L. M. Gilbreth - The Psychology of Management

L >> L. M. Gilbreth >> The Psychology of Management

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22

Capt. Metcalfe says,--"Errors of observation may be divided into
two general classes; the instrumental and those due to the personal
bias of the observer; the former referring to the standard itself,
and the latter to the application of the standard and the record of
the measurement."[19]

The concrete illustration given above is an example of careful
checking up. Under Scientific Management so many, and such careful
records are kept that detecting errors becomes part of the daily
routine.

SUMMARY

RESULTS OF MEASUREMENT TO THE WORK.--Under Traditional
Management, even the crudest measurement of output and cost usually
resulted in an increase in output. But there was no accuracy of
measurement of individual efficiency, nor was there provision made
to conserve results and make them permanently useful.

Under Transitory Management and measurement of individual
output, output increased and rewards for the higher output kept up
the standard.

UNDER SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT BETTER METHODS AND BETTER WORK
RESULTS.--Under Scientific Measurement, measurement of the work
itself determines

1. what kind of workers are needed.
2. how many workers are needed.
3. how best to use them.

Motion Study and Time Study measurement,--

1. divide the work into units.
2. measure each unit.
3. study the variables, or elements, one at a time.
4. furnish resulting timed elements to the synthesizer
of methods of least waste.

ACCURATE MEASURING DEVICES PREVENT BREAKDOWNS AND
ACCIDENTS.--The accurate measuring devices which accomplish
measurement under Scientific Management prevent breakdowns and
accidents to life and limb.

For example.--

1. The maintained tension on a belt bears a close relation to
its delay periods.
2. The speed of a buzz planer determines its liability to
shoot out pieces of wood to the injury of its operator,
or to injure bystanders.

Scientific Management, by determining and standardizing methods
and equipment both, provides for uninterrupted output.

EFFECT ON THE WORKER.--Under Traditional Management there is not
enough accurate measurement done to make its effect on the worker of
much value.

Under Transitory Management, as soon as individual outputs are
measured, the worker takes more interest in his work, and endeavors
to increase his output.

Under Scientific Management measurement of the worker tells

1. what the workers are capable of doing.
2. what function it will be best to assign them to and to
cultivate in them.

WASTE ELIMINATED BY ACCURATE MEASUREMENT.--This accurate
measurement increases the worker's efficiency in that it enables him
to eliminate waste. "Cut and try" methods are eliminated. There is
no need to test a dozen methods, a dozen men, a dozen systems of
routing, or various kinds of equipment more than once,--that one
time when they are scientifically tried out and measured. This
accurate measurement also eliminates disputes between manager and
worker as to what the latter's efficiency is.

EFFICIENCY MEASURED BY TIME AND MOTION STUDY.--Time and
Motion Study.

(a) measure the man by his work; that is, by the results
of his activities;
(b) measure him by his methods;
(c) measure him by his capacity to learn;
(d) measure him by his capacity to teach.

Now measurement by result alone is very stimulating to
increasing activities, especially when it shows, as it does under
Scientific Management, the relative results of various people doing
the same kind of work. But it does not, itself, show the worker
_how_ to obtain greater results without putting on more speed or
using up more activities. But when the worker's methods are
measured, he begins to see, for himself, exactly why and where he
has failed.

Scientific Management provides for him to be taught, and the
fact that he sees through the measurements exactly what he needs to
be taught will make him glad to have the teacher come and show him
how to do better. Through this teaching, its results, and the speed
with which the results come, the workers and the managers can see
how fast the worker is capable of learning, and, at the same time,
the worker, the teacher and the managers can see in how far the
foreman is capable of instructing.

FINAL OUTCOME BENEFICIAL TO MANAGERS AND MEN.--Through
measurement in Scientific Management, managers acquire--

1. ability to select men, methods, equipment, etc.;
2. ability to assign men to the work which they should do, to
prescribe the method which they shall use, and to reward
them for their output suitably;
3. ability to predict. On this ability to predict rests the
possibility of making calendars, chronological charts and
schedules, and of planning determining sequence of events, etc.,
which will be discussed at length later.

