It is highly likely that many times during all of these years individual bricklayers have recognized the possibility of eliminating each of these unnecessary motions.But even if, in the past, he did invent each one of Mr Gilbreth's improvements, no bricklayer could alone increase his speed through their adoption because it will be remembered that in all cases several bricklayers work together in a row and that the walls all around a building must grow at the same rate of speed.No one bricklayer, then, can work much faster than the one next to him.Nor has any one workman the authority to make other men cooperate with him to do faster work.It is only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this faster work can be assured.And the duty of enforcing the adoption of standards and of enforcing this cooperation rests with the management alone.The management must supply continually one or more teachers to show each new man the new and simpler motions, and the slower men must be constantly watched and helped until they have risen to their proper speed.All of those who, after proper teaching, either will not or cannot work in accordance with the new methods and at the higher speed must be discharged by the management.The management must also recognize the broad fact that workmen will not submit to this more rigid standardization and will not work extra hard, unless they receive extra pay for doing it.
All of this involves an individual study of and treatment for each man, while in the past they have been handled in large groups.
The management must also see that those who prepare the bricks and the mortar and adjust the scaffold, etc., for the bricklayers, cooperate with them by doing their work just right and always on time; and they must also inform each bricklayer at frequent intervals as to the progress he is making, so that he may not unintentionally fall off in his pace.Thus it will be seen that it is the assumption by the management of new duties and new kinds of work never done by employers in the past that makes this great improvement possible, and that, without this new help from the management, the workman even with full knowledge of the new methods and with the best of intentions could not attain these startling results.
Mr Gilbreth's method of bricklaying furnishes a simple illustration of true and effective cooperation.Not the type of cooperation in which a mass of workmen on one side together cooperate with the management; but that in which several men in the management (each one in his own particular way) help each workman individually, on the one hand, by studying his needs and his shortcomings and teaching him better and quicker methods, and, on the other hand, by seeing that all other workmen with whom he comes in contact help and cooperate with him by doing their part of the work right and fast.
The writer has gone thus fully into Mr Gilbreth's method in order that it may be perfectly clear that this increase in output and that this harmony could not have been attained under the management of "initiative and incentive" (that is, by putting the problem up to the workman and leaving him to solve it alone) which has been the philosophy of the past.And that his success has been due to the use of the four elements which constitute the essence of scientific management.
First.The development (by the management, not the workman) of the science of bricklaying, with rigid rules for each motion of every man, and the perfection and standardization of all implements and working conditions.
Second.The careful selection and subsequent training of the bricklayers into first-class men, and the elimination of all men who refuse to or are unable to adopt the best methods.
Third.Bringing the first-class bricklayer and the science of bricklaying together, through the constant help and watchfulness of the management, and through paying each man a large daily bonus for working fast and doing what he is told to do.
Fourth.An almost equal division of the work and responsibility between the workman and the management.All day long the management work almost side by side with the men, helping, encouraging, and smoothing the way for them, while in the past they stood one side, gave the men but little help, and threw on to them almost the entire responsibility as to methods, implements, speed, and harmonious cooperation.
Of these four elements, the first (the development of the science of bricklaying) is the most interesting and spectacular.Each of the three others is, however, quite as necessary for success.
It must not be forgotten that back of all this, and directing it, there must be the optimistic, determined, and hard-working leader who can wait patiently as well as work.
In most cases (particularly when the work to be done is intricate in its nature) the "development of the science" is the most important of the four great elements of the new management.There are instances, however, in which the "scientific selection of the workman" counts for more than anything else.
A case of this type is well illustrated in the very simple though unusual work of inspecting bicycle balls.When the bicycle craze was at its height some years ago several million small balls made of hardened steel were used annually in bicycle bearings.And among the twenty or more operations used in making steel balls, perhaps the most important was that of inspecting them after final polishing so as to remove all fire-cracked or otherwise imperfect balls before boxing.
