148 The Stock Market Crash—And After
cial girls to clean machines and floors, and provided
 containers to hold finished products. The
speed of the machines was not changed and nothing
was said to the operators about increasing their output,
 but as these time-consuming obstacles were
removed, they increased production within a month
by 42 per cent, and greatly improved quality. The
wages of the operators increased automatically
because they were on piecework. The management
found that costs were reduced in spite of the investment
 in improvements.”

Technique of Improved Layout
“Does management stop with revealing the obstacles
 to a free flow of work through a manufacturing
plant 2”
“Management does not stop here. It has developed
 a technique of clearing the way for a more
swift-flowing stream of material by improving the
layout of the plant, by eliminating unnecessary handling
 of material, by better planning and scheduling,
and by more effective direction of a business as a
whole.”
“How is the layout of a manufacturing plant
determined?”
“By the flow of work through that plant; that is,
the movement of material from one process to
another. It is necessary to know the processes
through which the material must pass, their sequence,
the machines or equipment required, and, if the