Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

INTRODUCTION xiii forward. It now appears, however, that the apparent lack of interest was due to the fact that we had presented a subject so entirely new that it required some little time for people to comprehend its importance and to realize its value. By the time the third installment had appeared, requests for the earlier installments were flowing in steadily, and since its completion many firms have sent for all the issues of the paper containing it. To show the wide ap- plication possible of the principles laid down in “Motion Study,” requests for the complete series have come to us from the iron and steel industry, from the shoe manu- facturing industry, from book-printing and book-binding establishments, and many other industries. It was when we began to receive these requests that we realized that we had done something worth while, and had published an article which was of stupendous value, not to one trade or group of trades, but to the whole world. The writer, in handling the successive installments of “Motion Study,” became more and more impressed with the possibilities which were involved in it. He resolved to apply some of these principles in his own office. Natu- rally the first point of attack is the one where the greatest saving can be accomplished. In our case, it happened to be the outgoing mail. A publication has, particularly in its circulation department, an amount of outgoing mail entirely out of proportion to the volume of business trans- acted by it, when measured by the standard of other industries. A circulation campaign will involve the send-