Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

xvi INTRODUCTION much more to motion study than appeared from a hasty survey of the subject. We then began to look around in earnest, to discover what had been done in this line in other trades than those with which Mr. Gilbreth was familiar. We found that practically nothing had been done in a systematic, scientific manner, except in certain shops where scientific management had been installed. We further found, that even in these shops motion study had not been made in the scientific manner outlined in Mr. Gilbreth’s articles. It was a by-product, an incident in the installation of scientific management, rather than a science of itself. Nevertheless, even treated as an inci- dental branch of management it had conferred much bene- fit on those shops in which it had been made. We shall refer to this later. The reduction of the number of motions can be accom- plished in two radically different ways: (i) By analyzing every step of a process, as outlined by Mr. Gilbreth, studying the motions made, and improving or eliminating them as a result of the analysis, or by devising an entirely new way of accomplishing the same object. (2) By sub- stituting a device which is an improvement over that formerly used, but which required a greater number of motions to operate it, or by the substitution of new motions or processes as they occur to the observer, rather than by any systematic study of the subject. This last method is the one most generally used. It might be termed the