31 Questions and answers

work study?

A. It is a method used by the employers to get more output from a worker by directly 1ntensifying his labour. The methods used by a worker doing a job, the actual motions that he makes, and the times taken for each motion are all measured with a stopwatch and a ruler.

The examination of methods, actions, etc., is called method study, and the examination oI the times for each action is called either time study or work measurement.

On the basis of these measurements proposals are put forward for new systems of working, which, it is claimed, will cut out all 'wasted' movement and all 'wasted' time.

Work study is often first introduced by outside consultants, but in most cases It 15 the aim of managements to set up a permanent work-study department.

Often the two sections of work study are introduced separately, first method study then time study. While one reason for this may be that the work in question is too badly organized to be timed straight away, it is also true that this is a method the employers use to introduce work study gradually, in stages, to a group of workers •who are violently opposed to the use of the stopQ. What are the advantages of work study for the employer?

A. It would be very wrong in fact very dangerous, for any worker to think that work study is only a question of speed-up. Within productivity deals time-and-motion methods are closely bound up with disciplining measures aimed at giving the employers a hireand-fire stranglehold over the labour force.

There are at least seven basic advantages which an employer looks for when operating a work study system. These are: 1. To lay down the amount of work a worker must do in each second of the working day. Times for jobs are worked out to a hundredth of minute and some methods even include times for eye movement and eye focusing.

To break the organized strength of the total labour force in an enterprise. This can be done for example by eliminating time for shop meetings, by moving out and moving on powerful groups of workers who have led struggles in the past, and by "proving' thạt a shop steward is bad at his job so that he can be sacked for 'bad workmanship'.

At the same time work study sets out to divide workers into those above 'standard' and those below, to turn fast against slow, young against old, men against women, day workers against shift-workers and so on.

The job specification sheet in giving to the worker a list of the actions he must make is also giving the employer complete control of the workers' movements at any time of the The worker is expected to answer on his time sheet for 'unauthorized movements'. 3. To fix manning levels. On the basis of the speed-up the same work to be done with fewer workers so enabling a cut in the labour To prove ('scientifically')

the need to install any methods which will help to increase profits-elimination of tea breaks, introduction of shift working or revised shifts, use of flexibility, and mobility, introduction of a new grading system, and so on.

To bring about closures, it is often on the basis of work-study consultants' reports that managements decide that it is feasible to close entire factories, docks, etc.

To install payment systems like 'new incentive bonus', and Measured-Day Work (MDW). To the employer it is essential that greater productivity is NOT reflected in higher wages. These systems have been specially invented to completely eliminate piecework and to smash the workers' bargaining power which has been built up under traditional systems of payment.

To lay the basis for modernTHE DECIMAL MINUTE STOP The dial of a work-study stopwatch is divided into 100 units, not into seconds. This gives a much finer unit (3/5 seconds) and allows all calculatlons to be made In decimals.

Also, the stopwatch is usually of the 'flyback' type. This means that as soon as the watch is stopped the sweep hand flicks back to zero for instant re-use.

ization and automation-as new machinery and computers are introduced, work study is used alongside to ensure an absolute minimum of workers on the job. This can lead to mass sackings of 80 to 90 per cent of the labour force, depending on the level of automation undertaken.

Q. How are these methods got into the works in the first place?

A. Very rarely are employers in a strong enough position to force these systems through whatever the workers think. Usually they have to work it as a confidence trick. They imply that the scheme's main concern is to pay a wage increase and that the strings are merely to conform with the government's incomes policy.

Work study, it is claimed, enables all work to be done with LESS effort, and in any case nothing will be allowed which hasn't been fixed by "mutual agreement' between union officials and manageVery • often the system is crept in on the basis of a 'feasibility study'. Workers WATCH 90 10 55 5 50 10 40 HEJER 20 35 25 60 40 who have asked for a pay increase are told that a consultant team will be brought in to see if the introduction of a scheme paying a large increase is feasible.

In fact at this stage the introduction of the scheme has already been decided and the real aim of the consultants is to lay the basis for its introduction and to snoop around and see where any points of opposition are likely to occur.

Also on the basis of this study they make an estimate for the employers of by how much productivity can be increased, by how much the labour costs can be cut, by how many the labour force can 30 g eventually be reduced, on.

Various terms and phrases from traditional payment systems are used to imply that this is really no different from previous agreements.

Also, the work-study experts are highly trained in industrial psychology and "communications'. They are taught how to keep relations with the stewards and the workers completely friendly while timing is going on. They are told to build up this relationship by chatting about football, cricket, recent television programmes, etc.

A work-study, expert, R. Geary, in his book. 'Work study applied to building' explains the need for this attitude :

'SINCERITY AND TACT. It is particularly important when dealing with operatives, that they should believe that the work-study officer has their interests at heart, just as much as the management's. They are not easily fooled and only a persistently sincere approach will win their co-operation, which is essential to success.' One further point should be made about the consultants. To these people a worker is no more than • a machine able to generate a given energy output and capable of certain basic motions-like cogs in a gear wheel which can be listed for future reterence.

