Part 12

This new kind of knowledge should not take away a man's courage; on the contrary, it should give him a true sense of value of existing, "going" things. With this knowledge he can confidently and earnestly push a machine that is the product of a good organization. He will know the great value of much experience and practise of each of the many men in the organization. He will neither kill the business by half-hearted indorsement, nor increase the hazard of investment by urging this or that modification. Nor will he advocate this or that machine being added to a line that is already too great.

The invention, the general organization, the proper direction of the business, are essential to success. But without that organization which is only obtained by actual, thoughtful experience of the men who do things, all the knowledge and industry of the leaders are utterly useless.

This knowledge produces a new kind of confidence that has greater faith in the existing and running things than in the claims for something that has not had the development of practice. It is the confidence that knows that the right fundamental ideas and the policy of "sticking to one thing" will accomplish the best results.

This is not a doctrine of optimism that holds there is no inferior machine. The "best" implies the existence of the inferior. In nearly all lines there are many grades from the best to the worst, but the loss of faith in the relative value of a machine is most commonly due to a lack of full knowledge of the other types, and it is this kind of loss of courage, confidence, or whatever it may be, that this chapter is intended to offset.

Have Faith in Your Products.

What has been said regarding the optimist, the pessimist, and the vacillating man, from the designing and manufacturing point of view of a machine business, applies with equal force to the business organization.

The business is pushed forward by men who have confidence in the project and in the product. If these men lose their faith in their own business, they not only lose their usefulness as pushers and managers, but they become drags on the industry, and remain so until restored to normality. The hazard of investment is greatly increased by such conditions.

Instances without number have been observed in which men who have been successful have become unsuccessful through loss of confidence due to acquiring the "dangerous half-knowledge."

The man who has acquired the dangerous half-knowledge should take a post graduate course in some institution where men are treated by all the most powerful agencies known to science. There may be no institutions of this kind in existence, but the great need will doubtless bring the establishment of many.

The men who have lost faith in their own machinery should be told that no company can survive the effects of weak-kneed advocates. Any company is better for a certain amount of aggressive competition. Any company can stand more or less opposition from its friends the enemy, but no company can continue to exist under the blighting effects of the men who have lost this confidence in them or their product.

The post graduate course for restoration of the near-wise man should include educational means of all kinds. The means should be especially adapted to the need of each student or patient.

There might be a phonograph in each room, which should work all night and all day. This machine should repeat over and over a few short sentences like the following:

"The only perfect machine is the one you do not know."

"Study the machines offered by your competitors, just to get the same degree of knowledge of the 'other' machines--not for the purpose of slandering or even mentioning--but just to restore your confidence in the relative value of your own machine."

"Don't try to get back your belief that your own machine is perfect--that has gone forever--only look at the other machines and learn that your own is the best."

This kind of confidence will not be exuberant, but it will have marked efficiency in the cold gray world in which you are to again try your strength.

Specialization.

We find that in keeping with the trend toward specialization, the machine shop is now manned and directed by specialists, whose close application to the technical science of their respective specialties has in a degree obscured other elements with which their interests should be coordinated. Among these we generally find the so-called human element. This feature of specialization, which is the natural result of concentration and undivided attention to the work in hand, has entailed a string of consequences that has lessened the spirit of fellowship and co-operation.

The workman in the old machine shop was known as a machinist, an apprentice or a helper. The machinist trade required skill at bench, vise and forge, and in the operation of the lathe and planer. It also required a general knowledge and resourcefulness which enabled the machinist to make good with the meager facilities. The large specialized shop of today was not known.

Today the machine shop is filled with a variety of machines which have grown out of the original types. Each shop's equipment is selected to serve the needs of that shop, and since each shop has a special purpose, its equipment seldom includes the full range of machine-shop machinery.

Today the work flows through the machine shop in lots of large numbers of pieces of a kind, and each machine, as well as each worker, is kept at one kind of work and usually at one simple operation.

The worker in the machine shop of today is no longer known as a machinist, because that term does not cover the present range of positions. Even the term "all-round machinist" is no longer satisfactory.

Specialization has made so many divisions in the work that it has resulted in developing men for special branches, so that today we have relatively few men who can skillfully operate for instance the engine lathe and planer. Even if there are those who ever had that ability, most of them have lost it through disuse.

The workers are now designated by many names indicating their special work.

The all-embracing term machine shop is divided into departments for drafting, designing, accounting, production, flow of work control, cost accounting and many other divisions. Each calls for executives and workers having special titles.

The subdivision of work has resulted in each executive and worker acquiring a high degree of ability and skill for work of his kind, and it keeps each one doing the highest class of work for which he is qualified so that his time is not wasted in the simpler operations which can be performed by men of lesser ability.

We can readily see the economic gain that accrues when the worker becomes more efficient; first, though the greater skill acquired as a result of fewer operations to perform, and second, through the use of the highly developed special machines, for then he is able to produce a greater value for a given expenditure of effort. We can also see the gain that results from specialization by the executives, for each one's attention is concentrated to the management of a smaller range of work; but the average mortal has not yet reached the point of accepting the fact that to some extent there should be a division between mental and physical tasks. It is needless to say that no one in these days would suggest even a possibility of a general division of the work along the line between the abilities of the brain and hand and in these days of construction and operation of intricate mechanisms like electric and telephone instruments and machinery, aeroplane, automobiles, railroad machinery, machine shop machinery, army and navy machinery, from the smallest instrument and small arms to the big machines like the battleship. The need of the man in whom is combined the ability of brain and hand transcends any possibility of our meeting the demand. But specialization does require both kinds of division. The one that divides along the line between mental and physical tasks provides great opportunities for those men who have special ability at either the mental or physical tasks. It is undoubtedly true that the greatest achievements have been attained by those who have been unable to combine the great mental and physical ability. Such men by nature and preference are most fitted and most comfortable in the positions in which there is a greater proportion of use for either the brains or fingers.

Every student of this subject early recognizes that the man at the physical task should not be unnecessarily distracted by the vexing problems of planning and directing the work. In some way this does not seem to fit a democracy, but rather seems to lead toward autocracy. However, let us keep in mind that specialization is essential, not only at each physical task, but at the tasks at which there may be expended a combination of the mental and physical, and also at those tasks that are wholly mental, and that a division should be made to get the best results from the whole organization. While it may seem autocratic to leave to one group the determination of the methods of work, and to another the task of doing the work, the fact remains that this is an element of specialization. That which seems so objectionable to a man with an alert mind, is not so objectionable when he realizes that many men of the highest type are happiest when given a chance to work out tasks unembarrassed by problems of procedure. While this has been one of the great tragedies of industrial life, when square pegs have been put in round holes, it is one of the most important questions that an engineer has to consider.