TIME STUDY SYSTEM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 115, 12 April 1933, Page 6

TIME STUDY SYSTEM

a RAILWAY EXPERIMENT,

WORKSHOPS MEN CONCERNED

/t> v Telegraph —Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, April 12. Employees in the Railway Department’s workshops at the. tour chier centres are greatly. concerned over an experiment which is being conducted bv the administration at the Hutt worktops to time a large number ot machining operations. Some years ago, was made to induce the employees to work under the premium bonus system, extra pay being offered for work completed which was in excess of the normal output of a working day. After a very thorough and sometimes acrimonious discussion of the matter with the- men, the department abandoned the idea, but the .recent experiments have revived suspicions that the bonus system is again under conS (The executive council of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants recently discussed the subject with the acting' general manager of railways. Their 3 speakers stated that officials had been placed behind men working machines at the Hutt shops. They carried stop-watches, and carefully timed every movement in a job. Phis had been done systematically The effect it was stated, was that the workers felt they were being watched, and that the best of men might be worried into making slips. As one of the executive put the matter. the men are annoyed by a man standing behind them. We had the same experience 25 years ago m Addington, when the shops were put into an uproar through the manager taking the times of some of the men there. It certainly creates an irritating feeling, when you are on a job and eterj thing does not go just right, and there is a man standing behind yon n ith a watch —no matter how good the tradesman might be. There is a deflection on the honour of the men, and they feel that they are not being trusted to do a fair thing. . . . Most of the times are known already. If a man is a tradesman and working on a machine, he knows largely the times involved, and it is not necessary to go right down to detail. It is felt that this is pin-prick-ing, and it is creating a feeling of antagonism towards the department.'’ Another point made against the system was that the great bulk of the work is on repairs, and not repetition jobs, so that there must be a great variation in the times taken to do a particular task. The fear was expressed that the time-study system was intended as a preliminary to another attempt to introduce the premium bonus method of payment. “LEARNING QUITE A LOT.”

The managerial reply was an insistence that the department must have first-hand knowledge, of a definitely reliable’ character, regarding operations iu the shops. The time-study method was introduced to determine whether the output was on the best possible basis. “Since the institution of the system,” said the acting general manager, Mr Mackley. “the management lias learned quite a lot, both to the advantage of the department and of the operators in the shops. It has been shown to us that the mechanical factor, the lay-out of the machinery and the mechanical service necessary to many of the machines can all be definitely’ improved. If by improving the lay-out, introducing better facilities in the way of jibs and crane service, tool service, and the like, the operator can get through more work, as has been demonstrated, then I feel that both from the point of view of the men and the department we are getting into a position that is going to be better for everybody. ... Speakj ing by and large, the many points of improvement in the turnout of the machinery that have been discovered lie more in the direction of the lay-out and other matters than- perhaps the matter of the individual operator.” “It is not a case of standing over a man. It is standing over a macnine,” was another assurance given by Mr Mackley.