Print
Word
PDFSecs. 224-225. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book 1, chap. 1,
p. 4.
15. F.W. Taylor, paper 1119, A.S.M.E., para. 51; para. 98-100. 16. F.A. Parkhurst, Applied Methods of Scientific Management,
Industrial Engineering, Oct. 1911, p. 251.
17. H.L. Gantt, paper 928, A.S.M.E., para. 15.
=========================================================
===========
CHAPTER VII
RECORDS AND PROGRAMMES
DEFINITION OF RECORD.—A record is, according to the Century Dictionary—“something set down in writing or delineated for the purpose of preserving memory; specifically a register; an authentic or official copy of any writing, or an account of any fact and proceedings, whether public or private, usually entered in a book for preservation; also the book containing such copy or account."[1] The synonyms given are “note, chronicle, account, minute, memorandum.”
FEW WRITTEN RECORDS UNDER TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.—For the purposes of this preliminary study of records, emphasis will be laid on the fact that the record is written. Under Traditional Management there are practically no such labor records. What records are kept are more in the nature of “bookkeeping records,” as Gillette and Dana call them, records “showing debits and credits between different accounts.” In many cases, under Traditional Management, not even such records of profit or loss from an individual piece of work were kept, the manager, in extreme cases, oftentimes “keeping his books in his head” and having only the vaguest idea of the state of his finances.
IMPORTANCE OF RECORDS REALIZED UNDER TRANSITORY MANAGEMENT.—As has been amply demonstrated in discussing Individuality and Standardization, the recognition of the value of records is one of the first indications of Transitory Management. Since this stage of management has Scientific Management in view as “a mark to come to,” the records evolved and used are not discarded by Scientific Management, but are simply perfected. Therefore, there is no need to discuss these transitory records, except to say that, from the start, quality of records is insisted upon before quantity of records.
NO “BOOKKEEPING” RECORDS UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT.—Under Scientific Management there are no “bookkeeping records” kept of costs as such. Instead, there are “time and cost records,” so called, of the time and efficiency of performance. From these, costs can be deduced at any time. Items of cost without relation to their causes, on work that is not to be repeated, have little value. Cost records, as such, usually represent a needless, useless expenditure of time and money. It must be emphasized that Scientific Management can in no way be identified with “cost keeping,” in the sense that is understood to mean aimlessly recording unrelated costs. Under Scientific Management costs are an ever-present by-product of the system, not a direct product.
