Hugo Diemer (November 18, 1870 – March 3, 1939)SAM, "Necrology Hugo Diemer, November 18, 1960 - March 3, 1939," in: ''The Society for the Advancement of Management Journal,'' Volume 4, Nr 1-4. 1939. p. 35/56 was an American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

management consultant Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultants ...

, and professor at the

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...

, who in 1910 published the first

industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex process (engineering), processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, kno ...

textbook: ''Factory Organization and Administration''.

Biography

Youth, education and early career

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, son of Theodore Diemer and Bertha (Huene) Diemer.''Who's who in the Central States,'' 1929. p. 254 After attending the local public school, Diemer started working. In 1892, at the age of 22, he started his studies in engineering at the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where he graduated in 1896. Between 1896 and 1900 Diemer was production engineer and production manager with the Bullock Engineering and Manufacturing Company and afterwards with

Westinghouse Electric The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...

and Manufacturing Company.

Later career

In 1900 he started his academic career as assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the

Michigan State College Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

, and continued at various universities and educational institutions Late 1900s Diemer established the first course in industrial engineering at

, where he was recommended by

Frederick Winslow Taylor Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up hi ...

. In 1909 Penn State established the Department of Industrial Engineering, with Diemer appointed as its first head. In 1920 Diemer was appointed Director of Management Training at

LaSalle Extension University La Salle Extension University (LSEUDe Sola, Ralph (1981). ''Abbreviations dictionary.'' Elsevier, ), also styled as LaSalle Extension University,The university styled its name as both "La Salle" and "LaSalle" in print mediahttp://aycu21.webshots.c ...

, Chicago, where he served until his death in 1939. In the last decennia Diemer had served actively in many professional societies. In 1938 he had been awarded the Taylor Key, one of the highest awards of the

Society for Advancement of Management The Society for the Advancement of Management, commonly known as SAM, is the oldest among professional management societies. On November 11, 1910 colleagues of Frederick W. Taylor met at the New York Athletic Club to discuss and promote the princ ...

.SAM, ''S.A.M. advanced management journal,'' 1963. p. 40

Personal and Death

Diemer married Mabel N. Hudson on June 26. 1901, and they had four children. Theo. H. Diemer, Natalie E. Diemer, Dorothy A. Diemer, and Mary Diemer. Hugo Diemer died suddenly on March 3, 1939 at the age of 68.

Work

''Commercial Organization of the Machine Shop,'' 1900

In 1900 Diemer published a series of six articles on the

machine shop A machine shop or engineering workshop (UK) is a room, building, or company where machining, a form of subtractive manufacturing, is done. In a machine shop, machinists use machine tools and cutting tools to make parts, usually of metal or plast ...

, entitled "Commercial Organization of the Machine Shop." These articles described: * A systems for the classification of shop orders, working plans for securing speed, accuracy and economy in the progress of work through the shop * In the production department, bills of material, the duties of material clerks, and the cheapening of manufacture by duplication. * In the production department, storeroom management. * In the production department, execution of the Work. The operation of the production department, and the actual execution of the work in the shop. * Further discussion of the production department, with especial reference to accurate timekeeping, and * The figuring of total costs.

''A bibliography of works management,'' 1904

In 1904 Diemer published a "Bibliography of Works Management" in the ''

Engineering Magazine ''Engineering Magazine'' was an American illustrated monthly magazine devoted to industrial progress, first published in 1891. The periodical was published under this title until October 1916. Sequentially from Nov. 1916 to 1927 it was published a ...

.'' This bibliography started with an editorial introduction, and gave a description of about two dozen works. Overall it pictures the historical development of works on factory management from the 1880s to the early 1900s. The only predecessor mentioned was an early work by

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

from 1832. Diemer acknowledged, that these works originate from three branches of learning:

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

, and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

. Almost without exception the authors of the works listed were

s, who "have added to their technical training and experience the essential knowledge of accounting and of economics, requisite to a comprehensive grasp of the problems of factory management."Diemer (1910, pp. 286–292) In total Diemer's 1904 bibliography listed 27 works by two dozen authors, and gave a short description of each publication. This article was republished in full as last chapter in Diemer's 1910 "Factory organization and administration." In the 1921 revised editions of this work Diemer presented a revised bibliography. This biography was limited the description to some on the works of

scientific management Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...

by Taylor and Gantt, and additional gave a listing of about 300 publications in the field.

