4. Time-study.—One phase of research work which has awakened a great deal of interest, and to which reference has been made in preceding sections, is time study ; that is, the scientific determination of the amount of time it should take a man to do a given piece of work. Frederick W. Taylor, who has been closely associated with time-study methods, describes this work as follows: 1 It has been the writer's experience that the difficulties of scientific time-study are underestimated at first, and greatly overestimated after actually trying the work for two or three months. The average manager who decides to undertake the study of "unit times" in his work, fails at first to realize that he is starting a new art or trade. He understands, for in stance, the difficulties which he would meet in establishing a drafting room, and would look for but small results at first if we were to give a bright man the task of making drawings who had never worked in a drafting room, and who was not even familiar with drafting implements and methods, but he entirely underestimates the difficulties of this new trade.
The art of studying "unit times" is quite as important and as difficult as that of the draftsman. It should be under taken seriously and looked upon as a profession. It has its -own peculiar implements and methods, without the use and understanding of which progress will necessarily be slow, and in the absence of which there will be more failures than suc cesses scored at first.
In the course of this work Mr. Thompson has developed what are in many respects the best implements in use, and with his permission some of them will be described. The blank form or note-sheet used by Mr. Thompson, shown in Fig. 14, contains essentially: 1. Space for the description of the work and notes in regard to it.
2. A place for recording the total time of complete operations—that is, the gross time including all neces sary delays for doing a whole job or large portion of it.
3. Lines for setting down the "detail operations" or "units" into which any piece of work may be divided, followed by columns for entering the averages obtained from the observations.
1. Squares for recording the readings of the stop watch when observing the times of these elements. (If the squares are filled, additional records can be entered on the back.) The size of the sheets, which should be of best quality !edger paper, is 834 inches wide by 7 inches long, and by folding in the center they can be conveniently carried in the pocket or placed in a case containing one or more stop watches.
In the illustration the operation consists of a series of ele ments. In such a case, the letters designating each elemen tary unit are entered under the columns "Op," the stop-watch is thrown to zero, and started as the man commences to work. As each new division of the operation (that is, as each ele mentary unit or "unit time") is begun, the time is recorded. During any special delay the watch may be stopped, and started again from the same point, altho as a rule Mr. Thompson advocates allowing the watch to run continuously, and enters the time of such stop, designating it for con venience by the letter "Y." 5. Time-study _reduced to formula.—The elemen tary operations are usually fewer in number than the complex processes of which they form a part. This greatly simplifies the problem. When the standard elementary times have been determined and tabulated, the standard time for any new work can be determined without making a special study, by combining the proper known elementary times. In fact, formulas can be deduced, exactly like other engineering formu las, in which the varying quantities, such as the dis lance traveled or the weight moved, may be substi tuted, and which, when solved, give the standard time that the job should take.
Any variation of this standard time from the actual time taken in doing the job represents avoidable loss. To eliminate the waste it is often necessary to change the workman's methods of doing the work or to re design the machinery so as to facilitate operation.
Where the operations run into the thousands the best results are obtained by grouping them into classes according to the similarity of design, shape and me chanical operation. of the machines, and then making an accurate study of each group. While it is prob ably true that the deductions made from these tests will not be as thoro as those obtained by individual "tests, a systematic examination of such classes gives quicker and better results than could be gained by a haphazard examination of the whole field.
6. Written aids, books, etc.—Books on topics con nected with management are of value as a basis for obtaining an education in fundamental principles or for convenient reference. The English philosopher, Dr. Samuel Johnson, has said that one-half of a man's education consists of knowing where to get informa tion. To keep abreast of the progress in one's own field it is also necessary to supplement the information in books with periodical literature.