This
combination of determination and frankness establishes a sound and
healthy relation between the management and men.
There is no class of work which cannot be profitably submitted to time
study, by dividing it into its time elements, except such operations as
take place in the head of the worker; and the writer has even seen a
time study made of the speed of an average and first-class boy in
solving problems in mathematics.
Clerk work can well be submitted to time study, and a daily task
assigned in work of this class which at first appears to be very
miscellaneous in its character.
One of the needs of modern management is that of literature on the
subject of time study. The writer quotes as follows from his paper on "A
Piece Rate System," written in 1895:
"Practically the greatest need felt in an establishment wishing to start
a rate-fixing department is the lack of data as to the proper rate of
speed at which work should be done. There are hundreds of operations
which are common to most large establishments, yet each concern studies
the speed problem for itself, and days of labor are wasted in what
should be settled once for all, and recorded in a form which is
available to all manufacturers.
"What is needed is a hand-book on the speed with which work can be done,
similar to the elementary engineering handbooks. And the writer ventures
to predict that such a book will before long be forthcoming.
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