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
In many factories one is astounded to find books, cardboard, cloth,
blocks of wood, almost anything heaped in the seat of a chair to make
the chair higher. Wherever workers are seated at a work-bench that is
not adjustable, look for trouble with the chairs; that is, a tall girl
crouching in a kindergarten chair fit only for a child or a dwarf, a
short girl balanced on a high stool at a high table, without a proper
place to rest the feet. No matter what the height of the table or the
chairs, if many workers are seated at the same table, and the chairs
are not adjustable, there is field for study. If workers vary much as
to height, they should be sorted for height, and sent to tables with
adjustable height legs; or, if workers cannot be sorted, the short
ones should be provided with platforms to bring their elbows to the
right height to fit the table, which should be adjusted to fit the tall
workers. If your problem is to make standing work more comfortable, and
a chair seems impracticable with the methods used, perhaps a chair or
some kind of seat could be provided for rest periods.
Starting Your Own Fatigue Museum.
We advise every employer to set aside a small space and assemble at
least one example of each type of fatigue eliminating device actually
in use, or that may suggest a device to be used. In the absence of a
regular motion study man assigned for the purpose, the ideal state of
affairs would be to have every member of the management walk through
the factory once and look at present fatigue conditions in order to see
what improvements could be made. This, however, is almost too Utopian
to hope for.
It is the exception where the worker in any large plant knows
intimately any part of the plant except the few little work places
where he has toiled. A girl who had worked for years in a cotton mill,
and who finally went into household work, begged to be taken on a visit
of inspection to the factory. “But,” said the woman who was to make
the inspection, “I thought you worked there. Surely, you must know
about the factory.” “No, indeed,” said the girl, “I never went anywhere
except to get into the room where the machine was that I tended.”
Even in one excellently managed plant where welfare, or betterment,
is a prime consideration, a girl in the office department had never
once been out into the plant itself. There is an enormous amount of
educational work, that is also fatigue eliminating work, to be done
in putting each member of the organization in touch with the entire
working plant. There is not time or space, however, for an extended
discussion of this problem here.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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