TIME STUDY SCIENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 March 1940, Page 9

TIME STUDY SCIENCE

ITS VALUE IN INDUSTRIES. DEVELOPMENT IN ENGLAND. A London accountant's review of modern developments in industry mentions that during the past 20 years the science of time-study in England has changed from an unusual application of labour control to a normal science employed in some manner in practically every manufacturing organisation.

Today the accountant is particularly interested in this science because it not only standardises the labour cost of a product to a very great extent but it enables accurate budgetary forecasts of wages to be made, and simplifies the production of reports emphasising the collective or individual labour efficiency of operatives of a department. When it is decided to set a piecerate on a particular job, or operation, that job is carefully studied and each process or minor operation analysed and reduced to “elements." This step is always taken to ensure that the time study engineer eliminates at the start any movement, effort or even minor operation, which is unnecessary, or which can be simplified. Each element is then studied and timed: usually three, and . frequently five studies, arc taken of each clement, and those time studies are posted to a sheet. When the total average time for the job is ascertained, to it (the net time) is added, in the first place, a personal allowance (usually 10 per cent) to cover personal fatigue, momentary pauses, personal convenience, etc. A second percentage is then added in the form of an incentive allowance; this varies in different industries from 25 per cent to 40 per cent. The total time for the job is then computed, and on this basis a piece rate authorisation card is prepared and issued to (a) the production department concerned, (b) the cost of ficc. (c) the wage office and (cl) retained in the time study section.

Once a piece-rate is set. it must not be reduced unless there is a definite change in the process which would warrant such a reduction. If it is found that an employer will cut a piece-rate because operatives are earning more than he anticipated, all confidence between employer and employee will be destroyed and maximum output will never be obtained in the future. The advantages of lime study are many. In the first place, it is only equitable that the harder a person works the more he should bo paid and a definite incentive is given to Ilio operator who knows that reward will be commensurate with effort. In the second place, the labour cost per product becomes standardised. In the third place tile need for disciplinary supervision is almost entirely eliminated: though it, is necessary to concentrate supervision on the quality of the work produced.