ABSTRACT
Labour-saving machinery is widely used everywhere and is encouraged by the unions and welcomed by the men, because experience has shown them that in reality machinery is their best friend. The intensive use of machinery and mechanical power in America is the means to the end of highvolume, low-cost production. Management must look for other explanations in a list of causes: longer times taken to set-up or change machine-settings, longer time taken for ordinary work, delays or interruptions of the vital flows mentioned earlier, longer time taken for maintenance and cleaning, inadequate skills in tending or maintaining the equipment, and so on. Profits were so inflationary after the war that differentials comparable to those paid in American industry could have been paid in Britain, to secure workers for second or third shifts. Continuous and intensive utilization of machinery in such a situation—let alone the efficient working-in of brand-new machinery—is not to be expected.
