Scheduling Mat'-nal in /Voces* 73 



in the movement of material through 



All material should be in program 



viunn^ the greatest possible percentage of the 



The ideal condition would be. to start work 



material when it is received, work on it 



continuously, and ship it out of the plant, sold, as 



soon as it is tinishi s condition can seldom 



he realized. 



In the first place, experience has shown that 

 a raw material storeroom is absolutely necessary 

 to insure continuity of operation. If a stock of 

 material were not maintained, shut-downs would 

 be continually occurring, and that is more costh 

 than the loss of interest on the money tied up in 

 a proper quantity of raw stores. The delay, there- 

 fore, due to a reasonable amount of material 

 ^ in raw stores must be accepted as an element 

 m the cost of production. But, as every foreman 

 \vs, after the material is drawn from stores 

 and started through the plant, it is not actually in 

 process anywhere near 100 per cent of the time. 

 Being in process does not necessarily mean being 

 in motion. 1 lams hanging in the smokcroom, metal 

 parts in a plating tank, or pianos drying in the 

 lish room arc all in process, though not in 

 motion. Kvcn with this understanding, the time 

 spent in actual work on the material is, in almost 

 every business, very small compared with the loss 

 of time which occurs between operations and is 

 due, not to slowness in transportation, but to de- 



and congestion. 



It will be greatly to the profit of a foreman to 

 study carefully and thoroughly the course of the 