Ability to predict allows the managers to state "premature
truths," which the records show to be truths when the work has
been done.

It must not be forgotten that the managers are enabled not only
to predict what the men, equipment, machinery, etc., will do, but
what they can do themselves.

THE EFFECT ON THE MEN IS THAT THE WORKER CO-OPERATES.--1. The
worker's interest is held. The men know that the methods they are
using are the best. The exact measurements of efficiency of the
learner,--and under Scientific Management a man never ceases to be a
learner,--give him a continued interest in his work. It is
impossible to hold the attention of the intelligent worker to a
method or process that he does not believe to> be the most efficient
and least wasteful.

Motion study and time study are the most efficient measuring
device of the relative qualities of differing methods. They furnish
definite and exact proof to the worker as to the excellence of the
method that he is told to use. When he is convinced, lack of
interest due to his doubts and dissatisfaction is removed.

2. The worker's judgment is appealed to. The method that he uses
is the outcome of cooeperation between him and the management. His
own judgment assures him that it is the best, up to that time, that
they, working together, have been able to discover.

3. The worker's reasoning powers are developed. Continuous
judging of records of efficiency develops high class, well developed
reasoning powers.

4. The worker fits his task, therefore there is no need of
adjustment, and his attitude toward his work is right.

5. There is elimination of soldiering, both natural and
systematic.[20]

ALL KNOWLEDGE BECOMES THE KNOWLEDGE OF ALL.--Two outcomes may be
confidently expected in the future, as they are already becoming
apparent where-ever Scientific Management is being introduced:

1. The worker will become more and more willing to impart his
knowledge to others. When the worker realizes that passing on his
trade secrets will not cause him to lose his position or, by raising
up a crowd of competitors, lower his wages, but will, on the
contrary, increase his wages and chances of promotion, he is ready
and willing to have his excellent methods standardized.

Desire to keep one's own secret, or one's own method a secret is
a very natural one. It stimulates interest, it stimulates pride. It
is only when, as in Scientific Management, the possessor of such a
secret may receive just compensation, recognition and honor for his
skill, and receive a position where he can become an appreciated
teacher of others that he is, or should be, willing to give up this
secret. Scientific Management, however, provides this opportunity
for him to teach, provides that he receives credit for what he has
done, and receive that publicity and fame which is his due, and
which will give him the same stimulus to work which the knowledge
that he had a secret skill gave him in the past.

One method of securing this publicity is by naming the device or
method after its inventor. This has been found to be successful not
only in satisfying the inventor, but in stimulating others to invent.

MEASUREMENT OF INDIVIDUAL EFFICIENCY WILL BE ENDORSED BY
ALL.--2. The worker will, ultimately, realize that it is for the
good of all, as well as for himself, that individual efficiency be
measured and rewarded.

It has been advanced as an argument against measurement that it
discriminates against the "weaker brother," who should have a right
to obtain the same pay as the stronger, for the reason that he has
equal needs for this pay to maintain life and for the support of
his family.

Putting aside at the moment the emotional side of this argument,
which is undoubtedly a strong side and a side worthy of
consideration, with much truth in it, and looking solely at the
logical side,--it cannot do the "weaker" brother any good in the
long run, and it does the world much harm, to have his work
overestimated. The day is coming, when the world will demand that
the quantity of the day's work shall be measured as accurately where
one sells labor, as where one sells sugar or flour. Then, pretending
that one's output is greater than it really is will be classed with
"divers weights and divers measures," with their false standards.
The day will come when the public will insist that the "weaker
brother's" output be measured to determine just how weak he is, and
whether it is weakness, unfitness for that particular job, or
laziness that is the cause of his output being low. When he reaches
a certain degree of weakness, he will be assisted with a definite
measured quantity of assistance. Thus the "weaker brother" may be
readily distinguished from the lazy, strong brother, and the brother
who is working at the wrong job. Measurement should certainly be
insisted on, in order to determine whether these strong brothers are
doing their full share, or whether they are causing the weaker
brothers to over-exert themselves.

