Jan. 19, 1942
The president of the Bedaux Co. and the president of the left-wing Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers Union, broadcasting on America's Town Meeting of the Air concurred: joint management, labor, Government, and engineering councils were the way to speed up war production.
The president of Bedaux is deep-eyed, handsome Albert Ramond.
Last year its engineers operated in 83 plants, most of them in basic industries where C.I.O. has its greatest strength. They get along fine with the unions, and Bedaux Co. is making money once more.
Charles Bedaux in 1916 started efficiency engineering pioneered by Frederick Taylor. His engineers made their time & motion studies hiding behind pillars with stop watches. They frequently drew up recommendations without consulting even foremen, installed bonus systems which went 75% to the worker, 25% to supervisors as an incentive to push the men. Their standard "B unit," basis of pay, became hated by labor because it was increased as output rose, so that bonuses became harder & harder to earn while basic pay remained unchanged.
Albert Ramond and his colleagues changed all that. When hired for an efficiency survey, they now recommend that foremen and union leaders (or workers' representatives) be called in. Now it is rare for Bedaux Co. to go into unorganized plants. Says Albert Ramond: "We need the union's practical skill as well as our own scientific skill so that with management we may arrive at a tri-partite agreement." Bonuses now go 100% to the worker, and he understands the pay formula (which he didn't before).
The Bedaux system is an efficiency-engineering service, with each plant a fresh problem. . At U.S. Steel's Gary plant, Bedaux engineers increased repair department personnel 10%, claim to have upped efficiency 80%. In a steel foundry making tank parts, production jumped from 300 to 1,000 tons monthly while man-hours per ton were cut 50%. Bedaux engineers are working in many a U.S. armament factory, have been called in to stop a slump caused by a wage ceiling in one of the largest munitions plants in Canada.
Jan. 19, 1942
https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,766351,00.html
Bedaux system
https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/engineering-economics/rating-the-performance-of-workers-6-methods/21710
https://www.academia.edu/10687123/Special_Issue_Frederick_Taylor_
ud. 15.7.2023
Pub 7.3.2008