To them, motions accepted as normal human actions -stopping to think, to blow your nose, to rest or to scratch —are 'ineffective' , 'unproductive' and an offence against the continuous process that is production for profit.

It must be added that even with all the double-talk these systems would never get over the door-step were it not for the role of the union leaders, Communist Party members and other 'left-wingers', who directly or indirectly support their introduction.

'Q. How exactly is method study used to 'rationalize' work and has it any connection with a system called A. Organization and Methods (O & M) is a particular type of method study used mainly in offices so we can examine it under the general heading method study.

Before any modernization or timing of work can be carried out by an employer some form of rationalization of the work process has to take place.

Often the existing methods of work have been fixed on the basis of space available or by trial and error. To introduce stopwatch timing into this state of affairs would be to simply speed up the chaos, probably ending with more workers producing more muddle at greater speed.

Method study is the examination and recording of existing methods of working with view to installing and maintaining new methods.

While it is true that this type of survey may bring some advantages to workers; less walking about or a saving of effort carrying gear and humping large quantities of materials, it must be remembered at all times that:

(a) The time and effort saved does not come to the worker as free time, but is used to do more work in the time saved.

(b) Method study aims at turning all work into a flowline' or conveyor-belt process suitable for timing and suitable for installation of stricter control measures.

Q. Can you give an example of how method study sets about reorganizing a place of work?

A. We can use method study applied to an office as an example while remembering that the system used and the charts, symbols, etc., described are equally applied to factories, docks, mines, building sites and so on.

In an office the existence of every invoice, form, nile, requlsition, desk and clerk is challenged with a view to elimination from the work process. Next, flow charts are drawn up to show how employees, materials and equipment are processed at present and how they can be treated under a simplified system.

String diagrams are also constructed.

These are scale drawings of a working area—a small office for example-on which string is stretched and pinned out to represent distances walked during a part of the day. The method study experts then try to work out how to re-arrange the workplace so as to minimize these distances, i.e. reduce the length of the string on the diagram.

At a later stage process charts are made up. • These reflect the arm, hand and finger movements made by a worker during a given operation. Atter close analysis of these, the experts will rearrange the working surface (desk, table top, etc.) so as to cut out all 'wasted' movement. It is on the basis of this type of saving that a clerk, say, may be told that she has sufficient time to do someone else's job as well as her own.

For process and other work study charts a set of five symbols are used as a kind of shorthand to represent different activities.

Two other systems sometimes used in method study 1. Micromotion examinaWith this a worker is filmed carrying out a particular operation. The film is then examined frame by frame and the movements made in the operation are charted.

This system also gives times for the job, as the camera is synchronized with a timer registering to the nearest twothousandth of a minute.

2. The cyclograph.

This is a record of movements which is made by the operator wearing a small light attached to his wrist, which appears on a photographic plate as a continuous line.

Q. How does the other half of work study, the timing, operate?

A. This is the actual speeding up of the worker. With ordinary time study a worker is timed with a stopwatch while doing a specific job; only movements directly connected with the job are timed.

Mistakes, rest, or 'abnormal' movements are left out.

In this way the times that are taken are for what is known as 'effective working' only.

Also the time-and-motion man is not so much concerned with timing a whole job in one go as with its individual parts or 'elements.' For example, an electrician being timed putting a socket outlet box on a wall would be timed boring each whole separately. In this way the stopwatch is being clicked on and off all the time.

At the same time, the observer writes down the 'rate' at which he considers the different elements are being carried out (fast, slow, etc.).

Following this, the elements are rated and then strung together to make the 'basic time', an extra fixed allowance is added for rest and contingencies and this is the final 'standard time' for the job.

The work-study people do not record the workers rest periods because they are not interested in how much rest the operator actually needs.

They have their own list of "scientifically' worked - out tables of how much rest they consider should be allowed in any particular type of work.

One other system we should mention here is 'group capacity assessment'.

This is used where the work of two or more workers is closely connected — a roaddigging gang or typists and clerks working together on a single project.

In this case the group aćtivity is timed instead of the individual workers and final recommendations aim at reducing the number of workers in the group while shortening the time for the job they are doing.

trader and on and drive from yard. stance. OLD METHOD PICK UP BALE PICK UP BALE 20' CARRY TO TRAILER LIFT ON TRAILER 20# RETURN TO BARN PICK UP 2nd BALE CARRY TO TRAILER CHECK SECURELY LOADED MOUNT TRACTOR WAIT WHILE GATE OPENED DRIVE FROM YARD trailer and tractor outside bal 10ft. from door. 06 & 3 01 7 1 Q. How about giving an example of time study in action?

A. Let's take a simple example of a man bending down to pick up a heavy box and putting it on a bench.

During this operation the worker might have hesitated for a second to note the best way to grasp the box and rested for two seconds when the operation was complete.

