COMMUNITY AND

DEPARTMENTS

ORGANIZATION

OF T E C H N I C A L

RATE-SETTING

OF L A B O R

(UDC 669.1.008.1:658.54) V. F. Chernyi

and

V. P. Malik

Donetsk Central Rate-Setting Research Station Translated from Metallurg, No. 4, p. 37, April, 1966

The metallurgists of the Azovstal' Plant have been actively engaged in a massive struggle for an o v e r - a l l increase in the production of goods, decrease in a loss of working t i m e , and an improvement of the organization of labor and labor consumption rates. At the plant particular attention is devoted to improving technical rate-setting since the introduction of t e c h n i c a l l y proved rate is one of the priority problems. At the enterprise 24 shop c o m m u n i t y Departments of Technical Rate-Setting have been set up. A worker is usually selected to be the chairman of such a department and a labor worker as the secretary. The community department draws up quarterly plans which are then approved by the shop c o m m i t t e e of the trade union. The plan indicates a list of works, the periods of their fulfillment, and the responsible persons. The working plan includes mainly those measures whose introduction will permit the shop c o l l e c t i v e to increase the productivity and improve the standardization of labor, and increase the output of finished good. The work of such departments is producing other more noticeable results with each passing day. Thus, the members of the community Department of Rate-Setting of the open-hearth shop, who have studied and analyzed the proposals of workers for increasing the productivity of labor, have introduced, in p l a c e of the manual breaking of the slag crust in ladles for pouring iron into the mixer, the use of an air h a m m e r for breaking, which made it possible to increase the productivity of labor of the workers by 7%. The community workers of the blast-furnace shop suggested laying approach tracks to three open-hearth furnaces to deliver equipment to the p l a c e of installation, which reduced by 2% the loss of working t i m e . The members of the community Department of Rate-Setting of the railroad traffic shop reexamined the production quotas of the l o c o m o t i v e makeup brigades and concluded that the rolling stock can be serviced by one makeup man (previously the trains were m a d e up by a makeup man and a coupler). Practice has shown that the suggestion of the workers was a good one. The introduction of the suggestion made it possible to release 20 persons for other jobs. Previously in the rail-finishing bay of the rail-structural shop defects of the m e t a l were cleaned by an a i r driven grinder with a flexible shaft. These grinders were very heavy to transport. Having studied the losses of working time for cleaning the defects, the members of the community Department proposed installing e l e c t r i c a l sockets and three grinders on the columns where the m e t a l was stored. After introducing this suggestion losses of working time were reduced by 2%. The main thing in the work of these departments is that their decisions are not stowed away in archives but are i m m e d i a t e l y brought to the attention of shop supervisors who must take i m m e d i a t e measures to e l i m i n a t e the uncovered deficiencies. With the participation of the shop community Departments of T e c h n i c a l Rate-Setting at the plant, 13,700 obsolete and underestimated work quotas were e l i c i t e d and r e e x a m i n e d , as a result of which 16,800 norm-hours were saved. The c o m m u n i t y workers of the plant are also engaged in introducing t e c h n i c a l l y proved standards in place of the obsolete ones. As a result the percent of technically founded quotas has increased to 90 for the plant. The work of the shop community Departments is directed and supervised by the g e n e r a l - p l a n t community Department of T e c h n i c a l Rate-Setting (OBTN) which is staffed by 15 leading production workers, engineers,

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technicians, and representatives of trade unions and komsomol organizations. The general-plant department holds a monthly planning meeting at which measures to reduce losses of working time, organizational problems associated with the work of the shop Departments of Rate-Setting, etc. are discussed and approved. Once a quarter it holds a meeting for the exchange of working experience with chairmen of the shop departments and rate-setters of shops, where problems concerning labor indices and the expenditure of wages are discussed. The general-plant OBTN devotes considerable attention to studying the losses of working time, using for this purpose the method of self-photography. The plant has worked out a unified chart "Photograph of My Job Site," in which the worker records the losses of his working time and makes suggestions to eliminate them. The titled charts are analyzed by the rate-setters who then, together with members of the general-plant department, plan appropriate measures. The general-plant OBTN organizes discussions and lectures on labor consumption rates, every day strives to improve and perfect the organization, reduce the consumption of labor for production. An ever greater number of workers, engineers, and technicians is being attracted to this work.

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