A time and motion study (or time-motion study) is a business efficiency technique combining the Time Study work of Frederick Winslow Taylor with the Motion Study work of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (the same couple as is best known through the biographical 1950 film and book Cheaper by the Dozen). It is a major part of scientific management (Taylorism). After its first introduction, time study developed in the direction of establishing standard times, while motion study evolved into a technique for improving work methods. The two techniques became integrated and refined into a widely accepted method applicable to the improvement and upgrading of work systems. This integrated approach to work system improvement is known as methods engineering and it is applied today to industrial as well as service organizations, including banks, schools and hospitals.
Time and motion study have to be used together in order to achieve rational and reasonable results. It is particularly important that effort to be applied in motion study to ensure equitable results when time study is used. In fact, much of the difficulty with time study is a result of applying it without a thorough study of the motion pattern of the job. Motion study can be considered the foundation for time study. The time study measures the time required to perform a given task in accordance with a specified method and is valid only so long as the method is continued. Once a new work method is developed, the time study must be changed to agree with the new method.
Read more about Time And Motion Study: Time Study, Criticisms, Motion Studies, Taylor Vs. The Gilbreths, Direct Time Study Procedure, Conducting Time Studies
Famous quotes containing the words time and, time, motion and/or study:
“An individual is an encloser. Time and space, liberty and necessity, truth and thought, are left at large no longer.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Remember how often you have postponed minding your interest, and let slip those opportunities the gods have given you. It is now high time to consider what sort of world you are part of, and from what kind of governor of it you are descended; that you have a set period assigned you to act in, and unless you improve it to brighten and compose your thoughts, it will quickly run off with you, and be lost beyond recovery.”
—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180)
“Speech belongs half to the speaker, half to the listener. The latter must prepare to receive it according to the motion it takes.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself. All that you despise, all that you loathe, all that you reject, all that you condemn and seek to convert by punishment springs from you.”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)