SUMMARY
Effect of Functionalization upon the Work. — Under Traditional Management, there was little or no definite functionalization. If the quantity of output did increase, as the result of putting a man at that work for which he seemed best fitted, there was seldom provision made for seeing that the quality of
product was maintained by a method of constructive inspection that prevented downward deviations from standard quality, instead of condemning large quantities of the finished product.
Under Transitory Management, the Department of Inspection is one of the first Functions installed. This assures maintained quality, and provides that all increase in output shall be actual gain.
Under Scientific Management, functionalization results in increased quantity of output, [16] with maintained and usually increased quality. [17] This results in decreased cost. The cost is sufficiently lower to allow of increased wages to the employés, a further profit to the employer, and a maintained, or lowered, selling price. This means a benefit to the consumer.
It may be objected that costs cannot be lowered, because of the number of so-called "non-producers" provided for by Scientific Management.
In answer to this it may be said that there are no non-producers under Scientific Management. Corresponding work that, under Scientific Management, is done in the planning department must all be done somewhere, in a less systematic manner, even under Traditional Management. [18] The planning department,
simply does this work more efficiently, — with less waste. Moreover, much work of the planning department, being founded on elementary units, is available for constant use. Here results an enormous saving by the conservation and utilization of planning effort.
Also, standard methods are more apt to result in standard quality, and with less occasion for rejecting output that is below the requisite standards than is the case under Traditional Management.
Effect of Functionalization upon the Worker. — Under Traditional Management, even if the worker often becomes functionalized, he seldom has assurance that he will be able to reap the harvest from remaining so, and even so, neither data nor teaching are provided to enable him to fulfill his function most successfully.
Under Transitory Management the worker becomes more and more functionalized, as the results of motion study and time study make clear the advantages of specializing the worker.
Effects upon the Scientifically Managed Worker. — Under Scientific Management the effects of Functionalization are so universal and so far reaching that it is necessary to enumerate them in detail.
Worker Relieved of Everything but His Special Functions. — Functionalization, in providing that every man is assigned a special function, also provides that he be called upon to do work in that function only, relieving him of all other work and responsibility. Realization of this elimination has a
psychological effect on action and habits of thinking. [19]
Places are Provided for Specialists. — Functionalization utilizes men with decided bents, and allows each man to occupy that place for which he is fitted. [20] Assignment to functions is done according to the capabilities and desires of those who are to fill them.
Specializing Is Encouraged. — It is most important to remember that the man with any special talent or talents, individuality or special fitness is much more likely, under Scientific Management, to obtain and retain the place that he is fitted for than he ever could have been under Traditional Management, for, while many fairly efficient men can be found who can fill a general position, a man with the marked desirable trait necessary to fill a distinct position requiring that trait, will be one of few, and will have his place waiting for him.
One-Talent Men Utilized — .With Functionalization, men who lack qualifications for the position which they may, at the start, endeavor to fill, may be transferred to other positions, where the qualities they lack are not required. If a man has one talent, Scientific Management provides a place where that can be utilized.
For example: —
Men who cannot produce the prescribed output
constantly, are placed on other work. The slow, unskilled worker who has difficulty to learn, may be put upon work requiring less skill, or where speed is not required so much as watchfulness and faithfulness. The worker who is slow, but exceptionally skilled, has the opportunity to rise to the position of the functional foreman, especially in the planning department, where knowledge, experience and resourcefulness, and especially ability to teach, are much more desired than speed and endurance. Thus there are places provided, below and above, that can utilize all kinds of abilities.
"All Round" Men Are Utilized. — The exceptional man who possesses executive ability in all lines, and balance between them all, is the ideal man for a manager, and his special "all round" ability would be wasted in any position below that of a manager.
Stability Provided For. — Every man is maintained in his place by his interresponsibility with other men. If he is a worker, every man's work is held to standard quality by the inspector, while the requirements and rewards of his function are kept before him by the instruction card man, rate fixer and the disciplinarian.
