A learning experience.

Back in the 1950s, I attended a school in Philadelphia called the Industrial Management Institute. The school was located at 22nd and Chestnut streets and was run by Jack Nichols and Pop Phillips.

The students for the most part were veterans of the Korean conflict, including me, and

It was a unique school, and I haven't seen anything like it since. We had classroom instruction given by Nichols; he was a chief industrial engineer for GE located in Philadelphia. Phillips was a management guru with many years of management and finance experience.

In a room behind the classroom, a mini shop had been set up that included a drill press and a lathe. Following each session on time study procedures, we would all go to the shop and observe Nichols, using our stopwatches to time him performing various operations on the machines. He taught us what the term "foreign element" stood for in IE jargon and would purposely leave a tiny air space between the bit and the item being machined on the lathe to determine if we were sharp enough to catch it.

Nichols' goal was to have the members' speed rating within 5 percent of one another at the completion of the course. He would return us to the classroom following the shop time study and plot our speed ratings on a large grid. It worked well, and along with speed rating films and other techniques, we achieved the 5 percent goal.

The course was 1,200 hours and very intense. It was from 8 a.m. to noon each day, and then most of us went on to our regular jobs. Some of us went on to higher education following that experience.

It was an unforgettable experience that has served me well over the years. I'd love to hear from some of my old classmates. I can be reached at (302) 838-2620 or davidjopcon@aol.com

DAVID GRAF

Consultant

Bear, Del.