Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF MOTION STUDY 87 systematize standard motions for any one trade would furnish a life work for several trained scientists. It is a difficult task for an inexperienced or untrained observer to divide an operation correctly into its motions. Enumerating the variables that affect each motion is a task big enough to satisfy the most ambitious student of waste elimination. Value of Charts We have found it helpful in recording our observa- tions to use charts. Some such form as that shown on pages 88 and 89 is used. This chart is one made during an observation of bricklay- ing before the invention of the packet, the packet scaffold, and the fountain trowel. The operation of laying a brick was divided into the motions of which it consisted (column 1). The usual (present) practice of the time (given as the wrong way, column 2) showed the units into which, the operation was divided. The best practice of the time (“the right way, column 3, now obsolete) was charted in such a way that its relation from a motion standpoint to the usual practice was clearly shown. Column 4 shows how the usual practice may be trans- formed into the best practice. It would serve as an in- struction card to the workman, showing him not only where his method needed, to be improved but also exactly how to improve it.