No one who has investigated the subject properly can doubt that
it will be better for the world in general to have each man's
output, weak and strong, properly measured and estimated regardless
of whether the weak and strong are or are not paid the same wages.
The reason why the unions have had to insist that the work shall not
be measured and that the weaker brother's weakness shall not be
realized is, that in the industrial world the only brotherhood that
was recognized was the brotherhood between the workers, there being
a distinct antagonism between the worker and the manager and little
or no brotherhood of the public at large. When Scientific Management
does away, as it surely will, with this antagonism, by reason of the
cooeperation which is its fundamental idea, then the workers will
show themselves glad to be measured.

As for the "weaker" brother idea, it is a natural result of such
ill treatment. It has become such a far-reaching emotion that even
Scientific Management, with its remedy for many ills, cannot expect
in a moment, or in a few years, to alter the emotional bias of the
multitudes of people who have held it for good and sufficient
reasons for generations.

THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD CONSERVE MEASUREMENT DATA.--The one thing
which can permanently alter this feeling forms the natural
conclusion to this chapter. That is, measurements in general and
motion study and time study in particular must become a matter of
government investigation. When the government has taken over the
investigation and established a bureau where such data as Scientific
Management discovers is collected and kept on file for all who will
to use, then the possessor of the secret will feel that it can
safely place the welfare of its "weaker brothers" in the hands of a
body which is founded and operates on the idea of the "square deal."

APPRECIATION OF TIME STUDY BY WORKERS THE FIRST STEP.--The first
step of the workers in this direction must be the appreciation of
time study, for on time study hangs the entire subject of Scientific
Management. It is this great discovery by Dr. Taylor that makes the
elimination of waste possible. It has come to stay. Many labor
leaders are opposed to it, but the wise thing for them to do is to
study, foster and cultivate it. They cannot stop its progress. There
is no thing that can stop it. The modern managers will obtain it,
and the only way to prevent it from being used by unscrupulous
managers is for the workman also to learn the facts of time study.
It is of the utmost importance to the workers of the country, for
their own protection, that they be as familiar with time study data
as the managers are. Time study is the foundation and frame work of
rate setting and fixing, and certainly the subject of rate fixing is
the most important subject there is to the workmen, whether they are
working on day work, piece work, premium, differential rate piece,
task with bonus, or three-rate system.

Dr. Taylor has proved by time study that many of the customary
working days are too long, that the same amount of output can be
achieved in fewer hours per day. Time study affords the means for
the only scientific proof that many trades fatigue the workers
beyond their endurance and strength. Time study is the one means by
which the workers can prove the real facts of their unfortunate
condition under the Traditional plan of management.

The workers of the country should be the very ones that should
insist upon the government taking the matter in hand for scientific
investigation. Knowledge is power,--a rule with no exception, and
the knowledge of scientific time study would prepare the workers of
any trade, and would provide their intelligent leaders with data for
accurate decisions for legislation and other steps for their best
interests. The national bodies should hire experts to represent them
and to cooeperate with the government bureau in applying science to
their life work.

The day is fast approaching when makers of machinery will have
the best method of operating their machines micro-motion studied and
cyclegraphed and description of methods of operation in accordance
with such records will be everywhere considered as a part of the
"makers' directions for using."

Furthermore associations of manufacturers will establish
laboratories for determining methods of least waste by means of
motion study, time study and micro-motion study, and the findings of
such laboratories will be put in standardized shape for use by all
its members. The trend today shows that soon there will be hundreds
of books of time study tables. The government must sooner or later
save the waste resulting from this useless duplication of efforts.

