National Clothesline

Today, the biggest problem we have in this industry is to maintain a permanent pool of trained and highly motivated plant workers. The availability of candidates has increased due to the fact that most second- and third-generation Americans do not want to work in a drycleaning or laundry plant, and only the immigrants are willing to do that type of work.

Therefore, training of these immigrants has never been more needed. Most of these immigrants have good, natural intelligence and most have had some form of basic education.

Most important, they have the strong desire to be employed, and the type of work is not as important as having a good paying job. In other words, they will do anything and do it to the best of their ability.

This is all well and good, but what happens after several months on the job, and they have now gotten their “feet wet?” I have seen this situation many times in plants located next to the Mexican border. After their “basic training” and “advanced work tour,” they learn “the ropes” that we have always experienced in the past from our American workers.

By this I mean that the matter of good pay for good work and recognition and reward suddenly creeps into the equation.

The immigrant worker no longer is the one to be considered second-rate and willing to work for a little more than minimum wage. In other words, the time has come to recognize the immigrant worker as a permanent part of your organization. And if you want to keep him or her as a permanent worker, you will need to pay that person the same upscale wages as you would an experienced spotter or presser of days gone by — only more so, today.

There are still some Americans willing to work in a plant today, but they are usually in areas somewhat remote to the big cities.

For those plants that are fortunate enough to have employed well-trained and motivated personnel for many years past, this article also applies to you since the labor problem is continental and applies to us all.

Incentive systems for production workers have become an important part of the whole equation in order to maintain and retain this force.

Plant operations based solely on a straight hourly wage and not using an incentive system can expect to obtain about 50 to 60 percent of the workers ’ productive capability. An hourly worker is rewarded when he or she works slowly by “pacing” for more hours of pay, and he/or she is penalized for working fast by losing out with less hours of pay.

Who is the real loser? You are.

However, no matter what system you choose to adopt, the emphasis on quality work must be continuously maintained and constantly monitored.

The desired degree of quality cannot, under any circumstances, be sacrificed for the sake of productivity. To implement an incentive system does not require an excessive amount of management, but does require good management.

There are nine requirements for a viable incentive system:

• Must be simple and easy to calculate.

• Must be fair and impartial.

• Must pay enough money.

• Must not be a hoax.

• Must be available to all employees in that group.

• Must be based on your equipment and layout, not someone else’s.

• Must be based on viable production standards.

• Must be closely managed.

• Must be based upon employee training.

The most common form of incentive is “extra money” in the form of wages. They are time-tested and proven methods of attaining higher productivity at lower costs.

Neither management nor labor should ever expect such programs to be a cure-all for every production problem. Instead, managers and workers must have a complete understanding of the fundamentals and principles governing the proper introduction of incentives.

Once it goes into effect, a program of wage incentives is incorporated into the plant ’s wage structure and is so recorded into the payroll records.

There is a difference in wages given to employees. As I mentioned above, hourly wages tend to lead to lower production rates and encourage “pacing” and then lead into no motivation. You will also find labor costs higher, and it requires more supervision and training to push production rates up.

On the other hand, incentive wages are more expensive but your production rate will increase, lowering your hourly wage. Incentive wages force the employees to “put out” and, thus, eliminate the “pacing.”

In return, you will shorten your work day with reduced production costs in the long run.

You must, however, be concerned with some of the negative problems of incentive wages:

• Incentive wages tend to lower the employees’ company “esprit de corps” since the employee is concerned only with personal gain in wages.

• Employees will not cooperate with the other employees.

• Caution must be exercised by close inspection to prevent lower quality output

Most times the production worker does not like to have rejected garments given back by the inspector, and this leads to contention within the group.

In 1895, Frederick W. Taylor, an industrial engineer, embarked on an idea of “scientific management.” He wrote a paper entitled “A Piece Rate System,” and he presented it before the Society of Mechanical Engineers.

In the paper, Taylor presented the techniques in production, with equally substantial reduction in unit costs. The “Taylor System” permitted, for the first time, a determination of standards of production.

Taylor’s emphasis was on the improvement of tools and methods for each job, and on time studies for every element of work included in a job. He found that each job consists of subdivisions$ or factors, which could be isolated, and these elements may vary while being performed by different workers.

They are not necessarily performed in the same manner each time. The easiest and quickest method can be selected as the standard method to be used on the job.

For us, however, a shirt unit can be rather constant in its performance by trained operators who work in the same routine all the time. Each step in shirt finishing production does not change due to the routine sequence of lays that have been established by management.

The development of time and motion studies made possible highly reliable calculations of production standards on which to base equipment requirements and production costs.

However, the standards did not include provisions for determining proper wages to workers on various jobs. During the period from 1910 to 1920, personnel executives of manufacturing businesses recognized the importance of “Job Analysis” in determining the qualifications necessary for a job.

This technique was found valuable as a basis for standardizing salaries in non-production positions, such as office and clerical jobs, sales and customer service positions.

Job evaluation, as applied to production workers, became inevitable as the result of enactment of state minimum wage laws and the insistence of organized labor leaders for higher wages as a standard for each industry within their concern.

Job evaluation is recognized today as a highly desirable procedure for determining sound and desirable job wage rates. It is an important pre-requisite to any wage incentive plan.

A successful wage incentive program requires good management. It is necessary that standards of quality be established, and that supervisors be provided to maintain those standards.

A fairly uniform flow of work during the work week must be provided. Since finishing is the core of a plant ’s production, it is vital that the cleaner/spotter distributes enough work to the finishing units to avoid “pacing.” We all know that a presser will work faster if work is piled up.

The cleaner/spotter should send spot-free garments to the finishing units. It is not the presser ’s job to find spots and return spotted garments to the cleaner/spotter.

This can destroy an incentive system very quickly since the finisher should receive piece credit for the garment which he or she has partially pressed before the stains were noticed.

My system provides for the spotter to attach a “sorry tag” to the garment if the stain cannot be removed, or to remove it would damage the fabric and/or dye.

Management must see that the sorry tag is not a substitute for spot removal, but the main purpose of this tag is to tell everyone in the cycle, including the customer, that the spot was noted and attempted and not passed over.

Management must assume responsibility for the proper selection and training of workers so that all may have equal opportunity for earning incentives.

Management must assume the responsibility for selecting the right equipment with all the options available to produce quantity with quality. The equipment on hand must be maintained and kept in good operating condition by management and maintenance persons. It is management ’s responsibility to see that uniform steam, air and vacuum are maintained.

Good training is a critical part of maintaining an incentive system. The most ideal time to install a wage incentive is when the business is good, when there is plenty of work and increased capacity is sorely needed.

Frequently during such times, the morale of workers is at its lowest. Workers need to be assured that an increase in productivity will not result in lay-off. It is when there is plenty of work to be done that workers readily see the opportunity to earn more money.

Next month, Part 2 will discuss setting standards and various types of incentives programs