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The Foreman and the Understudy 



One day while visiting :i liardwooJ mill of fair size and modern 

 metbods, and watching the sawyer, there was observed a little bit of 

 clumsiness and awkward handling of the nigger. It was a good, 

 healthy steam nigger and every once in a while the sawyer would 

 kick a log clear over the top of the knees. It took pretty lively 

 jumping around on the part of the man on the carriage to save them- 

 selves from damage. A word of inquiry developed the fact that the 

 manipulator of the levers at the time was not the regular sawyer but 

 was the mill foreman. It seems that for some cause the sawyer 

 was oft" for that day and the mill foreman was tilling his place. 



While he was making a fairly good try at it, he was not doing as 

 much work or doing it with the same ease with which the regular 

 sawyer performed these duties. But just how much the output of the 

 mill was reduced was not learned, but it was evident that the day's 

 run would tally up enough smaller than the average day's run with 

 the sawyer in his place to pay the wages of the sawyer. 



The next day the sawyer was in his place and the mill was going 

 smoothly, cutting more lumber and doing it easier, while the men 

 nn the carriage were not kept hopping about like jumping jacks to 

 keep out of the way of logs kicked over the knees. On looking around, 

 however, it was found that the foreman had again converted himself 

 into an understudy and was operating a band resaw. There were 

 two band resaws in the mill, a heavy one that took thick flitches and 

 reduced them to boards and another further along through which some 

 of the boards were run to make thin stock. It was this latter saw that 

 the foreman was running. He was making just as good an effort as 

 in his former job, and was perhaps doing all that was required in fully 

 as competent a manner as the regular resawyer. 



The incident, howeven, served to raise several questions that should 

 be of interest to sawmill men and should be studied by them with the 

 hope of working out some logical method of solution. One of these 

 questions is, whether the foreman should be an experienced mechanic 

 and understudy and take the place of different important operators 

 in the mUl at times when from cause they are absent. Another 

 question suggests the necessity that every important operator in the 

 mill have an understudy so that in case of the absence of the prin- 

 cipal there will be a trained man at hand to fill his place without 

 seriously interfering with the regular progress of the work. Inci- 

 dentally there is sandwiched in here another question, a question of 

 whether or not the saw filer should keep in training as a sawyer and 

 take the place of the sawyer during his absence. 



In many of the big institutions of the industrial world this under- 

 study idea is an important item in the organization. Every man 

 occupying a place of importance that calls for peculiar skill or 

 knowledge has an understudy, so that in case of sickness or absence 

 from any other cause the wheels of industry may go along with 

 practically no interruption. Here the fact is recognized that <the 

 health and the goings and comings of men are beset with uncertainty,' 

 and that these uncertainties are likely to clog the wheels of industry 

 unless they are bridged over in some way. Thus we have as a part 

 of systematic industrial management the proposition of an under- 

 study for every man whose absence would cause disorder. 



Surely something of that kind should be a good thing in the saw- 

 mill where steady running is the rule. It is, of course, very con- 

 venient and helps out in many an emergency to have a foreman who is 

 a man of many parts and can replace in a way any operator in the mill 

 at any time. It is doubtful, however, if anything is ever gained in 

 the long run by having the foreman do these things. The foreman 's 

 job is to be foreman, and if he attends to his business properly he 

 will have plenty to do around a sawmill of fair size without applying 

 himself to the filling of some man's position. To fill the position of 

 those that are absent really converts the foreman into a sort of 

 universal understudy for all the principal operators in the plant. 



There are some positions in the sawmill that certainly should have 

 an understudy. The question is, who should the understudy be and 

 how should it be arranged that the absence of a skilled operator here 

 or there should make but little difference in the plant's operation. 

 —30— 



Tlic natural order of things, so far as the sawyer is concerned, is 

 to have the block setter and the sawyer and the filer to understudy 

 each other more or less and to be prepared to shift places and replace 

 each other in emergencies. 



Some filers contend that their duty does not embrace sawing, ami 

 there are perhaps some expert modern filers who would make poor 

 headway at sawing. Where this is true it is perhaps all the more 

 reason why the filer should understudy the sawyer and the sawyer 

 understudy the filer. It would certainly broaden the filer's knowledge 

 of how his saws stand up in operation to spend a half a day or a day 

 now and then using them. Indeed it would do no harm if the filer 

 were so well skilled in sawing that he could inform the average sawyer 

 as to just what kind of log and feed handling were necessary to get 

 the fullest measure of service out of a saw. 



The sawyer on the other hand may well study and experiment at 

 filing for the same reason that the filer may practice at sawing — to 

 gain a broader and better knowledge. In the ideal arrangement these 

 two men should be ready and willing to fill each other 's place at any 

 time. In a well provided filing room the filer can generally have 

 enough saws ahead all the time to make a day 's run if he has no 

 assistant filer to take his place and help put some in order. 



In the older times the natural order of progress in sawmilling was 

 from block setter to sawyer and from tail sawyer to block setter. The 

 block setter was always glad to relieve the sawyer because it gave 

 him some training and put him in line for promotion. This idea is 

 old fashioned, but it is a pretty good one to keep alive even today, 

 and it will not hurt to have the block setter take a hand at under- 

 studying the sawyer. It would be better ordinarily for either the block 

 setter or the filer to take the place of the sawyer than for the fore- 

 man to relinquish his duties and put in a day at the levers. 



The instance given above is but an illustration of the disorder 

 which may result when certain men in important positions fail to 

 show up. There are many more, both in the sawmills and in other 

 woodworking plants. There are times when the engineer is sick, and 

 where again the foreman of many parts is often called upon to do the 

 understudy act. It may be a good thing, but it is a wrong idea where 

 the foreman has his own work cut out for him. There should be 

 another understudy for the engineer. 



The incidents happening at the sawmill recall some other happen- 

 ings in a woodworking institution using quite a lot of hardwood. 

 There was a foreman who had come up from the ranks, from a 

 practical machine operator and all-around mechanic. He was an 

 earnest worker and a competent foreman, and a man who had the 

 respect of every man under him and could get the full measure of 

 work out of all of them. But he put in too much of his time at 

 different machines filling the places of absent men and doing work 

 that should have been done by others. 



His duty, aside from superintending the plant, which contained about 

 thirty different machines, was to mark off and lay out certain work. 

 When the plant was working full he was not even expected to do 

 this, but employed a special man for layout purposes. Yet he didn't 

 even confine himself to the layout work. He would often relegate it 

 to some machine man who was not particularly busy at the time, and 

 go himself to replace some absent man at a machine where work 

 was piled up. He did this, too, notwithstanding that there were 

 other men in the place at the same time who could have done the 

 same work at the machine better than he could, because they were in 

 better training. 



There are foremen who make a success of their foremanship while at 

 the same time understudying many of the important skilled work- 

 men under them. It does not seem, however, to be a good idea as a 

 general proposition, or to belong in the modern scheme of things. 

 It looks as though it would be a better proposition for the foreman 

 to figure out some system of understudies for men in important posi- 

 tions so that in the absence of one a little shifting about will keep 

 things going and leave him free to direct the work and attend to his 

 duties as foreman. J. C. T. 



