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Emerson's book Twelve Principles of Efficiency was classic.
He discussed efficiency design of organization through 12 principles:
1. Clearly defined ideals.
2. Common sense - Efficiency Sense - Productivity Sense
3. Competent counsel
4. Discipline
5. The fair deal
6. Reliable, immediate and adequate records
7. Despatching
8. Standards and schedules
9. Standardized conditions
10. Standardized operations
11. Written standard-practice instructions
12. Efficiency-reward
Standards and standardization as a basis for efficiency was strongly advocated by him. Nearly two hundred companies adopted various features of the Emerson Efficiency system, which included production routing procedures, standardized working conditions and tasks, time and motion studies, and a bonus plan which raised workers' wages in accordance with greater efficiency and productivity [Guide].
Harrington Emerson (1853-1931) was one of America's pioneers in industrial engineering and management and organizational theory. His major contributions were to install his management methods at many industrial firms and to promote the ideas of scientific management and efficiency to a mass audience [Guide].
After a successful tenure as a general manager of a small Pennsylvania glass factory in 1900, Emerson resolved to take up efficiency engineering as a profession. Through meetings of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, he became personally acquainted with the pioneering work of Frederick W. Taylor, the founder of scientific management, ans assimilated much of the methodology for standardizing work and remunerating workers in accordance with productivity.
Between 1907 and 1910, the Emerson Company consulted over 200 corporations, submitting reports for which they were paid twenty-five million dollars. Emerson efficiency methods were applied to department stores, hospitals, colleges, and municipal governments. Between 1911 and 1920 Emerson's firm averaged annual earnings of over $100,000.00.
To distinguish his methods from those of Taylor, Emerson published three books: Efficiency as a Basis for Operation and Wages (1909); The Twelve Principles of Efficiency (1912); and Colonel Schoonmaker and the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad (1913).
The 1910 Eastern Freight Case brought much wider public attention to Emerson's ideas. Emerson served as Louis D. Brandeis's star witness in the appeal of major eastern trunk railroads to the Interstate Commerce Commission for a rate increase. Emerson testified that the railroads wasted one million dollars daily by not applying efficiency methods. His brief against the railroads won wide acclaim and marked the growth in public awareness of scientific management. Emerson became known as the "High Priest of Efficiency." He spoke more frequently about his efficiency ideas to businessmen, civil organizations, and management and engineering students. In 1912, Emerson helped to found the New York Efficiency Society which promoted and disseminated the ideals of reform through scientific management. Emerson joined other progressive engineers in founding the Society of Industrial Engineers in 1917.
Through the decade of the 1920s, Emerson publicized the potential for promoting efficiency on a global scale. He was one of eighteen prominent engineers chosen by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in 1921 to serve on a committee investigating the elimination of waste in industry.
"The twentieth century dawns with as yet unaccomplished task of conservation, of eliminating wastes-wanton and wicked wastes of all kinds, wastes that make our civic governments a by-word, our destruction of natural resources a world scandal, our complacent industrial efficiency a peculiarly national disgrace, of all nations, we Americans ought to know better."
[ The Twelve Principles of Efficiency (1912) P.9]
"Efficiency like hygiene is a state, an ideal not a method" P.23
Strenuousness and efficiency are not only not the same, but are antagonistic. To be strenuous is to put forth greater effort; to be efficient it to put forth less effort. (P.39)
"He did not know that efficiency reward ought to be preceded by the careful, systematic, and expert application of eleven other principles, of which "Wages" is a minor element of one." P.41
Accounting in all its phases is a minor division of one of the twelve efficiency principles, trustworthy, immediate and adequate records. P.43
An efficiency engineer ought similarly to act as funnel, being equipped to gather from all available sources whatever is of operating value for the organization he is advising. P.54 Functions and Focus Areas of Industrial Engineering (Efficiency Engineer)
If all the ideals animating all the organization from top to bottom could be lined so as to pull in the same straight line, the resultant would be a very powerful effort. P.60 (Involve all in aligned mission, vision, objectives and goals).
The railway line between st. Petersburg and Moscow cost $337,000 a mile for a distance of 400 miles. In Finland similar line was made for $23,000 a mile P. 65 (Sentence rewritten)
The ideas of one company are that its customers shall be treated with absolute fairness, that its employees shall be of higher skill and be better paid than those of neighboring competitors, that they shall have permanence of employment.P.84
There are only a dozen shops in the United States in which any scientific standards of man and machine efficiency exist. P.111
The legal counselor does not, cannot know all the laws and proper legal formalities in every state, and he therefore employs junior and often senior counsel. Similarly a counselor as to efficiency, would not pretend to be expert as to all efficiency, but it would be his duty to be in touch both as to men and scientific reports with all that was latest and best and make it all available for his employer whether individual or corporation. P.129
There is nothing men will not attempt when great enterprises hold out the promise of great rewards. - Livy
Out of eighteen items of operating costs, as distinguished from selling costs, only one is directly influenced by the worker, that is time-quality of the work. P.355
Efficiency reward is not a money payment, this is only one of its myriad forms. Men have been willing to die for a smile. P.365-66
The ideal that inspires the formulation of the principles of efficiency is elimination of waste, of wastes of all kinds resulting finally in wastes of the collective soul. P.371
The ideal that inspires the formulation of the principles of efficiency is elimination of waste, of wastes of all kinds resulting finally in wastes of the collective soul. P.371
The ideals of United States Steel Corporation
The ideals of the corporation seem to have been
(1) Law abidence
(2) Rational publicity
(3) Steady prices at a high level
(4) maximum tonnage
(5) Permanence for its own business by the purchase of large ore and coal reserves
(6) Rapid improvement of the properties so as to make them worth the capitalized value
(7) Maintenance of a high level of wages
(8) Identification of the worker with the profits of his work, thus increasing his interesting in his occupation.
