Forty years on… and a new chapter in time and motion
| Published date | 01 October 1980 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb057140 |
| Date | 01 October 1980 |
| Pages | 32-33 |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
BOOKS
Forty years on... and a new chapter in
time and motion
MOTION AND TIME STUDY
DESIGN AND MEASURE-
MENT OF WORK By Ralph
M. Barnes (John Wiley,
£12.00)
SINCE this classic work was
first published, six editors and
over forty years ago, the con-
cept of time and motion study
has considerably expanded. It
remains, however, a powerful
means for increasing produc-
tivity, though there may even
have been some change in the
meaning of this latter term;
hence the inclusion of a new
first chapter, "Productivity",
which defines the terms
Labour productivity, Capital
productivity and Materials
productivity, and discusses the
applicability of time and
motion study to each.
Many of the operations that
used to be subject of time and
motion study are now, or will
soon be, fully automated, and
an increasing number of the
remaining jobs will call for
creative effect and responsibil-
ity. Moreover, as a result of
social change, this is exactly
what an increasing number of
people seek. Industry can pro-
vide forms of work organisa-
tion and job designs to respond
to these high-level needs. This
has become part of the subject
for time and motion study and
necessitates an increasing con-
cern with research findings in
the social and behavioural sci-
ences.
Hence the inclusion of
the chapter on "Human Fac-
tors"
which describes the scope
of the research being under-
taken in this field.
New material has also been
added to take account of the
use of the computer which,
provided with standard data,
can now determine the
optimum method for perform-
ing a job and prepare a detailed
instruction sheet for the
operator.
Ralph Barnes has kept well
abreast of developments in his
position as head of the Univer-
sity of California Engineering
and Management programme,
and this new edition is as
authoritative and up-to-date
treatment of this field as the
first edition in 1937.
Peter Bourne
VNR DICTIONARY OF BUS-
INESS AND FINANCE By
Brownstone, Franck and Car-
ruth (VNR, £14.20)
THE dust cover claims that this
volume defines all the key
words and phrases from every
major business, financial, and
related professional areas. It
does no such thing. The
authors have made an arbitrary
selection of a limited number
of terms and defined them sim-
ply and colloquially in a man-
ner more journalistic than
academic.
There is nothing wrong with
its simple lucidity; indeed, it is
to be welcomed. However, to
pretend that this volume is
more than an unsophisticated
scan is unworthy of this major
business publishing house.
Nichola Homan
THE REAL WORLD OF THE
SMALL BUSINESS OWNER
By Richard Scase and Robert
Goffee (Croom Helm, £10.95)
SCASE and Goffee, both
academics at Kent University,
have written this book as a con-
tribution to the popular debate
about small business owners
and the role of their enterprises
within the modern economy.
On the basis of a series of inter-
views,
it explores the reasons
why people start their own
enterprises and the problems
which they face as they expand.
It discusses the managerial
and organisational aspects of
small businesses and the means
whereby they cope with market
circumstances. The role of tax-
ation is considered in its effects
on personal incentive as well as
their attitudes towards the
state,
the economy and trade
unions.
It is a timely work, because
small businessmen and entrep-
reneurs are now firmly back in
fashion. As the Western
economies move into reces-
sion, many governments and
particularly Mrs Thatcher's
administration look to the
entrepreneurial spirit of the
small businessman to rejuve-
nate and revitalise Western
society.
At a time when there is much
argument about the motivation
and will to work of Western
Society, this study of the tradi-
tional custodians of capitalism
is particularly relevant. Above
all,
it shows how the historical
values of the small business
have survived in the changed
circumstances of the advanced
economies. Alan Noble
COSTING AND CONTROL
FOR MATERIALS By Frank
Osborn (Macmillan, £16.00,
HC;£8.95, PPR)
INTENDED primarily for stu-
dents of costing and manage-
ment accounting, this manual
forms "a first-class introduc-
tion to the management of
materials" in the quoted words
of the chairman of the exami-
nations committee of the Insti-
tute of Cost and Management
Accountants. In fact, a useful
feature of the book is the inclu-
sion of ICMA examination
questions in the recapitulation
tests and questions at the end
of each chapter.
However, the book has a
wider applicability; most man-
agers are concerned with the
increasing productivity of
labour and capital equipment;
but events such as the crisis in
the supply of petrochemicals in
1973 can no longer be thought
of as rare and isolated, as the
supply of more and more raw
materials becomes limited and
the relative economic cost
becomes increasingly signific-
ant.
Frank Osborn, having
worked in the engineering
industry for thirty-five years
before turning to full-time lec-
turing, takes a practical
approach to his subject, and
has illustrated the principles of
materials accounting with
examples from the manufactur-
ing context. He considers first
the cycle of control and the way
in which materials, records and
information flow through a
manufacturing business; then
the methods of budgetary and
variance analyses which diag-
nose the causes of poor mater-
ial yields or to weaknesses in
the control systems.
A final short chapter on the
effects of inflation on material
control perhaps points to a
slightly conservative approach,
where the importance of day-
to-day control of the cost of
materials is seen to be para-
mount. Nevertheless, here is an
up-to-date and thorough
treatment of this subject of
interest to students and mana-
gers alike. Henry Lowman
THE EFFECTS OF MIC-
ROELECTRONIC TECH-
NOLOGIES ON EMPLOY-
MENT PROSPECTS By K.
Green, R. Coombs, K. Holroyd
(Gower £12.50)
HERE'S A report that arose
out of the conviction of the
Tameside Borough Council
and the authors that although
national studies of the effects
of micro-electronics were use-
ful and necessary, there was a
distinct need for detailed
studies of smaller areas,
designed to enable local gov-
ernment to consider any impli-
cations for its industrial and
employment policies.
The statistics for the report
came from the Central Man-
chester County Council Plan-
ning Department, and the
Department of Geography,
University of Manchester; also
interviews with Tameside firms
and organisations. These latter
produced some surprising
results; for example the
mechanical engineering indus-
try was not thought to have so
many jobs at risk, because in
Tameside it does not produce
the sort of products that can be
readily made by automatic
labour-displacing machines.
The overall prediction was
that 3-10½ per cent of jobs
would be at risk by the year
32 INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT + DATA SYSTEMS
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