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THE FIVE-DAY WEEK

Erreers or TE Five-Day WEEK on OPERATING EFFICIENCY
The effect upon production is likely to be the test by which
the practicability of the five-day week is judged, but it is
difficult to demonstrate this effect statistically. Changes in
product or process, in administrative procedure or in business
conditions, often coincide with the shift in working schedules,
so that it is impossible to determine with any accuracy the
effect of the five-day schedule upon output. But, while exact
statistical comparison may be impossible, managements appear
 to hold settled beliefs as to whether the shorter schedule
has or has not affected the volume of output. The executives
of 127 companies expressed convictions upon this point. In
68% of the plants in which hours per week had been reduced
in changing to the five-day schedule, it was believed that output
 per week had been maintained or increased. This same
condition was found in 979, of the establishments in which
no change had been made in the weekly total of hours of
work. In all, 75% of the reporting companies expressed no
complaint on the score of reduction in total output.
Certain economies are attributed to five-day operation.
The uneconomical overhead cost of operating a plant on
Saturday half-days is eliminated, and, particularly in companies
 which maintain their own steam power plant, this is
by no means a negligible item. Moreover, since output on
Saturday half-days has quite generally been found to be below
 standard, the distribution of this time, or part of it, over
the other five days has tended to produce higher output per
hour for the week. Even where the Saturday time had not
been made up, the elimination of these. hours has not been
regarded as a total loss. Where processes required rather
elaborate and time-consuming starting and stopping procedure,
 the elimination of one such routine a week has meant
a substantial saving in unproductive time and expense.
Considerable stress has been laid upon the advantage
of devoting Saturday forenoons to careful overhauling and
repair of plant and equipment. It was the general experience
that such work was performed more thoroughly when plenty
of time was available, and that the consequent reduction in
machine breakdowns during productive operation constituted
a definite gain towards more economical production.