Promotion and Development Provided For. — Functionalization provides for promotion by showing every man not only the clearly circumscribed place where he is to work, but also by showing him the definite place above him to which he may be promoted and its path, and by teaching him how he can fill it. This allows him to develop the possibilities
of his best self by using and specially training those talents which are most marked in him.
Functional Foremanship allows many more people, to become foremen, and to develop the will and judgment which foremanship implies.
Men in the Organization Preferred to Outsiders. — Men in the organization are preferable to outsiders as functional foremen and for promotion. Not only does a worker's knowledge of his work help him to become more efficient when he is promoted to the position of foreman, — but his efficiency as a teacher is also increased by the fact that he knows and understands the workers whom he is there to teach.
All Men Are Pushed Up. — Scientific Management raises every man as high as he is capable of being raised. It does not speed him up, but pushes him up to the highest notch which he can fill. Actual practice has shown that there is a greater demand for efficient men in the planning department than there is supply; also, that men in the planning department who fit themselves for higher work can be readily promoted to positions of greater responsibility, either inside or outside the organization.
Years of Productivity Prolonged. — Under Functionalization the number of years of productivity of all, workers and foremen alike, are increased. The specialty to which the man is assigned is his natural specialty, thus his possible and profitable working years are prolonged, because he is at that work for which he is naturally fitted.
Moreover, the work of teaching is one at which the teacher becomes more clever and more valuable
as time goes on, the functional foreman has that much more chance to become valuable as years go by.
Change in the Worker's Mental Attitude. — The work under functionalization is such as to arouse the worker's attention and to hold his interest. [21] But the most important and valuable change in the worker's feelings is the change in his attitude towards the foremen and the employer. From "natural enemies" as sometimes considered under typical Traditional Management, these all now become friends, with the common aim, coöperation, for the purpose of increasing output and wages, and lowering costs. This change of feeling results in an appreciation of the value of teaching, and also in promoting industrial peace.
[ 1]. Mary Whiton Calkins, A First Book in Psychology, p. 273.
[ 2]. Sully, The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology, p. 1.
[ 3]. Ibid., p. 54.
[ 4]. Hugo Münsterberg, American Problems, p. 35.
[ 5]. Gillette and Dana, Cost Keeping and Management Engineering, p. 1.
[ 6]. F.W. Taylor, Shop Management, para. 221. Harper Ed., p. 96.
[ 7]. F.W. Taylor, Shop Management, para. 221-231. Harper Ed., pp. 96-98.
[ 8]. Compare H.L. Gantt, No. 1002, A.S.M.E., para. 9.
[ 9]. Compare H.P. Gillette, Cost Analysis Engineering, pp. 1-2.
[10]. F.W. Taylor, Principles of Scientific Management, p. 37.
[11]. F.W. Taylor, Shop Management, para. 245. Harper Ed., p. 104.
[12]. For excellent example of special routing see: Charles Day, Industrial Plants, chap. VII.
[13]. C. Babbage, Economy of Manufacturers. p. 172. "The constant repetition of the same process necessarily produces in the workman a degree of excellence and rapidity in his particular department, which is never possessed by a person who is obliged to execute many different processes."
[14]. F.W. Taylor, On the Art of Cutting Metals, Paper No. 1119, A.S.M.E.
[15]. C.G. Barth, Slide Rules for Machine Shops and Taylor System. Paper No. 1010, A.S.M.E.
[16]. H.L. Gantt, Work, Wages and Profits, p. 19.
[17]. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, p. 2. "The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labor, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment, with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labor." Also p. 4.
[18]. H.K. Hathaway, The Value of "Non-Producers" in Manufacturing Plants. Machinery, Nov., 1906, p. 134.
[19]. Gillette and Dana, Cost Keeping and Management Engineering, p. 11.
[20]. Morris Llewellyn Cooke, Bulletin No. 5, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, p. 15.
[21]. H.L. Gantt, Work, Wages and Profits, p. 120.
[CHAPTER IV]
MEASUREMENT
Definition of Measurement. — "Measurement," according to the Century Dictionary, — "is the act of measuring," and to measure is — "to ascertain the length, extent, dimensions, quantity or capacity of, by comparison with a standard; ascertain or determine a quantity by exact observation," or, again, "to estimate or determine the relative extent, greatness or value of, appraise by comparison with something else."
