Applied Motion Study
A Collection Method to industrial Preparedness

60 APPLIED MOTION STUDY Assyrian and Babylonian pictorial records which perpetuate the methods of their best managers, as examination of photographs of such records in our possession will plainly show. Babbage, Coulomb, Adam Smith’,— all recognised the im- portance of the time element in industrial opera- tions, for the purpose of obtaining methods of greatest output, but not methods of least waste. It was not, however, until Dr. Taylor suggested timing the work periods separately from the rest periods that the managers tried to find accurate time-measuring devices. It is not always recognised that some prelim- inary motion study and time study can be done without the aid of any accurate devices. It is even less often recognised that such work, when most successful, is usually done by one thor- oughly conversant with, and skilled in, the use of the most accurate devices. In other words, it is usually advisable in studying an operation to make all possible improvements in the motions used and to comply broadly with the laws of mo- tion study before recording the operation, except for the preliminary record that serves to show the state of the art from which the investigation