Fatigue study : $b the elimination of humanity's greatest unnecessary waste. A first step in motion studyGilbreth, Lillian Moller
Science
Fatigue study : $b the elimination of humanity's greatest unnecessary waste. A first step in motion study
Gilbreth, Lillian Moller
Fatigue; Industrial efficiency; Motion study
Look over your conditions, then. Put the proper safety devices on the
machine, the tools, etc. Install the vacuum cleaners that will collect
the dust and lint. Put the goggles or nostril-guard, or other device,
on the worker, that will insure to him clean air and decent working
conditions. Make a scientific attack upon the problem later, but put in
a safety device now, even if you have to change some of it next week.
You will gain the immediate return that will make the investigation
pay from every standpoint in the changed attitude of your workers, if
in nothing else. The Museum of Safety Devices, with its energetic and
enthusiastic secretary, will show you what has been done and what can
be done in the line of safety. “Safety First” has become the slogan of
the day. If we make it “Safety First, beginning now,” we shall have
full working directions.
The Work Place.
The working conditions that we have so far discussed have more or
less effect upon all of the workers in a group. We come next to the
inspection of the work place of each individual worker. The first
consideration here is that he have room enough in which to work.
There is an enormous amount of fatigue involved in doing work in an
overcrowded work place, yet few workers or managers realize this.
Again, habit is involved here, and the habit of order demands that the
work place be kept in an orderly condition. Any one who has walked
through factories, shops, or any places where work is going on must
have noted the tired appearance of the workers among what is called
“clutter.” The girl selling ribbon, who walks up and down behind the
counter through an accumulation of paper, cardboard cores, and other
odds and ends, has not only the bodily fatigue of pushing the clutter
ahead, or kicking it aside, but also the mental fatigue that comes
from adjusting herself constantly to such conditions. The folder of
cloth, who has barely enough room to move her hands because of the
supply of finished and unfinished materials, is fatigued from the
clumsy position, even though she and no one else realizes this. The
office worker, whose finished and unfinished papers are heaped in
confusion before him, expends not only useless motions in getting at
and disposing of what he wishes to handle, but also mental energy,
in constantly adjusting and readjusting himself to the work. There
has been a popular idea that it “looked busy” to have plenty of work
around, that to see work to be done would impress both managers
and workers with the need for applying themselves to the work more
constantly and with considerably more speed. This may be true if the
work is arranged in an orderly fashion, but disorderly work is far more
likely to discourage than to stimulate the worker. As for completed
work, there is no excuse for leaving large quantities of it at the work
place one moment longer than is absolutely necessary. Any encouragement
that it might give the worker could better be given by a record of what
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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