Industrial Engineering in Germany

German Association Industrial Engineering

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Deployment of Industrial Engineering in Germany

A Siemens US study trip report in 1963, the end of the productivity movement, noted that the predetermined time method then being implemented in the world of capitalism was without exception developed and tested in the US prior to being made public. 

For example, WF（work factor）was developed in the US in the mid-1930s, implemented after 1938, and then used internationally from 1952. In the International Management Conference held in September 1963, there was a discussion on issues of WF time standards and WF use

. MTM（methods time measurement）was developed by H. B. Maynard, G. J. Stegemerten, and J. L. Schwab in the 1940s at Westinghouse , and spread after the war.

Even in Germany, according to a 1948 source, manufacturers began to place great significance on work study 

. For example, electrical manufacturer AEG noted that from the 1950s to the 1960s, the rationalization of work and time studies played an important role in productivity improvement 8）

. However, by the mid-1950s, the German organization REFAʼs activities and wage payment methods were becoming prominent

9）

. For example, in a March 1956 survey of 2,655 corporations conducted by ILO, REFA systems accounted for as much as 80% of the work study methods used by manufacturers, with REFA systems having taken a dominant position.

However, the situation changed by the latter half of the 1950s. The increasing importance of work and time studies, along with the further development of REFAʼs methods, is

particularly apparent in the US predetermined time method. Even in West Germany, use

of such methods expanded greatly by the end of the 1950s , and REFA was instrumental in

its deployment. In the early 1960s, REFA was at the IE expansion stage, and had translated a US handbook into German . Upon publication of this translated IE Handbook, the first education course in this field was conducted using improved teaching methods

. However,

by around 1960, the original industrial engineering training had been around for quite some

time in Anglo-Saxon countries, and in West Germany the opportunity to receive training in

the IE field was largely nonexistent apart from the efforts of several organizations like

REFA

14）

.

IE training began to significantly increase in the 1960s. The structure of training events

（ ）

fundamentally changed in 1969, with IE courses comprising 24.7% of all education courses

15）

.

In addition, the number of work study personnel trained in WF and MTM had risen to

2,491 by 1966

. There were a total of 52 IE seminars by the mid-1973, and about half of

the candidates who completed the course were in IE positions, with the remainder being

managers responsible for production control or business management, heads of labor science departments, or their assistants

. Regarding IE materials and books, 1967 saw the publication of a companion volume to the IE Handbook, thereby completing the REFA standard works for engineer training. Further, as REFAʼs third original report, a magazine was published for work studies and IE managers

）

, and from 1971 onward, Industrial Engineering Magazine was published on a bi-monthly basis

.

Responding to wages and cost pressures was an issue in the spread of IE in the mid1950s when Germany was at full employment. Because of this issue, the predetermined time method was implemented primarily for labor efficiency（in job design）. However, the

overall spread of the predetermined time method was generally first considered successful

during the downturn of 1966/67 and its subsequent easing of the tight labor market

20）

. We

will now examine the deployment of WF and MTM in detail.

２ Deployment of Work Factor Method

WF deployment was accomplished with the cooperation of US corporations and through

licensing methods. REFA assisted in the deployment and spread of predetermined time

methods such as WF

. On February 1, 1958, REFA and the Work-Factor Company signed

an agreement on implementing WF training courses in West Berlin and West Germany

22）

.

The Work- Factor Company was a technical consulting organization that provided global

IE services to economic and industrial institutions

23）

. After extensive research into number

systems（MTM, WF, BMT, DMT, etc.）, the REFA Institute for Labor Science became a licensee of the Work- Factor Company

24）

. REFA also acquired the rights to translate the

Work Factor Handbook and the rights to use the German translation which was based on

the Dutch company, Philips. The second WF training course held in September 1958 was

conducted by two people from Philips under contract with the Work-Factor Company, and

Philips was heavily involved

25）

. However, the situation changed greatly in the 1960s ; by 1964,

REFA instructors were using the original German training materials

26）

. Other corporations,

such as AEG, Bosch, Siemens, and Olympia, acquired their own WF licenses, and deployed

the American system

27）

.

At the beginning of the 1960s, as the productivity movement was drawing to a close, job

design was becoming more important than standard time settings because of the rapid onset of mechanization

28）

. REFA regarded WF as an appropriate tool for job design

29）

, and the focus of its activities shifted increasingly away from predetermined time methods toward job

design in the latter half of the 1950s. In this manner, the significance of motion study increased, and WF deployment also became more significant

３ Deployment of MTM

Study trips under the auspices of the US Technical Assistance Plan played an important

role in the study and deployment of MTM methods, to which REFA also greatly contributed

31）

. Many of REFAʼs regional branches saw the possibility of providing information on

US time study systems

32）

.

