Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

VARIABLES OF THE SURROUNDINGS 59 Tools The influence of the tools used upon the output is large. No workman can possibly comply with standard motions unless he has the standard tools. No worker should ever be obliged to furnish his own tools, if large output is ex- pected. When workmen are obliged to furnish their own tools (due to their having too much thrift, lack of money, or fear of having them stolen), they usually use one size only of the same kind of tool. On many kinds of work greater output can be obtained by using two or more sizes of a tool. Example.—The bricklayer should use a smaller trowel on pressed brick and a larger trowel on common brick. Again, where workmen furnish their own tools, they use them after they are too much worn. A shovel with a worn blade will require several motions to push it into the material to fill it. It is cheaper in this case to cut off the handle of the shovel, so that the men cannot use it. Where no records are kept of their individual outputs the men always choose the shovel with the small blade. It is especially important that apprentices should be supplied with proper tools. According to the usual prac- tice the apprentice is taught with any tool procurable. He becomes adept and skilled, but often becomes so ac- customed to the poor tool he has used that he finds it difficult to adapt himself to the use of a better new tool. This seriously hinders his complying with demands for standard quantities of output.