DIVISION V SYSTEM AND STORE SERVICE CHAPTER XVI. SYSTEM IN A PHARMACY. Ir there is any one business on earth that needs system, that business is the retail pharmacy. It is estimated that a well-equipped pharmacy carries from 4000 to 6000 articles. To keep track of such a great number and to realize the importance of each, requires systematic planning. The first step in your systematic plan should be to systematize yourself, your own time and movements. Have a regular time to be at the store and a stated time to be at your meals. Always plan to be at your store during the busy hours. Plan your time while at the store. "Plan your work and work your plan" is the motto you'll see hanging near a desk in many business offices. You are to build your career. You must build it carefully and little by little. You must have a definite plan to work on. What kind of a house could you build if there was no plan made for it? The house is planned, you know what you want in it, everything is specified, the architect draws the plans, and as a rule they are not changed. You must sketch a plan for your own career. Draw a plan of it in your imagination. Have a mental picture before you always, it will encourage you to develop it. Have a distinct aim and purpose. Have an ideal, then try to reach that ideal. You must be ambitious. You shouldn't be satisfied to just drift with the tide. If you don't inaugurate system you will simply float along on the stream like a boat without a rudder. You have to go whereever the rudderless boat takes you, as you have lost the power to steer it. System is the steering gear of your business. See that it is firmly attached so it cannot be lost. It will increase your business, save your time, make your daily task easier, save waste, insure accuracy, and give you that contented frame of mind which always comes to a man when he has done something well. Have a schedule for every day. You know perfectly well to-day what should be done in your store to-morrow. Very well, write down the most important things first. Then add the minor details. Think like this: "Well! such a thing must be done the first thing in the morning, then this thing must come next. I will try and have all these ten different things accomplished to-morrow and that will be a good day's work." Before you go home at night write everything down on a card that should be accomplished the next day. ASSIGNMENT BLANKS.-The writer used an assignment blank which was dated every day and the clerks' letters were on each blank together with a list of their duties for the next day. Then as each clerk came to work in the morning he picked up his assignment blank, saw just what was expected of him and needed no further supervision. At night he turned in his assignment blank with a cross marked at the side of each duty accomplished, and if he was unable to carry out all his orders the unfinished ones were listed for first attention on his assignment blank for the next day. The writer got this idea from the assignment system in use in newspaper offices where the city editor assigns the work of the day among the staff of reporters. Ten minutes every night is all the time required to make out these assignment slips for four or five clerks. During the day you have thought out what needs to be done the next day and just before you go home at night you can write them down properly assigned. This simple system keeps harmony among the clerks, insures two days' work in one, instructs the clerk what to do, which is especially valuable when you are detained at home for part of the forenoon and on days that you are out of town. It is surprising what a lot of work can be accomplished in one day in a pharmacy when the entire working force have their work mapped out in advance. Just try it for one day. Assignment Slip Clerk B. Day Wednesday Date 6/21/1909 MAKE ICE CREAM UNPACK BAY RUM BOTTLES MAKE OUT NEW SODA MENU RETURN EMPTY SiPHONS. GET JOBBER TO CLEAN CELLAR STAMP PACKAGE SLIPS PUT UP EPSOM SALTS PHONE FOR ICE CREAM SALT RETURN BORROWEd Goods ToM.L. THINK UP 10 NAMES FOR Mailing List EXAMPLE OF ASSIGNMENT SLIP ISSUED DAILY TO EACH CLERK. THURSDAY, JUNE 141910 SEND AD TO DAILY NEWS GET JOBBER TO CLEAN CELLAR PUT Up MRS. RICHMOND'S FACE CREAM. EXAMPLE OF DAILY SCHEDULE CARD FILED IN CARD FILE. It will be a revelation to you. When filling out assignment blanks don't forget yourself. List your duties for the next day. How To USE CARD FILES.-Every pharmacist, no matter how small his business, should have a system and should plan his work ahead. You cannot trust your memory for everything. You want to keep the forces of your mind for present things. You mustn't overtax it with too many future things. As fast as a thought comes to your mind of something that needs to be done, jot it down on a paper in your vest pocket if on the street, and in your store coat if in the store. Copy all these thoughts on a sheet of paper under the heading "Future Work.” Then look at this sheet every Sunday, choose from it the different tasks that can be accomplished the coming week, then assign the tasks to different days, and on those days to different clerks. A file of cards indexed for each day of the week will help you greatly. Copy from your big "Future Work" list the tasks you have assigned for Thursday of the coming week, then file the card under the Thursday index. Wednesday night take out the Thursday card and assign the work to the different clerks so they can start on the Thursday program the first thing in the morning. There is a certain amount of work to be done every day in a pharmacy, and to this regular work should be added some development work in order to keep building up your business. It is a good idea to devote an hour a day to study. See that your clerks study during that hour, both Professional and Commercial Pharmacy. A knowledge of both is required. That hour will not be wasted, for the better your clerks are posted the better results you will get from them. When a good idea strikes you, write it down immediately, before it escapes. Ideas come from all sources, and although you may have no immediate use for a certain idea, it may be just the thing you will want later on. All these ideas can be written on a card and filed in your alphabetical file under the letter I. Under the letter C file the cards containing the list of credits you are to look up, such as mistakes on |