The survey is a systematic study of existing conditions. Those making it have always a well-defined plan in mind. It is necessary, in order to maintain a proper balance for the completed survey, to give a properly proportioned representation of what happens, with no element omitted or over-emphasized.
The General Survey and the Fatigue Survey.
The fatigue survey should be a department of the general survey. A description of the apparent causes of fatigue, or of the devices present that eliminate fatigue, can mean little without the accompanying description of the worker, the conditions of the work and the work itself. The fatigue survey might be made without a general survey. From the results, fatigue might be eliminated, or better means for overcoming fatigue provided, but there would be no assurance that the records applied would be efficient, or do lasting good, if the causes of fatigue were not understood. The causes could not be understood without the general survey. The fatigue element receives more emphasis than any other element of the general survey. We look for fatigue first, last, and all the time, but we record with it all the attending circumstances that we can observe or discover.
The Aims of the Fatigue Survey.
The fatigue survey aims:
1. To present an accurate picture of existing conditions from the fatigue standpoint.
2. To enable all interested in fatigue elimination to visualize the problem thoroughly.
3. To divide the problem of fatigue elimination into such working units that it may be possible to attack the problem successfully from the start.
4. To arouse the interest of every member of the organization in fatigue and its elimination.
5. To show the relation between fatigue and activity.