250 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



disappeared with the reduction of wage differentials and current high 

 earnings of unskilled workers. 



Techniques of personnel administration must necessarily change 

 with the changing character of the employees. These technicians will 

 be freed from the anonymity and monotony of the production line. 

 They will see clearly their part in the operation of the plant, they will 

 be intelligent, competent, and will insist on being treated as such. In- 

 dication of the nature of the new personnel problems to be met can be 

 found in the problems faced in the administration of technical and 

 research staffs in the armed services and large corporations. 



The demand for engineers to design these complex plants, to keep 

 them operating smoothly, to supervise and control the technicians, 

 to direct shifts to other products, will be great. Operating and design 

 problems will cut across several professional fields — industrial, elec- 

 tronic, instrumentation, mechanical — so a "team" approach will be 

 needed. These engineers must be trained to exercise a high degree 

 of competent and intuitive judgment. The stakes will be high and 

 they will often be forced to make crucial decisions without delay or 

 assistance from higher levels. There will be little time for the orderly, 

 studied, analytical, leisurely approach of the laboratory. A new 

 emphasis in engineering education seems called for. The selection, 

 organization, and coordination of these specialist engineers and plant 

 technicians may well be one of management's most important 

 functions. 



Preventive maintenance will be a must. The automatic factory 

 will be a closely integrated unit from incoming raw material to a 

 finished product, and vulnerable at any point. Emphasis will be on 

 high utilization, with little down time available for maintenance ac- 

 tivities. Administrative breakdowns, such as materials shortages 

 or faulty planning, will be as serious as mechanical breakdowns, and 

 an added premium will be placed on management competence, precise 

 planning, scheduling, and foUowup. Relations with suppliers will 

 take on added importance. 



Plant location will no longer be dependent upon availability of 

 labor. A guaranteed and stable market for the product will be es- 

 sential. In most cases, the break-even point will be high, and cut- 

 backs will be costly. Workers can be laid off, control mechanism 

 and overhead cannot. At the same time, production increases will 

 be difficult. Since fixed costs will be high, the automatic factory will 

 operate 24 hours a day. Expansion of production will be impossible 

 for a plant which is already working around the clock. 



This lack of flexibility and emphasis on full utilization indicates 

 a need for better than usual sales effort, directed first of all to an 

 accurate determination of the market potential before the plant is 



