Technology and Manpower Utilization in Distribution Agencies

Ross Arthur M. , ed., Unemployment and the American Economy (New York: John Wiley, 1964).

Silberman Charles E. , “The Comeback of the Blue-Collar Worker,” Fortune, LXXI:2 (Feb. 1965), 216; Ross , op. cit., pp. 2–3.

For further discussion and analysis of these broad problems, see the several excellent papers presented at the Conference on Unemployment and the American Economy, sponsored by the Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley, on April 20, 1963: Ross , op. cit.

Many studies are now under way in this area, as indicated by preliminary inventory of California research: Malm F. T. , “Research Inventory: Automation and Manpower Utilization,” report prepared for the Bureau of Business Education, California State Department of Education, July 2, 1962 (University of California, Institute of Business and Economic Research, Berkeley; dittoed, 68 pp.)

This research inventory is now being expanded and updated for the California State Commission on Manpower, Automation, and Technology under the leadership of Professor Lloyd Ulman, Director, Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley.

Among the current studies which appear most promising are those being conducted separately by the Berkeley and UCLA Institutes of Industrial Relations and the State of California Department of Employment, although there are many others of great interest.

“California—No. 1 Growth State,” Business Week, Dec. 8, 1962, reprint, pp. 1–10.

Gershenson Maurice I. , “Labor Force Projections for California, 1960–1975,” presented at the 120th Annual Meeting of the American Statistical Association, Stanford, 1960. (San Francisco: California State Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Labor Statistics and Research; mimeo., 8 pp. plus charts.)

Ibid. See also: Holton Richard Thompson Donald , “Future Economic Growth in the West and Prospects for Rail Freight,” report prepared by Arthur D. Little, Inc., for the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway Co., San Francisco, July, 1961 (multilithed, 278 pp., and read into the record of the hearings, ICC Docket No. 114); Arnold Robert K. Spiegelmann R. G. , The California Economy 1947–1980 (Menlo Park: Stanford Research Institute, 1961); U.S. Department of Commerce, Future Development of the San Francisco Bay Area, 1960–2020 (Washington, D.C.: 1959).

Poland Orville F. , “Economic Trends in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Franklin K. Lane Series, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1963. Cf. other pamphlets of the Institute of Govermental Studies: Kingsley Davis and Eleanor Langlois, “Future Demographic Growth of the San Francisco Bay Area” (1963); Reller Theodore , “Problems of Public Education in the San Francisco Bay Area” (1963).

Poland Orville F. , “Public Employment in California,” Institute of Govermental Studies, University of California, Berkeley (May 1964), pp. 8–11.

Gershenson , op. cit. Margaret Thal-Larsen, Executive Secretary, California State Commission on Manpower, Automation, and Technology, points out that Census reports for California, 1940–1960, show that while total employment increased approximately 58 per cent from 1940–1950, 48 per cent from 1950–1960, and 133 per cent from 1940–1960, employment in trade increased 58 per cent, 25 per cent, and 97 per cent in corresponding periods. For the period 1950–1960, employment in trade increased at roughly one-half the rate of increase of total employment—letter, Oct. 31, 1962.

Arnold , op. cit.

See comments by Paul F. Wendt and Ernesto Cabrera R., in Poland, “Economic Trends …,” pp. 36–40, and forthcoming reports by Roland K. Artie and others, Center for Research in Real Estate and Urban Economics, University of California, Berkeley. One significant preliminary report is found in Artie R. K. , “External Trade, Industrial Structure, Employment Mix, and the Distribution of Incomes: A Simple Model of Planning and Growth,” The Swedish Journal of Economics (Ekonomisk Tidskrift, 1965).

Barger Harold , Distributions Place in the American Economy Since 1869 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), p. x, 37.

Simpson Douglas B. , “The Retail Clerks in the East Bay Area” (University of California, Berkeley, MBA 299 report; typed, 122 pp.), 36–39. (May 27, 1963.)

Silberman Charles E. , “The Real News About Automation,” Fortune, LXXI:1 (Jan. 1965), 222.

