Time and Duty Analysis of Wholesalers’ Salesmen

Abstract

OUR COMPETITIVE economic system has been repeatedly attacked as wasteful and in recent years this attack has been leveled particularly at distribution. Among other things, it has been charged that marketing costs in general and personal selling costs in particular are excessive. That selling costs in many instances may be high can hardly be denied, as what limited statistical evidence relating to this subject is available seems to indicate that production coasts have been steadily reduced while distribution expenses have been rising, at least relatively.1 This situation is due in part to the fact that while scientific management methods and principles were applied to the solution of production problems the same methods and principles were quite generally overlooked or neglected in the solution of marketing problems. If it were true that there is a body of basic management principles peculiar to the field of manufacturing, another peculiar to distribution, and a third peculiar to finance, one could readily understand this failure of marketing executives to profit from the experience of production executives. But this certainly is not the case; management principles are universal and can be applied to all fields of business activity. The technique in applying these principles may vary somewhat with the individual characteristics of the particular field in question, but the principles themselves are basic and vary but slightly between the major segments of our economy such as production, distribution, and finance. For many years industrial engineers have been applying a scientific, objective approach to the work of factory employees with outstanding success. The results obtained are known and appreciated by all who are familiar with manufacturing processes. New methods have been developed that have sharply reduced manufacturing costs and at the same time made possible remarkable improvements in the products themselves. But the improvements have not been limited to increased mechanical efficiency. The intensive study of the worker and his machine has made possible the establishment of accurate performance standards. By means of such detailed study of the worker and his job, production experts have been able to determine with considerable precision just what constitutes an honest day's work. As a result, production planning and employee training and supervision have been facilitated tremendously, with obvious benefits to all parties concerned, including the worker, the employer and society in general. Development of Time and Duty Study. Despite the progress that was made in manufacturing by an intensive study of the job, the feeling has been general that marketing is an activity that does not lend itself to the same type of treatment. It has been said that there are too many 1 Stewart, Paul W., et al., Does Distribution Cost Too Much? Twentieth Century Fund, New York City, 1939, p. 336.