P.383
Does the Steel Corporation know as to every detail what ought to be as well as it knows what has been? P.391
Efficiency in Printing and Packaging Processes A Webinar - 2 Parts
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Industrial Engineering Knowledge Revision Plan - One Year Plan
A lean enterprise is a high productivity enterprise. Lean enterprise gives equal emphasis to effectiveness and efficiency.
Effectiveness is providing goods and services that customers value.
Efficiency is producing goods and services that customers value at a cost that gives profit to the organization.
Profit = Value to the customer (Price to the producer) - Cost of production.
A lean enterprise simultaneously focuses on product enhancements that increase value to the customer and product value engineering and production methods efficiency engineering to reduce the cost of production.
Definitions and Explanations by others
What is a Lean Enterprise?
A Lean Enterprise produces more with existing resources by eliminating non-value-added activities. To be competitive in today’s global economy, companies must work to eliminate overproduction caused by traditional scheduling systems and only make what customers want when they want it. Lean establishes a systematic approach to eliminate wastes, create flow, and develop and implement a long-term plan to streamline your operations for success. Begin a Lean Enterprise Transformation by learning to see your business as one integrated set of processes and then systematically eliminating waste across your entire company – from shop floor to front office.
What is a Lean Enterprise?
Taiichi Ohno, the founder of the Toyota Production System, defined it this way: “All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time by removing the non-value-added wastes” (Ohno 1988). This is a simple and efficient explanation of a complex system and culture.
A lean enterprise applies TPS principles to all aspects of its business.
Customer Focus – Only the customer can define the value of our product or service. All else is waste.
Eliminate Waste – Waste is anything that the customer does not need and will not pay for. All employees must be empowered to eliminate waste.
Improve Flow – Small amounts of product or service moving quickly according to customer demand. Customers will pay for time.
Quality “Built-in” to Processes – Make it right, instead of inspecting later
Respect for People – Develop your people and your partners.
Continuous Improvement – No amount of improvement is ever enough.
Penn State came out with an Improvement Model. The model can be explained as
I - Identify the Process for Improvement
M - Map the Process
P - Perform Analysis
R - Research, Evaluate and Develop the improvement solution
O - Organize and Implement the solution
V - Verify the results, make adjustments and standardize the process
E - Engage the Employees in Continuous Improvement
Product and Process Innovation
A System Dynamics-Based Analysis of the Interdependencies
Peter M. Milling and Joachim Stumpfe
2000 Conference Papers
In addition to numerous interactions with the environment the complexity of innovation processes in industrial
companies results from interactions between product and process innovation. An effective innovation management has to take these interdependencies into account coming to a congruent implementation of the different types of innovation.
Energy efficiency and U.S. competitiveness Applying product and process innovation to build long-term economic advantage.
The U.S. industrial and building sectors could extend the use of their still-productive
assets while improving energy efficiency by investing in technologies that make it easier to
manage energy use. These include variable-speed drives, motor-control systems, high-efficiency
motors and building-systems automation, among others.
We believe that there is no singular solution for achieving global competitiveness through energy
efficiency; and that while moderating consumer consumption and entirely new energy models are
part of the equation, so is immediate investment in existing infrastructure with widely available
technology. Such investment holds the promise of results and can be most easily implemented as
the responsibility falls largely on the private sector. http://www02.abb.com/db/db0003/db002698.nsf/0/4cd0f07c8d298db7c1257a2f0050825d/$file/Energy+efficiency+and+U.S.+competitiveness.pdf
1. Work Smarter, not harder
2. Use wisdom, not money
3. Use data supported by theories
4. Be happy with even with small changes. Act like a tortoise.
5. Be creative, innovate to meet requirements
6. Be positive about the benefits of change
7. Correct failures immediately
8. Lead by example if you are a kaizen leader
9. Identify the root cause for every failure
10. A team is more productive. Solve problems in teams
1. Leave all titles and ranks at the door.
2. Treat others as you would like to be treated.
3. Improvement requires change. Do not waste time
justifying the current situation.
4. Keep an open mind.
5. Maintain a positive attitude.
6. Deal from data, not perception or emotion.
7. Create a blameless environment.
8. There is no substitute for hard work (serious work).
9. Plans are useful only if they can be applied and if the
gains are sustainable.
10. Just do it…now!
Hamel, M.R. (2010). Kaizen Event Field Book: Foundation, Framework and Standard Work for
Effective Events. Michigan: Society of Manufacturing Engineers, pp. 159-160.
Lean enterprises deliver maximum performance and minimum resource consumption. A win win situation for the consumer, producer and therefore the society (economy).
The lean enterprise concept was developed by Toyota through a trial and error method to produce automobiles at low volume with high productivity. In Japan, other copies slowly learned about the system and implemented its practices. As Japanese companies started producing in various other countries, the practices started diffusing.
IMVP, a research study on automobile industry, codified the Japanese production and enterprise system into the concept of Lean Production System and Enterprise.
2011 Presentation on the The Next Challenges for Lean Thinking by Dan Jones. Dan Jones is coauthor of the book publihsed by IMVP in 1990
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