Location, Planning, And Layout Of The Office

 

1.	Principle of office location.   That location is best for an office which permits its business to be best conducted. Different kinds of offices require different locations. Sometimes the location is determined by the convenience of customers ; sometimes by the nearness of related trades or of passenger and freight stations, or the post office. Altho the location of a particular office must be determined by the special needs of that office it is possible to determine the general features of location best suited for the main types of office.
2.	Factory office.   The factory office should be located in the factory building or adjacent to it. The factory office is established to contain the factory records and to provide accommodations for the factory officials. If office and production plant are separated by any considerable distance, waste motion and loss of time are inevitable.
3.	Producing office.   If an office is used not only as a place to accommodate the directing officers and to keep the records of a business, but is also the place where the business itself is carried on, it should be located, like any other business concern, in a place most convenient for that particular business. For instance, the mail-order office, other things being equal, should be near the post office. A printing office should ordinarily be located adjacent to the main business section of the city near the concerns that are constantly ordering blanks and forms. Banks, insurance companies and brokers' offices are usuall found crowded together in the financial district, where they can conveniently do business with one another.
4.	Sales office.   A sales office, when detached from the main office of a concern, should be located so as to meet the convenience of the largest possible number of buyers. Many concerns, doing a national business, find It necessary to have sales offices in such cities as New York or Chicago, and such offices generally carry stocks, or at least sample stocks. In lower Manhattan, certain districts are given over exclusively to the sale of brass goods, leather goods and white goods. This permits out-of-town buyers, who come to the buying center several times a year, to visit in a short time the sales offices, or show rooms as they are often called, of all representative manufacturers in that line. No large manufacturer can afford to be without representation in these districts. No manufacturer in these lines would think of locating his office anywhere else in New York.
5.	Shifting office centers. A certain shifting of the centers of location for selling offices can be observed in New York today. The travel center of the country for out-of-town buyers is coming to be between the Thirty-fourth Street terminal of the Pennsjdvania Raikoad and the Forty-second Street terminal of the New York Central and the New Haven. In this area an increasing number of buildings arranged for sales offices are being erected. A striking example is the great new thirty-story structure on Forty-second Street near Sixth Avenue, belonging to the Bush Terminal Company. It is called the International Exhibit Building. The Bush Terminal Company has, in Brooklyn, an ideal location for light manufacturing and for the storage of stocks of goods to be shipped by any of the hundreds of rail and water routes which radiate from New York to all parts ofthe world. But the Bush Terminal buildings in South Brooklyn are too distant for out-of-town buyers to visit. Therefore, the company has constructed this new sales building, primarily to serve its Brooklyn tenants. The first three floors of this building accommodate a buyers' club, available for out-oftown buyers without any cost. The upper twentyseven floors contain a great amount of floor space divided into sections of suitable size for patrons who desire a New York selling office. Most of these tenants also carry small stocks in their offices.
6.	Export office.  The organization of a manufacturer's foreign business will determine whether or not he needs an export office. If he sells thru export commission houses, or ships from the interior direct to the foreign buyer, he merely employs forwarders at the seaboard and needs no export office of his own. Export offices, for obvious reasons, must be located at the seaboard.   Most of the export offices of the country are maintained in New York because that city has the largest choice of ocean services. An export office located in New York is always able to get ocean rate quotations from other ports as well, and to have goods shipped from other ports by forwarders located there. New York export offices are, for the most part, located in the shipping district, adjacent to the offices of the railroads and the steamship companies.
7.	Standard location instructions.   Some corporations are continually establishing new branch offices and issuing standard instructions for choosing a location suitable for branch offices. One such set of instructions issued for this purpose reads: The building should be one near the post office. Therefore, in looking for space, begin at the post office and hunt in circles around it until you locate suitable quarters. Avoid a building more than ten years old, or given over to any specialty unless it comes in our line. Seek a building tenanted principally by insurance agencies, architects, and lawyers. It is not necessary that we be in the largest or newest office building in the city, for it is often an advantage not to be in too large a building. Avoid buildings not given up wholly to offices.