Measurement Important in Psychology. — Measurement has always been of importance in psychology; but it is only with the development of experimental psychology and its special apparatus, that methods of accurate measurements are available which make possible the measurement of extremely short periods of time, or measurements "quick as thought," These enable us to measure the variations of different workers as to their abilities and their mental and physical fatigue; [1] to study mental processes at different stages of mental and physical growth; to compare different people under the same conditions, and the same person under different conditions;
to determine the personal coefficient of different workers, specialists and foremen, and to formulate resultant standards. As in all other branches of science, the progress comes with the development of measurement.
Methods of Measurement in Psychology. — No student of management, and of measurement in the field of management, can afford not to study, carefully and at length, methods of measurement under psychology. This, for at least two most important reasons, which will actually improve him as a measurer, i.e. —
1. The student will discover, in the books on experimental psychology and in the "Psychological Review," a marvelous array of results of scientific laboratory experiments in psychology, which will be of immediate use to him in his work.
2. He will receive priceless instruction in methods of measuring. No where better than in the field of psychology, can one learn to realize the importance of measurements, the necessity for determination of elements for study, and the necessity for accurate apparatus and accuracy in observation.
Prof. George M. Stratton, in his book "Experimental Psychology and Culture," — says "In mental measurements, therefore, there is no pretense of taking the mind's measure as a whole, nor is there usually any immediate intention of testing even some special faculty or capacity of the individual. What is aimed at is the measurement of a limited event in consciousness, such as a particular perception or feeling. The experiments are addressed, of course,
not to the weight or size of such phenomena, but usually to their duration and intensity."[2]
The emphasis laid on a study of elements is further shown in the same book by the following, — "The actual laboratory work in time-measurement, however, has been narrowed down to determining, not the time in general that is occupied by some mental action, but rather the shortest possible time in which a particular operation, like discrimination or choice or association or recognition, can be performed under the simplest and most favorable circumstances.[3] The experimental results here are something like speed or racing records, made under the best conditions of track and training. A delicate chronograph or chronoscope is used, which marks the time in thousandths of a second."
Measurement in Psychology Related to Measurement in Management. — Measurement in psychology is of importance to measurement in management not only as a source of information and instruction, but also as a justification and support. Scientific Management has suffered from being called absurd, impractical, impossible, over-exact, because of the emphasis which it lays on measurement. Yet, to the psychologist, all present measurement in Scientific Management must appear coarse, inaccurate and of immediate and passing value only. With the knowledge that psychologists endorse accurate measurement, and will coöperate in discovering elements
for study, instruments of precision and methods of investigation, the investigator in industrial fields must persist in his work with a new interest and confidence. [4]
Scientific Management cannot hope to furnish psychology with either data or methods of measurement. It can and does, however, open a new field for study to experimental psychology, and shows itself willing to furnish the actual working difficulties or problems, to do the preliminary investigation, and to utilize results as fast as they can be obtained.
Psychologists Appreciate Scientific Management. — The appreciation which psychologists have shown of work done by Scientific Management must be not only a matter of gratification, but of inspiration to all workers in Scientific Management.
So, also, must the new divisions of the Index to the Psychological Review relating to Activity and Fatigue, and the work being so extensively done in these lines by French, German, Italian and other nations, as well as by English and American psychologists.
Measurement Important in Management. — The study of individuality and of functionalization have made plain the necessity of measurement for successful management. Measurement furnishes the means for obtaining that accurate knowledge upon which the science of management rests, as do all sciences — exact and inexact.[5] Through measurement, methods
of less waste are determined, standards are made possible, and management becomes a science, as it derives standards, and progressively makes and improves them, and the comparisons from them, accurate.
Problem of Measurement in Management — One of the important problems of measurement in management is determining how many hours should constitute the working day in each different kind of work and at what gait the men can work for greatest output and continuously thrive. The solution of this problem involves the study of the men, the work, and the methods, which study must become more and more specialized; but the underlying aim is to determine standards and individual capacity as exactly as is possible.[6]
Capacity. — There are at least four views of a worker's capacity.
