The Practice of Motion Study - Gilbreth - Part 1

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The Practice of Motion Study - Gilbreth - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

Frank & Lilian Gilbreth collected a number of papers published by them in a book titled "Applied Motion Study." Some of these papers are summarized in five lessons to give the viewpoint of Gilbreths. We now learn motion study through books on Motion and Time Study. To make a proper sense of this present content, we need to study the works of pioneer thinkers and practitioners and identify what is not covered and what additional things were introduced in the present content.

In a paper, Gilbreth appreciated Scientific Management of Taylor. Similarly Taylor appreciated Gilbreth's work in a chapter in Scientific Management. (Taylor's Essay on Bricklaying Improvement by Gilbreth in Scientific Management.) We need to read both and understand the mutual appreciation.

Scientific Management - Conservation of Human Effort - Motion Study - Gilbreth

Scientific Management  shows the results of actual practice in waste elimination. It enumerates past savings, and points out present and future possible savings. 

Scientific management is simply management that is based upon actual measurement. We have here a science that is the result of accurately recorded, exact investigation. Its results are formulated, or are being formulated, into such shape that they may be utilised by all who have the desire to study them and the concentration to master them. The leaders in the field are, as rapidly as possible, publishing these results, that progress may take place from the stage of highest present achievement, and that no time or effort may be wasted in remaking investigations whose results are already known and accurately recorded. The scope of this management, which may truly be called scientific, is unlimited. It applies to all fields of activity, mental and physical. Its laws are universal, and, to be of use in any particular field, require only to be translated into the vocabulary of the trained and progressive workers in that field. 

The greatest misunderstandings occur as to the aims of scientific management. Its fundamental aim is the elimination of waste, the attainment of worth-while desired results with the least necessary amount of time and effort. Scientific management may, and often does, result in expansion, but its primary aim is conservation and savings, making an adequate use of every ounce of energy of any type that is expended. 

It considers the problem, in every case, according to the scientific method ; that is, by dividing it into its elements and submitting each one of these to detailed study. Every problem presents two elements: the human element, and the materials element. By the materials element we mean the type of material used, the quality of material used, the quantity of material used, the manner in which the material is used, with conclusions as to why the material is chosen and handled as it is. In other words, we would apply to the material the familiar questions, what, how much, how, when, where, and why. These same questions are applied to the human element; that is to say, to all members of the organisation.  (Comment:Machine is missing?  Machines and tools are implied. But its explicit mention is missing. We need to conserve machine effort also and based on that the energy or power used to run the machines).

It is self-evident, then, that to attain and maintain an industrial position of which she may be proud, America must conserve both her natural and her human resources. If she hopes for industrial supremacy, she must set about this conservation with energy, and must pursue it unremittently (Comment: Both natural resources and human resources are used to make machines and run machines. We need to conserve machine effort or eliminate waste of machine effort).

In handling the materials element, then, scientific management analyses all successful existing practices in every line, and synthesises such elements as accurate measurement proves to be valuable into standards. These standards are maintained until suggested improvements have passed the same rigid examination, and are in such form that they may be incorporated into new standards. (Development of a standard at a point in time and its continuous improvement is indicated).

Turning now to the field of the human element by far the more important field we find that, while there is much talk of work in that field to-day, comparatively little has actually been accomplished. There have, in all places and times, been more or less spasmodic and unsystematic attempts to conserve human energy, or to use it for the greatest benefit of all concerned; but there has not been steady and conspicuous progress in this work for several reasons; 1. Because the methods used were not accurately measured and were not standardised. This made it impossible for the individual conserver to accomplish much of lasting benefit. 2. Because of lack of cooperation between such conservers. 

It is the task of scientific management to supply both these wants. Success in handling the human element, like success in handling the materials element, depends upon knowledge of the element itself and knowledge as to how it can best be handled. One great work of scientific management has been to show the world how little actual knowledge it has possessed of the human element as engaged in the work in the industries. Through motion study and fatigue study and the accompanying time study, we have come to know the capabilities of the worker, the demands of the work, the fatigue that the worker suffers at the work, and the amount and nature of the rest required to overcome the fatigue. 

It is fortunate for scientific management that its initial introduction in the industries has been made by engineers rather than by men who are primarily laboratory scientists, for this reason : the engineer has been forced by his training to consider constantly immediate as well as ultimate results, and present as well as future savings. Investigations of scientific management have, therefore, been made to pay from the start in money savings, as well as in savings of energy of all kinds. We note this in the results of motion study, fatigue study, and the accompanying time study. 

