It is necessary in almost all cases, therefore, to take definite steps to insure against any falling off in quality before moving in any way towards an increase in quantity.
Source:
http://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/08/illustrations-of-success-of-scientific_9321.html
Gilbreth on Methods Study, Motion Study and Time Study
(In the book, Applied Motion Study, Collection of Essays by Gilbreth, 1917)
The four functions in the planning department as given by Taylor are: (1) route man and order-of-
work man; (2) instruction cards; (3) time and cost; (4) disciplinarian.
Motion-study is a subfunction of function No. 3 of the planning department. Motion-study is related to all subfunctions of the instruction-card function, but is most closely related to time-study and to the determining of methods of least waste. It is related to time-study in that it determines what path a motion is to follow, while time-study determines how swiftly the path is to be traversed and the amount of rest required to overcome resulting fatigue. The two measure work and determine the best method by which the work can be done. Motion-study, time-study, micromotion-study, fatigue-study, and cost-study are important measures of scientific management, by which the efficiency of each function and subfunction is determined, tested, and checked.
The unit to be chosen for intensive study and method used is determined by the amount of time and money that it is possible to save by the investigation. The work selected is divided into subdivisions of performance. Each subdivision is then subjected to motion study, to determine the best method to use in performing the work. This method is further divided into the smallest practicable units. These units are timed. The timed units are then again subjected to motion study, for more intensive study of method. Subdivided motions result. These are again timed, and so the process proceeds until the further possible saving will no longer warrant further study, or the available appropriation of time or money is exhausted. The most efficient motions, as determined by the tests of motion-study and time-study are then synthesised into a method of least waste.
As for the particular device by which the measurements are made, the choice depends mainly on the equipment available. Standards have been improved even by merely timing the work by counting, where no timing devices were at hand. Excellent work had been done with stop watches. But we advocate the use of micromotion study in all work demanding precision. Micromotion study consists of recording the speed simultaneously with a two or three dimensional path of motions by the aid of cinematograph pictures of a worker at work and a specially designed clock that shows divisions of time so minute as to indicate a different time of day in each picture in the cinematograph film.
The result of measurement, as outlined above, is standards synthesised from measured ultimate
units of the workers' manual motions.
A standard under modem scientific management is simply a carefully thought-out method of performing a function, or carefully drawn specifications covering an implement or some article of stores or of product. The idea of perfection is not involved in standardisation.
Motion study consists of dividing work into the most fundamental elements possible; studying these elements separately and in relation to one another; and from these studied elements, when timed, building methods of least waste. To illustrate, in the case of assembly of a machine, The existing method of assembling the machine is recorded in the minutest detail. Each element of the assembly is then tested, the method used in handling the element being compared with other possible methods. In this way, the most efficient elements of an assembly are determined ; and these elements are combined into a method of assembly that, because it is the result of actual measurement, is worthy to become a standard.
Such an assembly study was done on braider, manufactured by the New England Butt Company. As a result of motion studies made upon this, where eighteen braiders had been assembled by one man in a day, it became possible to assemble sixty-six braiders per man per day, with no increase in fatigue. This method consists of improved motions, and implies, first, changes in surroundings, equipment, and tools; and, second, changes in the type of worker assigned to do the work.
During the motion study of the assembly, it was found that more efficient motions could be made if the machine assembled was placed on a special table, which could be turned on its side and transformed into a lower table, after the base group of the machine had been assembled. It was also found that speed was gained and fatigue eliminated, when the parts of the machine were arranged in an obvious sequence on a vertical packet. These devices were immediately supplied at little cost and with great result in saving. Through these devices, and the other changes made by motion study, it became possible to accomplish nearly three and one-half times as much assembly as had previously been done. Such changes are typical, and it is typical that the inventions result from the motion study.
The result of the introduction of motion standards is an increase in output and wages, and an accompanying decrease in cost and fatigue. The decreased cost and the increased wages both depend, of course, on the increased output. The output is increased, because the motions used to make any one unit of the output are less in number and more efficient in results.
The quality of the output is maintained through a new type of inspection, which considers not only the output itself, but the elements, material and human, which result in that output. Nothing is a higher guarantee of quality than insistence on a standard method.
To find and apply the necessary measures for achievement and fatigue is primarily a task for the engineer. His training impresses him with the importance of measurement. His work makes him skilled in the use of measuring devices. Success in his profession depends chiefly upon the continued application of the most accurate measurement available, and this provides the incentive necessary for the maintenance of the scientific method. The engineer must secure the co-operation of the educator, the psychologist, the physiologist and the economist before he can hope to secure complete data, and to understand the full interpretation of what he finds.
The writers thus became impressed early with the importance of
obtaining as accurate and detailed
records of methods as possible, if achievements were ever to be accurately measured.
