20 THE DESIGN AND NEW CONSTRUCTION 



planning work, making provision for consultation with responsible officers 

 without delay, etc. 



In technical work of this kind, involving responsibility for many millions 

 of dollars' worth of work and requiring careful engineering investigation 

 in the original design, and careful examination in the criticism of contractors' 

 plans as submitted, the writer does not now believe that "time setting" 

 for the actual technical work is desirable. Time studies of various non- 

 technical elements have shown great opportunities for improvements, and 

 we are striving for more improvement. Records of the time required in 

 the various technical parts of designs of different classes of ships are kept, 

 careful consideration is given to the relative value of the employees and records 

 of actual progress of jobs are kept for comparison with the estimated progress. 

 These are of great value in checking the estimates of time for succeeding 

 designs and permit accurate estimates of dates when jobs can be completed, 

 but nothing like task setting for individual workmen in the shop has yet been 

 attempted for the technical employees, nor does the writer now think that 

 it will be. 



The Division is divided into five parts: — 



1. The "office." 



2. The electric branch. 



3. The criticism branch. 



4. The design and scientific branch. 



5. The blue print room. 



Number 4 is further divided into two parts, the design room and the 

 scientific and computing room, but both work directly together and directly 

 adjoin. The design room also includes the specification desk. A diagram- 

 matic arrangement of the Division would be as shown in Plate 20. 



It might be interjected here that the physical arrangement, while good, 

 is not ideal, since the various branches are separated by some distance and 

 the space is somewhat congested. This is due to conditions which cannot 

 be overcome at present. 



A diagram of the physical arrangement is indicated in Plate 21. 



The Office. — In the office is desk space for four officers, the writer and 

 three assistants. The arrangement of the office is shown by Plate 22. 



Frequently one of the officers must be absent on other duties, but one 

 of the officers, the senior assistant present, is always at the desk to handle 

 papers, answer the telephone and keep in touch with all ends. 



As he handles and reads about seventy incoming letters and sixty-five 

 outgoing letters each day, to say nothing of his other duties, his day is busy. 



Another assistant spends practically his entire day in the criticism 



