Progress in Industrial Engineering has consistently been closely associated with progress in measurement. The accuracy required for interchangeable parts in modern precision equipment became a reality only after years of development, refinement, and research in the field of measurement. The Standard Units for linear dimensions were at one period in history such inaccurate measures as “width of a man's hand", "the length of a man's foot", or "the normal reach of a man’s arm", When accurate standards based on the Standard Yard were comparatively recently accepted universally, there remained a serious problem in developing instruments that would measure small divisions accurately.
Mass production has emphasised the paramount importance of human relations in industry. Understanding and agreement between individuals demand an accurate measure of human effort and accomplishment. Time Study with primary emphasis on Work Simplification has proven so near the answer that it has been subject to unwarranted claims and therefore unjust criticism. Instruments for measuring the accomplishment of individuals have been developed to securities beyond ordinary demand. However, the level of performance of the individual remains purely a matter of human judgement, unless supported by extensive data taken from the measurement of a large number of individuals representing a true cross section of industrial workers.
Industrial Engineers have developed remarkable skill in judging the performance of individuals in relation to that which can be expected from the average worker who has been reasonably selected and reasonably trained, but similar skill might have been developed in judging the ”width of the average man's hand" or "the length of the average man's arm". An equitable measure of the time required to perform specific tasks demands a generally accepted standard that can be applied directly to the motions used in performing the task. We would then have a unit of measure with no more reason for objection than there might be today by someone who thought the yard should be somewhat longer or somewhat shorter than the accepted standard. / Master of Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/52167 |
| Date | January 1951 |
| Creators | Horst, Cecil Albert |
| Contributors | Industrial Engineering |
| Publisher | Virginia Polytechnic Institute |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Text |
| Format | 75 leaves, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 24313988 |
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