Results of investigation in certain industries.

Date:
1924
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Results of investigation in certain industries. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/28 page 5
    2. Records.—The almost universal absence of record-keeping in the textile industries has been frequently the subject for comment ;. it appears in fact that the only records ordinarily kept are those which are necessary for assessing the wages due to each operative. ~ Two kinds of records which would eventually become of great service are mentioned. The first of these is the so-called efficiency book, in which would be entered the performance of each loom expressed as a percentage of the performance of ideal non-stop loom engaged on the same class of cloth. The wide uses (including the more accurate assessment of piece rates) to which data of this kind when collected in sufficient quantity could be put, are discussed [9, 11 ; 28, 50]. Similarly, a systematic recording of time lost on the part of the workers, with the causes, would go far to indicate the con- ditions capable of improvement. Record keeping in itself, when confined to the limits of one factory, suffers from the defect that it only enables a comparison to be made between different departments and smaller units. By extension of this practice to the whole of the industry, and by collecting and analysing the returns by some central authority, a ‘‘norm”’ could be established for the industry itself and the information available to individual employers would be much wider in scope, for the whole factory would now be in the position occupied by the. department in the former system, and every employer would know at once how far the health, etc., of his own workers exceeded or fell below the average, and if the latter, could endeavour to trace the cause. Some of the questions to which under this system definite answers could be given are stated in the Report [9, 17]. 2. Booking-up or Making-up Day. (Cotton and Silk Weav- img.)—The day and time on which the weekly booking-up takes , place has some relation to productive efficiency, and the best arrangement for this is discussed in two Reports [9, 56; 238, 32]. 3. Type of Work.—Up to the present investigations in the cotton industry have been confined to the manufacture of plain cloth. It is suggested that the relative efficiency and variations in working capacity in the weaving of fancy fabrics should also be determined [28, 50]. REPORTS. No. 7.—Individual Differences in Output in the Cotton Industry, by S. Wyatt, M.Sc., M.Ed. Price 6d. net. No. 8.—Some Observations on Bobbin Winding, by S. Wyatt, M.Sc., and H. C. Weston. Price 1s. 6d. net. No. 9.—A Study of Output in Silk Weaving during the Winter Months, by P. M. Elton, M.Sc. Price 2s. 6d. net. No. 17.—An Analysis of the Individual Differences in the Output of Silk-Weavers, by P. M. Elton, M.Sc. Price 1s. 6d. net. No. 20.—A Study of Efficiency in Fine Linen Weaving, by H. C. Weston, Myo uinstl Es: Price 1s. 6d. net. No. 21.—Atmospheric Conditions in Cotton Weaving, by S. Wyatt, M.Sc. Price 2s. net. No. 23.—Variations in Efficiency in Cotton Weaving, by S. Wyatt, M.Sc. Price 3s. net.
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