But all of these do not fully explain the enormous increase in product per employee. This has been brought about by various methods of shop management. One of these is the specialization of operations and the division and subdivision of departments, whereby each operator has a certain well─defined and very limited number of operations to perform. These operations he performs over and over, hundreds and sometimes thousands of times daily, until he becomes so accustomed to each movement that the operations are performed not only with great rapidity but also with great accuracy. Still another factor in the question of individual output, is the efforts that have been made through systems of premiums, bonus, and similar methods of reward for individual effort when the output reaches or exceeds a certain fixed limit. These rewards are not confined to the operatives, but are often extended to the foremen, assistant foremen, gang bosses, and others of the "non─productive" force who have indirectly contributed to the efficiency of individuals and hence to departmental efficiency. In the succeeding articles, these matters will be taken up and treated in detail, giving the actual practice as now prevailing in some of the best organized manufacturing plants. MACHINE SHOP MANAGEMENT =Modern Meaning of Shop Management.= The present understanding of the term _Shop Management_ is quite different from the sense in which it was used years ago. Formerly the management of the shop was vested in a _superintendent_ whose duties consisted in purchasing material, inspecting it when it was received, turning it over to the foreman, and in a general way looking after the work as it was being performed. In addition to these duties, he frequently handled the selling of the product, the collection of accounts, and the proper provision for meeting the pay─roll on pay─days. He also had a general supervision over the grounds and buildings and their care and maintenance, as well as the provision for power, lighting, and heating. By this arrangement of duties, it will be seen that comparatively little time was devoted to actual shop operations, and much time to different lines of duties that might more economically and often quite as efficiently be performed by assistants at a much lower rate of pay. In the modern methods of shop management, all these things are changed. The specialization of workmanship, the division of duties, the limiting of responsibilities──each restricted within narrow limits by sharply defined regulations──have reduced the variety of operations of the workman, and of responsibilities and duties of the men who direct manufacturing work.