A CONSERVER OF INDIVIDUAL MEMORIES.--Many people believe that
the memory of a person ceases at his death. Whether this is so or
not, the loss to the world, and particularly the industrial world,
of not having the instruction card for the passing on of the
worker's experience to the workers who follow is stupendous and
incalculable, and this loss, like so many other losses, can be
eliminated by the process of making written standards.
MOTOR MEMORY IMPROVED BY STANDARDIZATION.--Not only are the
retentive powers of the brain improved, but also the brain centers,
and the muscles, etc., become trained through standardization. With
standardization a long sequence of muscular motions or operations
can be noted at a glance, and can be remembered without difficulty.
STANDARDS PREVENT MEN FROM BECOMING MACHINES.--Those who object
to the worker taking advantage of these scientifically derived
standards which aid the memory, can only be compared to such people
as desire the workers to turn into unthinking animals. Psychologists
believe that some of the lower animals have no memory. Turning the
workers into machines which do not in any way utilize thought-saving
devices is simply putting them but little above the class of these
lower, memory-less, animals.
THROUGH STANDARDS THE WORKER'S ATTENTION IS GAINED AT THE
START.--The general act of attention plays an important part in
Scientific Management. The insistence upon standardized performance
requires the utmost attention at the beginning of learning a new
method of performance. This extra output of mental activity, which
is always required for accomplishing new methods of work, could not
be continuously maintained, but after the new method has once been
learned, its repetition requires less attention, consequently less
fatigue. The attention of the worker is, therefore, strongly
demanded at the beginning and when, later, it is not needed except
for new and unfamiliar work, an opportunity arises for invention and
mental advancement.
ATTENTION ALLOWED TO LAPSE AND THEN RECALLED.--Standardization
shifts the objects of attention and eliminates the need for constant
concentration. The standardization of processes relieves the worker
to a marked extent from the extremely fatiguing mental effort of
unproductive fixed, valueless, and unnecessary attention on the
stream of consciousness. The repeated elements which form a part
of all standards reconcentrates the attention if it is allowed
to lapse.
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