Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

TIME-STUDY AND MOTION-STUDY 93 although we may not be able to follow him in con- sidering that the application of criticism, followed by reform, to all our motions is the next really important step in civilization. It is, of course, very easy to turn this idea to ridicule. Nevertheless a moment’s thought will lead us to conclude, from everyday experience, that the exact method of manipulating an ordinary tool or machine has a great effect on our efficiency in using it. A typewriter is a striking example. Most modern forms are planned to minimise and facilitate the motions of the operator, and one of the essentials in learning type-writing—in fact, the thing that makes it worth while to have lessons at all—is to acquire, from the first, the correct method of fingering the keyboard. And here we may note at once that greater speed does not necessarily mean greater fatigue, but rather the reverse, when the speed is attained by long practice in the best sort of motions, i.e., those most economical of energy. It is pal- pably absurd to conclude that a professional type- writer typing 60 words a minute is four times as tired as the amateur who gets down one-quarter of the number, on home-grown methods. Doubtless the latter becomes considerably more tired in the same time. It is not practice only; it is practice in the least tiring motions. On a higher plane than mechanical work, in artistic work, there has rarely been any doubt as to the value of learning the right motions. It is a commonplace among music teachers that the right