The Foreman on the Assembly Line

Charles R. Walker, Robert H. Guest, Arthur N. Turner

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351669177
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Industria automobilistica
• Index: Business

As part of a 1950s study dealing with various phases of the impact of mass production on human behaviour, this volume, originally published in 1956 and now a classic of its time examines the technological environment and the foreman within management, from the foreman's point of view. The book presents case-history material, but behind this presentation and controlling it are broad concepts, one of the most important of which is that of a technological work environment. The book relates its study of a segment in American industry to the borader challenges of human relations to work in the modern world.

1    INTRODUCTION

The foreman, the forgotten man of a few years ago, has become almost the most talked about in the industrial world. Any employer who does not declare that his foreman is a member of “management’s team,” and that he occupies a peculiar place of honor as management’s “front-line” representative, is behind the times. Enormous amounts of energy and dollars have been invested in “educating” the foreman in everything from basic economics to psychology. But despite this interest and effort resulting in a growing literature of and for the “supervisor,” few studies have attempted to relate the foreman and his problems to his own industry, and to particular work environments which it is his duty to master and supervise. And fewer words still have been written about the foreman as seen by himself.¹ One purpose of this book is to help supply these deficiencies for what is believed to be a strategic section of the American economy — the automobile assembly line.

In 1950 the Institute of Human Relations at Yale initiated a series of studies dealing with various phases of the impact of mass production on human behavior. Two studies of the worker on the assembly line have been made, others will follow.² It is clear that the “technological environment” influences the life of the average worker in many important ways. The effects are as great or nearly so in determining the kind of working life experienced by the supervisor.

Our approach has been similar to that of an earlier study, The Man on the Assembly Line: observation and interviews. In that inquiry we looked at the technological environment and at the foreman and management generally, from the standpoint of the worker. He was our bench mark, our vantage point of vision. Here, the foreman assumes that role.

All the production foremen in the plant chosen for study, fifty-five, were interviewed. The approach of the interviewer was semi-directive. Every aspect of the foreman’s situation was covered as far as practicable, with emphasis given to actual duties and what he thought of them, and to his relationships with other people and with his environment. The plant chosen for study, which we have called Plant X, was the same selected in 1950 for our survey of hourly wage earners. The parent company of which it is a part has been called “The XY Company.”

Throughout the chapters, liberal quotations are included from what the fifty-five foremen actually said to the interviewers. This has been done in the interest of accuracy, and also in the hope that some of the dynamic atmosphere of the plant might find its way onto the printed page.

Although most of the material as given is descriptive and qualitative, it points the way, we believe, toward generalizations susceptible of quantitative study and experimentation. In “A Foreman’s Day,” and in the material from which it is drawn, a beginning has been made toward a quantitative analysis of the foreman’s job in time and space. For a detailed description of the method and the categories used, the reader is referred to pages 152–159 of the Supplement.

Categorization of topics in nearly every chapter has followed closely the raw data as they came from the interviewers. The book presents case-history material, but behind this presentation and controlling it are certain broad concepts, of which one of the most important is that of a “technological work environment.” This is a way of conceiving any factory through an emphasis on the close tie between process and social and psychological phenomena. A German scholar calls it a “socio-geographic” approach; a French scholar, a “psycho-technical” one. And an Englishman, using the same frame of reference, speaks of studies of “socio-technical production systems.”

Finally, we have made an effort to relate our study of a “segment of a segment” in American industry to the broader problems of man’s relations to work in the modern world, and have suggested generalizations appropriate for future experiment and research.

Throughout our study we found much to admire, some things to criticize. As in previous studies in the XY Company, what impressed us most was the willingness both at Plant and Company levels to acknowledge the existence of problems and to make every effort toward their solution.

