conducted so successfully that scientifically determined and timed elements can be constructed into standards. As everything that is attempted in the line of analysis and synthesis under Transitory Management is done scientifically under Scientific Management, we may avoid repetition by considering Scientific Management at once.
Relation of Analysis and Synthesis in Scientific Management to Measurement and Standardization. — Analysis considers the subject that is to be measured, — be it individual action or output of any kind, — and divides it into such a number of parts, and parts of such a nature, as will best suit the purpose for which the measurement is taken. When these subdivisions have been measured, synthesis combines them into a whole. 3 Under Scientific Management, through the measurements used, synthesis is a combination of those elements which are necessary only, and which have been proven to be most efficient. The result of the synthesis is standardized, and used until a more accurate standard displaces it.
Under Scientific Management analysis and synthesis are methods of determining standards from Page 126 available knowledge. Measurement furnishes the means.
Analyst's Work Is Division. — It is the duty of the analyst to divide the work that he is set to study into the minutest divisions possible. What is possible is determined by the time and money that can be set aside for the investigation.
The Nature of the Work Must Determine the Amount of Analysis Practicable. — In determining the amount of time and money required, it is necessary to consider —
- the cost of the work if done with no special study.
- how many times the work is likely to be repeated.
- how many elements that it contains are likely to be similar to elements in work that has already been studied.
- how many new elements that it contains are likely to be available in subsequent work.
- the probable cost of the work after it has been studied —
(a) the cost of doing it.
(b) the cost of the investigation.
- The loss, if any, from delaying the work until after it has been studied.
- the availability of trained observers and measurers, analysts and synthesists.
- the available money for carrying on the investigations.
These questions at least must be answered before Page 127 it is possible to decide whether study shall be made or not, and to what degree it can be carried.
Cost the Determining Factor. — It is obvious that in all observation in the industrial world cost must be the principal determining feature. Once the cost can be estimated, and the amount of money that can be