Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

8 MOTION STUDY our work is such that only investigations can be made as show immediate results for increasing outputs or reducing unit costs. The nature of any variable can be most clearly shown by citing a case where it appears and is of importance. But it is obviously impossible in a discussion such as this to attempt fully to illustrate each separate variable even of our incomplete list. Most of our illustrations are drawn from bricklaying. We have applied motion study to our office and field forces, and to many of the trades, but our results on bricklaying are the most interesting, because it is the oldest mechan- ical trade there is. It has passed through all the eras of history, it has been practiced by nations barbarous and civilized, and was therefore in a condition supposed to be perfection before we applied motion study to it, and revolutionized it. Since first writing these articles for Industrial Engineer- ing it has been of great interest to the writer to learn of the conscious and successful application of the prin- ciples involved to the particular fields of work that have interested various readers. It was thought that unity might be lent to the argument by choosing the illustrations given from one field. The reader will prob- ably find himself more successful in estimating the value of the underlying laws by translating the illustrations into his own vocabulary, — by thinking in his own chosen material.