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P R E F A C E
vii
viii Preface
In 1993, after having taught the MMM courses and the industry short course several
times, we began writing out our approach in book form. This proved to be a slow process
because it revealed a number of gaps between our presentation of concepts and their
implementation in practice. Several times we had to step back and draw upon our own
research and that of many others, to develop practical discussions of key manufacturing
management problem areas. This became Part III of this book.
Factory Physics has grown a great deal since the days of our terse tutorials at IBM
and continues to expand and mature. Indeed, this third edition contains several new
developments and changes of presentation from the first edition. But while details will
change, we are confident that the fundamental insight behind Factory Physics—that there
are principles governing the behavior of manufacturing systems, and understanding them
can improve management practice—will remain the same.
Intended Audience
Factory Physics is intended for four principal audiences:
1. Manufacturing/supply chain management students: in a core operations course.
2. MBA students: in a second operations management course that would follow a
general survey course.
3. BS and MS industrial engineering students: in a production control course.
4. Manufacturing managers and engineers: for use as a reference.
Although we wrote it primarily as a text, we have been surprised and delighted by
the number of senior managers who find the book useful. Although it is neither short
nor easy, we have had many industry people contact us and say that Factory Physics is
exactly what they have been looking for. Evidently, in this environment of buzzwords
and hype, even professionals need something that brings manufacturing management
back to the basics.
mathematics (although higher than simple calculus). These sections can be skipped
completely without loss of continuity.
In teaching this material to both engineering and management students, we have
found, understandably, that management students are less interested in the mathematical
aspects of Factory Physics than are engineering students. However, it has not been our
impression that management students are averse to doing mathematics; it is math without
a concrete purpose to which they object. When faced with quantitative developments of
core manufacturing ideas, these students not only capable of grasping the math, they are
able to appreciate the practical consequences of the theory.
Acknowledgments
Since our thinking has been influenced by too many people to allow us to mention them
all by name, we offer our gratitude (and apologies) to all those with whom we have
discussed Factory Physics over the years. In addition, we acknowledge the following
specific contributions.
We thank the key people who helped us shape our ideas on Factory Physics: Jack
Fisher of IBM, who originated this project by first suggesting that we organize our
thoughts on the laws of plant behavior into a consistent format; Joe Foster, former ad-
viser who got us started at IBM; Dave Woodruff, former student and lunch companion
extraordinaire, who played a key role in the original IBM study and the early discus-
sions (arguments) in which we developed the core concepts behind our approach; Karen
Donohue, Izak Duenyas, Valerie Tardif, and Rachel Zhang, former students who col-
laborated on our industry projects and upon whose research portions of this book are
based; Yehuda Bassok, John Buzacott, Eric Denardo, Brian Deuermeyer, Steve Graves,
Uday Karmarkar, Steve Mitchell, George Shanthikumar, Rajan Suri, Joe Thomas, and
Michael Zazanis, colleagues whose wise counsel and stimulating conversation produced
important insights in this book. We also acknowledge the National Science Foundation,
whose consistent support made much of our own research possible.
Preface xi
We are particularly grateful to those who tested the first versions of the book (or por-
tions of it) in the classroom and provided us with essential feedback that helped eliminate
many errors and rough spots: Karla Bourland (Dartmouth), Izak Duenyas (Michigan),
Paul Griffin (Georgia Tech), Steve Hackman (Georgia Tech), Michael Harrison (Stan-
ford), Phil Jones (Iowa), S. Rajagopalan (USC), Jeff Smith (Auburn), Marty Wortman
(Texas A & M). We thank the many students who had to put up with typo-ridden drafts
during the testing process, especially our own students in Northwestern’s Master of
Management in Manufacturing (MMM) program in BS/MS-level industrial engineer-
ing courses at Northwestern and Texas A&M, and in MBA courses in Northwestern’s
Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
We give special thanks to the reviewers of the original manuscript, Suleyman Tefekci
(University of Florida), Steve Nahmias (Santa Clara University), David Lewis (Uni-
versity of Massachusetts—Lowell), Jeffrey L. Rummel (University of Connecticut),
Pankaj Chandra (McGill University), Aleda Roth (Clemson University), K. Roscoe Davis
(University of Georgia), and especially Michael Rothkopf, whose thoughtful comments
greatly improved the quality of our ideas and presentation. We also thank Mark Bielak
who assisted us in our first attempt to write fiction (in Chapter 19).
