ABSTRACT
Anyone acquainted with industrial operations knows that much of any foreman's time is taken up in resolving unexpected difficulties, major or minor in character. Changes of all kinds are characteristic of assembly plants, due to fluctuations in demand, model changes, manpower shortages, mechanical failures, materials shortages, and many other causes internal and external. A foreman considered himself the one who "kept the show going" by facing up to the emergencies which arose in day-to-day operations. A foreman's primary role on the assembly line is to take care of minute-to-minute problems which arise and which are the result of the failure of a highly rationalized work process to operate perfectly. There the principal factors which produce emergencies for the foremen have been discussed. Underlying most of them are fluctuations in schedules, and accentuating all of them are the complexities of the products and the technical imperatives of the assembly line.