In a sense the foreman is one species in a very large genus of human beings. The genus may be said to include all who directly supervise men and women, such as the lower ranks of officers and non-commissioned officers in the armed services, head nurses in hospitals, senior clerks in banks and law offices, and many others. It is hoped that some light may be thrown on this important role played by so many individuals in so many regions of society. But it is a conviction of the authors that the fruits of research, whether theoretical or practical, will be richer if there is a concentration not only on “species,” but also on “subspecies.” The species in this case is the foreman in any industry; the sub-species is the foreman on an automobile assembly line. We believe that not only is his job a particularly difficult and dynamic one in the modern world, but that some of the social and behavioral problems related to his function are critical for a civilization based on men and machines. The achievements of modern technology are a mounting tribute to man’s imagination, industry and courage. But technological advance, like every other kind, means not only progress, but problems. Mankind is still trying to adjust to an unfinished technological revolution which began a hundred and fifty years ago, and whose end certainly is not yet in sight. The man and the supervisor on the assembly line as participants must adjust and readjust day by day and year by year to that continuing revolution.

In the chapters which follow we will look first at the environment itself within which factory society is built, and where both worker and supervisor spend their working lives. It is a very remarkable one and has often and justly been celebrated for its almost miraculous ingenuity. We will then let the foreman speak for himself.

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¹   Some notable exceptions are mentioned in the Selected Bibliography.

²   Publications based upon this research are included in the Bibliography on pp. 183–188.

2 THE FOREMAN AND THE PRINCIPLES OF MASS PRODUCTION

This is a study of foremen in a particular work environment. Before we can usefully explore what being a foreman means to the individual, it is important to look at the physical geography of the plant and the engineering rationale of work organization.

Plant X is known as a final assembly plant. It is the last step in a series of manufacturing and fabricating operations prior to distribution of the product to the dealer. At a prescribed moment in time and space, thousands of parts and partially assembled units arrive at the plant and are fed into a maze of conveyors and machinery, emerging as completed automobiles at a rate of over 350 each eight-hour day.

The plant itself covers twenty-three acres of floor space. The dominant feature to the observer, as well as to the foreman and hourly wage earner, is the great conveyor which winds through the plant for a total length of over two and a half miles. Feeding into the main line are two miles of overhead and auxiliary lines carrying small parts, materials, and unit assemblies to appropriate stations along the line. Off the main line at many points are sub-assembly operations, some on conveyors, some on stationary “bucks” or benches.

The plant is divided into two main areas, each fed by a rail spur. In one area, metal sections, fabricated in the “home” fabricating plants, are taken from railroad cars and distributed to the metal department. Here, the raw parts, underbody, cowls, quarter panels, doors, etc., are welded together to form the metal body of the car. Transferred to another section of the conveyor (the paint department), the body undergoes a series of paint operations: a rustproof covering is fused to the metal, primary coats of paint are sprayed on the body, and then the final coat is applied. (Later, and in another separate area, the body undergoes polishing operations.) Next the body is “dressed up,” in the trim department. Fittings are installed, glass is inserted, and mouldings, chrome trim, cloth linings, instrument panels are put in place. Here, too, after arriving from a separate series of conveyor operations, the seats and seat backs are made up and installed.

After the body is polished and “fitted up,” it moves to the second major plant area known as the chassis department. While the car body has been going through the operations just described, the car chassis has started on its way. Frames, arriving by rail, have moved along a spring-and-axle assembly line. Engines, sent from an engine plant several hundred miles distant, were attached to the built-up frame and wheels put on. After many other operations, the chassis arrives at the final line where the body is lowered at “body drop” and fastened to the chassis. Among the several operations which follow are attachment of hoods, grilles and front fenders, bumpers, lights, and many more units. The completed automobile is then tested, adjusted, and given final conditioning in the last department, car conditioning.

All of the above operations in the assembly of a car are divided among five areas or departments, known as metal, paint, trim, chassis, and car conditioning. Each of these departments is headed by a superintendent who reports to the general superintendent of the plant. The latter in turn reports to the plant production manager. Under each superintendent are two to three general foremen; under each general foreman, two or more production foremen. The production foremen are the subject of this study.

