SECTION 20. STUDIES PREPARATORY TO ALL INVESTIGATIONS. 209 



The first classic on the subject of fatigue is Industrial Health and 

 Efficiency, being the Final Report of the Health of Munition Workers 

 Committee of the British Ministry of Munitions. The volume shows that 

 only short hours of work are consistent with health and with large 

 output. 



HABIT. We must allow for the gradual manner in which new habits 

 are acquired. "An operation took on an average 2.17 minutes. After the 

 method had been modified, the worker took 1.6 minutes. In a short time 

 she took only 0.5 minutes." (M. and A. D. McKillop, Efficiency Methods. 

 p. 110.) 



HOURS OF LABOUR. The effect of reducing the number of hours 

 worked is sometimes startling. "I should like to quote an instance, 

 occurring recently in a surgical dressing factory where women were 

 engaged as yarn-winders, an occupation requiring much dexterity and the 

 constant repairing of broken threads. The daily hours of work were ten, 

 namely from 6-8, 8.30-12.30, 1.30-5.30, and in addition to these ten 

 hours, overtime was worked from 6-8 p.m. Among these yarn-winders 

 was a young unmarried woman of thirty-two who claimed that by not 

 working before breakfast (from 6 to 8 a.m.) and by refusing to work 

 overtime (from 6 to 8 p.m.), she turned out more in the remaining eight 

 hours than if she had worked the whole twelve hours. Her claim was 

 put to the test by comparing her monthly output during eight hours 

 per day with that of three first-class hands working during the first 

 fortnight at twelve hours per day and during the second fortnight at ten 

 hours per day. Despite the fact that the short-timer stayed away the 

 whole of one working day and three half-days during the month, her 

 output of 52,429 bobbins easily beat the average output of her three 

 competitors' 48,529 bobbins. In 32 per cent, less hours of work she 

 produced 8 per cent, more work. Further, the output of the three com- 

 petitors was greater by more than 5 per cent, during the second (as 

 compared with the first) fortnight, when no overtime was being worked 

 and the length of the working day was thus reduced by 16.6 per cent." 

 (Charles S. Myers, Present-Day Applications of Psychology, 1918, pp. 15-16.) 



What appears to be true of this particular instance, seems to hold 

 generally, as the following excerpt implies: "We have an even more 

 significant case in Durham, where the hewers have for many years en- 

 joyed a seven-hour day from bank to bank. Nevertheless, the output per 

 underground worker in Durham is fully equal to that of the other districts 

 where more than an extra hour is worked. ... In the United States the 

 reduction of the hours of labour in coal mining from 10 to 8 presently 

 led. as is officially reported, to a positively larger output for each work- 

 man per day than the highest output of the 10 hours. The Industrial 

 Commission of the Supreme Court (Final Report, Vol. II, 1902) reports 

 that 'in the industry of coal mining the shorter working day has in- 

 creased the efficiency of both workmen and the management'. We see 

 no reason why a like increase in the efficiency of both workmen and 

 the management should not be manifested in this country on the now 

 projected reduction of hours from nine to seven per day." (Quoted from 

 the Coal Commission Report, in Engineering and Industrial Management, 

 March 27th, 1919, p. 208.) 



METHOD OF DETERMINING STANDARD PROCEDURE. In certain 

 tasks the method of determining standard procedure would be to apply 

 the general methods of simplifying motions, increasing speed, reduciqg 

 fatigue, etc. In simple tasks of a transient character, and in the daily 

 attempts to economise wherever possible, general principles would form 

 the chief guides. In other tasks, however, where their nature is fre- 

 quently the result of historic development, and where tools and machinery 

 are involved, it is manifestly impracticable to re-invent the process, with- 

 out regard to established usage. In such cases the best current practice 

 has to be studied. Taylor suggests the following procedure : "First, Find, 

 say, ten or fifteen different men (preferably in as many separate establish- 



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