What is a study of time and movement?

Time and movement study is a standard technique of business efficiency. It combines a time study that monitors the amount of time to complete each step in the workplace with a movement study that observes the steps that the worker takes to complete this activity. This technique was promoted by Frederick Taylor and became a key part of the theory of scientific management. The use of a study of time and movement can significantly increase both both speed and quality of work, but this technique has been historically met with great resistance to employees. They also examine the work process itself in an effort to identify places where the current practice of the worker is ineffective, in time or human movement to make more efficient procedures, how to reduce the stress of workers and increase and standardize productivity.

Systematic attention to the process of work was used to revolution the industrial economy at the beginning20th century. During a study of time and movement, expert managers were able to determine exactly how much time the worker needed to fulfill the assigned set of tasks. This information was used to optimize industrial processes. It could also be used to promote increased productivity of workers because it could be used to set standardized work goals. Previously, workers who had more sophisticated in their schedules often bitterly hated careful control and requirements for faster production pace, but taylorism and related management systems prevailed.

Although this type of management technique is associated with developing capitalist economies, it was such a critical part of industrial development that one could find time and movement in any factory in the world in the 1920s. In fact, Vladimir Lenin was a great advocate, especially the philosophy of Taylor's philosophy and a study of time and movement. Hero of Valentin Kateev from 1932, time, forward!, , spends most of the book involved in such a study.

Time and movement study conducted at a modern workplace will try to improve efficiency and workflow, but often also focuses on the health of labor. Trading systems that distribute incoming calls to employees of modern call center and then monitor all aspects of their work are far offspring of time and movement studies. These studies also showed an improvement in ergonomic design in the same office space that protects the health of workers.