1. What he thinks his capacity is.
2. What his associates think his capacity is.
3. What those over him think his capacity is.
4. What accurate measurement determines his actual capacity to be.
Ignorance of Real Capacity. — Dr. Taylor has emphasized the fact that the average workman does not know either his true efficiency or his true capacity. [7] The experience of others has also gone to show that even the skilled workman has little or inaccurate knowledge of the amount of output that a good
worker can achieve at his chosen vocation in a given time. [8]
For example, — until a bricklayer has seen his output counted for several days, he has little idea of how many bricks he can lay, or has laid, in a day. [9]
The average manager is usually even more ignorant of the capacity of the workers than are the men themselves. [10] This is because of the prevalence of, and the actual necessity for the worker's best interest, under some forms of management, of "soldiering." Even when the manager realizes that soldiering is going on, he has no way, especially under ordinary management, of determining its extent.
Little Measurement in Traditional Management. — Under Traditional Management there was little measurement of a man's capacity. The emphasis was entirely on the results. There was, it is true, in everything beyond the most elementary of Traditional Management, a measurement of the result. The manager did know, at the end of certain periods of time, how much work had been done, and how much it had cost him. This was a very important thing for him to know. If his cost ran too high, and his output fell too low, he investigated. If he found a defect, he tried to remedy it; but much time had to be wasted in this investigation, because often he had no idea where to start in to look for the defects. The result of the defects was usually the cause for the inquiry as to their presence.
He might investigate the men, he might investigate the methods, he might investigate the equipment, he might investigate the surroundings, and so on, — and very often in the mind of the Traditional manager, there was not even this most elementary division. If things went wrong he simply knew, — "Something is wrong somewhere," and it was the work of the foremen to find out where the place was, or so to speed up the men that the output should be increased and the cost lowered. Whether the defects were really remedied, or simply concealed by temporarily speeding up, was not seriously questioned.
Moreover, until measuring devices are secured, the only standard is what someone thinks about things, and the pity of it is that even this condition does not remain staple.
Transitory Management Realizes Value of Measurement. — One of the first improvements introduced when Traditional Management gives place to the Transitory stage is the measurement of the separated output of individual workers. These outputs are measured and recorded. The records for extra high outputs are presented to the worker promptly, so that he may have a keen idea constantly of the relation of effort to output, while the fatigue and the effort of doing the work is still fresh in his mind.
The psychology of the prompt reward will be considered later at length, but it cannot be emphasized too often that the prompter the reward, the greater the stimulus. The reward will become associated with the fatigue in such a way that the worker will really get, at the time, more satisfaction out of his
fatigue than he will discomfort; at the least, any dissatisfaction over his fatigue will be eliminated, by the constant and first thought of the reward which he has gotten through his efforts.
This record of efficiency is often so presented to the workers that they get an excellent idea of the numerical measure of their efficiency and its trend. This is best done by a graphical chart.
The records of the outputs of others on the same kind of work done concurrently, or a corresponding record on work done previously, will show the relative efficiency of any worker as compared with the rest. These standards of comparison are a strong incentive and, if they are shown at the time that such work is done, they also become so closely associated not only with the mental but the bodily feeling of the man that the next time the work is repeated, the thoughts that the same effort will probably bring greater results, and that it has done so in the past with others, will be immediately present in the mind.
Measurement Is Basic Under Scientific Management. — Under Scientific Management measurement is basic. Measurement is of the work, of outputs, of the methods, the tools, and of the worker, with the individual as a unit, and motion study, time study and micro-motion study and the chrono-cyclegraph as the methods of measurement.
Measurement is a most necessary adjunct to selecting the workers and the managers and to assigning them to the proper functions and work. They cannot be selected to the greatest advantage and set to functionalized work until —
(a) the unit of measurement that will of itself tend to reduce costs has been determined.
(b) methods of measurement have been determined.
(c) measurement has been applied.
(d) standards for measurement have been derived.
(e) devices for cheapening the cost of measuring have been installed.
