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Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
VOL. LXVI. No. 6
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
Feb. 9, 1918
Single Copies 10 Cents
$3.00 Per Year
War as a Stimulator of Factory Efficiency
W
AR is an evil of appalling magnitude. But, like all human evils, it is relative, not absolute. We
are learning that war may be relatively more righteous than peace. We are also learning that war
causes a searching out of human methods, a dividing between the bones and marrow, as it were,
which may be in the highest degree healthful and stimulating.
When a great and overwhelming necessity commands, it is surprising how tradition, custom and prejudice
vanish; m
When we are up against the real thing, in a word, we find ourselves scrapping cherished notions and
adopting in their places others which we should have called madly revolutionary a few months ago.
We in the piano business are no worse than other business men in respect of acuteness. But our tendency
is the tendency of every organization; the tendency to solidify in some places, to get accustomed to accepting
conditions without question, to believe that we cannot make improvements where improvements are radically
needed.
This war is showing us that, as we change the conditions surrounding us, or as these are changed by the
force of circumstances, possibilities we never dreamed of before are first conceived, then timidly tried, then
triumphantly put into general practice.
The silver lining to our war cloud is found in this; that piano manufacturers are being forced to learn
economies, efficiencies and refinements that have hitherto escaped with scant notice or have been dismissed
without trial because they have seemed to be too much out of joint with tried methods.
To every slightest extent that the conditions imposed by transportation, fuel and supply difficulties, cause
us to make trial of new and more efficient methods, does the war become no more or less than a boon to us.
Much has been said in the past about "efficiency engineering" and much justifiable fun has been poked
at the superficial persons who have, with more zeal than knowledge, rushed in where tried business men have
feared to tread. But when costs are rising, supplies becoming scarcer and the necessity presses for larger
output to care for increasing retail demand, it is plain that old ways will no longer work. Putting on overtime
here, or taking little more space there, will not do in times like these. Yet we are faced with the fact that
we must get more this year out of our present plants than ever we have got before.
*
That is why we are simply compelled, no matter how reluctantly, to bring ourselves up to date, make
ourselves efficient, re-organize and clarify our manufacturing methods. The war is making us do it. The
war is making us, sometimes much against our wills, better manufacturers and better business men.
Suppose the problem of increasing output in a given plant is being considered during this present time.
It is certain that the manufacturer concerned will be forced to give attention and careful consideration to
schemes which in earlier days he would have ridiculed. If labor is short, as it undoubtedly is in many branches
of piano making, then methods of manufacture must be changed. Machinery can be substituted, branches can
be re-divided, labor saved in one department for use in another; all these things can be worked out; when
necessity inspires the will.
Will a reorganization of departments eliminate certain wastes caused by re-handling during the progress
of work? Then let the old system be dropped, and the new one adopted in its place.
Does the Government offer a contract to turn out some part of an airplane? The contract looks good
and the profit is tempting. The factory can do the work. But, when the war is over, what about business then ?
Will that factory be able to get back prestige sacrificed or diminished by a suspension of piano making
wholly or in part?
The answer is simple: The factory must not stop piano making or even cut down its output.
(Continued on page 5)