Rationalisation strategies

By rationalisation strategies we mean here ‘all measures which are aimed at optimising the labour input in the means of production, the material input in the means of production and the length of time required for the production process’.

It became apparent while researching Bessemer steelworks that these particular three measures were not always pursued with the same degree of intensity. It is much more a case of distinguishing between trends in different periods and places. Until the outbreak of the economic crisis of 1873 efforts at optimising the material input predominated, and were initiated chiefly in Great Britain. After which, during the slump years between 1871 and 1879, people's interest turned more towards cutting the time required for the production process. This strategy was undertaken primarily by American and German Bessemer works. The optimisation of the labour input, on the other hand, did not produce any independently formulated strategy during the period in question. The essential advance in the manufacture of steel had already been achieved by the changeover from puddling to the Bessemer process. The rationalisation of labour input never amounted to more than the natural effects of speeding-up the refining process in the steelworks, which took place anyway even without being specifically intended. This was certainly due to the low proportion of wages to overall costs.

The optimisation of the material input

This was mainly a matter of eradicating the remnants of the puddling works, referred to above.