the subject of scientific management as Doctor Chellew does in his work on “Human and Industrial Efficiency.” RULES OF EFFICIENCY. Wo append seven rules with regard to the efficiency of office and plant routine, which would be observed irrespective of the class of work done:— $ (1) Have a well-considered system of doing things, definite and business like in all departments, not an imitation of something else, but one designed for your own use. (2) See that a broad view of the subject is taken, and provision made for properly dovetailing the various departmental systems.

(3) Make the connection clear to all employees by the use of a chart. Such a table is self-interpreting and saves much explanation.

(4) Have as little system and as few forms as possible. Make them a means, not an end. There are many daily itepis of shop practice being perpetuated in expensive card systems to-day, of which no use whatever is being made, or is very likely to be made.

(5) Do not treat the system as a fetish. It is a good servant but a bad master. So much of it as is justifiable is merely organised common sense. Prune and pare your system without stint, until it gives the utmost economy and dispatch. (fi) Do not fail to note closely what your system costs, and if it is really paying its way. Very few can answer that question. With many it is purely a matter of faith.

(7) Be always on the look-out for improvements and suggestions from any responsible quarter, and discriminating in adopting them. Modern system in the Production Department should receive the hearty and discriminating support of all plant managers. The latter will increasingly be drawn from the ranks of who have added a thoroughly practical executive discipline in the shops, a full comprehension of what system can, and also what it cannot, accomplish. The amount of modern system we need in our industries bids amply to justify itself by its efficiency, particularly in the lean years. The rest is deadweight, and should, go promptly ovex board.