Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

VARIABLES OF THE WORKER 37 pressed upon his mind if he is shown the reason for every change demanded of him. To make sure that the worker of the future acquires his skill properly, is the most important task here. Ibis can be done only by insisting continuously on conformity to scien- tifically derived standards from the beginning of his training. Example.—The best results from a motion-study stand- point can be attained only by teaching the apprentice from his first day to lay the brick with the standard motions regardless of the looks of the work. If the work is not good enough to permit the brick, to remain on the wall, a skilled bricklayer should fix it, until the apprentice can lay the brick with the prescribed standard motions in a manner good enough to permit the work to remain as a part of the structure. The apprentice should not be permitted to depart from the standard motions in any case until he has first acquired them as a fixed habit. The most pernicious practice is the generally accepted one of first having an appi entice do perfect work and then attempting to make speed later. The right motions should be taught first, and the work taken down and rebuilt until it is up to standaid quality. This is the only way to get the full benefits of the economics of motion study. (See Figs. 13 and 14.) The workman who will make the highest outputs of the future will be he who has as a, habit those stcviidcircl motions that are the most productive when operated under stand- ard conditions.