October io, igi8] 



NATURE 



107 



The efficient buying, storing, and handling of 

 the r:iw material of an industry, while they are very 



Important, and will reduce the <ost oi manufac- 

 ture, are at besl a saving effected on a very small 

 percentage of the total human effort expended in 

 industry. If we realise that everything that man 

 makes is consumed, sooner or later, then we may 

 consider all the products of each industry to be 

 the raw material of another industry. Production 

 v,.- ..in conceive as the evolution of raw material 

 from a simple to a more and more complex pro- 

 duct. Each time it is sold, boughtj and stored in 

 the process, we may consider its growth tempo- 

 rarily stopped. It is during this time of lack of 

 ige, when the very minimum of human effort 

 is expended on it, that we try to save human 

 During all the numerous definite changes 

 of the product, when the maximum of human 

 eti. mi is expended, we refuse 10 apply scientific 

 principles. Considering that this is the applica- 

 tion of science which affects by far the- greatest 

 number of workers, it is very easy to comprehend 

 their opposition to being " Tayloi ised," as tiny say. 



The "Taylor" method accepts no preconceived 

 ideas of how a job should he done. As a chemist 

 splits up .1 compound into its elements, so Dr. 

 Taylor says that all jobs should be split up into 

 their elemental operations. These elemental 

 Operations are carefully studied and timed by 

 engineer experts, and the useless ones, which we 

 may consider as impurities, are eliminated. The 

 best machine tools and equipment are used, and, 

 therefore, standard minimum times can be found 

 II standard operations. When data are accumu- 

 lated giving the time required for standard speci- 

 fied rork, fitting, etc., then standard 

 lion times can lie lixed from the drawings 

 without any timing in the shops, just as the 

 designs themselves may be made without shop 

 experiments. "Time" or "motion" study is 

 scientific in its method, and the accuracy of the 

 result will like all experimental data, depend on 

 •, ..I the observer. There are definite 

 principles in this "Taylor" method which, when 

 grasped by experts, can he use! by them to arrive 

 nits. All other methods of "rate- 

 setting" are non-scientific. Some are pure guess- 

 work, some are more or less so. 



The "fatigue factor," which is the time to be 

 allowed in addition to the "standard" time, so 

 that the worker may not be "fatigued," is most 

 difficult to discover accurately; but for this, science 

 is as much al fault as industry. Medical science 

 Formerlj concerned itself almost entirely with the 

 cure of disease, hut it now devotes itself largehj to 

 cause and prevention. When we all realise that 

 disease must be prevented, we shall soon begin 

 to realise that industrial fatigue must also be pre- 

 vented. The "Taylor " system is the only one that 

 separates out the work and fatigue of production, 

 like the analysis of useful work and losses in a 

 machine. It remains for the scientific experts, 

 the engineers, the doctors, and the psychologists 

 to co-operate and co-ordinate their efforts so .is 

 to produce as scientifically accurate a result as 

 NO. 2554, VOL. 102] 



their combined efforts make possible, and to keep 

 it continually up-t.> methods improve and 



knowledge extends. 



Dr. Taylor says that the workers must be in- 

 structed in the principles of their art by the man- 



j nl, and not left to learn ii from others as 



the) sci' lit. 'This necessitati al the manage- 

 ment should be organised on a functional basis. • 

 Brains must he specialised and trained just the 

 same as manual labour, and, therefore, the system 

 does away with the old orthodox fori n id his 



assistants and under-assistants, and he creates 

 many foremen, each of whom has one specific 

 function, in which he is an expert. The " I 

 system separates the functions of planning, in- 

 struction, and execution. It increases the cost and 

 the size of the management, and greatly increases 

 its responsibility. That is why so few employers 

 will adopt it. It requires much more care, study, 

 and thought than any arbitrary, non-scientific 

 system. 



The trade-unions and the men oppose the 

 system because it will not use individual and 

 trade habits and prejudices unless they happen to 

 he scientifically sound. While this attitude ex- 

 cuses the workers, it betrays a lack of vision on 

 the part of the "intellectuals" in the Labour 

 movement, who, so far, are unable to see that 

 the elimination of the enormous amount of useless 

 effort put forth by the working classes must be 

 to the benefit of that class more than any other. 



It is the same old battle of knowledge against 

 ignorance and prejudice. Patience, sympathy, and 

 much more education are required. Not educa- 

 tion which will give to more and more little un- 

 corrected scraps of chemistry, physics, and elec- 

 tricity, but an education which will train the mind 

 to think in a scientific manner and grasp the 

 significance of the interdependence of all things, 

 and most especially human effort. If we are to 

 maintain our position as one of the greatest of 

 tlie world-States, intelligently directed effort on 

 the part of evervone will be obligatory. The same 

 ■ put into useful work as is now wasted in 

 useless effort will not only double and treble our 

 production of material wealth, hut it will also ease 

 the burden on the workers and enable them to live 

 freer, higher, and happier lives. 



J. M. Scott-Maxwell. 



GERMAN INDUSTRY AFTER THE WAR. 

 III. 



MM. JAUREGUY, FROMENT, AND 

 STEPHEN conclude their series of com- 

 munications to the Bulletin de la Societi d'En- 

 couragenu nl pour VIndustrie Nptionale (see 

 \\ni-i i or September 26 and October 3) 

 on the influence of the war on German in- 

 dustry with some interesting reflections on its 

 after-effects, temporary and permanent. There 

 mi doubt that' the isolation of Germany 

 long a period has occasioned profound 

 modifications in her industrial and commercial 

 position. Whatever may be the ultimate result 



