Fatigue study, the elimination of humanity's greatest unnecessary waste

Front matter

1*^ .

^^ •" 4*^

^Ho^ o

Preface

In the final analysis, that organization is best that has the best quality of workers. No organization can continue to be of first quality whose workers are over-fatigued. Other things being equal, that country will be most happy and most successful whose workers have the least unnecessary fatigue.

Aside from the pleasure one may obtain from it, it is the duty of every one to eliminate the causes of unnecessary fatigue, and to promote the dissemination of knowledge of how to recover most quickly from unnecessary and necessary fatigue.

Fatigue study rests on scientific investigation that requires the special training of an expert, and laboratory methods and equipment; but there are elementary methods of studying and eliminating fatigue that are not only so simple that any one can understand and apply them, but that are also a definite stage in the preparation of the fatigue study expert.

PREFACE

It is the aim of this book to outline both these preliminary methods and the scientific methods of fatigue elimination and to put the available material for fatigue study into such shape that any one interested may make immediate, definite, and profitable use of it.

Chapter. I

A DESCRIPTION AND GENERAL OUTLINE OF FATIGUE STUDY : WHAT MUST BE DONE

PAGE

Fatigue Study and Waste ......... 3

What Fatigue Is 4

What Fatigue Study Is 7

The Field of This Book 7

The Relation of Fatigue Study to Measured Functional Management 9

Relation of Fatigue Study to Motion Study ... 11

The Glasses of Fatigue 13

The Problems of Fatigue Study . 14

The Methods of Fatigue Study 14

Emphasis in Fatigue Study 15

A Work for Every One 16

Chapter II The Fatigue Survey : What Is To Be Done

What a Survey Is 18

The General Survey and the Fatigue Survey . . 19

The Aims of the Fatigue Survey 19

The Time and Place of Making the Survey ... 20

The Qualification of the Survey Maker .... 22

What to Look For 25

Variables That Affect Fatigue 29

The Survey Record Sheet 30

Survey Photographs 31

Making the Survey Serviceable 32

Chapter III

PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS FOR REST FOR OVER- COMING FATIGUE: WHAT CAN BE DONE NOW

Provision for Rest ..*.*....... 38

CONTENTS

PAGE

Chairs to Make the Rest Most Effective .... 42

Betterment Work 47

Results . 49

Chapter IV Home Reading Box Movement: A Prac- Tical Illustration

What It Is 54

The Box in the Plant 55

The Plant as a Source of Supply 55

The Home Element 58

Routing the Magazines 61

The Problem of Maintenance 63

How the Conditions Vary 67

The Home Reading Box and Fatigue 69

The By-Products of the Home Reading Box Move*

ment 70

How to Begin 75

Chapter V Preliminary Fatigue Elimination: What Can Be Done Now

The Lighting Problem /77

The Heating, Cooling, and Ventilating Problem . .82

Fire Protection 84

Safety Protection 85

The Work Place 88

The Work-bench or Table . 90

The Chair or Other Fatigue-Eliminating Device . . 91

Placing the Material Worked On 93

The Placing of Tools and Devices 94

The Clothing of the Worker 95

CHAPTER VI THE FATIGUE MUSEUM: AN OBJECT LESSON What a Fatigue Museum Is 99

The Parent Fatigue Museum 100

What the Fatigue Museum Contains 102

What the Museum Does not Contain 102

CONTENTS

PAGE

Types of Chairs and Their Uses 104

Other Fatigue Eliminating Devices 108

How to Use the Devices 109

Starting Your Ov^n Fatigue Museum Ill

Chapter VII Fatigue Measurement : How To Attack The Problem Scientifically

History of Fatigue Measurement ....... 114

Fatigue, a Test of Efficient Activity 116

The Activity llV

Motion Study, Micromotion Study, the Cyclegraph,

AND THE CHRONOCYCLEGRAPH MeTHOD AS MEASURES

OF Activity 118

Testing the Work by Motions Required 123

Testing Workers by Motion Capabilities .... 124 The Use of Activity Records as Data for Eliminating Fatigue .... 124

