268 
Efficiency  in  Drug  Stores. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
June,  1914.  M 
for  its  beginning  and  completion  established.  Everything  in  the 
store  is  now  beginning  to  organize  itself  toward  carrying  into  effect 
this  new  element  of  activity.  Everything  must  fall  in  line.  You 
do  not  wait  for  anything.  Your  motive  is  based  upon  known  facts, 
and  you  know  that  you  are  right. 
To  be  scientific  there  must  be  a  way  of  showing  results.  There 
is,  and  it  is  calculated  by  the  following  method. 
Divide  the  actual  number  of  hours  employed  by  the  standard 
number,  and  the  result  is  your  efficiency  of  supply,  e.g.,  say  the  time 
wasted  by  various  leaks  to  be  three  hours,  and  your  standard  is 
fourteen  hours,  the  actual  number  of  hours  employed  is  the  differ- 
ence between  fourteen  hours  and  three  hours,  or  eleven  hours.  This 
eleven  hours  divided  by  the  fourteen  hours  gives  78,  your  per  cent, 
of  efficiency  of  supply. 
However,  a  man  may  be  100  per  cent,  efficient  in  supply  of  time, 
and  yet  not  be  efficient  in  the  use  of  time,  e.g.,  a  pharmacist  spends 
thirty  minutes  in  compounding  one  prescription.  His  standard  ac- 
complishment for  thirty  minutes  is  two  prescriptions.  Actual 
accomplishment,  which  is  one  prescription,  divided  by  standard 
accomplishment,  which  is  two  prescriptions,  shows  his  usage  of 
time  to  be  50  per  cent. 
These  same  principles,  remember,  apply  to  equipment  and 
material  as  well  as  time.  You  may  be  efficient  in  supply  and  not  in 
use.  You  may  be  efficient  in  use  and  not  in  supply.  You  attain 
maximum  efficiency  only  when  you  are  efficient  in  both.  This  is 
calculated  as  end  efficiency.  End  efficiency  is  computed  by  multi- 
plying your  supply  of  time  efficiency  by  your  efficiency  of  use. 
The  next  principle  is  despatching. 
Planning,  as  you  have  seen,  means  looking  ahead,  deciding  what 
is  to  be  done,  how  much  time  is  to  be  allotted  the  stunt,  and  what 
material  and  equipment  are  necessary  to  its  accomplishment. 
Schedules  assign  to  each  stunt  a  definite  time  and  place,  and 
definite  quantities  and  qualities  of  material.  They  also  list  the 
equipment  necessary,  both  as  to  quantity  and  place,  and  the  standard 
time  for  the  operation  of  equipment.  It  is  not  enough  to  establish 
standards  for  time,  material  and  equipment.  It  is  not  enough  to 
plan  ahead.  It  is  not  enough  to  write  schedules,  no  matter  how 
elaborate  and  perfect  they  may  be. 
You  must  have  action.  In  other  words,  the  work  or  stunt  must 
be  despatched.    Some  of  the  well  known  examples  of  despatching 