8.	Type of building.   High land values in big cities bring about the construction of tall buildings. As a general rule, if the proper situation of an office is in the locality of high buildings, it is undesirable to be located in a low building in that locality. The latter location usually has little light and air, subjects the tenant to excessive noise and frequently to excessive dirt drifting in at the windows. Of course the elevator service in a building should be considered. If that service is good, it is considered well to be above the seventh floor, and, if possible, above surrounding buildings. An outside cut-off view is preferable to an inside cut-off view. If one must be content with the latter, he should bear in mind the disadvantages of a location on the narrow court, such as the conditions of light and ventilation. As to the exposure of office rooms, an eastern exposure is best, a western exposure worst, because of the unpleasantness of the afternoon sun. For similar reasons, north is usually considered preferable to south.
9.	Size of office.   The office should not only be large enough to accommodate the departments which it is to hold at present, but it should also be large enough to provide for future growth. In establishing an office, one should consider the office space that has been needed during the previous five years, and the rate of growth during that time. From these facts one can determine the amount of space that will probably be needed during the next five years. Office arrangements should be made so that there will be no need to move except for unforeseen reasons. There is an old saying, “Three removals is as bad as one fire.” In every move of an office, there is a large loss in equipment, made obsolete by new conditions, and in fixtures and improvements that must be left behind in the old location. More over, removal from the established place and a change in the established telephone number tends to put the concern out of touch with both buyers and sellers.
10.	Principle of office 'planning.   It is rare that an organization has the opportunity of acquiring precisely the sort of office which it would choose. Most offices are in buildings constructed not to suit the demands of a particular business, but the ordinary requirements of any business. If the office has been properly located and enough space obtained for all present requirements and probable future needs, the next step is to place the employes and the equipment in such a manner that the maximum of productive work is obtained with a minimum of human labor. In the case of offices which must attract and hold customers, such as banks and brokerage offices, a further object must be kept in view, namely, that of serving the pleasure and convenience of the customers.   This is the purpose of plan and layout. By plan is meant the division of the space into rooms, aisles, etc. By layout is meant the disposal of equipment within the space thus planned.
11.	Providing for mechanical and electrical equipment.   There will be economy in the end if at the outset provision is made for certain types of mechanical equipment which are to be used in the office. If the office is to occupy more than one floor, elevators, Dumb waiters, and chutes may be used for carrying parcels, records and messages. Overhead carriers and pneumatic tubes are sometimes used for such communications between departments on the same floor. Interdepartmental and outside telephone systems require extensive wiring. At least the main lines of the wiring can be laid at the outset of the office planning. So also with the wiring required for lighting and for operating the numerous electric office appliances that are used today.   When the home office of the Equitable Life was laid out, search was made for a system that would avoid the unsightly exposed wiring common in many offices. Finally, a conduit system was provided for wires, with ample provision for expansion and changing conditions. The principle is the same as that which is driving many cities, in planning their streets, to put all sub-surface piping and wiring in a single conduit gallery, so that additions, changes, connections and repairs can be made without tearing up the highways.   A flourishing export firm in this country constructed a marble home for itself and then found that no provision had been made for wiring. It had the alternative of putting up with exposed wiring or drilling thru the marble. It chose the latter, at great expense.
12.	Room plan of the office.   How shall the office be planned? The habit of providing a private office for every official is gradually passing. There are offices today where everybody, from the president down, is located in one great room. The higher officials are usually separated by railings from the general office. The advantages of such a system are obvious. Every one in the general office is under constant supervision of his superiors and his associates, and this prevents waste of time. With the whole office procedure thus in plain view, it is also easier to detect any waste motion in the passing of business thru the organization. More over, in an office of this sort there is a tendency to foster a democratic spirit and to create an esprit de corps.   On the other hand, executives who must think, plan, analyze reports, and so forth, find it difficult to do so in the noise and interruptions unavoidable in a general office. There are employes in every business whose work is such that it could not very well be done  in a general office. An editorial writer, for example, cannot do his best work amid such distractions. There are certain kinds of business, and certain occasions in every business, which require private rooms for confidential purposes.