The methods study was formulated into
motion study, and divided into three parts:
1. Study of the variables of the worker.
2. Study of the variables of the surroundings, equipment and tools.
3. Study of the variables of the motion itself.
The writer's acquaintance with Dr. Taylor brought an added appreciation of the need for including time study with motion study. The great problem was to record the motions used along with time measurement. The cinematograph was finally resorted to as an accurate recording device. The invention of a special microchronometer that recorded times down to the millionth of an hour, made possible simultaneous records of this microchronometer and the positions of the worker whose activity was being studied.
The solution to the problem of efficiency or scientific management is to point out the job at which a man is a first-class man and put him in it.
Motion study shows the worker a new method of attack. The study has been done with the worker's co-operation. He has, through the study, learned how a motion problem is attacked, and he can apply the same method of attack to the minutiae of motions in his own work that the management has not had the time or the money to investigate.
Process Charting for Improvement - Gilbreths' View (1921)
Frank Gilbreth developed process analysis and improvement also along with motion study. In 1921, he presented a paper in ASME, on process charts. Lilian Gilbreth was a coauthor of this paper.
PROCESS CHARTS: FIRST STEPS IN FINDING THE ONE BEST WAY TO DO WORK
By Frank B. Gilbreth, Montclair, N. J. Member of the Society
and L. M. Gilbreth, Montclair, N. J. Non-Member
For presentation at the Annual Meeting, New York, December 5 to 9, 1921,
of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 29 West 39th Street, New York.
https://ia800700.us.archive.org/5/items/processcharts00gilb/processcharts00gilb_bw.pdf
THE Process Chart is a device for visualizing a process as a means of improving it. Every detail of a process is more or less affected by every other detail; therefore the entire process must be presented in such form that it can be visualized all at once before any changes are made in any of its subdivisions. In any subdivision of the process under examination, any changes made without due consideration of all the decisions and all the motions that precede and follow that subdivision will often be found unsuited to the ultimate plan of operation.
The use of this process-chart procedure permits recording the existing and proposed methods and changes without the slightest fear of disturbing or disrupting the actual work itself.
The aim of the process chart is to present information regarding existing and proposed processes in such simple form that such information can become available to and usable by the greatest possible number of people in an organization before any changes whatever are actually made, so that the special knowledge and suggestions of those in positions of minor importance can be fully utilized.
Further detailed studies based on process chart
If any operation of the process shown in the process chart is one that will sufficiently affect similar work, then motion study should be made of each part of the process, and the degree to which the motion study should be carried depends upon the opportunities existing therein for savings.
If the operations are highly repetitive or consist of parts or subdivisions that can be transferred to the study of many other operations, then micromotion studies already made can be referred to; also new and further micromotion studies may be warranted in order that the details of method with the exact times of each of the individual subdivisions of the cycle of motions, or ''therbligs," as they are called,
that compose the one best way known, may be recorded for constant and cumulative improvement.
These synthesized records of details of processes (motion studies and micromotion studies) in turn may be further combined and large units of standard practice become available for the synthesis of complete operations in process charts.
At the end of the paper, the conclusion made is as follows:
The procedure for making, examining and improving a process is, therefore, preferably as follows:
a. Examine process and record with rough notes and stereoscopic diapositives the existing process in detail.
b. Have draftsman copy rough notes in form for blueprinting, photographic projection and exhibition to executives and others.
c. Show the diapositives with stereoscope and lantern slides of process charts in executives' theater to executives and workers.
d. Improve present
methods by the use of —
1 Suggestion system
2 Written description of new
methods or 'write-ups," "manuals," ''codes," ''written systems," as they are variously called
3 Standards
4 Standing orders
5 Motion study
6 Micromotion studies and chronocyclegraphs for obtaining and recording the One Best Way to do Work.
e. Make process chart of the process as finally adopted as a base for still further and cumulative improvement.
Note: Development in process improvement thought are being presented chronologically is reasonably brief way to place before the readers multiple approaches some of which are serial and hence have to be all used in a detailed process industrial engineering project. Some could be competing ideas, in which case, a choice needs to be made. The latter day texts, especially motion and time study or work study do not cover all the developments. Many industrial engineering graduates are not aware of some ideas because of that. So trying to present multiple ideas at one place can make many aware of the existence of many lines of thought.
Important Points from Part 2: Process Industrial Engineering - Methods and Techniques (Lesson 74)
Methods Described by Taylor in the Paper "Scientific Management"
In process industrial engineering, Certain improvements have to occur at elementary operation level and certain improvements are factory level decisions and implemented across the factory.
In process improvement, industrial engineer must be able to explain his improvement clearly with numbers. Otherwise many will not accept the new method.
An example of handling pig iron was given.
Shoveling Productivity Science and Engineering
What is the best shovel size for handling maximum quantity per throw?
Answer:A shovel which would hold a load of 21 pounds of whatever material is to be shoveled. Different shovel design for different materials.
Thousands of stop-watch observations were made to study just how quickly a laborer, provided in each case with the proper type of shovel, can push his shovel into the pile of materials and then draw it out properly loaded.