The various measurements taken by scientific management and the guiding laws under which these are grouped determine not only the nature of the human element, but the methods by which it is to be handled. Motion study, fatigue study, the measures supplied by psychology, these result in the working practice that fits the work to the worker, and produces more output with less effort, with its consequent greater pay for every ounce of effort expended. 

Through scientific management, then, the individual conserver is enabled to progress constantly and to maintain each successful stage in the development. Scientific management can,  also, and does, wherever permitted, provide for co-operation among conservers. It does this by: 

1. Demonstrating the enormous waste resulting from needless repetition of the same investigation. 

2. Providing standards which must be recognised as worthy of adoption, since they are the results of  measurement. 

3. Emphasising the importance of teaching and of the transference of skill, which depend upon cooperation. 

4. Showing that maintenance depends, in the final analysis, upon co-operation. 

We have formulated our programme for such co-operation into the following stages : 

1.Each individual to apply scientific management to) his own activities, individual and social. 

2. Groups, such as industrial organisations, to apply scientific management to the group activity. 

3. Trades to apply scientific management to the trade activity. This includes, ultimately, a reclassifica- 

tion and standardization of the trades, such as we have advocated in " Motion Study." * (The trades 

must be classified according to the amount of skill involved in the motions used, and must then be 

standardized in order that the necessary training for sn^peding in them can be given. )

4. Industries to apply scientific management to the entire industry, with co-operation between the various trades involved. 

5. A national bureau of standardization to collect and / formulate the data from all the industries into national standards. 

6. An international bureau of standardization to collect national standards and to work for international co-operation. 

America's immediate industrial position depends upon America's realisation of the need for conservation, as demonstrated by scientific management, and upon America's use of such means of conservation as scientific management offers. 

America's ultimate industrial position depends upon America's realisation that the highest type of conservation includes co-operation. 

Individuals, groups, trades, and industries have realised and are realising more and more, daily, that it is for the good of all that common practice be standardised and that improvements take place from the highest common standard. Nations have not yet come to any great realisation that this same principle applies to international relationships. 

If America desires to gain and maintain leadership in industrial progress, she must be the advocate of industrial conservation and co-operation, and must be the example of that readiness to derive and to share standards for which scientific management stands.

Eight functional foremen

It will be noted that the worker receives orders directly from eight different foremen. One might suggest, on observing this, that it has often been said that no man can serve two masters. This holds good to-day, even in scientific management. But under scientific management the worker does not " serve eight masters " nor eight functional foremen, but, on the other hand, he receives help from eight different foremen or teachers. In this way, his case is not very different from that of the student who receives instruction from eight different professors, in eight different studies. 

The four functions in the planning department are represented by (2) route man and order-of- work man; (3) instruction cards; (4) time and cost; (5) disciplinarian. While we speak of each function as being represented by one per- son, as a matter of fact each function may include any number of individuals, according to the kind of work, and the number necessary to per- form that function as to eliminate all possible waste. Each one of these four men of the four functions in the planning department is supreme in his respective function. All deal directly with the worker, and all deal directly with the four functional foremen who are in the performing department. 

Of the performing department we have four functions represented by (7) gang boss; (8) speed boss; (9) repair boss; (10) inspector. These functions, like those of the planning department, are represented by as many men as the nature and amount of work justifies. All such representatives deal, as the chart indicates, directly both with all individuals in the planning department, and with each individual worker. 

The fact that all divisions represented by this chart are made on the basis of the nature of the work that is to be done, makes possible units for measuring and standardising the duties of the man or men who hold the positions. The deter- mining, grouping, and assigning of these duties is done by measurement ; hence the resultant standardisation is successful. A statement of the duties of each function will make clear the amount of standardisation that is possible.

Many times, under traditional management, the inspector comes around after the work is done, condemns it, and walks away, leaving it to others to see that the work is replaced to his satisfaction. Under scientific management the inspector is required to stand near the worker when he is handling a new piece of work for the first time, in order to see that the worker thoroughly understands his work as it progresses. Thus the first unit of the material is less likely to be spoiled. If the worker has a lot of, say, fifty pieces, the inspector inspects not only the first piece most carefully, to make sure that the worker knows exactly what he is to do, how he is to do it, and the quality and the prescribed tolerances of drawing and instruction card but also the surrounding conditions, equipment, and tools that the important features of maintenance of standards and standard conditions are enforced. 