13.	Partitions   Private rooms can be provided either by means of permanent partitions reaching to the ceiling, or by means of temporary partitions, which need not be over eight feet high. The advantage of temporary partitions is that they may be shifted to suit any change in the office needs. The use of transparent glass does away with the main objection against wooden partitions, namely, that they shut out light. A set of private offices on the exterior side of the building may condemn the general office to working by artificial light. Opaque glass partitions insure more privacy than transparent ones, yet allow the passage of a considerable amount of light.
14.	Savings in abolishing private offices.  Along with the tendency to reduce the number of private offices and consolidate offices in the main room, there is a tendency to consolidate the clerical work and eliminate unnecessary duplications in stenographic assistance. An extreme example of what can sometimes be accomplished along these lines was related some time ago in the magazine 100 %   A well known manager, in giving his experience in working out efficient plans in his new environment, stated some results which he accomplished along office efficiency lines which may be applicable to many another firm. The following are some of the things he found : Nineteen private offices inclosed with high partitions. Each private office with a private reception room (and these rooms all of a liberal size). Each private office with a private stenographer and a private office boy. Each was exquisitely furnished with desks, chairs, rugs and the usual office accessoriesWhite Rock drinking water supplied.   Sixty eight lights, etc. Expensive wrapping paper for tying up old records. On the whole, a very lavish display and reckless use of space on a high rent base.     This is what he accomplished :   Took down practically all the partitions, making one large general office, which resulted in reducing the number of stenographers from nineteen to three, the number of office boys from nineteen to five, and the electric lights from siktyeight to twelve ; put in filtered water instead of White Rock ; replaced the expensive wrapping paper by cheaper paper which answered the purpose.   Whoever else must be allowed private offices, the office manager himself should generally be out in the open, located where he can exercise general supervision of those who are under him. It is, of course, possible to achieve the same object in an office set off by clear glass partitions which shut out noise without shutting off vision.   For making certain officers readily accessible to customers, private offices are now giving way to general offices. In modern banks, nearly all officials are thus located.
15.	Principles of layout.   In determining the layout of desks, filing cases and other equipment, one rule must be kept in mind. The work must be allowed to flow thru the office, as far as possible, in a straight line. A great many offices are built about the handling of an order. In that case, the office should be so arranged that the mailing department which opens the order is adjacent to the credit department which decides whether the order shall be accepted. Adjacent to the credit department should be the sales department which acknowledges the order : next the order clerks who record it and make the duplicates which go to the accounting and shipping departments. This illustrates the principle to be followed. The precise layout in any office can be determined only by an intensive study of the work to be done.
16.	Letting the work flow.   To determine the efficiency of your present layout, take the floor plan, indicate on it the arrangement of desks and other equipment, then draw a dotted line showing the course of the work with which the office force is occupied. If it is found that the dotted line doubles back, crosses and recrosses, it is probable that the layout can be bettered. One good way is to take the floor plan and have small pieces of cardboard cut to represent the furniture pieces of the office. Shift these about until the desired arrangement is obtained. If time can be saved in the passage of an order thru the office, or if waste motion can be eliminated in the relations of one department with another, it may pay to go to the trouble and expense of removing partitions and making a complete rearrangement. With proper planning beforehand, changes of this kind can be made over-night, or changes can be made gradually so that only one department is incommoded at a time.
17.	Equipment and users.   If we follow this principle of letting the work flow in a straight line, we shall see to it that those departments are placed adjacent to each other which have the most contact. We shall see to it that equipment is placed nearest to those who are actually using it. For example, in one instance a great improvement was made by taking the files of salesmen's correspondence out of the general file room and locating them in the sales department on another floor. It had been noted that this correspondence was used only by the sales manager and his assistants, and there had been a great amount of lost motion in lugging these folders to and from the general files. Nearly every concern is likely to find similar wastes in its own offices.   It is worth while to examine the office layout from time to time to see if it is still in harmony with the constantly changing conditions of the business.
