John Tregoning
[2] Predecessors, such as Captain Henry Metcalfe (1885) had written about the operation and management of the military arsenal, and Joseph Nasmith (1884) was focussed on textile industry.
Method is the essential element on which every solid and substantial concern is based; and that factory, institution, or establishment of any kind which ignores it, conveys to the observer an impression that nothing permanent or abiding is intended, whilst on the other hand a systematised manner of working stamps it at once with permanency — an establishment that means business and intends to carry it on for all time.I have heard it remarked that in business three things are necessary : knowledge, temper, and time; but I have seen all three prostrate and powerless for want of method in the management.
[14]Tregoning referred, as Jacoby (2004) recalled, to the "rapid growth of the machine shops and other metalworking establishments [which] had led to internal disorder and [where] greater coordination and systematization were required if production speed was to be increased.
"[15][16] As Tregoning mentioned: My observations have led me to conclude — and I say it after twenty years' experience — that the first and foremost want of many of our large factories is not work, but a thorough revision of the machinery that manages and directs the whole concern.
Tregonings ideal: A perfect organisation I consider an essential and vital element in securing success, in whatever form of institution we may wish to carry on, whether political or religious, mechanical or social.
[14]Eight years later J. Slater Lewis cited Tregonings characterization in the Engineering Magazine (1899), and concluded that "it will be seen... that establishing new works for the profitable introduction of specialised machinery in order to arrive at maximum production is a matter of great complexity, involving questions of the highest importance, which must vary in accordance with the surroundings of each particular trade.
"[19] The new system for coordination and systematization, Tregoning proposed in his work, contained the structural application of tools as shop order books, technical drawings, and graphics for analysis costs (see images).
Tregoning didn't see, as already stated above, any solution in "involving the company in a large outlay of money - it is simply a question of method, the application of a few rules."
Guillén (1944) recalled, that in Tregonings days "cost accounting, production and inventory controls, and piecework rates were introduced not only to ease the 'labor problem' but also to improve on the wasteful use of raw materials and capital equipment.
The effective application of productivity-based wage schedules reinforced the unfolding of cost accounting, which had been neglected for decades despite rapid industrial growth.
The simultaneous development of cost accounting, production-control procedures, inventory controls, and piecework schemes was the most important aspect of the movement towards more systematic management practices in industry.
