Series 5: Reports

Labor efficiency reports from 1944 and 1970 are the most comprehensive and voluminous records in the REPORTS SERIES. These reports, prepared by the Labor Standards Department, on either a monthly or weekly basis, were statistical measures of the percentage of working hours each department of the factory worked “on standard,” and as such reflect the use of the Bedaux wage incentive system at the Eau Claire plant. Each report includes total hours worked, hours on standard, lost hours, percentage efficiency, and percentage on standard that month and the previous week for each department or division. For the year 1945 figures for individual workers are reported and the 1946 reports cite reasons for the increases or decreases in labor efficiency (percent on standard). After 1958 the reports include total numbers of tires scheduled to be produced, cured, and finished, and the number of persons working in each division. Reports from 1953 to 1954 are missing.

Although the remaining files of reports in the REPORTS SERIES are incomplete, they serve as examples of the types of management reports which were probably generated on a more regular basis. Factory managers' monthly reports are available only for part of 1942. These consist of interplant comparisons of tire production, labor productivity, costs, and losses due to defects. Tire Division cost control project files document a 1948 company-wide plan to reduce the cost of tire production through reductions in waste, seconds, and labor costs at various points in the manufacturing process. Included are comparisons of such costs at all tire manufacturing plants from 1946 through 1948 and projections of costs through 1949.

Labor efficiency

Box 67 Folders 1-10: 1944-1957
Box 68 Folders 1-6: 1958-1970
Box 67 Folder 7: Graphic summaries, 1951-1958

Box 67 Folder 9: Interplant comparisons, 1946-1948
Box 67 Folder 10: Projections and results, 1948-1949