Bricklaying Improvement by Gilbreth
Mr. Frank B. Gilbreth became interested in the principles of scientific management, and decided to apply them to the art of bricklaying.
He experimented with every minute element which in any way affects the speed and the tiring of the bricklayer.
Positions of Tools and Materials: He developed the exact position which each of the feet of the bricklayer should occupy with relation to the wall, the mortar box, and the pile of bricks, and so made it unnecessary for him to take a step or two toward the pile of bricks and back again each time a brick is laid.
Help of assisting laborer: Sorting of bricks by a laborer, and placing bricks with their best edge up on a simple wooden frame.
Motion improvement or method improvement. Mr. Gilbreth found that by tempering the mortar just right, the bricks could be readily bedded to the proper depth by a downward pressure of the hand with which they are laid.
Mr. Gilbreth has reduced movements required for bricklaying from eighteen motions per brick to five, and even in one case to as low as two motions per brick.
He has given all of the details of the study and analysis to the civil engineering profession in the chapter headed "Motion Study," of his book entitled "Bricklaying System."
He teaches his bricklayers to make simple motions with both hands at the same time, where before they completed a motion with the right hand and followed it later with one from the left hand.
Mr. Gilbreth calls his analysis, scientific motion study. Taylor has called similar work,time study.
Mr. Gilbreth used his new method in in a large brick building construction and operators achieved 350 bricks per man per hour; whereas the average was earlier 120 bricks per man per hour.
Mr. Gilbreth also developed an ingenious method for measuring and recording the number of bricks laid by each man, and for telling each workman at frequent intervals how many bricks he had succeeded in laying to give him an indication of higher earnings.
One of the dangers to be guarded against, when the pay of the man or woman is made in any way to depend on the quantity of the work done, is that in the effort to increase the quantity the quality is apt to deteriorate. It is necessary therefore, to take definite steps to insure against any falling off in quality due to process industrial engineering.
Gilbreth on Methods Study, Motion Study and Time Study
(In the book, Applied Motion Study, Collection of Essays by Gilbreth, 1917)
Motion-study is a subfunction of function No. 3 of the planning department related to specifying time and cost.
Motion-study, time-study, micromotion-study, fatigue-study, and cost-study are important measures of scientific management, by which the efficiency of each function and subfunction is determined, tested, and checked.
We advocate the use of micromotion study in all work demanding precision. Micromotion study consists of recording the speed simultaneously with a two or three dimensional path of motions by the aid of cinematograph pictures of a worker at work and a specially designed clock that shows divisions of time so minute as to indicate a different time of day in each picture in the cinematograph film.
A standard under modem scientific management is simply a carefully thought-out method of performing a function, or carefully drawn specifications covering an implement or some article of stores or of product. The idea of perfection is not involved in standardisation.
To illustrate, in the case of assembly of a machine, The existing method of assembling the machine is recorded in the minutest detail.
As a result of motion studies made upon this, where eighteen braiders had been assembled by one man in a day, it became possible to assemble sixty-six braiders per man per day, with no increase in fatigue.
Improvement. Machine assembled was placed on a special table, which could be turned on its side and transformed into a lower table.
The quality of the output is maintained through a new type of inspection, which considers not only the output itself, but the elements, material and human, which result in that output. Nothing is a higher guarantee of quality than insistence on a standard method.
The engineer must secure the co-operation of the educator, the psychologist, the physiologist and the economist before he can hope to secure complete data, and to understand the full interpretation of what he finds.
The methods study was formulated into motion study, and divided into three parts: 1. Study of the variables of the worker. 2. Study of the variables of the surroundings, equipment and tools. 3. Study of the variables of the motion itself.
The writer's acquaintance with Dr. Taylor brought an added appreciation of the need for including time study with motion study.
The operator can apply the same method of attack to the minutiae of motions in his own work that the management has not had the time or the money to investigate.
Process Charting for Improvement - Gilbreths' View (1921)
In 1921, he presented a paper in ASME, on process charts.
The Process Chart is a device for visualizing a process as a means of improving it.
The use of this process-chart procedure permits recording the existing and proposed methods and analysis of it without the slightest fear of disturbing or disrupting the actual work itself.
The aim of the process chart is to present information regarding existing and proposed processes in such simple form that such information can become available to and usable by the greatest possible number of people in an organization before any changes whatever are actually made, so that the special knowledge and suggestions of those in positions of minor importance can be fully utilized.
If any operation of the process shown in the process chart is one that will sufficiently affect similar work, then motion study (operation analysis) should be made of each part of the process, and the degree to which the motion study should be carried depends upon the opportunities existing therein for savings.
Improve present methods by the use of —
1 Suggestion system
2 Written description of new methods or 'write-ups," "manuals," ''codes," ''written systems," as they are variously called
3 Standards
4 Standing orders
5 Motion study
6 Micromotion studies and chronocyclegraphs for obtaining and recording the One Best Way to do Work.
38 Points
First posted on 30 July 2020
Updated on 16 August 2021, 3 August 2020