CHAPTER IV FOOTNOTES: ==============================================

1. Hugo Muensterberg, _American Problems,_ p. 34.
2. G.M. Stratton, _Experimental Psychology and Its Bearing upon
Culture_, p. 37.
3. _Ibid_., p. 38.
4. For apparatus for psychological experiment see Stratton, p. 38,
p. 171, p. 265.
5. H.L. Gantt, _Work, Wages and Profits,_ p. 15.
6. Morris Llewellyn Cooke, Bulletin No. 5, _The Carnegie Foundation
for the Advancement of Teaching,_ p. 7.
7. F.W. Taylor, _Shop Management,_ para. 29. Harper Ed., p. 25.
8. H.L. Gantt, Paper No. 928, A.S.M.E., para. 6.
9. F.B. Gilbreth, _Cost Reducing System_.
10. F.W. Taylor, _Shop Management_, para. 61. Harper Ed., p. 33.
11. _Industrial Engineering_, Jan., 1913.
12. F.W. Taylor, _Shop Management_, pp. 398-391. Harper Ed., p. 179.
Compare, U.S. Bulletin of Agriculture No. 208. _The Influence of
Muscular and Mental Work on Metabolism_.
13. President's Annual Address, Dec., 1906. Vol. 28, Transactions
A.S.M.E.
14. _American Journal of Physiology_, 1904, XI, pp. 145-170.
15. R.T. Dana, For Construction Service Co., _Handbook of Steam
Shovel Work_, p. 161. H.P. Gillette, Vol. I, p. 71, A.S.E.C.
16. F.W. Taylor, Vol. 28, A.S.M.E., Paper 1119, para. 68.
17. Hugo Muensterberg, _American Problems_, p. 37.
18. G.M. Stratton, _Experimental Psychology and Culture_, p. 59.
19. Henry Metcalfe, _Cost of Manufactures_.
20. F.W. Taylor, _Shop Management_, para. 46. Harper Ed., p. 30.
F.W. Taylor, _A Piece Rate System_, Paper 647, A.S.M.E.,
para. 22.

====================================================================

CHAPTER V

ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS

DEFINITION OF ANALYSIS.--"Analysis," says the Century Dictionary
is "the resolution or separation of anything which is compound, as a
conception, a sentence, a material substance or an event, into its
constituent elements or into its causes;" that is to say, analysis
is the division of the thing under consideration into its definite
cause, and into its definite parts or elements, and the explanation
of the principle upon which such division is made.[1]

DEFINITION OF SYNTHESIS.--"Synthesis" is, "a putting of two or
more things together; composition; specifically, the combination of
separate elements of objects of thought into a whole, as of simple
into compound or complex conceptions, and individual propositions
into a system."

USE OF ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS BY PSYCHOLOGY.--Analysis is
defined by Sully as follows: "Analysis" is "taking apart more
complex processes in order to single out for special inspection
their several constituent processes."

He divides elements of thought activity into two

"(a) analysis: abstraction
(b) synthesis: comparison."

Speaking of the latter, he says, "The clear explicit detachment
in thought of the common elements which comparison secures allows of
a new reconstructive synthesis of things as made up of particular
groupings of a number of general qualities."

PLACE OF ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS IN MANAGEMENT.--Any study of
management which aims to prove that management may be, and under
Scientific Management is, a science, must investigate its use of
analysis and of synthesis.[2] Upon the degree and perfection of the
analysis depends the permanent value and usefulness of the knowledge
gained. Upon the synthesis, and what it includes and excludes,
depends the efficiency of the results deduced.

LITTLE ANALYSIS OR SYNTHESIS UNDER TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT.--
Under Traditional Management analysis and synthesis are so seldom
present as to be negligible. Success or failure are seldom if ever
so studied and measured that the causes are well understood.
Therefore, no standards for future work that are of any value can be
established. It need only be added that one reason why Traditional
Management makes so little progress is because it makes no analyses
that are of permanent value. What data it has are available for
immediate use only. Practically every man who does the work must
"start at the beginning," for himself. If this is often true of
entire methods, it is even more true of elements of methods. As
elements are not studied and recorded separately, they are not
recognized when they appear again, and the resultant waste is
appalling. This waste is inevitable with the lack of cooeperation
under Traditional Management and the fact that each worker plans the
greater part of his work for himself.

ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS APPEAR LATE IN TRANSITORY MANAGEMENT.--
Division of output appears early in Transitory Management, but it is
usually not until a late stage that motion study and time study are
conducted so successfully that scientifically determined and timed
elements can be constructed into standards. As everything that is
attempted in the line of analysis and synthesis under Transitory
Management is done scientifically under Scientific Management, we
may avoid repetition by considering Scientific Management at once.