The Time Element 125

The Standardization of Work and Rest .... 127

Chapter VIII

MAKING ADJUSTMENTS: HOW PRESENT PRAC- TICE IS DEVELOPED INTO STANDARD PRAC- TICE

A Concrete Example of Making Adjustments . . . 132

Former Method of Assembly 133

How the New Practice Was Derived 134

The Two Factors to Be Considered 134

Outline of the Changes to Be Made 135

The Solution of the Problem 135

Final Adjustment 139

Changes in Type of Work Demanded 140

Change in Mental Attitude 140

Value of This Example 140

Chapter IX The Outcome: How Far Have We At- Tained Our Aim?

The Tests of General Heai^th 142

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Test of Prolonged Activity 143

The Test of Posture 144

The Test of Behaviour and Implied Mental Attitude. 146

The Test of Transference of Skill 148

Test of " Happiness Minutes," Individual and Social 149

CHAPTER X THE FUTURE: WHAT EACH ONE OF US CAN DO The Work of the Colleges 153

The Work of the Manager 155

The Work of the Worker 156

The Work of the Public . • . 157

I

CHAPTER I A DESCRIPTION AND GENERAL OUTLINE OF FATIGUE study: WHAT MUST BE DONE

Fatigue Study and Waste.

In "Motion Study ^' we stated: "There is no waste of any kind in the world that equals the waste from needless, ill-directed, and ineffective motions/' ^ It is an aspect of wasted motions that we are discussing here. Wasted motions mean wasted effort and wasted time. One of the results of this waste is unnecessary fatigue, caused by unnecessary effort expended during time that must, as a result, be wasted. Time, a lifetime, is our principal inheritance. To waste any of it is to lose part of our principal asset. To waste time and to suffer from unnecessary fatigue simultaneously can be excused

1 See " Motion Study," p. 2. 3 only by ignorance. Unnecessary fatigue is caused by some one's ignorance. This book aims to call tbe attention of the world to the relationship between fatigue and waste, with the hope that the knowledge of our methods of fatigue elimination may be useful to others.

What Fatigue Is.

A crowd of workers come out of the factory after the day's work. Some rush home; others walk at a leisurely pace. Some move slowly and with effort. Some have their heads back and a satisfied expression on their faces. Othets^have their heads bent forward, and look as though life were not worth while. What is the difference between the members of this group? Mainly a matter of fatigue. Fatigue is the after-effect of work. It is the condition of the worker's organism after he has expended energy in doing something. It is a necessary by-product of activity. If, as is presumable, every member of our crowd of workers has been putting in a day full of activity, we might expect to see the same marks of fatigue on every face and figure, — but we do not.

What, then, are the reasons for the difference? The state of fatigue has only been systematically studied during the past thirty years. Even to-day it is not wholly understood. We do know, however, several things about it, that may explain what we see in the emerging group. We know that fatigue is marked by a decrease in power to work, a decrease in pleasure taken in work, and a decrease in the enjoyment of the hours spent away from work. We know that exertion not only uses up temporarily the energy of the body, but that it also seems to generate a sort of poison which " slows one down '^ for the time being. In the third place, we know, also, that the effects of fatigue are more difllcult to overcome as the fatigue becomes greater. Careful observation and records show that a little fatigue is easily overcome if proper rest is supplied immediately. Twice the amount of fatigue requires more than twice the amount of rest. Four times the amount of fatigue demands much more than twice as much rest as the preceding "more than twice the amount of rest,'^ until, jftnally, a state of excessive fatigue requires a rest period that might have to be prolonged indefinitely. It is this fact that lies at the basis of the great unnecessary waste in accumulated fatigue.

