Fatigue study : $b the elimination of humanity's greatest unnecessary waste. A first step in motion study — John Shaqi
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
Motion study has been described as the dividing of the elements of
the work into the most elementary subdivisions possible, studying and
measuring the variables of these fundamental units separately and
in relation to one another, and from these studied, chosen units,
after they have been derived, building up methods of least waste. It
is through the measuring of motions that one comes to realize most
strongly the necessity of fatigue study.
There has come, in the past twenty-five years, a strong general
realization that the important factor in doing work is the human
factor, or the human element. Improvement in working apparatus of any
type is important in its effect upon the human being who is to use the
apparatus. The moment one begins to make man, the worker, the centre of
activity, he appreciates that he has two elements to measure. One is
the activity itself. This includes the motions, seen or unseen, made
by the worker,--_what_ is done and _how_ it is done. The other is the
fatigue. This includes the length and nature of the interval or rest
period required for the worker to recover his original condition of
working power.
Any one who makes real motion study, or analyzes motion study data,
cannot fail to realize constantly the relationship of motion study to
fatigue study. The fatigue is the more interesting element, in that
it is the more difficult to determine exactly. When we recognize this
close relationship between motion study and fatigue study, we see that
we have a body of data already collected and at our disposal. What
is even more desirable, we have a method of measurement ready at our
hand. Every observation of a motion may be used to give information
about fatigue. Is this information of immediate use to the man who is
attacking his fatigue problem for the first time to-day? Yes, and no.
Yes, in that it is at his disposal. No, in that he must determine his
own particular problem before he can start to solve it. The first step
in this direction lies in classifying fatigue.
The Classes of Fatigue.
There are two classes of fatigue:
1. Unnecessary fatigue, which results from unnecessary effort, or work
which does not need to be done at all. A typical example of such work
is that of the bricklayer, who furnished one of the first subjects for
motion study. Any one who has watched a bricklayer lift all of his
body above the waist, together with the bricks and mortar from the
level of his feet to the top of a wall, cannot fail to realize that
bricklaying requires a great amount of energy as well as skill. Yet by
far the most of the energy expended in the method of laying bricks,
that had existed for centuries, was entirely unnecessary.[2]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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