18.	The principle of compactness.   In the distribution of desks and other equipment, the two principlesof compactness and roominess must be considered. Office space is valuable especially in the larger cities. In an article in one of the issues of System magazine the owner of a retail clothing store thus described intensive utilization of space to provide an office in his store   We have to use every available inch of space. The main office occupies fifty-four square feet, and accommodates two desks, an adding machine, a typewriter, and two filing cabinets. The telephone rests on a shelf by itself. The typewriter occupies a shelf at a convenient height for operating. When not in use, the adding machine slides directly under the typewriter shelf, the two taking the space of one. Under the cashier's desk are shelves for filing books and storing the odds and ends of office equipment.   My private office occupies a space nine by four and one half feet in size. It accommodates two desks, two small safes, and a filing cabinet. Altho small, it makes a very convenient working place. I have arranged everything so that when I sit at my desk I can reach any file or book I want. On the wall to my right hand are two telephone books, and several books which contain advertising sug gestions. To my left is the filing cabinet, which contains the names on our mailing list.   The practice of marshalling cardboard slips representing equipment upon the office plan will often suggest means for more economical use of the space. By one firm it was found possible to put five office desks in the space which had formerly acconmiodated but four, thru the simple device of placing them obliquely to the aisle instead of facing it.
19.	The principle of roominess.   Yet the economy of space can be carried so far that it may hinder efficient work. In general it may be true that the most efficient employes are those who are glued to their desks. But this is not to be taken literally. Sometimes they must move and when they do so they should not disturb others. A few general hints can be given, based upon experience,  with regard to the space that must be allowed for workers. Each employe, including his desk, aisle and chair space, requires from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five square feet. Aisles should be at least three feet wide. When employes work back to back, it is well to leave four feet between chairs. In front of a filing cabinet a space of five feet should be allowed, so that employes can pass even when the drawer is fully extended. The idea of compactness is to be pursued only up to the point where it is short of over crowding.
20.	Ventilation.   If the system of ventilation does not provide sufficient fresh air for those in the office, they tend to become languid, especially toward the close of the day. The subject of ventilation is a technical one that need not be exhaustively considered here. There are numerous solutions. There are window ventilators that deflect the cold air upward. There are simple exhaust fans that draw out the stagnant air while fresh air finds its way in at the doors and windows. There are ventilating systems that pump in air from the outside, pass it over steam coils and send it into the room at a required temperature. The need and choice of ventilating systems will vary with the particular circumstances in each office. An expert should be consulted in dealing with the problem. Any ventilation system can be improved by the practice of opening windows before work begins in the morning, and during the noon hour.   Smoking is, of course, not allowed in the general office.
21.	Office temperature.   Overheating the rooms is unsanitary and, what is equally important from the view-point of office efficiency, it is a hindrance to good work. The New York State Commission on Ventilation and the Chicago Commission on Ventilation have established, with scientific accuracy, that 68 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which the best office work is done. In a test it was found that a group of men did 37 per cent better work on a certain job when the temperature was at 68 degrees than they did under otherwise exactly the same conditions at 86 degrees. A larger output at 68 degrees was attained not only by those who did typewriting, but also by those who  did mental multiplication. It was found that under conditions of abundant fresh air, the workers in a temperature of 68 degrees did more than 10 per cent more work than those in a temperature of 75 degrees. A temperature over 68 degrees tends to inefficiency and this tendency increases when the higher temperature is accompanied by a lack of fresh air. There is obviously the same reason for preventing the office from becoming too hot in the summer as there is in winter. Electric fans and various ventilating systems serve this purpose.   In one concern an office boy has been assigned the duty of going thru each room in the office every hour in order to make sure that the temperature is at 68 degrees. This boy shuts off or turns on more heat, or opens windows, as the condition of the room warrants.
22.	Drafts.   A common danger in makeshift ventilation is the creation of drafts. The body should not be subjected to currents of air of a temperature lower than 60 degrees. An eastern mercantile concern has figured that each cold in its office force costs the company $24.00, directly or indirectly. Such colds are worth preventing. They can be created by too much ventilation in summer as well as in winter, as can be testified by those who have suffered from the injurious use of electric fans.