Index to the literature of Industrial Engineering

Diemer's 1904 bibliography was supplemented with an index to the literature of Industrial Engineering prepared by the Editors of the Engineering Magazine. This index listed about 15 subjects, with more than 400 articles listed: *

Apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners ...

(30) * Cost keeping (53),

depreciation In accountancy, depreciation is a term that refers to two aspects of the same concept: first, the actual decrease of fair value of an asset, such as the decrease in value of factory equipment each year as it is used and wear, and second, the a ...

(4),

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

(10), and Patterns (3) *

Drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name is derived from the 16th-century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th cent ...

(34) *

Wage system A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remunera ...

s (36), bonus systems (3),

piece work Piece work (or piecework) is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed piece rate for each unit produced or action performed, regardless of time. Context When paying a worker, employers can use various methods and combinations of ...

(22), premium plan (28), and

profit sharing Profit sharing is various incentive plans introduced by businesses that provide direct or indirect payments to employees that depend on company's profitability in addition to employees' regular salary and bonuses. In publicly traded companies thes ...

(20) *

General management A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

(140), Equipment and plant (33), Foundry (21) In 1920 Harry George Turner Cannons published a "Bibliography of industrial efficiency and factory management," which contained about 3.500 referenced works. In this listing still a few dozen authors (most already mentioned by Diemer) published 5 or more publications, and thousands of people published one or some articles in the emerging field of Industrial Management.

Industrial engineering at Penn State University

At the turn of the 20th century,

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

had developed a national reputation for its engineering curriculum, but industrial engineering was only beginning to emerge as an academic discipline. Noted efficiency expert Frederick Taylor recommended that university president

James A. Beaver James Addams Beaver (October 21, 1837 – January 31, 1914) was an American attorney, recruiter and field commander of Pennsylvania Infantry who was wounded four times during the American Civil War, and politician who served as the 20th governor ...

hire Hugo Diemer, a professor from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

, in the hope that Diemer would create an industrial engineering curriculum at Penn State. A two-year option was ready by 1908, and a four-year

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

program emerged the following year, the first of its kind in the world. At the time, courses consisted of modern industrial engineering fundamentals such as

time and motion study A time and motion study (or time-motion study) is a business efficiency technique combining the Time Study work of Frederick Winslow Taylor with the Motion Study work of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (the same couple as is best known through the biog ...

, plant layout optimization, and

engineering economics ''For the application of engineering economics in the practice of civil engineering see Engineering economics (Civil Engineering).'' Engineering economics, previously known as engineering economy, is a subset of economics concerned with the us ...

, in addition to courses on

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...

and

sales Sales are activities related to selling or the number of goods sold in a given targeted time period. The delivery of a service for a cost is also considered a sale. The seller, or the provider of the goods or services, completes a sale in r ...

. The new department also took over the instruction of manual shop skills, including

carpentry Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters tr ...

and

metalworking Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on every scale ...