Under Scientific Management Measurement Determines the Task. — An important aim of measurement under Scientific Management is to determine the Task, or the standard amount of any kind of work that a first class man can do in a certain period of time. The "standard amount" is the largest amount that a first class man can do and continuously thrive.
The "first-class" man is the man who can eventually become best fitted, by means of natural and acquired capabilities, to do the work. The "certain period of time" is that which best suits the work and the man's thriving under the work. The amount of time allowed for a task consists of three parts —
1. time actually spent at work.
2. time for rest for overcoming fatigue.
3. time for overcoming delays.
Measurement must determine what percentage of the task time is to be spent at work and what at rest, and must also determine whether the rest period should all follow the completed work, or should be divided into parts, these parts to follow certain cycles through the entire work period.
The method of constructing the task is discussed under two chapters that follow, Analysis and Synthesis, and Standardization. Here we note only that the task is built up of elementary units measured by motion study, time study, and micro-motion study.
When this standard task has been determined the worker's efficiency can be measured by his performance of, or by the amount that he exceeds, the task.
Qualifications of the Observer or Measurer. — The position of observer, or as he has well been called, "trade revolutionizer," should be filled by a man specially selected for the position on account of his special natural fitness and previous experience. He also should be specially trained for his work. As in all other classes of work, the original selection of the man is of vital importance. The natural qualities of the successful hunter, fisherman, detective, reporter and woodsman for observation of minute details are extremely desirable. It is only by having intimate knowledge of such experiences as Agassiz had with his pupils, or with untrained "observers" of the trade, that one can realize the lack of powers of observation of detail in the average human being.
Other natural qualifications required to an efficient observer are that of being
(a) an "eye worker";
(b) able to concentrate attention for unusually long periods;
(c) able to get every thought out of a simple written sentence;
(d) keenly interested in his work;
(e) accurate;
(f) possessed of infinite patience;
(g) an enthusiastic photographer.
The measurer or observer should, preferably, have the intimate knowledge that comes from personal experience of the work to be observed, although such a man is often difficult if not impossible to obtain.
The position of observer illustrates another of the many opportunities of the workmen for promotion from the ranks to higher positions when they are capable of holding the promotion. Naturally, other things being equal, no man is so well acquainted with the work to be observed as he who has actually done it himself, and if he have also the qualifications of the worker at the work, which should, in the future, surely be determined by study of him and by vocational guidance, he will be able to go at once from his position in the ranks to that of observer, or time study man.
The observer must also familiarize himself with the literature regarding motion study and time study, and must form the habit of recording systematically the minutest details observable.
The effect upon the man making the observation of knowing that his data, even though at the time they may seem unimportant, can be used for the deduction of vital laws, is plain. He naturally feels that he is a part of a permanent scheme, and is ready and willing to put his best activity into the work. The benefits accruing from this fact have been so well recognized in making United States surveys and
charts, that the practice has been to have the name of the man in charge of the work printed on them.
Anyone Interested May Become an Observer. — A review of the mental equipment needed by a measurer, or observer, will show that much may be done toward training oneself for such a position by practice. Much pleasure as well as profit can be obtained by acquiring the habit of observation, both in the regular working and in the non-working hours. Vocational Guidance Bureaus should see that this habit of observation is cultivated, not only for the æsthetic pleasure which it gives, but also for its permanent usefulness.
Unbiased Observation Necessary. — In order to take observations properly, the investigator should be absolutely impartial, unprejudiced, and unbiased by any preconceived notions. Otherwise, he will be likely to think that a certain thing ought to happen. Or he may have a keen desire to obtain a certain result to conform to a pet theory. In other words, the observer must be of a very stable disposition. He must not be carried away by his observations.
The elimination of any charting by the man who makes the observations, or at least its postponement until all observations are made, will tend to decrease the dangers of unconscious effect of what he considers the probable curve of the observations should be.
As has been well said, watching the curve to be charted before all of the data have been obtained develops a distinct theory in the mind of the investigator and is apt to "bend the curve" or, at least, to
develop a feeling that if any new, or special, data do not agree with the tendency of the curve — so much the worse for the reputation of the data for reliability.
