Applied Motion Study
A Collection Method to industrial Preparedness

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 181 another name for existing habits of doing work. The first step is to make the record of the places, uses, and elements of existing habits. These are studied in the greatest detail. With the cause for every existing condition carefully determined, we take up the variables of the worker, the vari- ables of the surroundings, equipment and tools, the variables of the motion itself, and in each case set down, in as great detail as is possible, ex- actly what the habit is, and to what stage of habit formation the activity has been carried in each case. From these very careful tests, and with the check of the most accurate timing possi- ble, we determine the ideal habit for the particu- lar work to be done. This is simply another name for standardising working conditions and methods, and the type of worker best suited for the work in hand. Having determined these ideal habits, the final step in reconstructing the process is to decide exactly how much may be made habit and exactly what must be left to de- cision. The process then becomes a series of de- cisions and motions. The motions cover the habit element. The decisions go a long way to- wards providing for the interest.