The trouble with these tired workers, then, is that their work has not been arranged in the least fatiguing manner nor in such a way that they could get the most rest and recovery in the least amount of idle time during the working hours. The ones whose heads are high and whose shoulders are thrown back may have been provided in some way with sufficient rest. The ones whose heads are bowed probably have not had the recovery time that they needed. It is possible that those who have had all the rest they needed have not produced as much as have the others. The remedy for this may not lie in shortening the rest, but in improving work methods. The waste in work not done, or in work done with the wrong method, is a serious economic waste. The waste in unnecessary fatigue is not only an economic waste, it is a waste of life, and it calls for immediate attention from every one of us, whether interested in the individual, the group, or the economic prosperity of our country.

What Fatigue Study Is.

Our fatigue study is an attack upon this unnecessary waste of human energy. It is a careful consideration of the problem of activity from the side of its results upon the human organism. It aims:

1. To determine accurately what fatigue re-

sults from doing various types of work.

2. To eliminate all unnecessary fatigue.

3. To reduce the necessary fatigue to the

lowest amount possible.

4. To provide all possible means for over-

coming fatigue.

5. To put the facts obtained from the study

into such form that every worker can use them for himself to get more out of life.

The Field of This Book.

The reader who will carefully watch the tired crowd of workers will probably decide that he would like to do something about the fatigue problem immediately. There are various methods by which he may attack the problem. He may, and must, ultimately, review the literature on fatigue. The work of Marey, of Amar, of Imbert, of Offner, of Thorndike, and of numerous other physiologists and psychologists lies open to the student of the subject. He may turn immediately to Miss Josephine Goldmark's masterly volume on '' Fatigue and Efficiency." This will give him an insight into the application of fatigue elimination to the industries. He may decide, however, that such study must wait, and that he must actually do something to cut down the fatigue the first thing the next morning, while the driving force of what he has seen is still strong. Nothing can mean so much to what he is to do as the strong incentive that drives him to doing it, the desire to help. But he will do best if he is instructed and directed. He should plan, in order that he may do the most in the least amount of time, and do the big, easy, obvious things first.

This book will outline a method of attack, and furnish a working practice for attacking the fatigue problem in an industrial plant. This practice is recommended because it rests on the results of measurement. We have here not simply a collection of illustrations that show what has been done in eliminating fatigue in the industries. All fatigue elimination is to be commended, but illustrations that do not embody well-recognized principles are questionable models. It is easy to make external changes that never touch the underlying cause of evil. Worthwhile, permanent fatigue elimination goes at the fundamentals of the work itself, and studies these in relation to the fatigue. What has been done is worth while when we know how it has been done, and why it has been done. Given these facts, we can determine how it may be done again in the same fashion and possibly even better. The practice that is the result of accurate measurement^ — this is the standard to be demanded.

The Relation of Fatigue Study to Measured Functional Management.

Fatigue study is founded on measurement. This makes it an integral part of measured functional management. This is management that acts in accordance with standards. These standards are derived by actually measuring accurately what is happening. Standards contain the results of the measurement combined into new working methods. These standards are maintained only until they can be improved, when the new ones are in turn measured and maintained. Such accurate measurement demands that the problem of management be divided into measurable units. These units are made as small as possible, and constantly smaller as time goes on. It was the great work of Doctor Taylor to divide an operation, that is, a piece of work to be measured, into units for timing with a stop watch, and to separate rest units from work units.

From its beginning. Scientific Management has recognizM the importance of the part played by fatigue. This recognition helps to obtain that co-operation and permanent beneficial efficiency that are the underlying ideas and the maintaining forces in this type of management. But fatigue study has only recently been acknowledged as fundamental to the most efficient management. Any one can attack the fatigue problem in its present condition in the industries successfully. He has simply to apply measurement. He can do this without regarding the investigations and results of others, if he chooses, but he will progress faster and farther if he uses results already at hand, and improves on " the best that has been known and thought in the world.^'

Relation of Fatigue Study to Motion Study.

