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Scientific Approach to Workshop Organization

20th November 1953
Page 48
Page 48, 20th November 1953 — Scientific Approach to Workshop Organization
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

rr HE necessity of high vehicle avail.I. ability had compelled a more scientific approach to workshop organization, and increasing attention was being paid towards costing maintenance operations, said Mr. II, Rossington when he read a paper, "The Costing of Vehicle Maintenance," to the Institute of Road Transport Engineers in London yesterday.

To keep abreast of modern trends, the engineer must create means to enable him to measure the efficiency of his department and discover faults. Mr. Rossington outlined the maintenance and repair system followed by British Road Services which, he said, could be adapted for a fleet as small as six vehicles.

Complete Before Clocking-off

Daily time • sheets should be completed before clocking-off, and not the following morning. They were then likely to be more accurate and were ready for checking by the supervisory staff at the beginning of their day's work, when interruptions by telephone calls or other incidents were fewer. The cost clerk should not be required to interpret each item of work, which should be broken down in sufficient detail for it to be transferred without difficulty to a summary.

It was vital for stores requisitions to be serially numbered, signed by a competent authority, and contain accurate details of material required and the quantity. Methods of recording the daily use of labour and materials could be varied, but a full-time clerk could be employed for this purpose in a large undertaking.

The best way of allocating overhead expenses, said Mr. Rossington, was to charge each job with a proportion according to labour time involved. It was necessary to ascertain the relationship between direct labour time and overheads, but this varied with the amount of capital equipment provided.

Direct labour in one instance might amount to £200 over a period and the proportion of overheads to £160. The expense-recovery factor would therefore be 80 per cent.

By the introduction of labour-saving equipment, the same volume of work might entail £150 on direct labour, but overheads might rise to £170. The overhead rate would therefore be 114 per cent., yet although overheads rose by 34 per cent., there had been an overall economy of £40 to produce the same volume of work.

Indirect labour had also to be taken into consideration. Under this heading came wages of labourers, cleaners a watchmen. Maintenance of plant other than skilled labour, idle time a shop work demanded full control 1 they became relatively too formidal in cost.

Budgetary control was recognized a valuable aid for general and fui tional planning. In formulating budget, managers should norma think in terms of the physical ur with which they were concernec numbers of staff, requirements for ft tyres and stores, and output—a would express the budget to I accountants in these terms.

In respect of vehicle maintenan the budget was prepared under th main headings: Direct material cc .direct labour cost, and overht expenses. The last-named item col be sub-divided into fixed, variable a semi-variable expenses.


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