Observed Worker Should Realize the Purpose of the Measurement. — The observed worker should be made to realize the purpose and importance of the measurement. The observing should always be done with his full knowledge and hearty coöperation. He will attain much improvement by intelligent coöperation with the observer, and may, in turn, be able to be promoted to observing if he is interested enough to study and prepare himself after hours.
Worker Should Never Be Observed Surreptitiously. — No worker should ever be observed, timed and studied surreptitiously. In the first place, if the worker does not know that he is being observed, he cannot coöperate with the observer to see that the methods observed are methods of least waste. Therefore the motion study and time study records that result will not be fundamental standards in any case and will probably be worthless.
In the second place, if the worker discovers that he is being observed secretly, he will feel that he is being spied upon and is not being treated fairly. The stop watch has too long been associated with the idea of "taking the last drop of blood from the worker." Secret observations will tend strongly to lend credence to this idea. Even should the worker thus observed not think that he was being watched in order to force him, at a later time, to make higher outputs, after he has once learned that he is being
watched secretly, his attention will constantly be distracted by the thought that perhaps he is being studied and timed again. He will be constantly on the alert to see possible observers. This may result in "speeding him up," but the speed will not be a legitimate speed, that results to his good as well as to that of his employer.
Worst of all, he will lose confidence in the "squareness" of his employer. Hence he will fail to co-operate, and one of the greatest advantages of Scientific Management will thus be lost.
It is a great advantage of micro-motion study that it demands coöperation of the man studied, and that its results are open to study by all.
An Expert Best Worker to Observe. — The best worker to observe for time study is he who is so skilled that he can perform a cycle of prescribed standard motions automatically, without mental concentration. This enables him to devote his entire mental activity to deviating the one desired variable from the accepted cycle of motions.
The difficulty in motion study and time study is not so often to vary the variable being observed and studied, as it is to maintain the other variables constant. Neither skill nor appreciation of what is wanted is enough alone. The worker who is to be measured successfully must
1. have the required skill.
2. understand the theory of what is being done.
3. be willing to coöperate.
Everyone Should Be Trained in Being Measured. — Accurate measurement of individuals, in actual practice,
brings out the fact that lamentably few persons are accustomed to be, or can readily be, measured. It has been a great drawback to the advance of Scientific Management that the moment a measurer of any kind is put on the work, either a device to measure output or a man to measure or to time reactions, motions, or output, the majority of the workers become suspicious. Being unaccustomed to being measured, they think, as is usually the case with things to which we are unaccustomed, that there is something harmful to them in it. This feeling makes necessary much explanation which in reality should not be needed.
The remedy for this condition is a proper training in youth. A boy brought up with the fundamental idea of the importance of measurement to all modern science, for all progress, accustomed to being measured, understanding the "why" of the measuring, and the results from it, will not hesitate or object, when he comes to the work, to being measured in order that he may be put where it is best for himself, as well as for the work, that he be put.
The importance of human measurement to vocational guidance and to the training of the young for life work has never been properly realized. Few people understand the importance of psychological experiment as a factor in scientific vocational guidance. For this alone, it will probably in time be a general custom to record and keep as close track as possible of the psychological measurements of the child during the period of education, vocational guidance and apprenticeship. Not only this, but he also should be
accustomed to being measured, physically and psychologically, from his first years, just as he is now accustomed to being weighed.
The child should be taught to measure himself, his faculties, his reactions, his capabilities as compared with his former self and as compared with the capabilities of others. It is most important that the child should form a habit not only of measuring, but of being measured.
Motion Study and Time Study Are the Method of Measurement Under Scientific Management. — Under Scientific Management, much measuring is done by motion study and time study, which measure the relative efficiency of various men, of various methods, or of various kinds of equipment, surroundings, tools, etc. Their most important use is as measuring devices of the men. They have great psychological value in that they are founded on the "square deal" and the men know this from the start. Being operated under laws, they are used the same way on all sorts of work and on all men. As soon as the men really understand this fact, and realize
1. that the results are applied to all men equally;
2. that all get an ample compensation for what they do;
3. that under them general welfare is considered; the objections to such study will vanish.
