OFFICE MACHINERY

Grey River Argus, 5 March 1937, Page 12

OFFICE MACHINERY

A HELPFUL LECTURE. “Office Machinery —Its Application ami l Limitations” was the subject of a paper read recently by Air. 1.. Withy at a meeting of .(.he Wellington Accountant. Students’ Society. “In almost every field’’ said Mr. Withy, “there is a variety of contrivanees designed to do 'work of ft given tvpc, and as every business has its own individualities, a close study must be made of all: the available ‘gadgets’ (to use an expressive if inelegant colloguialism). “It should constantly be borne in mind that, the greatest economy i s not necessarily secured by the costly maeh. ine which will do everything, but think. By the exercise of some ingen. uity, and with the help of representatives for various proprietary lines, means can frequently be devised for utilising a less complicated machine which c«n be kept in constant use, in. stead of having as elaborate machine eating its head off with overhead through remaining idle during a. large part of its useful life. “The machine’s chief advantage oyer the manual worker are its unerring and untiring repetition of an operalion, and its saving in supervision costs. But in many cases such as typewriters and adding machines, the accuracy- of the product of the machine is limited to the accuracy of the operator. Tn such work, therefore, it is false economy to employ ‘cheap’ lab. our on an expensive machine, or to work operators continuously for long hours. Errors are costly, and checking does not necessarily ensure 100 per cent accuracy. “Lest, my remarks up i n this stage should have been misconstrued as in. dic.a'tino- antagonism towards mechanisation uf office routine, let me explain that my object is merely to suggest caution in approaching a matter which frequevtliv! involves considerable outlay on fixed assets of a highly specialis'eiT, and consequently inelastic nature. “Every office manager should investigate ■thoroughly all the mechanical appliances on the market, so that ho may miss no opportunity t 0 Improve the efficiency of his system, to the advantage of himself and the commonilv in general. “The speed of operation of machine compared willi manual work is impoitanf. not only from the point of view of saving wages, hut also because in many businesses time i s the essence of the contract. Office' machinery helps to make possible ‘same day .service’ in widely differing fields, from having one’s clothes washed io having his life : n su red 1 . “The increasing' size of businesses renders necessary, moroaniil more delegation o f authority and responsibility, and brings with it. the problem of in'fernal check, which is easily solved with the aid of machines. Where branches are small and scattered, the customer and automatieallv-reeoWTing ing machines can sharp, the auditing of receipts. Mfichinerv is so mndi more certain, exact, and reliable that I 1 saves cheeking. and confusion throno'li undecipherable figures and writing. Tt thus avoids mniiv disputes and much annoyance to clients fruit, ful sources o f loss of business’