The Psychology of Management Part 10

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 cooperate.

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 apprentices.h.i.+p. 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 a.s.sisting 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 a.s.sisting 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 cla.s.sified 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 cooperate.

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 quant.i.ty 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 quant.i.ty 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 cla.s.ses 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 quant.i.ties 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 quant.i.ty 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 cla.s.ses; 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 ill.u.s.tration 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.

SUMMARY

RESULTS OF MEASUREMENT TO THE WORK.--Under Traditional Management, even the crudest measurement of output and cost usually resulted in an increase in output. But there was no accuracy of measurement of individual efficiency, nor was there provision made to conserve results and make them permanently useful.

Under Transitory Management and measurement of individual output, output increased and rewards for the higher output kept up the standard.

UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT BETTER METHODS AND BETTER WORK RESULTS.--Under Scientific Measurement, measurement of the work itself determines

1. what kind of workers are needed.

2. how many workers are needed.

3. how best to use them.

Motion Study and Time Study measurement,--

1. divide the work into units.

2. measure each unit.