Motion Study Is Determining Methods of Least Waste. — Motion Study is the dividing of the elements of the work into the most fundamental subdivisions possible; studying these fundamental units separately and in relation to one another; and from
these studied, chosen units, when timed, building up methods of least waste.
Time Study Is Determining Standard Unit Times. — Time study consists of timing the elements of the best method known, and, from these elementary unit times, synthesizing a standard time in which a standard man can do a certain piece of work in accordance with the finally accepted method.
Micro-motion study is timing sub-divisions, or elements of motions by carrying out the principles of motion study to a greater degree of accuracy by means of a motion picture camera, a clock that will record different times of day in each picture of a moving picture film together with a cross sectioned background and other devices for assisting in measuring the relative efficiency and wastefulness of motions. It also is the cheapest, quickest and more accurate method of recording indisputable time study records. It has the further advantage of being most useful in assisting the instruction card man to devise methods of least waste. [11]
Motion Study and Time Study Measure Individual Efficiency. — Motion Study and Time Study measure individual capacity or efficiency by providing data from which standards can be made. These standards made, the degree to which the individual approaches or exceeds the standard can be determined.
Motion Study and Time Study Measure Methods. — Motion Study and Time Study are devices for measuring methods. By their use, old methods are "tried out," once and for all, and their relative value
in efficiency, determined. By their use, also, new methods are "tried out." This is most important under Scientific Management.
Any new method suggested can be tested in a short time. Such elements of it as have already been tested, can be valued at the start, the new elements introduced can be motion studied and time studied, and waste eliminated to as great an extent as possible, with no loss of time or thought.
Under Scientific Management, the men who understand what motion study and time study mean, know that their suggested methods will be tested, not only fairly, but so effectively that they, and everyone else, can know at once exactly the worth of their suggestions.
Comparison of Methods Fosters Invention. — The value of such comparative study can be seen at a glance. When one such method after another is tried out, not only can one tell quickly what a new method is worth, but can also determine what it is worth compared to all others which have been considered. This is because the study is a study of elements, primarily, and not of methods as a whole. Not only can suggested methods be estimated, but also new methods which have never been suggested will become apparent themselves through this study. Common elements, being at once classified and set aside, the new ones will make themselves prominent, and better methods for doing work will suggest themselves, especially to the inventive mind.
Books of Preliminary Data Needed. — In order that this investigation may be best fostered, not only must
books of standards be published, but also books of preliminary data, which other workers may attack if they desire, and where they can find common elements. Such books of preliminary data are needed on all subjects.>[12]
Motion Study and Time Study Measure Equipment and Tools. — Time and motion study are measuring devices for ascertaining relative merits of different kinds of equipment, surroundings and tools. Through them, the exact capacities of equipment or of a tool or machine can be discovered at once, and also the relative value in efficiency. Also motion study and time study determine exactly how a tool or a piece of equipment can best be used.
In "On The Art of Cutting Metals" Dr. Taylor explains the effect of such study on determining the amount of time that tools should be used, the speed at which they should be used, the feed, and so on.[13] This paper exemplifies more thoroughly than does anything else ever written the value of Time Study, and the scientific manner in which it is applied.
The Scope of Time and Motion Study Is Unlimited. — It is a great misfortune that the worker does not understand, as he should, that motion study and time study apply not only to his work, but also to the work of the managers. In order to get results from the start, and paying results, it often happens that the work of the worker is the first to be
so studied, but when Scientific Management is in full operation, the work of the managers is studied exactly to the same extent, and set down exactly as accurately, as the work of the worker himself. The worker should understand this from the start, that he may become ready and willing to coöperate.
Detailed Records Necessary. — Motion study and time study records must go into the greatest detail possible. If the observations are hasty, misdirected or incomplete they may be quite unusable and necessitate going through the expensive process of observation all over again. Dr. Taylor has stated that during his earlier experiences he was obliged to throw away a large quantity of time study data, because they were not in sufficient detail and not recorded completely enough to enable him to use them after a lapse of a long period from the time of their first use. No system of time study, and no individual piece of time study, can be considered a success unless by its use at any time, when new, or after a lapse of years, an accurate prediction of the amount of work a man can do can be made.
