The division of labor increases the efficiency of the processes of learning and motion that are entailed in production.

First, under the division of labor, the individual who learns an occupation is able to apply his learning repeatedly, because he devotes his full working time to that occupation. The effect of this repetition is that he becomes extremely proficient in the use of his knowledge. In effect, he subconsciously automatizes the knowledge-he learns it so well that he no longer has to think things out step by step, as one does before one has the necessary experience or after one has been away from a field for a long time. A worker who is constantly practiced in his work can obviously accomplish a great deal more in the same time than one who is not. Outside the division of labor, on the other hand, even in cases in which people might be able to acquire sufficient knowledge to accomplish something, they would most likely not have sufficient occasion to use that knowledge to become proficient in its use.

A good example of this, drawn from the context of our own society, is the case of a professional repairman versus a do-it-yourself homeowner. A good professional plumber, say, can usually spot the source of a plumbing problem very quickly, decide exactly what needs to be done, reach for the appropriate tools and supplies, and do it. The inexperienced homeowner, on the other hand, who tries to repair his own plumbing, must probably first read a book about how to do it, and then, assuming he has correctly diagnosed the problem and obtained all the necessary tools and supplies, fumble about trying to do it. Even if, later on, he needs to make the same repair again, the homeowner will probably experience many of his original difficulties, because probably so much time will have gone by that he will have forgotten much of what he learned the first time he made the repair.

This example illustrates the second way that the division of labor increases the efficiency of the learning process in connection with production: it increases the ratio of the time spent in using knowledge to the time spent in acquiring it. Our plumber spends a given amount of time learning how to make a given repair, and then makes that repair over and over again. The homeowner spends a given amount of time learning how to make a given repair, and then hardly ever uses the knowledge he has acquired. The learning time put in by the plumber is obviously much more fruitful. The same principle, of course, applies to all specialists in comparison with nonspecialists, and is the reason that it pays specialists to acquire vastly more knowledge about their work than it can ever pay nonspecialists to acquire.

Finally, the division of labor increases the efficiency of the learning process in connection with production by making education and communications--indeed, all the activities concerned with storing and transmitting knowledge--into specializations. These, like all other specializations, also tend to be carried on by those best suited for them. In this way, the diffusion of knowledge of all kinds, including, of course, all that pertains to production, tends to become more efficient.

Thus, the division of labor increases the degree to which knowledge of production is assimilated and therefore the proficiency with which it is used, the yield to the time spent in acquiring it, and the efficiency with which it is disseminated. These advantages, of course, are obviously closely related to the multiplication of knowledge that was discussed at the beginning of this investigation of the ways in which the division of labor raises the productivity of labor.

The division of labor also achieves a large increase in production simply by eliminating unnecessary motion in production. The tendency under the division of labor is to concentrate work of the same type in the same place, and, depending on the volume of work that can be so concentrated, to break it down into the simplest possible steps, consisting of the smallest possible number of separate motions.