Motion study has been described as the dividing of the elements of the work into the most elementary subdivisions possible, studying and measuring the variables of these fundamental units separately and in relation to one another, and from these studied, chosen units, after they have been derived, building up methods of least waste. It is through the measuring of motions that one comes to realize most strongly the necessity of fatigue study.

There has come, in the past twenty-five years, a strong general realization that the important factor in doing work is the human factor, or the human element. Improvement in working apparatus of any type is important in its effect upon the human being who is to use the apparatus. The moment one begins to make man, the worker, the centre of activity, he appreciates that he has two elements to measure. One is the activity itself. This includes the motions, seen or unseen, made by the worker, — what is done and how it is done. The other is the fatigue. This includes the length and nature of the interval or rest period required for the worker to recover his original condition of working power.

Any one who makes real motion study, or analyzes motion study data, cannot fail to realize constantly the relationship of motion study to fatigue study. The fatigue is the more interesting element, in that it is the more diflSicult to determine exactly. When we recognize this close relationship between motion study and fatigue study, we see that we have a body of data already collected and at our disposal. What is even more desirable, we have a method of measurement ready at our hand. Every observation of a motion may be used to give information about fatigue. Is this information of immediate use to the man who is attacking his fatigue problem for the first time to-day? Yes, and no. Yes, in that it is at his disposal. No, in that he must determine his own particular problem before he can start to solve it. The first step in this direction lies in classifying fatigue.

The Classes of Fatigue.

There are two classes of fatigue :

1. Unnecessary fatigue, which results from unnecessary effort, or work which does not need to be done at all. A typical example of such work is that of the bricklayer, who furnished one of the first subjects for motion study. Any one who has watched a bricklayer lift all of his body above the waist, together with the bricks and mortar from the level of his feet to the top of a wall, cannot fail to realize that bricklaying requires a great amount of energy as well as skill. Yet by far the most of the energy expended in the method of laying bricks, that had existed for centuries, was entirely unnecessary.^

2. Necessary fatigue, which results from work that must be done. The new method, which enabled this same bricklayer to lay three hundred and fifty bricks per hour, where he had laid one hundred and twenty bricks per hour before, did

1 See " Bricklaying System," chapter xiv. Myron C. Clark Go., Chicago.

not eliminate, and did not expect to eliminate all of the fatigue accumulated in the working day. The bricklayer at the end of the day, by reason of motion study devices, laid more brick, but was nevertheless much less tired. Experimental work in his case was carried to a high degree of perfection, because he was recognized as a splendid type of eflflcient brawn.

The Problems of Fatigue Study.

The problems of fatigue study are, then, four, which may be stated in very simple terms :

1. To determine what fatigue is unnecessary.

2. To determine what fatigue is necessary.

3. To eliminate all unnecessary fatigue possible.

4. To distribute the necessary fatigue properly, and to provide the best possible means for speedy and complete recovery.

The Methods of Fatigue Study.

The methods used must rest on a scientific basis. These methods are the same for the expert and for the man making his first attack on the problem. They are as follows :

!• Eecord present practice, make an accurate and complete account in writing of what is actually being done.

2. Decide in what sequence things are to be measured, and put them in such shape that they can be measured.

3. Apply accurate measurement.

4. Determine standards synthetically from the measurement, and make such changes in practice as will make it conform to the standard.

5. Compare the new standard practice with the old practice. Determine exactly what improvements have been made, in order to be able to predict the line along which new improvements must lie.

This is the standard method of attack of measured functional management. It can be the more successfully applied to fatigue study in that the results can be checked at every point by the results of motion study, which bear a constant relation to them.

Emphasis in Fatigue Study,

Any such study as this demands an emphasis upon accuracy. The man making the study must have a strong desire for finding and writing down the facts. He must have willingness to submit every aspect of the problem he is studying to the test of accurate measurement. Along with this desire for facts must go a realization of how the facts are to be used. Fatigue study is a constructive study. It builds up. It uses such terms as " elimination/^ but its fundamental aim is conservation, and this conservation includes adding to those things which make life worth while. The desire to act as a force for betterment must be the incentive that makes the man doing fatigue study ready to record and face the actual facts.