Publications

Diemer published many books on a range of management subjects, a selection: * Diemer, Hugo.
Automobiles: a practical treatise on the construction, operation, and care of gasoline, steam, and electric motor-cars, including mechanical details of running gear, power plant, body, and accessories, instruction in driving, etc.
' American School of Correspondence, 1909, 1912. * Diemer, Hugo.
Factory organization and administration
'. 1910, 1915
1921
1923, 1935, 1974, 1979 * Diemer, Hugo. ''Good place to work,'' 1921. * Diemer, Hugo. ''Leadership; the third work manual of the Modern foremanship course, being the expression of practical foremen, assembled, organized,'' 1921. * Diemer, Hugo. ''Cost control in the shop'' 1921. * Diemer, Hugo. ''Wages and incentives; the eleventh work manual, Modern foremanship and production methods; the tested experience of practical production men, assembled, organized,'' 1921. * Diemer, Hugo. ''What is production, and why? The twelfth work manual, Modern foremanship and production methods; the tested experience of practical production men.''. 1921, 1940. * Diemer, Hugo. ''Standardization and Scientific Management,'' 1923. * Diemer, Hugo. ''Foremanship Training,'' McGraw-Hill book company, inc. in New York tc. 1927. * Diemer, Hugo. ''How to set up production control for greater profits'', edited by Hugo Diemer. 1930. * Diemer, Hugo. ''Flow of work; manual 6, Modern foremanship and production methods; the tested experience of production men'', assembled, organized, and edited by Hugo Diemer, Meyer Bloomfield and Daniel Bloomfield.'' 1938, 1941. * Diemer, Hugo. ''Foreman and the law'' 1941. Articles, a selection: * Diemer, Hugo.
Functions and Organization of the Purchasing Department
" ''The Engineering Magazine,'' Vol. XVIII (March, 1900), pp. 833-36 * Diemer, Hugo. "Commercial Organization of the Machine Shop." A series of six articles, in ''The Engineering Magazine,'' June to Nov., 1900Diemer, Hugo. "Commercial Organization of the Machine Shop." A series of six articles, in ''The Engineering Magazine,'' June to Nov., 1900. The series of six articles: *
I. Classification of shop orders
" pp. 342–47. *
II. Production department - Bills of Material
" pp. 511–15. *
III. Production department - Store-Room management
" pp. 705–11. *
IV Production department - Execution of the Work.
pp. 892–98. *
V. Practical and Accurate Time-keeping
" pp. 73–80 *
VI. The Figuring of Total Costs
" pp. 229–34 * Diemer, Hugo. "Discussing a simple method of employing the card index and showing its advantages for inventory purposes." ''Engineering Magazine,'' Feb 1902. * Diemer, Hugo.
Cost Finding Methods for Moderate-sized Shops
" New York, 1903. ''Engineering Magazine,'' Vol. 24, pp. 577-589: ''Furnishes a working description of a practical system in actual use In a shop.'' * Diemer, Hugo.
Thermal Diagrams and Their Practical Use
" in: ''University of Kansas, Bulletin 1903.'' p. 227-233 * Diemer, Hugo.
The Fixing of Piece-work Rates
" New York, 1903. ''Engineering Magazine'', Vol. 26, pp. 169-176: ''Shows the determining of correct rates is the fundamental starting point of any system.'' * Diemer, Hugo.
Bibliography of Works Management
" New York, 1904. ''Engineering Magazine.'' Vol. 27. pp. 626-658.Reprinted i
Diemer (1910, p. 286-303)
/ref> * Diemer, Hugo. "Staff and Departmental Organization." Cleveland, 1904. ''Iron Trade Review,'' Vol. 37. pp. 74–75. * Diemer, Hugo. "The Planning of Factory Buildings and the Influence of Design on Their Productive Capacity." Engineering News 50.24 (1904): 292–94. * Perrigo, O. E., and Diemer, H. "Raising the Efficiency of Men and Machinery." Chicago, 1906. ''System,'' Vol. 9, pp. 426–432, 605–609 ; Vol. 10, pp. 277–284. * Diemer, Hugo. "System in Control of Production." Chicago, 1907. ''Factory,'' Vol. 1, pp. 13–15, 43.

References

;Attribution

This article incorporates public domain material from Diemer, Hugo. "Bibliography of Works Management." New York, 1904. ''Engineering Magazine''. Vol. 27. pp. 626–658

External links

*
Hugo Diemer
at managers-net.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Diemer, Hugo 1870 births 1939 deaths American mechanical engineers American industrial engineers American non-fiction writers Ohio State University College of Engineering alumni People from Cincinnati Engineers from Ohio