The branch manager blamed the factory because the factory could not deliver a sufficient C][uantity of cars. The factory manager was not to blame, however, as the engineering department (reporting direct to the president instead of to the factory manager) had delayed the design for the new car, and the factory manager was, of course, unable to build a car until he had the drawings. This example will perhaps give a fair idea of the uses which can be made of curves plotted from the operating figures of a complex business.

CURVES FOR THE EXECUTIVE , . . 271

A person who has not tried plotting curves on cards only four inches high is likely to say that the card is not of sufficient height to permit satisfactory curve plotting when there is a great fluctuation in the curve. Such a person would argue that the card is not high enough to allow the plotting of curves on a scale sufficiently large for easy reading, and that any curve for a constantly increasing business is likely to run off the top of the co-ordinate ruling within a few years. The curves as shown in this chapter certainly vary enough to allow the eye to see all the changes clearly. As the curves are in each case accompanied by the actual figures for the value of each point on the curves, it is not necessary that one should be able to measure accurately for points falling between horizontal co-ordinate lines. Instead of consulting the vertical scale to get the value at any point, reference is made to the actual figures above the various points. These figures indicate a finer fluctuation in the curve than it is possible for the eye to appreciate even in curves plotted on very large sheets of paper.