In addition to those who helped us produce the first edition, many of whom also
helped us on the second and third editions, we are grateful to individuals who had par-
ticular influence on the revision. We acknowledge our deep appreciation of the people
whose ideas and suggestions helped us deepen our understanding of Factory Physics: Jeff
Alden (General Motors), John Bartholdi (Georgia Tech), Max Bataille (Baxter Health-
care), Jeff Bell (Concordant Industries), Corey Billington (Hewlett-Packard), Dennis E.
Blumenfeld (General Motors), Sunil Chopra (Northwestern University), Mark Daskin
(Northwestern University), Greg Diehl (Network Dynamics), John Fowler (Arizona State
University), Rob Herman (Alcoa), Bill Jordan (General Motors), Hau Lee (Stanford Uni-
versity), John Mittenthal (University of Alabama), Giulio Noccioli (Baxter Healthcare),
Ed Pound (Factory Physics, Inc.), Lee Schwarz (Purdue University), Chandra Sekhar
(Baxter Healthcare), Alexander Shapiro (Georgia Tech), Kalyan Singhal (University of
Maryland), Tom Tirpak (Motorola), Mark Van Oyen (University of Michigan), Jan Van
Mieghem (Northwestern University), William White (Bell & Howell), Eitan Zemel (New
York University), and Paul Zipkin (Duke University).
We would like to thank the reviewers of the first edition whose suggestions helped
shape the second edition: Diane Bailey (Stanford University), Charles Bartlett (Polytech-
nic University), Guillermo Gallego (Columbia University), Marius Solomon (North-
eastern University), M. M. Srinivasan (University of Tennessee), Ronald S. Tibben-
Lembke (University of Nevada, Reno), and Rachel Zhang (University of Michigan). We
are also very grateful to the reviewers of the second edition, whose comments and criti-
cisms helped us further refine our vision of factory physics: William Giauque (Brigham
Young University), Izak Duenyas (University of Michigan), Mandyam Srinivasan (Uni-
versity of Tennessee), Esma Gel (Arizona State University), Erhan Kutanoglu (University
of Texas Austin), Michael Kay (North Carolina State University), Onur Ulgen (Univer-
sity of Michigan, Dearbon), and Terry Harrison (Penn State University).
Finally, we thank the editorial staff: Dick Hercher, Executive Editor, who kept us
going by believing in this project for years on the basis of all talk and no writing and
for his enormous patience in the face of our painfully slow revisions; Gail Korosa,
Christina Sanders, and Katie Jones, Development Editors who recruited reviewers and
applied polite pressure to meet deadlines, and Project Editors Mary Conzachi, Kim
Hooker, and Lori Koetters who directed the three editions of Factory Physics through
the bookmaking process.
B R I E F C o N T E N T s
o Factory Physics?
