Fifth Annual report of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board : to 31st December 1924.

  • Great Britain. Industrial Fatigue Research Board.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Fifth Annual report of the Industrial Fatigue Research Board : to 31st December 1924. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    68/80 (page 66)
    of periodical revision by employers of the state of labour turnover in their factories. The necessity of adopting some method of estimating labour turnover is urged, since a slight wastage may remain entirely undetected, and if unchecked will involve a serious waste of time on the part of both employers and employee. _ Labour turnover may also be used to indicate to some extent internal conditions in the different departments of a factory. A test is explained, which indicates whether wastage is unduly high and calls for futher investigation as to the cause, and notes on factory records and record keeping are included. ] ‘ No. 14.—Time and Motion Study, by E. Farmer, M.A. 1921. (63 pages with plates). [Price 2s. net, post free 2s. 14d.] [Part I consists of a critical review of the past work on the subject, including Taylor’s and Gilbreth’s methods. Part II is an account of a series of experiments carried out by the author in a confectionery factory, in which motion study was applied, not to determine the movements which took the shortest time to perform, but to discover those movements which when properly learned the worker would find easiest to perform. The results obtained in two manual processes showed increases in output of 27 and 88 per cent. respectively. The report includes photographs showing the needlessly large number of movements used by untrained workers, and the improvement following a short course of training. <A full bibliography, including references to periodicals, is appended.] No. 16.—Three Studies in Vocational Selection, by B. Muscio, M.A., and E. FARMER, M.A. 1922. (86 pages). [Price ls. 6d. net, post free ls. 74d.] [Part A (The Psycho-Physiological Capacities of Hand Compositors) describes an investigation on vocational selection conducted amongst hand compositors in printing works. After close observation of the work and of the particular capacities demanded, tests which seemed to be prima facie suitable were selected and applied to two groups of about 25 compositors. The subjects were then graded first according to the marks obtained in the tests, and secondly, according to the actual working proficiency shown by each, and the two gradings compared. Such tests as were shown to be unnecessary were then eliminated and a grading based on the remaining tests correlated with the proficiency grading. In this way, the high correlation co-efficients of -80 and -71 were obtained for the two groups. Part B (The Measurement of Strength with reference to Vocational Selection) is concerned with the physical side of vocational selection, and is based on observations of the range of muscular strength amongst about 2,300 youths in Manchester and industrial Essex. The results show first that a combination of grip and weight gives a useful indication of general muscular strength, and secondly, that there is a consistent ' difference between youths of the same age in the two localities. . Part C (Physical Measurements in a Confectionery Factory) is an account of a somewhat similar investigation, based on the finger and hand measurements of girls in a confectionery factory. The results show that two distinct types exist, designated long-spanned and short-spanned, and that each of these types is specially prevalent in certain occupations, suggesting that the former type is desirable for some kinds of work and the latter for others. A more intensive treatment of the data led to rather indefinite results, probably because other and more powerful factors in proficiency tend to mark the influence of physical type.]