Control System Saves f110,000 a Year
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Work Study Little Used in Transport, But has Shown Remarkable Results, Passenger Operators are Told at Scottish Conference
1VIAINTENANCE absorbed 15-25 per M cent. of the expenditure of road transport undertakings. The work done on control in this field had been fairly limited, but some remarkable results had been achieved.
One undertaking had already saved over £110,000 per year, and the saving was expected to reach £200,000 when the application of control was complete. In addition, to prevent redundancy, the undertaking had increased its output by well over 50 per cent. and overtaken arrears of maintenance.
This was one of the points made by Mr. R. J. Clarke in a paper, "Control and Incentives in Transport," which he read at the annual conference of the Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association in Turnbcrry on Wednesday.
• Although the transport industry was a large field suitable for the application of modern industrial management techniques, there were few cases of their use. A recent survey showed that in a broad range of manufacturing and allied industries, work study was in use by half the companies covered, but it was applied in only one or two cases in transport organizations.
Working Hours Halved
Important results had been obtained in a limited field by another transport company. Under an incentive scheme, major body overhaul jobs had been cut from 650 hours to 300, minor overhauls from 300 hours to 140, and painting from 230 hours to 100.
Uniform fleets, makers' standardization and the practice of exchanging parts and assemblies enabled a large part of maintenance to be evaluated once an inspection had been made. Much of it could be known before the vehicle was even seen. If the jobs were broken down into component parts and then studied individually, average times could be obtained. The variation was often more in what had to be done than in how long it took to do each item.
Essential steps were the call-in of a vehicle at the correct time, inspection Lo definite standards to determine the repairs or service work required, issue of instructions to maintenance staff, including standard time allowance, the provision of material required for the work, and supervision. Final inspection to accept the vehicle for service and to authorize any bonus payment had also to be included.
Planning, which was important, involved exact specification of the work required daily, weekly, each 10,000 miles and so on.
Public transport organizations appeared to spend on average about 10,000 on maintenance during the life of a bus. A reduction in any given item might affect a whole fleet, and a 5 per cent, cut in cost—not an overambitious aim—spread over 200 vehicles would save over £6,000 per year.
A control system could be developed to ensure that each vehicle was conforming broadly to its programme. By this means, the laggard could be put on an active route to ensure that it had reached its planned mileage when it became due to enter workshops for overhaul. This method was being developed in detail by one undertaking.
Tell the Worker With incentives, the operative ought to know his allowed time for a job before he started, and this implied inspection. It was a bad principle to place temptation in the way of the worker by making it possible for him to claim for work without the likelihood of its performance being checked. To work incentives properly in a mainotenance organization, an inspection team was required, although in a small garage separate inspection might not be economic. In this event a different approach was required.
With regard to stores, lack of material was often the biggest source of loss by a tradesman on maintenance. A queue of fitters round a stores hatch waiting for service was an expensive luxury, to which was added the time getting to the stores and the loss of rhythm when the man broke off his work on a vehicle.
Excessive procedures for controlling minor expenditure were to be deprecated, and provided that valuable items were sorted out and attractive stores safeguarded, the open store in each section of the workshop or garage was desirable.
When the principles of the open store
were explained to the fitters and their responsibility to book out withdrawals was stressed, experience showed that they co-operated. The reduction in time lost in collecting parts was considerable.
Touching on reaction to incentives, Mr. Clarke • said that even if -a good case was made for work study and incentives, there were many difficulties to be overcome on the shop floor. The prejudice against time study died hard. and because most transport organizations had a fixed programme of work, increased performance raised the fear of redundancy.
These problems had been faced and overcome, both inside anr-outside transport. The redundancy question was best tackled by recognizing that natural wastage took care of it, sometimes quickly, and by establishing a policy to safeguard the individual.
The next step was to acquaint the labour . force, and particularly their representatives, with the true nature of work study and its achievements in reducing effort and increasing earnings in the workshops. Exchange visits with another concern, possibly even in another industry, in which work study was accepted as a normal routine, would assist in breaking the ice. In addition, there had to be the basic trust in the management to give the workers a fair deal.
Platform staff were an expensive part of the organization. As they brought in the money, they needed consideration. Certain extra costs could be reduced by giving adequate incentives to the individual.
Management the Key The whole subject of control and incentives hinged on management. To work a system of determirtAtion of standard and payment of incentives required an atmosphere which had to be created by management. Day-to-day operating of incentives required much care and firmness in dealing with intricate problems on the shop floor.
A very high standard of management was needed. A strong spirit of enthusiasm had to be created throughout the concern, and the supervisors had to feel personally inspired and strongly backed,
Of specialists, Mr. Clarke said that the industrial consultant could assist by providing a temporary access of strength while a scheme was being applied. He brought specialist experience of reorganization in industry and one particular asset, a position mid-way between management and labour, when there was much negotiating during the introductory stages of a scheme.
Manufacture was an obvious field in which there was much experience and enormous achievement. Maintenance results were so good in the limited number of cases where work study had been applied that, • despite the many problems, a much wider application was justified.