Many of these trends and developments were reviewed in an earlier report prepared for the California State Bureau of Business Education: Nicholson Laura , Automation and Retailing (Los Angeles: UCLA Division of Vocational Education, 1960).

The Barrett-Cravens Guide-O-Matic is described also in “Integrated Warehousing,” Factory, March 1962, pp. 104–107; and “Fast Automatic Handling …,” Factory, Dec. 1962, pp. 47–49.

“Materials Handling Enjoying a Big Lift,” Business Week, No. 1865 (May 29, 1965), pp. 60–61. (Reviews new developments at the 1965 Materials Handling Institute Show in Cleveland.)

“Lifting speeds have been doubled in the past five years, and stacking height is up 50%… . This means a big saving in labor costs.” Ibid., 60.

“Fastest Warehousing You Ever Saw,” Factory, July 1959, pp. 68–69. One interviewee suggested that because no one normally would be working the storage area, eliminating lighting, sprinklers, etc., this might save as much as $50,000 out of a total warehouse cost of $150,000. Labor and other cost savings might pay for the Triax system in 2 to 3 years, if all went well.

“Warehousing Shakeup,” Wall Street Journal, Jan. 24, 1963, p. 1. Cf. “Code-O-Matic, the Stock Picker That Lets 2 Do the Work of 10,” Factory, CXII:1 (Jan. 1954), 98–100.

For an excellent, positive statement of the systems approach to warehousing and materials handling, see Harvey Allan , “The Warehouse of the Future,” in Toward the Factory of the Future (New York: American Management Association, Special Report No. 28, 1957).

For a more specific itemization of more traditional, individual steps toward warehouse efficiency—containerization, packaging, conveyorization, work study, etc.—see “19 Ways to Save Time and Money in Distribution,” Business Management, Sept. 1964, pp. 42–46 ff.

Malcolm Gotterer, draft report on the impact of technological change, for the Franklin K. Lane series, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley (Sept. 1962), p. 5.

Duncan D. J. Phillips C. F. , Retailing (6th ed.; Homewood, Illinois: Irwin, 1963), chap. 1, “Retailing: An Ever-Changing Field.” Cf. the Fortune series on the “retailing revolution,” May 1962-Feb. 1963, reprinted in Barksdale H. C. , ed., Marketing: Change and Exchange (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964).

Hollander S. C. , “The Wheel of Retailing,” Journal of Marketing, XXV: 1 (July 1960), 37–42; McNair M. P. , “Significant Trends and Developments in the Postwar Period,” in Smith A. B. , ed., Competitive Distribution in a Free High-Level Economy and Its Implications for the University (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958), pp. 17–18.

Duncan Phillips , op. cit., pp. 13–14.

Silberman Charles E. , “The Revolutionists of Retailing,” Fortune, LXV:4 (April 1962), 100–101. Cf. Tallman G. B. Blomstrom B. , “Retail Innovations Challenge Manufacturers,” Harvard Business Review, Sept.-Oct. 1962, pp. 130–141.

“Where the Customer Pays to Shop,” Business Week, Nov. 10, 1962, p. 163.

“The Trend is to Vend,” Factory, CXIV:1 (Jan. 1956), 92–95. “Better than 8 out of 10 of American manufacturing plants are using vending machines today to help solve the problems of factory feeding. Over 1 out of 5 depend entirely upon automatic vending.” Ibid., 92.

“Automatieken” (automatic cafeterias in the Netherlands), Vend, XVI:20 (Oct. 15, 1962), 61–65. Another example, in the U.S., is the use of automatic vending instead of traditional dining cars on the Southern Pacific and other railroads.

Duncan Phillips , op. cit., p. 21.

Even the simple early gumball machine had its troubles. For a delightful account of the problems of a vending machine route operator, describing relationships with machine distributors and local merchants, see Nelson James , The Trouble with Gumballs (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1956).

One of the most elaborate machines available today is the “Dial-A-Scale,” exhibited at the NAMA conference in San Francisco in October 1962. Measuring 5 feet wide by 9 feet high, it holds up to 374 items of food, drugs, and textile products and is to be used as a “shopping island” in residential areas and apartment buildings.