All results attained should invariably be preserved, whether they appear at the moment to be useful or valuable or not. In time study in the past it has been found, as in the investigations of all other sciences, that apparently unimportant details of today are of vital importance years after, as a necessary step to attain, or further proof of a discovery. This was exemplified in the case of the shoveling experiment of Dr. Taylor. The laws came from what was considered the unimportant portion of the
data. There is little so unimportant that time and motion study would not be valuable. Just as it is a great help to the teacher to know the family history of the student, so it is to the one who has to use time and motion study data to know all possible of the hereditary traits, environment and habits of the worker who was observed.
Specialized Study Imperative. — As an illustration of the field for specialized investigation which motion study and time study present, we may take the subject of fatigue. Motion Study and Time Study aim to show,
1. the least fatiguing method of getting least waste.
2. the length of time required for a worker to do a certain thing.
3. the amount of rest and the time of rest required to overcome fatigue.
Dr. Taylor spent years in determining the percentage of rest that should be allowed in several of the trades, beginning with those where the making of output demands weight hanging on the arms; but there is still a great amount of investigation that could be done to advantage to determine the most advisable percentage of rest in the working day of different lengths of hours. Such investigation would probably show that many of our trades could do the same amount of work in fewer hours, if the quantity and time of rest periods were scientifically determined.
Again, there is a question of the length of each rest period. It has been proven that in many classes
of work, and especially in those where the work is interrupted periodically by reason of its peculiar nature, or by reason of inefficient performance in one of the same sequence of dependent operations, alternate working and resting periods are best. There is to be considered in this connection, however, the recognized disadvantage of reconcentrating the attention after these rest periods. Another thing to be considered is that the rate of output does not decline from the beginning of the day, but rather the high point of the curve representing rate of production is at a time somewhat later than at the starting point. The period before the point of maximum efficiency is known as "warming up" among ball players, and is well recognized in all athletic sports.
As for the point of minimum efficiency, or of greatest fatigue, this varies for "morning workers," and "night workers." This exemplifies yet another variable.
The minuteness of the sub-fields that demand observation, is shown by an entry in the Psychological Index: "1202. Benedict, F.G. "Studies in Body — Temperature." 1. Influence of the Inversion of the Daily Routine; the Temperature of Night Workers."[14]
Selection of Best Unit of Measurement Necessary and Important. — Selecting the unit of measurement that will of itself reduce costs is a most important element in obtaining maximum efficiency.[15] This is seldom
realized. [16] Where possible, several units of measurements should be used to check each other. [17] One alone may be misleading, or put an incentive on the workers to give an undesirable result.
The rule is, — always select that unit of output that will, of itself, cause a reduction in costs.
For example: — In measuring the output of a concrete gang, counting cement bags provides an incentive to use more cement than the instruction card calls for. Counting the batches of concrete dumped out of the mixer, provides an incentive to use rather smaller quantities of broken stone and sand than the proportions call for, — and, furthermore, does not put the incentive on the men to spill no concrete in transportation, neither does it put an incentive to use more lumps for Cyclopean concrete.
Measuring the quantity actually placed in the forms puts no incentive to watch bulging forms closely.
While measuring outputs by all these different units of measurements would be valuable to check up accuracy of proportions, accuracy of stores account, and output records, the most important unit of measurement for selection would be, "cubic feet of forms filled," the general dimensions to be taken from the latest revised engineer's drawings.
Necessity for Checking Errors. — Dr. Stratton says, — "No measurements, whether they be psychic or physical, are exact beyond a certain point, and the art of using them consists largely in checks and counter checks, and in knowing how far the measurement
is reliable and where the doubtful zone begins." [18]
Capt. Metcalfe says, — "Errors of observation may be divided into two general classes; the instrumental and those due to the personal bias of the observer; the former referring to the standard itself, and the latter to the application of the standard and the record of the measurement." [19]
The concrete illustration given above is an example of careful checking up. Under Scientific Management so many, and such careful records are kept that detecting errors becomes part of the daily routine.