According to a source in 1963, MTM saw its greatest usage in the US but was also

spreading in Germany

33）

, primarily being taught and spread by foreign consulting engineers.

In comparison with WF, MTM had a more long-term, subdued role; however, in 1963, companies that had executed it formed the German MTM Association

34）

. The greatest impediment to European worker productivity, other than the delay in mass production and largescale lot production, was supposedly job design and work flow, which was far weaker than

in the US. The German MTM Association accepted the US predetermined time method in

1964/65, adapted it to German circumstances, and disseminated it throughout Germany

35）

.

The German MTM Associationʼs membership grew 2.6 times, from 115 corporations in

1966 to approximately 300 in 1973. The employees of these member companies more than

quadrupled, from roughly 500,000 to 2,000,000. More than half of these member companies were in the precision equipment（30% in 1974）and metal processing（23% in 1974）

industries, and other industries included clothing（14%）, steel（4%）, chemical（4%）, service

and banking（5%）industries

36）

. In many cases, activities sponsored by organizations such as

the German MTM Association were made possible with the cooperation of corporations

and similar organizations in the US. The new US motion and time study methods were often implemented in Germany through private US companies

37）

.

４ Deployment of the Work Factor Method and MTM in Major Industrial Sectors

Looking next at major industrial sectors, IE methodologies were first deployed in various

areas within mass production management, but the primary focus was the electrical and

automotive industries. At Bosch, a transition to WF methods began in the mid-1950s, but

in 1960 the decision was made to use MTM, and work councils and company management

signed a shop agreement. MTM deployment had special priority in the production department, and was afterward expanded for the first time, though on a smaller scale, to the

maintenance and control departments

38）

. Daimler-Benz also used MTM from the 1960s onward. Although in retrospect, there were but a few cases of MTM being used at DaimlerBenz, in the German automotive industry in general or even in various departments within

the electrical industry, MTM proved to be the best tool for job design and time economics

39）

.

A 1965 IG Metall report states that WF, MTM, and other predetermined time methods

were gaining popularity in the metals industry. For example, corporations in the steel industry were systematically moving toward the streamlining of maintenance and repair departments using predetermined time methods based on the deployment of wage incentive

systems. The shipbuilding industry also increased its usage of predetermined time methods

40）

.

Deployment of predetermined time methods in maintenance tasks could also be seen in the

chemical and mining industries

41）

. A 1969 report noted that usage of IE methods were not

（ ）

274 The Ritsumeikan Economic Review（Vol. 61，No. 5）

868

limited to the machinery or transportation equipment industries, but was spreading to steel

and metals, clothing, construction, chemicals, and even service industries

42）

. For example,

MTM was being used in the sewing industry by the 1950s

43）

, and all sorts of MTM-based

data systems could be used to locate time data within the clothing and machinery industries

44）

. To German industries, IE was an important element in creating satisfactory management results and competitive advantage

45）

.

In the electrical industry, WF attracted attention at the end of the 1950s at Siemens as

an aid to job design planners and production equipment designers, and both WF and

MTM were the most well-known work study methods

46）

. Siemens implemented approximately

15 WF information education courses by 1962, and in addition to sponsoring many seminars for supervisors and specialists had roughly 100 WF-trained workers in their factories.

The largest portion of these trained personnel worked in production preparation and work

planning departments for large-lot and mass production. The Siemens Work Factor Group

comprising nine members from three Siemens companies was formed, and the results of

their work were tested and then conveyed to the REFA Institute, after which they could

be adopted by any company that had WF-trained personnel

47）

. An “IE Theory and Practice

in the US”-themed study group participated in a US IE Institute international conference

and a WF international conference, and visited Westinghouse, Bell and Howell, Teletype,

and the Work-Factor Company. Siemensʼ WF instructors were instrumental in providing

guidance in the preparation of Germany’s public WF manual. By April 1964, a total of

615 people had participated in 35 WF training courses held in West Germany. Twelve of

these courses were taught internally for Siemensʼ organizations, and Siemens had approximately 150 trained WF personnel. In two particular teacher training courses, there were 31

REFA instructors qualified to teach, of which eight were Siemens employees. At the time,

27 major corporations, such as Siemens, AEG, Olympia, and Zeiss, were formally using WF,

and it was becoming clear that it would be necessary to adapt WF to the overall situation

in Germany as well as to the special environment within Siemens. To that end, Siemens

formed a team of specialists experienced in WF. This study group was conscious of the

need to modify WF for a number of reasons, and they applied Siemensʼ scientific human

engineering research not only to psychological effects but also to specific operations. This

same group published a companion volume to the internal Siemens manual so that WF

could be uniformly used across Siemens organizations

48）

, and a document explaining WF was

created in 1970

49）

Ud. 10.12.2023

Pub. 4.10.2013