A Work for Every One.

Recording facts is difficult work, but there is no one who cannot do some of it. It is the duty of every man to face the facts with which he works and to record them. You have come from the crowd of tired workers with an incentive to do this. Here is the method by which it may be done.

Summary.

Fatigue study is related to motion study in that both are branches of waste elimination. Fatigue study classifies fatigue, and outlines methods by which unnecessary fatigue may be eliminated and rest from necessary fatigue may be provided.

Chapter II The Fatigue Survey: What Is To Be Done

What a Survey Is.

A survey is an attempt to record existing conditions. It gives :

1. A general view.

2. A more particular or intensive study of the various parts of the whole and their relation to one another.

It may include recommendations for improvement, but its primary purpose is to record what actually exists.

The survey is a systematic study of existing conditions. Those making it have always a welldefined plan in mind. It is necessary, in order to maintain a proper balance for the completed survey, to give a properly proportioned representation of what happens, with no element omitted or over-emphasized.

The General Survey and the Fatigue Survey.

The fatigue survey should be a department of the general survey. A description of the apparent causes of fatigue, or of the devices present that eliminate fatigue, can mean little without the accompanying description of the worker, the conditions of the work and the work itself. The fatigue survey might be made without a general survey. From the results, fatigue might be eliminated, or better means for overcoming fatigue provided, but there would be no assurance that the records applied would be efficient, or do lasting good, if the causes of fatigue were not understood. The causes could not be understood without the general survey. The fatigue element receives more emphasis than any other element of the general survey. We look for fatigue first, last, and all the time, but we record with it all the attending circumstances that we can observe or discover.

The Aims of the Fatigue Survey. The fatigue survey aims :

1. To present an accurate picture of existing conditions from the fatigue standpoint.

2. To enable all interested in fatigue elimination to visualize the problem thoroughly.

3. To divide the problem of fatigue elimination into such working units that it may be possible to attack the problem successfully from the start.

4. To arouse the interest of every member of the organization in fatigue and its elimination.

5. To show the relation between fatigue and activity.

6. To teach every member of the organization to conserve his working powers.

The Time and Place of Making the Survey.

The survey should be made as soon as plans for making it are completed^ and before any changes in the actual practice are made. If there is any idea of changing the type of management, it may well be made even before such a change is thoroughly outlined. It is the first step to be taken by any organization which is thinking of introducing the scientific type of management. The entire " plant ^' should be surveyed. The work should start where there is the most fatigue, and where the greatest amount of good can be done immediately. This, for several reasons ; such as :

1. The largest amount of waste can thus be eliminated.

2. The co-operation of the workers will be most quickly gained. This will be true not only of the workers actually studied, but of all of the workers in the organization. They will appreciate the attitude of the new management, and will be glad to help if they can see the actual benefit from the start.

3. The survey maker will become encouraged as he sees his data successfully used.

4. The survey, if made by an amateur, will help him when he attacks more difficult problems.

If the survey maker is an amateur, he had best begin where working conditions most demand betterment. It is simpler to record working conditions than to describe the worker or the method by which the work is done. A really adequate record of a worker requires a knowledge of physiology and psychology. An adequate record of method requires an expert knowledge of motion study. A preliminary record of fatigue of all sorts may be made by an amateur. He had best, however, get his practice in recording working conditions. Moreover, it will be best to observe a worker who is known to be co-operative at the start. The co-operation of the worker is the most important element in getting accurate records. Such workers will also help from the start to suggest or invent devices for eliminating fatigue, if they are started thinking along these lines. Later, one can handle the non-co-operative as one becomes more practised, and there is always the likelihood that, by the time one gets to these at first non-co-operative workers, their attitude -mil have been changed by the good results and the general sympathy towards the fatigue survey.

The Qualification of the Survey Maker.

