An applied History Lesson in the workplace

Today, my workplace brothers & sisters,

Let's meet...Frederick W. Taylor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_W._Taylor

most famous for his contributions to the analytical method called..............

Time and motion study

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A time and motion study (or time-motion study) is a business efficiency technique combining the Time Study work of Frederick Winslow Taylor with the Motion Study work of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (best known through the biographical 1950 film and book Cheaper by the Dozen). It is a major part of Scientific management (Taylorism).

A time and motion study would be used to reduce the number of motions in performing a task in order to increase productivity. The best known experiment involved bricklaying. Through carefully scrutinising a bricklayer's job, Frank Gilbreth reduced the number of motions in laying a brick from 18 to about 5. Hence the bricklayer [or Travel Assistance Coordinator, in our case] both increased productivity and decreased fatigue.

The Gilbreths developed what they called therbligs ("therblig" being "Gilbreth" spelled backwards, with a slight variation), a classification scheme comprising 17 basic hand motions.

See also

• Human factors
• Ergonomics

References

• Management (3rd Edition), Robbins, S.P., Bergman, R., Stagg, L, & Coulter, M. (2003) . Sydney, Australia: Prentice Hall

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I thought about all that for a minute, then I thought about our current hurdles with our two competing Databases at my workplace, BRIO (old DB) v. Liberty (new DB). Our contemporary situation turns Taylorism, a.k.a. Scientific Management, on its head, frankly...

....Unless the objective is to decrease productivity, increase employee fatigue & burnout, and run the company into the ground. Heck if I know, I'm not in management.

Despite its mid-1990s vintage, BRIO is the clear winner of the overall efficiency & productivity contest...no matter how experienced your users are, they will ALWAYS be slower with the Liberty DB than with BRIO. Those "extra steps" in Liberty DO matter--A LOT, especially when multiplied...the growth over time of net inefficiencies is exponential.

I don't know what analytical method was used to justify the switch from BRIO to Liberty, but it damn sure wasn't Scientific management theory.

Scientific management applies equally well for tangible products like cars and bricks to intangible products like insurance policies & related assistance services.

Makes you wonder...

This is why a Liberal Arts education is useful---and dangerous.

-JJR