Efficiency Methods
An Introduction to Scientific Management

Il8 EFFICIENCY METHODS right amount. But between these two extremes, the document is not only useful, it is necessary to the full application of time-study methods. It is the written communication of what the standard task is, what reward is given for executing it, and how exactly it is to be undertaken. In its proper form all details which are variable are omitted—details such as the date, the name of the worker, the particular machine, and the time actually taken for a single attempt at doing the task ; the card has a stereotyped form, and is made strong enough in mounting to stand a good deal of wear and tear, and to be ready for constant use. When not in use it is preserved and filed. Some cards, however, have blank spaces for filling in the details appropriate to a single use of them, spaces which have to be filled up by a foreman as a record of an individual operation after its com- pletion. These forms are used only once. Most establishments find it better to have a separate card for details that are entered each time the job is performed, and call this the operation- or the time- card. If reference is made to the instruction cards mentioned in note, p. 117, the reader will see that most of them are really operation cards, because blanks are left for the details, varying each time the card is used. The procedure is evidently rather different in different works. The example here reproduced is the instruction card from Mr. Merrick’s paper on Time Study (see p. 112), and refers to the stitching, by machine, of a cushion for an automobile seat.