The survey maker must be an accurate observer. He must be able to see what the conditions really are, and to describe and record what he sees in simple, clear language that will enable others to understand what he says. The survey may be made by any one of several types of survey maker :

1. The owner of the plant. He will have the most vital interest in the resulting fatigue elimination. No matter who else makes a survey, the owner should examine it closely, or should make one for himself. We have found that, if the owner can be persuaded to take one day of his time to make even a most rapid and superficial fatigue survey of his plant, the result is always of enormous benefit to the work; but, while his interest may be enlisted with a walk through his plant, his zeal will not be obtained until he has actually sat in the various seats and chairs, and actually, personally, tried out the various work places.

2. The survey may be made by some other member of the organization, who is an amateur at the work. The benefits of having a survey maker who is a member of the organization is that he "understands the peculiar and local conditions '' thoroughly, and that those who are observed may therefore have more confidence in his work and perhaps may be less apt to resent being observed. The disadvantages are that he will be so well acquainted with and accustomed to seeing the conditions that he will not be apt to note many apparently unimportant details. These may really be important, when one comes to make changes. The survey may be made by an amateur not a member of the organization. The advantage of this is that the observer will be disinterested. The disadvantages are the usual disadvantages of lack of training. There may, also, be some delay in the observed worker's co-operating with the observer. This is not apt to occur if the survey maker is properly instructed before he begins his work.

The survey may be made by an expert. It makes little difference, in this case, whether the expert is, or is not, a member of the organization. In actual practice he seldom is a member of the organization.

There is much saving in time in having an expert survey maker, who will be, in the industries, preferably a motion study expert. From extensive practice he will be able to see possible improvements at the same time that he sees existing conditions. However, he must not let his plans for improvement affect the exactness of his records of the present. On the contrary, these plans will insure that he makes his records of the present detailed and accurate, in order that the progress may be apparent.

Whatever may be the preparation of the survey maker, his chief qualification should be a keen interest and enthusiasm for this work. If a man really wants to eliminate fatigue, and is willing to learn how to do it, he can become a survey maker.

What to Look For.

There are three chief groups of things to look for:

1. The characteristics of the worker, or, as we have called them, ^^ variables of the worker.''

2. The characteristics of the working conditions, — " the variables of the surroundings, equipments, and tools." 3. The characteristics of the methods of work ; that is, " the variables of the motions/' ^ First, in describing the worker, there are several possible methods of obtaining valuable information. One is by observing him. A second is by talking with him. Before using either of these, it is necessary to see what records of him are already in the hands of the management. There will probably be some information in the employment bureau, if an employment bureau exists; if not, the man who hired him may have some data concerning him. Usually this will save the worker's time in answering questions. It is well to know as much as possible about the worker's life history and home conditions, — this especially that one may understand whether he goes to work refreshed or tired in the morning. The procedure may be as follows : 1. Record the man's name, age, birthplace, preparation, experience, and fitness. 1 See " Motion Study," pages 6 and 7.

These last will all be a help in determining the percentage of fatigue.

2. Record the man's physical characteristics, as far as can be observed ; such as, size, strength, skill, strong points, and weak points.

3. Record, as closely as possible, the man's behaviour, as indicating his mental condition. To be specific, note whether he seems interested in the work. Note his habits of doing the work, — whether he does the work the same way every time, or whether he varies in his methods. Note his degree of ability to learn quickly. Note his power of concentrating attention. Note his degree of contentment with the work.

The degree of detail with which this notation may be made by an amateur doing the work depends largely upon his training in psychology. Second, in recording working conditions : 1. Record those things that affect all workers in the group. These are the length of working day, condition of lighting, heating, cooling, and ventilating; fire protection; safety protection as it affects all, — this to include protection from dust, lint, or any substance which might affect health.

2. Record the conditions that affect the individual worker: — places of the work; the work bench or table or other device for holding the work ; the chair, foot rails or rests, or other device for affording rest to the body or some part of the body ; the material worked on and its placing; the tools or other devices by which the work is done; the clothing of the worker.