大学英语精读第三版（第一册）学习笔记（原文及全文翻译）——6B - Dialogue with The Industrial Engineer（与工业工程师的对话）

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Unit 6B - Dialogue

Dialogue

Jane: Hi, Sam. How's everything?

Sam: Great to see you, Jane.

Jane: I hear you got a new job with Babson Machines.

Sam: Yeah, it's true. I was really lucky. I started about six months ago; they haven't fired me yet. How's the factory?

Jane: Ah, about the same as always.

Sam: You mean shirts are still coming out without collars or buttons?

Jane: Sometimes it's just the collar and buttons without the shirt. The plant isn't famous for its efficiency, you know.

Sam: Well, I heard there are some changes at the factory. Something about music and a coffee break in the afternoons.

Jane: Music? Oh yeah. Yeah, I guess there is. A lot of good it does, though. The machines make so much noise we can't hear it anyway. And the coffee break! They give us only five minutes. If we run at top speed we can just make it to the coffee machine and back to our worktable.

Sam: I can't believe this. I understood that Mr. Hobbs was all ready to make a lot of big changes down there at the factory.

Jane: Well, a couple of things have changed. We used to have dull gray walls to look at between operations. A couple of weeks ago, some painter came in and painted a huge picture of a perfect shirt ... with all its buttons, sleeves, and the collar. I guess management wanted to remind us of what we are supposed to be producing there. But can you imagine? A shirt! We see enough shirts all day. We don't need to look up from our work and find one painted on the walls.

Sam: You mean that big shirt doesn't make all of you want to produce more?

Jane: A lot of pictures might make us want to produce more, but a huge painted shirt? No way! Oh yes, one other change. Remember Big Jim in our math class? He used to work on buttons and he held up half the assembly line. Well, they promoted him from buttons to sleeves, with a raise in pay. Now he sits at the beginning of the line and holds up everybody. There's progress for you.

Sam: Ah, yes, progress: one step forward and two steps back!

Epilogue

So, I learned that my consultation at the shirt factory had not improved production.

Well, frankly, I'm not surprised. You see, while working at the Babson Machine Company as an industrial adviser, I took a night class in management engineering at Northwestern University. My company paid the bill. I like that.

Now I have quite a different idea of what it means to be a "consultant". I used to think that the consultant goes into the factory, studies the problems, suggests cures for the problems, and then encourages the management to follow these suggestions.

I now believe that consultation doesn't work successfully that way. In my management engineering course I learned that first I have to listen. In the shirt factory I should have listened to the management, the two owners. But then, together, we should have listened to the workers themselves. What did they think the problems were? What were their suggestions for solutions?

I tried to force my suggestions on the owners. The suggestions for improvement weren't theirs or the workers'. If workers and management are seriously involved in the problem solving, change is not only possible, but inevitable.

At any rate, although the experience was painful in many ways, it provided a good lesson for me.

I'm thinking of sending the check for $100 back to Mr. Hobbs. As for the shirts, four of the five in the box didn't fit anyway, and the fifth one didn't have a right sleeve.

参考译文——对话

对话

简：你好，萨姆。近来怎么样?

萨姆：见到你真高兴，简。

简：听说你在巴布森机械公司找了份新工作?

萨姆：对，是这样。我运气还真不赖。我大约是在半年前开始干的，他们还没解雇我呢。厂里情况怎么样?

简：咳，差不多是老样子。

萨姆：你是说生产出的衬衫还是缺领子、少钮扣的?

简：有时是光有领子钮扣没有衣片。你知道，这家厂并不是以效率出名的。

萨姆：哎，我听说厂里起了些变化。像放背景音乐啦，下午安排工作间喝咖啡休息时间什么的。

简：背景音乐？喔，是啊，是啊，我想是有吧。说来那玩意儿好处还真不少。就是机器声太吵，我们根本听不见。再说工作间喝咖啡休息嘛，他们只给我们5分钟时间。要是我们用最快的速度奔跑，从工作台到咖啡机旁刚够我们跑上一个来回。

萨姆：真叫人难以相信。我知道霍布森先生是做好充分准备，要让厂子大大改变面貌的。

简：唔，是有了点变化。过去我们在操作之余，只能看到四周黑乎乎、灰蒙蒙的墙。两三个星期前，来了个油漆工，在墙上画了好大一幅完完整整的衬衫——上面钮扣、袖子、领子样样齐全。我想厂方是想提醒我们在那儿该生产些什么东西。可你能想像吗？一件衬衫！我们整天看到的衬衫够多的了。还用得着让我们一抬起头，再看到墙壁上有件画着的衬衫吗？

萨姆：你是说，这件大衬衫并没有让你们大伙儿想要多生产几件？

简：多几幅图片也许会让我们想多生产几件，可就凭墙上画着的这么一件大衬衫？没门！哎，对了，还有个变化。还记得和我们一起上数学课的大个子吉姆吗？他过去是干缝钮扣活的，半条流水线上的活都让他给耽搁了。嗨，他们把他从缝扣工提升为装袖工，还长了工资。这下他坐在流水线的最上首，把所有的活儿都给耽搁住了。你把这也叫做发展。

萨姆：唔，是发展：进一步退两步！

尾声

就这样，我了解到自己在衬衫厂的咨询工作，并没有起到促进生产的作用。

不过，说实话，我并不感到意外。你知道，我在巴布森机械公司当工业顾问的同时，还在西北大学上夜校，学习企业管理工程。是公司为我出的学费，我很满意。

现在我对当“顾问”的内涵有了完全不同的认识。我过去一向认为，当顾问就是进入工厂，研究问题，提出解决问题的对策，然后再敦促厂方按这些建议去做。

现在我认识到，这样做咨询工作不会收到任何成效。我在企业管理工程课上学到，我首先得去倾听别人的意见。在衬衫厂，我应该听听管理人员，也就是两位业主的意见，然后再和他们一起去征询工人们的意见。他们认为有些什么问题？对于解决问题有些什么建议？

而我却试图把自己的意见强加给业主。那些建议既不是他们的，也不是工人的。如果工人和厂方都能认真参与问题的解决，那么变革不仅可能，而且是不可避免的。

不管怎么说，尽管这段经历在很多方面让人苦恼，却给了我一个很好的教训。

我正在考虑把那张100美金的支票退还给霍布森先生。至于那盒衬衫，5件倒有4件一点都不合身，而唯一合身的那一件，又缺了右边的袖管。。

Key Words:

dull [dʌl]

adj. 呆滞的，迟钝的，无趣的，钝的，暗的