23.	Noise prevention.   Every one realizes the difficulty of doing concentrated work in a noisy office. That, indeed, is one of the reasons why a large number of private offices still prevail. The segregation of noise-producing instruments within a closed-off part of the office often makes it possible to dispense with private offices. Not only a $10,000 a year manager but also a $15 a week clerk will do better work if he can be protected from distracting noise.   In large cities, protection from noise is obtained by the use of offices high above the ground. In those modern offices where artificial ventilating systems are constantly filling the room with fresh air of a prescribed temperature, it is not necessary to open windows and let in noise. Window strips help to keep noise out of closed windows. Noise originating within the office can be greatly reduced thru intelligent effort. Unnecessary moving about the office can be forbidden. Some degree of success in this respect has also been achieved by padding the walls and ceiling with material of sound-absorbing texture. Rubber rests can be put under typewriters and the floor covered with sound-deadening material. There are, in fact, noiseless typewriters. Every reduction of mechanical noises also tends to reduce unnecessary conversation between clerks.
24.	Lighting systems.   Few offices today are lighted by gas. In such cases, an incandescent burner should always be used. Most offices are now lighted by electricity. There are three methods by which this light is made available for the workers: the direct, indirect, and semi-indirect. With the direct method we are all familiar. Semi-indirect lighting requires from forty to fifty per cent more current than direct lighting, while indirect lighting requires from fifty to seventy-five per cent more. That is the price paid for more pleasant and efficient conditions of work.   Semi-indirect lighting has increased faster than indrect. Many a person does not feel that he is getting sufficient light, if he does not see the source of it. Where an employe has such a feeling, there is often uneasiness and unrest that interferes with full attention to his work.
25.	Care of lights.   A few general suggestions are worth keeping in mind, no matter what method of lighting is employed. Reflectors and lamps should be regularly  cleaned. It will make a difference of 25 percent in the amount of light obtained. So far as possible all cord connections for fixtures, fans and desk lights should be removed and supplanted by floor, base or wall outlets. A cobweb of hanging wires is unsightly, and the danger from fire thru short circuits is always present. Lamps should be turned off promptly when not required for use, and only so many lights should be used in the daytime as are absolutely necessary. Each department should receive a notice to that effect, and regular inspection should be made to see that these instructions are carried out.
26.	Drinking water.   An adequate supply of pure, fresh drinking water in the office is as important as a supply of fresh air. Most people drink water at least five times each day. Where the city drinking water is not absolutely safe, bottled water should be prodded. In all cases, individual glasses or individual drinking cups should be supplied. It is important to have drinking places conveniently located among the working force. There is a loss if the employe must walk a long distance to get a drink. There is also a loss if the drinking facilities are so inadequate that there is crowding around them, for the crowding makes the emploj^es waste time in conversation. Provide enough drinking water, close at hand to all, under conditions that forbid contamination.   Some concerns have found it profitable during the warm weather to have a boy pass around every half hour a rack filled with cups of water to supply the officers and the clerical force.
27.	Toilet facilities.   The laws of many states specify the minimum supply of toilet facilities. For Example : they may specify that there must be one wash bowl and one toilet seat to every twenty employes. This will ordinarily be found insufficient by those who wish to prevent overcrowding and waste of time. Moreover, the modern office manager wishes his employes to have the best facilities, not alone from altruistic reasons, but because it pays. Of nothing, perhaps, is this more true than the toilets. Adequate and decent toilet rooms, kept constantly neat, contribute as much as any other one thing to the contentment and morale of the working force.
28.	Dust and disorder.   A disorderly dusty office is unsanitary. It also lowers the pride of the employes in their work and their efficiency. It results in soiled, untidy work being turned out. There is no substitute for regular cleaning and dusting of the office. Sometimes it is possible to stop the dust before it gets into the office. A new manager of a factory office found the clerks wearing thick cuff protectors ; stenographers were constantly rubbing out finger prints and the bookkeeping department was kept busy cleaning up pages in the books. There was a great waste of supplies, particularly of papers, which were dusty and grimy from lying around. The office was situated over the boiler room from which soft coal dust drifted in at every delivery of coal, that is, every forty eight hours. Fine mesh screens were installed over the windows and mitigated the evil until it was possible for the office to be moved to a cleaner place.

REVIEW

 

Name four types of oflSces and state what general considerations should be given each one in selecting a location for it.

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of one large office room for officials and employes with the plan of many private offices.

Determine, by some simple device, the efficiency of the layout of any office with which you are familiar.

Show how improved work will result from giving careful attention to details of light, heat, noise, etc.