Background
William Howe McElwain was born on February 11, 1867 in Charlestown, Massachussets. He was the son of John Allen McElwain, a Baptist minister, and Susan Gilbert McElwain.
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William Howe McElwain
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Leaving high school at the age of sixteen, McElwain obtained employment with George H. Burt, a shoe-manufacturer, as office boy and order clerk, at a salary of $100 a year. In the course of the next eleven years he acquired a thorough knowledge of the business in all its details; he also perceived the changes that must be made in the manufacture and the distribution of shoes to meet the changed conditions created by the use of new machinery and constantly increasing competition. Severing his connection with Burt, he borrowed $9, 000, to which he added $1, 500 of his own savings, and started a shoe factory at Bridgewater, Massachussets, in October 1894. At the end of nine months he bought out his partner. His purpose was to make a man's shoe, retailing for two dollars, that would have the attractive qualities of higher priced shoes and that could be manufactured profitably by the methods of quantity production. Thus he perfected the technique of quantity production at the moment when it was necessary to meet the new demand. As a result of his boldness in putting his conclusions into effect, his business went ahead by leaps and bounds. The application of scientific methods in the field of production was followed by a study of the methods by which jobbers placed their orders, as a result of which seasonal employment was eliminated and the cost of manufacture reduced; and by the establishment of a labor department to determine with accuracy the piece rate for each operation. Working in a period when the principles of scientific management as formulated by F. W. Taylor were but little known, McElwain, without knowledge of Taylor's work, created a model large-scale industrial organization based on those principles. The intensity of his labors for thirteen years in building up and perfecting his business precluded his giving very much attention to anything else. He died suddenly at the age of forty, following an operation for appendicitis.
Achievements
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McElwain had worked out for himself principles of scientific management, and he applied these principles to the manufacture and the distribution of his product. Within five years he had established himself as a successful shoe-manufacturer; from 1902 to 1906 he built several new factories in Manchester, N. H. ; for the year ending May 31, 1908, the production reached 5, 716, 955 pairs of shoes, the largest output of any shoe factory in the United States. This volume was attained by what McElwain called the "sheet system, " which, based upon a searching analysis of every operation, consisted of a time schedule which controlled strictly the work of the factory.
Connections
McElwain was married to Helen (Merriam) McElwain. They had four children.