PART I
1 Manufacturing in America 14
2 Inventory Control: From EOQ to ROP 49
3 The MRP Crusade 114
4 From the JIT Revolution to Lean Manufacturing 155
5 What Went Wrong 176
PART II
FACTORY PHYSICS
PART III
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
References 697
Index 709
xiii
c o N T E N T s
o Factory Physics? 1
PART I
1 Manufacturing in America 14
1.1 Introduction 14
1.2 The American Experience 15
1.3 The First Industrial Revolution 17
1.3.1 The Industrial Revolution in America 18
1.3.2 The American System of Manufacturing 19
1.4 The Second Industrial Revolution 20
1.4.1 The Role of the Railroads 21
1.4.2 Mass Retailers 22
1.4.3 Andrew Carnegie and Scale 23
1.4.4 Henry Ford and Speed 24
1.5 Scientific Management 26
1.5.1 Frederick W. Taylor 27
1.5.2 Planning versus Doing 30
1.5.3 Other Pioneers of Scientific Management 31
1.5.4 The Science in Scientific Management 32
1.6 The Rise of the Modem Manufacturing Organization 33
1.6.1 Du Pont, Sloan, and Structure 33
1.6.2 Hawthorne and the Human Element 34
1.6.3 Management Education 36
xv
xvi Contents
2.1 Introduction 49
2.2 The Economic Order Quantity Model 50
2.2.1 Motivation 50
2.2.2 The Model 50
2.2.3 The Key Insight of EOQ 53
2.2.4 Sensitivity 55
2.2.5 EOQ Extensions 57
2.3 Dynamic Lot Sizing 58
2.3.1 Motivation 58
2.3.2 Problem Formulation 59
2.3.3 The Wagner-Whitin Procedure 60
2.3.4 Interpreting the Solution 64
2.3.5 Caveats 65
2.4 Statistical Inventory Models 66
2.4.1 The News Vendor Model 67
2.4.2 The Base Stock Model 71
2.4.3 The (Q, r) Model 78
2.5 Conclusions 91
Appendix 2A Basic Probability 93
Appendix 2B Inventory Formulas 105
Study Questions 107
Problems 108
5 VVhatVVentVVrong? 176
PART II
FACTORY PHYSICS
PART III
PRINCIPLES IN PRACTICE
References 697
Index 709
C H A P T E R
0 Factory Physics?
1
2 Chapter 0 Factory Physics?
But there are two possible explanations for this. One is that manufacturing is being
offshored by moving operations to lower-cost labor markets. The second is that it is
being automated through investments that make labor more productive. Which one is
actually occuring has important consequences for the role of manufacturing managers,
the economy, and for society.
If manufacturing is being offshored, as Cohen and Zysman (1987) warned, the eco-
nomic impact could be dire. The reason, they argued, is that many jobs normally classified
as service (e.g., design and engineering services, payroll, inventory and accounting ser-
vices, financing and insuring, repair and maintenance of plant and machinery, training
and recruiting, testing services and labs, industrial waste disposal, engineering support
services, trucking of semifinished goods, etc.) are tightly linked to manufacturing. If
manufacturing operations were moved to another country, these jobs would tend to fol-
low. They estimated that the number of tightly linked jobs could be as high as twice the
number of direct manufacturing jobs, implying that as much as half of the American
economy was strongly dependent on manufacturing. Clearly, a major shift in such a
big piece of the economy would have major impacts on employment, wages, and living
standards nationwide.
Fortunately, however, despite a great deal of political rhetoric to the contrary, a mass
migration of manufacturing jobs does not seem to have occurred. Figure 0.1 shows that
total manufacturing employment has remained largely stable since WWII, albeit with
dips during recessions, including that of 2001. Simultaneously, manufacturing output
has grown steadily and dramatically, although again with dips in recessions.
This sugggests that the long-term decline in the percentage of people working in
the manufacturing sector is primarily due to productivity increases. These have made it
possible to increase manufacturing output without increasing the size of the workforce.
Since the overall workforce has grown dramatically, direct manufacturing employees
have steadily become a smaller percentage of the workforce. But, since manufacturing
output has continued to rise, tightly linked jobs have presumably remained in the economy
and are accounting for a substantial part of the overall job growth in the postwar era.
15000
60
10000
40
5000
Total employment in manufacturing 20
Manufacturing output
0 0
39 44 49 54 59 64 69 74 79 84 89 94 99 04
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 20
Year
Chapter 0 Factory Physics? 3
Of course, one might argue that the short-term decline in the absolute number of
American manufacturing jobs since the mid-1990s is due to a recent offshoring trend.
However, the data does not support this either. While the United States experienced an
11 percent reduction in manufacturing employment between 1995 and 2002, China had
a 15 percent reduction, Brazil had a 20 percent reduction, and globally the decrease was
exactly the same as in the United States—11 percent (Drezner 2004). Hence, it appears
that we are still witnessing a worldwide productivity boom in manufacturing similar
to the one that revolutionized agriculture in the early years of the 20th century. During
the so-called Green Revolution, employment in agriculture declined from 29 percent of
the workforce in 1929 to less than 3 percent by 1985. If the current “Lean Revolution”
in manufacturing continues, we can expect further increases in manufacturing output
accompanied by a decline in total factory jobs around the globe.
The management implications of this are clear. More than ever, manufacturing is a
game of making more with less. Manufacturing managers must continue to find ways to
meet continually elevating customer expectations with ever higher levels of efficiency.
Because the pressure of global competition leaves little room for error and because
manufacturing is becoming increasingly complex, both technologically and logistically,
manufacturing managers must be more technically literate than ever before.
The economic implications of the Lean Revolution are less unclear. When jobs
in agriculture were automated, they were replaced by higher-productivity, higher-pay
manufacturing jobs. It would be nice if manufacturing jobs lost or not created as a result
of productivity advances were replaced by higher-productivity, higher-pay service jobs.
