The working time, as will be shown later, is based upon time study observations on a standard man, but when a task is assigned for a certain individual, that proportion of the work of the standard or first class man is assigned to that particular given man who is actually to do it, which he is able to do.  It is fundamental that the task must be such that the man who is actually put at it, when he obeys orders and works steadily, can do it; that is, the task must be achievable, and achievable without such effort as would do mental or physical injury to the worker.  This not only gives the individual the proper amount of work to do, recognizes his particular capabilities and is particularly adapted to him, but it also eliminates all dread on the score of his not being appreciated, in that the worker knows that if he achieves or exceeds his task he will not only receive the wage for it, but will continue to receive that wage, or more, for like achievement.  The rate is not cut.  Under the “three-rate with increased rate system,” which experience has shown to be a most advanced plan for compensating workmen, the worker receives one bonus for exactness as to methods, that is, he receives one bonus if he does the task exactly as he is instructed to do it as to methods; and a second bonus, or extra bonus, if he completes his task in the allotted time.  This not only assures adequate pay to the man who is slow, but a good imitator, but also to the man who, perhaps, is not such a good imitator, and must put attention on the quality rather than the quantity of his performance.

INDIVIDUALITY EMPHASIZED BY INSTRUCTION CARD.—­This individual task is embodied in an individual instruction card.

In all work where it is possible to do so, the worker is given an individual instruction card, even though his operations and rest periods are also determined by a gang instruction card.  This card not only tells the man what he is to do, how he can best do it, and the time that it is supposed to take him to do it,—­but it bears also the signature of the man who made it.  This in order that if the worker cannot fulfill the requirements of the card he may lose no time in determining who is to give him the necessary instructions or help that will result in his earning his large wages.  More than this, he must call for help from his assigned teachers, as is stated in large type on a typical Instruction Card as follows:  “When instructions cannot be carried out, foreman must at once report to man who signed this card.”

The signature of the man who made the card not only develops his sense of individuality and responsibility, but helps create a feeling of inter-responsibility between the workers in various parts of the organization.