He might be timed and rated as follows:

Operation (elements)

Bend down Grasp box Lift Put down on Total These three 'ineffective' seconds would not be recorded, so this task would be timed at eight seconds instead of the 11 seconds it really took.

Next, the elements are rated. In the bend down movement the one stands because in the opinion of the observer the worker moved at standard speed.

However, in grasping the box he was considered to be too slow, rating only 90 out of 100. He should have taken one tenth less time i.e. ninetenths (0.9) of a second, for this movement.

Similarly in the 'life' movement he should have taken salar 1 C nananda IT: - coad seconas. his pur down time was fast and 'normal' time would have been 1.1 seconds.

So the basic time for the whole action would be: 1 + 0.9 + 4.5 + 1.1 seconds = 7.5 seconds.

FARM FLOW

PROCESS CHART Time • seconds 8 seconds Allowing 10 per cent for contingencies and rest the final time is made out to be 8.25 seconds or a saving of 2.75 seconds on the actual time (11 seconds) to do the job.

The equivalent saving on the entire day would be two hours in an eight-hour day.

What is finally arrived at with this sort of system is a whole string of impossible times for jobs which, in conjunction with new machines etc., give the employers a 200 to 300 per cent increase in output while the workers' wage ceiling is held down permanently to a fixed level.

and yard: OPERATION No DATE NEW METHOD PICK UP BALE AND PUT ON TRAILER © PICK UP 2nd BALE AND PUT ON TRAILER MOUNT TRACTOR • DRIVE FROM BARN AND YARD OTES NEW METHOD. ack trailer and tractor Into arn and up to bales, tie Jate open during day, lift men place bale in one move.

Place accurately save checking. 04 Q. Couldn't the workers put pressure on for the jobs to be re-timed if they think those that are given are too fast?

A. There's usually no need o put pressure on, the workstudy officers actually encourage workers to ask for retiming to take place.

This is because they know very well that re-timing only follows the same pattern as before — leaving out ineffecRate per cent tive' work, adding the same rest allowance etc. - so the same time for the job will be arrived at.

Once re-timing has taken place, however, the time-andmotion men claim that the particular time in question has now been effectively checked so its accuracy can no longer be questioned.

Q. So the setting of times is a once-and-for-all A. No! The impression, often deliberately given, that the workers are timed and then left alone is completely false. New methods and new machines are always being brought in and time cutting is a constant factor.

Once the work-study men are through the door they are in for good.

BY BERNARDS FRANKS Q. Surely rating is the biggest fraud of all?

A. It is. All that it boils down to is the personal opinion of the work-study man of what he thinks is a 'fast', ', 'slow' or 'average' speed of working.

Beneath that friendly chatty exterior he may be privately considering you as a lazy soand-so and be rating you at 90,80 or 70 per cent accordingly.

is interesting to know how exactly these people are trained. The trainee expert is shown films of someone walking at different speeds — at four, five and six miles an hour. After he has seen these films a number of times he is reckoned to have the idea of different rates fixed in the back of his mind.

Next, he gets together with other trainees and they go out on the street and watch people walking about.

They each rate separately the speed of one particular person then compare notes afterwards.

After a few weeks of this, they claim to be able to go on a job and decide whether it is being done fast or slow just by watching it being done.

In fact, this system is so obviously a fraud that it is now being dropped by many consultants, or if it is still in use they get in first and tell the workers involved that final times will be fixed 'more scientifically'.

Q. Why do they have a rating system anyway!

Why don't they just use the stopwatch times? A. Rating is the key factor in actually speeding up operatives. With rating they can watch a man working at one speed and because in their opinion he is below standard rate, they can write down a much faster time for the job.

This is why it is a mistake to think that by slowing down when being timed you will end up getting reasonable times.

If you work at three-quarter speed, the work-study man may well be rating you at 50. so a job you took ten minutes over is put down as five minutes standard time. This is why so many workers are shocked to find their final specification sheet unrecognisable and why times taken off work being done at reasonable speed end up as completely impossible standard On the other hand if you work very fast when being timed, the observer would simply change his outlook on what the standards should be and he will probably take this speed as a new standard performance.

Q. In some cases workers are trained in the stopwatch techniques and end up alongside the work-study men timing their fellow workers.

How does this happen? A. The essence of a confidence trick—in fact the reason it is named as such—is the ability to win the confidence of the person you are deceiving.

This is recognized by the experts who have a between management and labour and who try to temporarily draw a few workers into help with the time-and-motion studies to prove to the rest that everything is above board.

Women scared of the Common at night Wednesday, June 3, quotation from timeand-motion manual will make the use of this method clear. Work Study, Introduction to The book the International Labour Office, after explaining that a good way of allaying the workers' suspicions is to get them to elect a representative to TWO WEEKS AGO towork in common with all other kinds of production, is not a PAGE