Career

It is not possible, without going deeply into technical processes, to present the whole development of manufacturing, step by step, in the order in…

A Ford car contains about five thousand parts--that is counting screws, nuts, and all. Some of the parts are fairly bulky and others are almost the…

The first step forward in assembly came when we began taking the work to the men instead of the men to the work. We now have two general principles…

The net result of the application of these principles is the reduction of the necessity for thought on the part of the worker and the reduction of…

This is a development which holds exceptional consequences, for it means, as I shall enlarge in a later chapter, that highly standardized, highly…

Highland Park now has five hundred departments. Down at our Piquette plant we had only eighteen departments, and formerly at Highland Park we had…

Hardly a week passes without some improvement being made somewhere in machine or process, and sometimes this is made in defiance of what is called…

The factory keeps no record of experiments. The foremen and superintendents remember what has been done. If a certain method has formerly been…

They told us we could not cast gray iron by our endless chain method and I believe there is a record of failures. But we are doing it. The man who…

We used to rivet the crank-case arms to the crank-case, using pneumatic hammers which were supposed to be the latest development. It took six men…

Now a business, in my way of thinking, is not a machine. It is a collection of people who are brought together to do work and not to write letters to…

When we are at work we ought to be at work. When we are at play we ought to be at play. There is no use trying to mix the two. The sole object…

This may seem haphazard, but it is not. A group of men, wholly intent upon getting work done, have no difficulty in seeing that the work is done.…

Because there are no titles and no limits of authority, there is no question of red tape or going over a man's head. Any workman can go to anybody,…

As a matter of fact, the record of business in general just now is such as to detract very much from the value of titles. No one would boast of being…

It is particularly easy for any man who never knows it all to go forward to a higher position with us. Some men will work hard but they do not…

This rating system simply forces a foreman to forget personalities--to forget everything other than the work in hand. If he should select the…

As I have said, everyone in the place reserves an open mind as to the way in which every job is being done. If there is any fixed theory--any fixed…

The suggestions come from everywhere. The Polish workmen seem to be the cleverest of all of the foreigners in making them. One, who could not speak…

Here are some of the suggestions: A proposal that castings be taken from the foundry to the machine shop on an overhead conveyor saved seventy men in…

The old method of making a certain gear comprised four operations and 12 per cent. of the steel went into scrap. We use most of our scrap and…

None of our machines is ever built haphazardly. The idea is investigated in detail before a move is made. Sometimes wooden models are constructed…

When you come right down to it, most jobs are repetitive. A business man has a routine that he follows with great exactness; the work of a bank…

The most thorough research has not brought out a single case of a man's mind being twisted or deadened by the work. The kind of mind that does not…

This salvage can be carried further. It is usually taken for granted that when a man is injured he is simply out of the running and should be paid an…

We have experimented with bedridden men--men who were able to sit up. We put black oilcloth covers or aprons over the beds and set the men to work…

No particular consideration has to be given to deaf-and-dumb employees. They do their work one hundred per cent. The tubercular employees--and…

There is not much personal contact--the men do their work and go home--a factory is not a drawing room. But we try to have justice and, while there…

There is nothing to running a business by custom--to saying: "I pay the going rate of wages." The same man would not so easily say: "I have nothing…

It ought to be the employer's ambition, as leader, to pay better wages than any similar line of business, and it ought to be the workman's ambition…

"What ought the employer to pay?"--"What ought the employee to receive?" These are but minor questions. The basic question is "What can the…

But by no means all employers or all employees will think straight. The habit of acting shortsightedly is a hard one to break. What can be done?…

And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His kind providence,…

Thomas was bred a smith under his father; but, being ingenious, and encouraged in learning (as all my brothers were) by an Esquire Palmer, then the…

I disliked the trade, and had a strong inclination for the sea, but my father declared against it; however, living near the water, I was much in…

Josiah Franklin, and Abiah his wife, lie here interred. They lived lovingly together in wedlock fifty-five years. Without an estate, or any gainful…

There was another bookish lad in the town, John Collins by name, with whom I was intimately acquainted. We sometimes disputed, and very fond we…

My brother had, in 1720 or 1721, begun to print a newspaper. It was the second that appeared in America, and was called the New England Courant.…

During my brother's confinement, which I resented a good deal, notwithstanding our private differences, I had the management of the paper; and I made…

My inclinations for the sea were by this time worne out, or I might now have gratify'd them. But, having a trade, and supposing myself a pretty…

I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your mind…

After dinner, my sleepiness return'd, and being shown to a bed, I lay down without undressing, and slept till six in the evening, was call'd to…

My father received the governor's letter with some apparent surprise, but said little of it to me for some days, when Capt. Holmes returning he…

We proceeded to Philadelphia. I received on the way Vernon's money, without which we could hardly have finish'd our journey. Collins wished to be…

I presented him an inventory of a little print'g-house, amounting by my computation to about one hundred pounds sterling. He lik'd it, but ask'd me…

Ralph was inclin'd to pursue the study of poetry, not doubting but he might become eminent in it, and make his fortune by it, alleging that the…

This transaction fixed Ralph in his resolution of becoming a poet. I did all I could to dissuade him from it, but he continued scribbling verses till…

The governor, seeming to like my company, had me frequently to his house, and his setting me up was always mention'd as a fixed thing. I was to…

Ralph, though married, and having one child, had determined to accompany me in this voyage. It was thought he intended to establish a correspondence,…

Mr. Andrew Hamilton, a famous lawyer of Philadelphia, had taken passage in the same ship for himself and son, and with Mr. Denham, a Quaker merchant,…

Understanding that Colonel French had brought on board the governor's despatches, I ask'd the captain for those letters that were to be under my care…

I immediately got into work at Palmer's, then a famous printing-house in Bartholomew Close, and here I continu'd near a year. I was pretty diligent,…

My pamphlet by some means falling into the hands of one Lyons, a surgeon, author of a book entitled "The Infallibility of Human Judgment," it…

Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the composing-room, I left the pressmen; a new bien venu or sum for drink, being five shillings,…

At Watts's printing-house I contracted an acquaintance with an ingenious young man, one Wygate, who, having wealthy relations, had been better…

I had from a child been ever delighted with this exercise, had studied and practis'd all Thevenot's motions and positions, added some of my own,…

I must record one trait of this good man's character. He had formerly been in business at Bristol, but failed in debt to a number of people,…

He now told me he was about to return to Philadelphia, and should carry over a great quantity of goods in order to open a store there. He propos'd to…

Thus I spent about eighteen months in London; most part of the time I work'd hard at my business, and spent but little upon myself except in seeing…

I soon perceiv'd that the intention of engaging me at wages so much higher than he had been us'd to give, was, to have these raw, cheap hands…