See the report on mergers and consolidations in the industry, “Automatic Vending …,” Business Week, Dec. 8, 1962, pp. 134–138; and an earlier report, “New Spin for Seeburg… .,” Business Week, Jan. 16, 1960, pp. 76–84. Cf. the government pamphlet report, U.S. Department of Commerce. “The Automatic Vending Machine Industry—Its Growth and Development” (Washington: USGPO, 1962).

Among the many articles on the “robot store” and related developments, the several by Charles R. Goeldner should be mentioned: “Automatic Selling-Will It Work?,” Journal of Retailing, XXXIX (Summer 1962), 41–46; “Automation—Evolution in Retailing,” Business Horizons, Summer 1962, pp. 89–98; “Automation in Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, XXVI (Jan. 1962), 53–56. See also: The special Spring 1959 issue of Journal of Retailing devoted to automation in retail distribution; Zerweck C. W. , “Automated Selling,” Sales/Marketing Today, VI (May 5, 1963), 4–6; Weiss E. B. , “Next: The Unattended Retail Store,” Advertising Age, July 2, 1962.

Zerweck , op. cit.

Gotterer , op. cit., p. 6.

Goeldner , “Automating in Marketing,” op. cit., p. 53.

“Men Who Cash In On Impulse,” Business Week, Nov. 10, 1962, pp. 170–172.

Alderson Wroe Shapiro Stanley J. , eds., Marketing and the Computer (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963); see especially the papers by Meserole on warehousing (pp. 50–59), and by Platt on EDP for retailers (pp. 362–369). Cf. the extensive special report, “Computers Begin to Solve the Marketing Puzzle,” Business Week, No. 1859 (April 17, 1965), 114–138.

Sullivan Mary Louise , “EDP in Accounts Receivable—A Case Study of Joseph Magnin and Co., Inc.” (thesis for M.S. in Retailing, New York University, Aug. 1963); cf. Remington Rand Univac, “Joseph Magnin—Figures on the Future” (Sperry Rand Corp., 1959).

Sullivan , op. cit.

Cf. the remarks by John Bristow of the California Processors and Growers relative to “unemployment” vs. “nonemployment,” California State Commission on Manpower, Automation, and Technology, Report to the Governor and the Legislature, 1964, p. 17.

Sullivan , op. cit., based on remarks of Cyril Magnin, President, Joseph Magnin and Co., Inc.

Personal interview with Mr. Reginald Biggs; cf. Nicholson , Automation in Retailing, pp. 3–15.

“NCR Registers Have Graduated,” advertisement, Discount Store News, March 23, 1964, p. 20; see also UGC Instruments, “Source Oriented Data Acquisition” (Houston: UGC, 1965).

Personal interview.

See for example the novel punch-tape “order gun” proposed by Goodell William D. , “Significance and Problems of Grocery Store Ordering” (University of California, Berkeley: MBA 299 report, May 27, 1963; typed), pp. 49 ff.

“Computers Begin to Solve the Marketing Puzzle,” Business Week, No. 1859 (April 17, 1965), p. 118.

See the report by Balderston Frederick E. Hoggatt Austin , “Simulation of Market Processes,” Institute of Business and Economic Research, and Center for Research in Management Science, University of California, Berkeley (1962); cf. Buzzell Robert D. , Mathematical Models and Marketing Management (Boston: Harvard Business School, 1964); Alderson Shapiro , eds., Marketing and the Computer.

Drucker Peter F. , “The Economy's Dark Continent,” Fortune, LXV:4 (April 1962), 103. Quotation courtesy of Fortune Magazine.

Silberman , “The Real News About Automation,” Fortune, Jan. 1965, pp. 125, 222.

“Computers Begin to Solve the Marketing Puzzle,” Business Week, op. cit., p. 136.

Baldwin Leland P. , Business Data Processing—Technical Courses. Business Education Publication No. 105 (Sacramento: California State Department of Education, May 1962).

Retailing, as well as some other areas of marketing and distribution management, may lag somewhat in applying the most recent and effective tools of executive development, operations research, and management science.—“How Top Retailers Build Executives,” Business Week, No. 1866 (June 5, 1965), p. 88.