Part 10

We aren't, for that matter, interested so much in the savings made, because it is exceedingly doubtful if many of us pass our factories or our offices on the way to the movies. We may never have an opportunity to put this particular plan to work.

What we are interested in, though, is the fact that this cleaning plan utilizes the four basic elements which we've said must be present in every job of PLANNING.

Look at the chart. It shows the movement of energy in the manager's plan for handling his crew. Starting the scrubbers on the ground floor--they had to begin there anyway, no matter when they began to scrub--was nothing but applying the primary force at the best point to get the easiest action.

Working them up floor by floor was simply directing the activity along both the lines of least resistance and greatest accomplishment. And doing the stairs on the way down was just focusing the activity at the right point for making a successful conclusion--that is, winding up the job at the exit.

+------------------------------------+ +---------+ | | | Stairs | | 6th Floor ------------- | | /|\ | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | | | | 5th Floor | | | | | | /|\ | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | | | | 4th Floor | | | | | | /|\ | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | | | | 3rd Floor | | | | | | /|\ | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | | | | 2nd Floor | | | | | | /|\ | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | +--------------------------------|---+ | | | | | | | | | | Ground Floor | | | \|/ | | /|\ | | | +--------------------------------|---+ +---------+ | +------------------------------+ | | Application of Primary Force |-- +------------------------------+

Turn back now to the FOUR ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL PLANNING as we set them down on page 54. Try them out on any successful plan and assure yourself that not a point has been stretched. By using them we shall learn the constructive, creative KNACK OF PLANNING.

Stripped of the "clothes" which every plan wears--it's only in the clothing that plans differ--this KNACK OF PLANNING may be quite simply visualized by some such chart as the one shown on the opposite page.

There you see the PRIMARY FORCE--the INITIATIVE that sets the PLAN in action. Second, the POINT OF APPLICATION--where you must hit if you're going to win. Third, the various activities which bring about the SUCCESSFUL CONCLUSION. And fourth, all these activities headed up at the FOCUSING POINT.

It's just like the sailor off the whaler who picks up the wooden mallet, hits the plunger a resounding crack, sends the weight hurtling up the pole, rings the bell--and gets a good 5-cent cigar. Or like the golfer who, putter in hand, strokes the ball firmly "in the direction of least resistance and greatest accomplishment," sees it hit the back of the cup and drop in for a par four.

|\ | \ | \ +--------------+ Various Activities | The \ | The "Primary | Point of Necessary to Bringing |"Focusing | Moving Force"| Application about a Successful |Point"/ +--------------+ Conclusion | / | / |/

Watch these four essentials. Knowing them and using them continually will enable you to break down every job of PLANNING into its component parts--will enable you to develop that important side of your managing faculties--whether your work is merely the carrying out of a job or shouldering the responsibilities of a huge business.

* * * * *

Remember the production manager in the shoe factory? Rather sketchy was the story of the ANALYSIS he made. Let's go a bit more into the details of the PLAN which was based on the ANALYSIS. And, at the same time, examine it to see if it checks with our FOUR ELEMENTS.

You remember he was hired to find out why the so-and-so shoes didn't move out the door on time. And you'll remember that instead of clanking up and down from one department to another, he was seen one day picking out lasts from a bin in the assembly room. He had crept up quietly on the POINT OF APPLICATION. The INITIATIVE, you see, or the PRIMARY MOVING FORCE, was the boss's order to get shoes to moving.

Here (in the lasting room) was his POINT OF APPLICATION. The biggest factor in slowing up shoes, he found, was failure to have lasts ready the instant the uppers came down cut and stitched from the fitting room.

The shoes were entered into work with almost entire disregard of this vital point. Oh, yes, they knew they once bought so many pairs of lasts on this style or that in such and such sizes. And in a vague sort of way they tried to regulate the number of pairs sent to the cutting room with the number of lasts which they thought should be available the day the shoes reached the assembly department where uppers, insoles, bottoms and lasts met together--or should have.

A single missing size could hold up a 36-pair lot which included a run of sizes all the way, say, from 7-1/2 to 12.

Today it's all so different. A running inventory is kept of every active last. Each day the lasts which are released as shoes leave the finishing room are added to the supply on hand; at the same time, the lasts which are to be used that day in lasting incoming lots are subtracted.

A job? No, a good girl of moderate intelligence simply added it to a dozen other office chores which she finds time to do daily.

The running inventory, you see, is one of the various activities which, aimed at the focusing point--the moving of shoes out the door--are necessary to bring about a successful conclusion--the successful conclusion, in this particular instance, probably being the saving of the young man's scalp--for the boss was certainly out to get it the day he saw the young production manager pawing over the chunks of maple in the lasting room.

Other activities might be mentioned. Plenty of them. An automatic conveyor which brought back empty racks to the point where they were needed. Semi-automatic elevators which made possible the rapid moving of shoes from floor to floor. Twelve-pair lots which simplified the handling problem, made the job of picking out lasts an easier one--and all in all did much to take the weight off management's shoulders. All these and more are the activities which were needed to bring about a successful conclusion. They were all part of the PLAN.

Today, in that shoe factory, the production manager sits down for an hour in the forenoon and an hour in the afternoon and schedules the next half-day's work which will go to the cutting room. Two girls have been moderately busy getting him the information he needs. Sales have been brought up to date within half a day. He knows how many kid shoes he can cut, how many calf. He knows which patterns can be cut by machine, which must be cut by hand. He knows that certain patterns take longer to go through the fitting room. There's extra stitching or fancy perforations. He must lay off those. And last of all, he knows what he can count on in the way of lasts when the shoes hit the lasting room.

With his two girls, the young production manager does all the work of scheduling.

Actually, there isn't much work. Management, you see, has done an awfully nice job of PLANNING.

* * * * *

Picture now the manufacturer of small electrical appliances who sought to lay out new avenues of growth. His was pretty much a seasonal business. Electric fans constituted most of his bread-and-butter production. Early in the year and well on into the spring his plant ran full blast getting out merchandise for sale during the warm, muggy days when Sirius is in the ascendant.

And then along in the summer and fall his production curves went into a serious decline.

To level them out would have meant carrying a load of finished inventory which he could ill afford. Other appliances, such as hair curlers and driers which might conceivably find a ready sale during the holiday season, helped considerably--but not enough. The rough places were by no means made plane.