ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the several dimensions of the foreman's job are brought together in time and space and focuses on two specific foremen. It examines what a particular foreman actually did in the course of a day at work. Pat works in the Metal Department, called the Body Shop, of Plant X, where pre-formed sheet metal is delivered to the department, undergoes a series of welding operations, and ends up as a car body ready to be painted, trimmed, upholstered, and dropped onto the chassis in later operations. The chapter considers and analyses how Pat spends an eight-hour day in this crowded, complex "jungle" area. In the course of the eight hours (excluding the lunch period), foreman Pat walked more than twenty-one thousand feet or over four miles. He took part in 387 separate observable incidents, each lasting from a fraction of a minute to several minutes.