The Workman. As for the individual worker, it will be seen that he does not receive merely an instruction card, telling him by units what he is to do, how he is to do it, how fast he is expected to do it, the prescribed quality of the work which must be done, and how much pay over and above his usual day's wages he will surely get if he does all that is called for on his instruction card. He receives also personal teaching. The gang boss acts as his teacher constantly ; the speed boss he can call on at all times to assist him with the speeds; the repair boss co-operates with him to see that his machine is constantly kept in such re- pair that he can earn his bonus, and the inspector will also teach him at any time, and show him wherein he is making a deviation from the quality called for. Moreover, the functional foremen in the planning department are ready, at call, to ex- plain their instructions. Thus he has every help that is possible, to enable him to earn the exceptionally high wages that are offered by this form of management. He is assured of the " square deal " from the foremen who are over him, and in case others whose work affects his are deviating from their measurable schedules, programmes, or conduct, he always has the same opportunity to appeal to the disciplinarian, that a foreman would have in case the worker was not doing his work as well as he could do it, or was not trying to co-operate with the other workers.  

Motion-study is a subfunction of function No. 3 of the planning department. Just as scientific management is divided into functions, so each function is divided into subfunctions, the basis of division being the same, i.e., duties, not men (see Fig. 3). Motionstudy 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 is determined by the amount of time and money that it is possible to save by the investigation. This unit is determined by the following method. The work selected is divided into natural subdivisions or cycles of performance. Each cycle is then subjected to motion study, to determine the best method to use in performing the work. This method is 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. 

This outline of the steps in taking motion-study and time study is necessarily incomplete, lacking, as it does, discussion of the selection of the observer, the observed worker, and many other elements of scientific management. 

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. Through micromotion-study not only is the measurement more accurate than it could possibly be through any other method, but also the records are so complete, permanent, and accessible that they may be studied at any time and place by any one. The advantages of this in standardising work, and most especially in teaching workers, are obvious. 

The result of measurement, as outlined above, is standards synthesised from measured ultimate units of the workers' manual motions. 

Morris Llewellyn Cooke, Director of the Philadelphia Department of Public Works, in Bulletin 5 of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, created for the word " standard " a definition which is itself " standard " in the scientific management sense. He said : 

Standard and Standardisation

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, The standard method of doing anything is simply the \ best method that can be devised at the time the standard  is drawn. Standard specifications for materials simply  cover all the points of possible variation which it is possible to cover at the time the specifications are drawn. 

Improvements in standards are wanted and adopted whenever and wherever they are found. There is absolutely nothing in standardisation to preclude innovation. But to protect standards from changes which are not in the direction of improvement, certain safeguards are erected. These safeguards protect standards from change for the sake of change. All that is demanded under modern scientific management is that a proposed change in a standard must be scrutinised as carefully as the standard was scrutinised prior to its adoption, and further that this work be done by experts as competent to do it as were those who originally framed the standard. Standards adopted and protected in this way produce the best that is known at any one time. Standardisation practised in this way is a constant invitation to experimentation and improvement. 

As was well shown by Mr. John G. Aldrich, in a paper read before the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, in December, 1912, the waste motions eliminated by such measured standardising can scarcely be overestimated. This has been demonstrated in many lines of activity. The standard toolroom, the standard assembly packet and bench for assembling, the standard desk in the planning department these are but illustrations of the application of this principle. And it is not necessary that the illustrations be drawn from the field of shopwork.  It has been applied to many of the outdoor trades. We are now co-operating with famous surgeons in the study of the elementary motions used in surgery, and we are investigating the muscular activity that underlies the " singing tone " of the skilled musician, to mention two recent invasions of the fields of science and art. 

There will be those who will say that no such theory, methods, or devices can ever supplant the need and usefulness of the first-class mechanic or the genius in the trades, arts, and professions. With this we humbly agree. But even two geniuses in the same work may differ greatly in their methods as a whole ; and isolating and examining the ultimate units of their work may show that motions made by one of the geniuses may be found absent, and unnecessary, in the work of the other. A synthesis of the best of the units of methods of  each would present a method better than any arrived at by the spontaneity of any one genius, no matter how great. Surely the presentation of the best method, however discovered, must be of the greatest value to all below the grade of best. 

Meantime, all workers are sharing in the savings made possible by the elimination of waste. They are being trained in habits of least wasteful motions, and are becoming more efficient both in their working and in their non-working hours. They learn to " think in elementary motions," and to submit their activities in all lines to the tests of motion and time study. 

The great need now is for more efficient cooperation, that work done by one investigator may not be needlessly repeated by another. Through such co-operation only can come the savings that will allow of refinements of the units, methods, and devices of measurement, and that will result in progress that is definite, constant, and lasting. 

https://archive.org/stream/appliedmotionstu00gilbrich/appliedmotionstu00gilbrich_djvu.txt

Ud. 26.10.2023

Pub. 25.10.2021