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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
A NEW ANGLE IN THE EFFICIENCY PROBLEM.
By E. S. R A U W O R T H , Vice-President and Factory Manager of the Cable-Nelson Piano Co.
Chicago, III.
'Ihe great weakness in the "efficiency" program
of to-day, both its theory and its practise, is that
it concerns itself almost altogether with the me-
chanical and material side of production. It is a
matter chiefly of standardized operations, parts,
and materials. It considers the human factor only
so far as is necessary to secure the co-operation
of the workmen (or to prevent their opposition,
rather) with the changes which the application of
Ihe new system involves.
Now, the greatest factor in any productive en-
terprise is the man-power, individuality and col-
lectively of the workmen engaged. And the really
main problem of efficiency is the problem of lib-
erating this man-power which is present, but not
manifested in your workmen and bringing it to
bear upon the day's work.
The essential part of man-power or human en-
ergy is not physical; it is mental. It shows itself
in the day's work in the form of ideas, interest,
concentration, enthusiasm. The pressure of com-
petition to-day requires that we get out of our
men the best they have to give, and that means
that we must make use of their man-power as
well as their machine power. These two things—
man-power and machine power—are really the op-
posite of one another. The quality which distin-
guishes a machine is the ability to do a thing once,
twice and forever in just the same way. The qual-
ity which distinguishes a man is the ability to find
always and without end a new and a better way
of doing the same thing, and to discover new pos-
sibilities and meanings in old materials. A ma-
chine can never become human, but a man can be-
come a machine, and he does become a machine by
the simple process of doing the same things in just
the same way over and over every day. And it
makes no difference whether the operation which
he performs in this way is a "standardized" oper-
ation or not. He may be a better machine in one
case than in the other, but he is a machine just
the same, and by just so much he is less than a
man.
Man-power, we have seen, is a matter of con-
stantly fresh ideas and fresh interest and enthusi-
asm in connection with the day's work. It is the
opposite of mere machine-like routine. What
causes this well to dry up in the ordinary work-
man? It is nothing but the power of habit.
The old way of stating the law of habit is that
the fact of our having done a thing once in one
way makes it easier for us ever after to do the
same thing in the same way, and so on with each
repetition of the same act. But there is another
way of stating the law of habit, and that is that
the fact of our having once done a thing in one
certain way tends to make it forever impossible to
do it in any other way. And this applies not only
to actions; it applies to thoughts and feelings, and
everything else that goes to make up a man. When
The old idea of production was to make ma-
chines out of your employes; the idea of the so-
called efficiency school is to make them better ma-
chines ; but the newest idea of all is to make them
men—original, creative forces in the conduct of
your business. And the big question in manufac-
turing and in all business to-day is the question
how to make men out of men-machines, how to
let loose and make available for the day's work
the essentially man part of them without losing
the machine part. It is there in all of them if we
can only get at it, and its discovery and application
is the most interesting and, as well, the most prof-
itable thing in the world to-day.
And the first step in this liberation and utiliza-
tion of the man-power in our employes is a clear
understanding of just what it is that causes it to
get bottled up in men and buried out of sight.
we have reacted in a certain way to one certain
part of our environment, people or things or work,
the law of habit tends to make it impossible to re-
act to that particular stimulus in any other way.
And when our environment is limited in scope and
we have set up a standard reaction to every part
of it, the law of habit says that that is the end of
us; we are finished, complete, at the end of our
rope, until something or someone wakes us up.
Now take the case of the average factory hand.
He has the extreme of monotonous environments
forced upon him. Nine or ten hours every day of
the same unvarying grind. In a few days he has
established a standard reaction to every little part
of it. Day after day he meets just the same peo-
ple, the same things, the same conditions. His
work means just one definite, settled thing to him,
so does eaoh one of his fellow workmen, his fore-
man, his superintendent, the firm that hires him.
And so does his job; it is one definite, fixed thing
—so many dollars a week; and he always thinks
about it in just the same way. He is in the grip
of the power of habit, which is a hard enough
thing for any of us to break, and practically im-
possible for him to do without assistance, for he
does not have either the leisure or the mental
training or the variety of contacts to get a new
angle of things. The real man in him goes fast
asleep and is no more present in his work than if
he were in a trance or walking in his sleep.
M. SCHULZ CO.
STANDS FOR THE BEST
Pianos of
Established Repute
Player-Pianos Exclusive in Design
Unequalled in Efficiency—RIGHT
We have a tine proposition
for GOOD dealers
M. SCHULZ CO.
711 Milwaukee Avenue
CHICAGO
Wt tar* • Saittoa Brack at Atkata. G».
What you give a man first or what you give him
altogether will depend upon his caliber, but you
can give everyone something. He thinks there is
just one way to do his particular work. You
can show him a better way, and a still better one,
and you can show him, too, if you take the
trouble, that there will always be a better way,
and that he is the best man to find it. He
thinks he has a perfect knowledge of the part
he makes, but he will see it in an altogether
different light if he sees it as a part of the fin-
ished product. He thinks he is just a sticker hand
or a band sawyer or a tuner working for a mere
living. He will feel quite differently about him-
self and his work when he sees that he is a part
of the whole company which, altogether, is trying
to do a certain thing in the world and that his
help is necessary. And the same point of view
will give him a different feeling for his fellow
workmen. He thinks he knows his foreman
through and through. Let the foreman fool him
and establish a new point of contact between them.
He thinks he knows his employ, thinks his em-
ployer simply wants to get the most he can from
him for the least possible pay, and on this point
he needs another awakening. Let the employer
show him—if it is true; and to-day it has got to
be true—that he wants to give him and all his em-
ployes not the least he can but the most he can
and not only more money but a bigger life and a
fuller one.
You can't show a man these things or all of
them by lectures or conversation, but you can show
them in some way and show them effectively. And
each new glimpse he gets of things outside his
hard shell of habit will let loose a little bit more
of his real man-power. It's the way of efficiency
and it's the way of decency.
BANK SUES ONTPIPER NOTE.
Seeks to Recover from Mrs. Piper on Note for
Which Shares in Bollman Bros. Co. Were
Given as Collateral.
(Special to The Review.)
E. S. Rauworth.
Getting at the man-power in men is a matter of
•waking them up, giving them a new point of view,
surprising them, shocking them. And, with ordi-
nary men, in ordinary conditions, this is a func-
tion of management and its main function. The
workman must be given a new angle, and con-
stantly a new one, on his work, on his job, on his
fellow workmen, his foreman, his superintendent,
his employer, his product.
ST. LOUIS, MO., March 30.—Suit to recover on a
note given by E. J. Piper, late president of the
Bollman Bros. Piano Co., was filed last week in
Clayton by the International Bank of St. Louis
against Mrs. Hattie G. Piper, the widow. The
original face value of the note was $2,300, given
July 7, 1913, on which a credit for the payment of
$27.29 was given July 13, the day on which Piper
committed suicide. Sixty shares of the Bollman
Co. were put up as collateral. The company
sho.rtly afterward went into the hands of a re-
ceiver.
HOME FROM NEW ENGLAND TRIP.
G. M. Soule, sales manager of De Rivas & Har-
ris Manufacturing Co., 135th street and Willow
avenue, New York, returned home this week from
a short trip through New England. Mr. Soule
stated that he found much better feeling through
the New England States and that the mills are
starting to get busy, that cotton is moving better
and that general business conditions are much bet-
ter than when he made his previous trip.
J. S. Harris, president of the company, made a
short trip South last week.
Meets [the musical require-
ments of the most exacting
people. Of national prestige.
EMERSON PIANO CO.
BOSTON