But, while high-pay service jobs exist, as of April 2007 average hourly compensation
was still higher in goods-producing firms than in service-producing firms by a margin of
$18.00 to $16.26 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2007). This discrepancy may account for the
recent stagnation in growth of real wages. Specifically, from 1970 to 1985 productivity
grew at a pace of 1.9 percent per year and real wages grew 0.87 percent per year, but
from 1985 to 1996 growth in productivity was 2.5 percent while wage growth was only
0.26 percent per year. Reversing this trend may require applying the analogies of “lean”
manufacturing to the service sector to accelerate productivity growth.
Finally, while speaking of manufacturing as a monolithic whole may continue to
make for good political rhetoric, it is important to remember the reality is that perfor-
mance of the manufacturing sector is achieved one firm at a time. Certainly a host of
general policies, from tax codes to educational initiatives, can help the entire sector
somewhat; the ultimate success of each individual firm is fundamentally determined by
the effectiveness of its management. Hence, quite literally, our economy, and our very
way of life in the future, depends on how well American manufacturing managers adapt
to the new globally competitive environment and evolve their firms to keep pace.
needed to promote real understanding, we must narrow our scope. However, to preserve
the “big picture” management view, we cannot restrict it too much; highly detailed
treatment of narrow topics (e.g., the physics of metal cutting) would constitute such a
narrow viewpoint that, while important, would hardly be suitable for identifying effective
management policies. The middle ground, which represents a balance between high-level
integration and low-level details, is the operations viewpoint.
In a broad sense, the term operations refers to the application of resources (capital,
materials, technology, and human skills and knowledge) to the production of goods and
services. Clearly, all organizations involve operations. Factories produce physical goods.
Hospitals produce surgical and other medical procedures. Banks produce checking ac-
count transactions and other financial services. Restaurants produce food and perhaps
entertainment. And so on.
The term operations also refers to a specific function in an organization, distinct
from other functions such as product design, accounting, marketing, finance, human re-
sources, and information systems. Historically, people involved in the operations function
are housed in departments with names like production control, manufacturing engineer-
ing, industrial engineering, and planning, and are responsible for the activities directly
related to the production of goods and services. These typically include plant schedul-
ing, inventory control, quality assurance, workforce scheduling, materials management,
equipment maintenance, capacity planning, and whatever else it takes to get product out
the door.
In this book, we view operations in the broad sense rather than as a specific function.
We seek to give general managers the insight necessary to sift through myriad details
in a production system and identify effective policies. The operations view focuses on
the flow of material through a plant, and thereby places clear emphasis on most of the
key measures by which manufacturing managers are evaluated (throughput, customer
service, quality, cost, investment in equipment and materials, labor costs, efficiency, etc.).
Furthermore, by avoiding the need for detailed descriptions of products or processes,
this view concentrates on generic manufacturing behavior, which makes it applicable to
a wide range of specific environments.
The operations view provides a unifying thread that runs through all the various
big-M manufacturing issues. For instance, operations and product design are linked in
that a product’s design determines how it must flow through a plant and how difficult
it will be to make. Adopting an operations viewpoint in the design process therefore
promotes design for manufacturability. In the same fashion, operations and strategic
planning are closely tied, since strategic decisions determine the number and types of
products to be produced, the size of the manufacturing facilities, the degree of vertical
integration, and many other factors that affect what goes on inside the plant. Embedding
a concern for operations in strategic decision making is essential for ensuring feasible
plans. Other manufacturing functions have analogous relationships to operations, and
hence can be coordinated with the actual production process by addressing them from
an operations viewpoint.
The traditional field in which operations are studied is called operations manage-
ment (OM). However, OM is broader than the scope of this book, since it encompasses
operations in service, as well as manufacturing, organizations. Just as our operations
scope covers only part of (big M) manufacturing, our manufacturing focus includes only
part of operations management. In short, the scope of this book can be envisioned as the
intersection between OM and manufacturing, as illustrated in Figure 0.2.
The operations view of manufacturing may seem a somewhat technical perspective
for a management book. But this is not accidental. Some degree of technicality is required
Chapter 0 Factory Physics? 5
Figure 0.2
Manufacturing and Operations Management
operations management. (service, transportation
retail, manufacturing, etc.)
Manufacturing Operations
Manufacturing
(manufacturing engineering,
product/process design,
production control, etc.)
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.