RELATION OF ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS IN SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT TO
MEASUREMENT AND STANDARDIZATION.--Analysis considers the subject
that is to be measured,--be it individual action or output of any
kind,--and divides it into such a number of parts, and parts of such
a nature, as will best suit the purpose for which the measurement is
taken. When these subdivisions have been measured, synthesis
combines them into a whole.[3] Under Scientific Management, through
the measurements used, synthesis is a combination of those elements
which are necessary only, and which have been proven to be most
efficient. The result of the synthesis is standardized, and used
until a more accurate standard displaces it.

Under Scientific Management analysis and synthesis are methods
of determining standards from available knowledge. Measurement
furnishes the means.

ANALYST'S WORK IS DIVISION.--It is the duty of the analyst to
divide the work that he is set to study into the minutest divisions
possible. What is possible is determined by the time and money that
can be set aside for the investigation.

THE NATURE OF THE WORK MUST DETERMINE THE AMOUNT OF ANALYSIS
PRACTICABLE.--In determining the amount of time and money required,
it is necessary to consider--

1. the cost of the work if done with no special study.
2. how many times the work is likely to be repeated.
3. how many elements that it contains are likely to be
similar to elements in work that has already been studied.
4. how many new elements that it contains are likely to be
available in subsequent work.
5. the probable cost of the work after it has been studied--
(a) the cost of doing it.
(b) the cost of the investigation.
6. The loss, if any, from delaying the work until after it
has been studied.
7. the availability of trained observers and measurers,
analysts and synthesists.
8. the available money for carrying on the investigations.

These questions at least must be answered before it is possible
to decide whether study shall be made or not, and to what degree it
can be carried.

COST THE DETERMINING FACTOR.--It is obvious that in all
observation in the industrial world cost must be the principal
determining feature. Once the cost can be estimated, and the amount
of money that can be allowed for the investigation determined, it is
possible at least to approximate satisfactory answers to the other
questions. How closely the answers approximate depends largely on
the skill and experience of the analyst.

The greater number of times the work is to be repeated, the less
the ultimate cost. The more elements contained similar to elements
already determined, the less the additional cost, and the less the
time necessary. The more elements contained that can be used again,
even in different work, the less the ultimate cost. The better
trained the analyst, the less the immediate or additional cost
and time.

Much depends on the amount of previous data at hand when the
investigation is being made, and on the skill and speed of the
analyst in using these data.

PROCESS OF DIVISION UNENDING.--In practice, the process of
division continues as long as it can show itself to be a method for
cost reducing. Work may be divided into processes: each process into
subdivisions; each subdivision into cycles; each cycle into
elements; each element into time units; each time unit into
motions,--and so on, indefinitely, toward the "indivisible
minimum."[4]

MEASURING MAY TAKE PLACE AT ANY STAGE.--At any of these stages
of division the results may be taken as final for the purpose of the
study,--and the operations, or final divisions of the work at that
stage, may be measured.

To obtain results with the least expenditure of time, the
operations must be subjected to motion study before they are timed
as well as after. This motion study can be accurate and of permanent
value only in so far as the divisions are final. The resulting
improved operations are then ready to be timed.

ULTIMATE ANALYSIS THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY.--When the analyst has
proceeded as far as he can in dividing the work into prime factors
the problem continues in the field of psychology. Here the
opportunities for securing further data become almost limitless.

ULTIMATE ANALYSIS JUSTIFIABLE.--It is the justification for
analysis to approach the ultimate as nearly as possible, that the
smaller and more difficult of measurement the division is, the more
often it will appear in various combinations of elements. The
permanence and exactness of the result vary with the effort for
obtaining it.

QUALIFICATIONS OF AN ANALYST.--To be most successful, an analyst
should have ingenuity, patience, and that love of dividing a process
into its component parts and studying each separate part that
characterizes the analytic mind. The analyst must be capable of
doing accurate work, and orderly work.

To get the most pleasure and profit from his work he should
realize that his great, underlying purpose is to relieve the worker
of unnecessary fatigue, to shorten his work period per day, and to
increase the number of his days and years of higher earning power.
With this realization will come an added interest in his subject.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22