Each production foreman is in charge of a section of the operations described above. In the metal department, for example, a foreman has a group of soldering operations located on the main conveyor. The preceding section welds the metal seams of the car body and the succeeding section files the seams which are covered in the soldering operation. Some sections are entirely sub-assembly and off the main line. Other sections combine both sub-assembly and main-line operations.

The work performed on the different sections of the line makes use of a variety of hand power tools — welding guns, paint spray guns, air-driven wrenches. Simple hand tools such as files and hammers are also used in certain sections. With a few exceptions, the number of operators per foreman ranges from twenty-five to thirty-five men.

Each operator has a few prescribed tasks to perform as the product is delivered by the conveyor into and away from his work station. The average time cycle for each operator’s job is about one and one-half minutes. By having their work fractionalized in this way, most operators, even in a section performing similar work (spot welding, paint spraying, etc.), have a minimum of contact with others because there is no functional reason for them to work interdependently with one another. As a result the foreman in many respects deals with an aggregate of men performing work independently of one another, rather than with an integrated team, working together and assisting one another.

A remarkable feature about operations, and of considerable importance to front-line supervision, is that many different types of cars are assembled. There are three distinct “makes” of automobiles, each with many models and styles. Each body is painted with one of forty-five distinct colors and these colors can be applied in more than two hundred two-tone combinations. There are over one hundred twenty-five separate accessory specifications. In addition the various models have different color combinations for instrument panels and upholsteries. Because of the three different makes of cars, and the variety of color and accessory specifications, the possible combinations are, as one member of management put it, “astronomical.” Theoretically, the line could run for more than a year at a maximum rate and the plant would not produce two identical automobiles.

There is, of course, much standardization of parts, which makes it possible to draw from stock any part with a given specification and put it on any model with similar specifications. But a unique feature of the operations is that the schedules are so contrived as to permit each car in sequence to be preceded or followed by a car of completely different type, instead of a “run” of similar models. The system has many advantages for distribution to dealers and also for balancing the work load, but as we shall see, at times it adds to the many practical problems of the individual foreman.

Operations as complex as those in automobile assembly require an enormous amount of planning and coordination by specialized technical service groups. In fact, for every two and one-half persons in the direct production departments, there is one in a staff or service position. It is well known that in all industry the ratio of technical to production groups has been increasing. This is eminently true of automobile assembly operations, and as will be seen, is of critical importance in understanding the foreman’s functional role in any assembly plant.

In this brief tour of the plant we have taken a quick look at an extremely complex technical and human organization. And yet the whole labyrinth of men and machines is organized in accordance with the relatively simple principles of mass production, or more accurately, the principles of progressive assembly. These principles involve the basic concepts of standardization, interchangeability, precision, synchronization, and continuity. For assembly-line operations, they may be described as follows:

1. Orderly progression of the product through the shop in a series of planned operations so that the right part arrives in the right place at the right time.

2. Mechanical delivery to and from the operators of these parts and of the product as it is assembled.

3. A breakdown of operations into their simple constituent components.¹

Everyone familiar with an automobile assembly line recognizes that the work performed by hourly wage production workers, materials handlers, schedule men, and standards personnel is directly related to these principles of progressive assembly.

But what about the production foreman? What is the underlying engineering rationale of his job? Do these same principles apply? In a strict and technical sense, no. If the engineering of the tools and the product were perfect, if processes were flawless, if every operation were perfectly executed by all of the operators, materials handlers, etc., if schedules were balanced and kept stable — then it could be argued that the foreman was superfluous and performed no essential role within the scope of these engineering principles of progressive assembly.²

There were a few intervals during the course of the present study when operations in a given foreman’s section were running close to this ideal and, indeed, during such times it appeared as if the foreman could be dispensed with. Such occasions, however, were rare, and it was apparent that most of the time the foreman’s day was taken up with hundreds of tasks essential to the...