MTM-1 and derived systems.

Origine

MTM or "Methods Time Measurement" was invented at the end of the thirties and published after world war II in 1948.   This first MTM system was development by Maynard, Swabb and Stegemerten. MTM-1 is a based on a improved classification of human motions initially introduced by Gilbreth.  Any possible movement of arms, fingers or legs a human can make is classified in about 400 different codes.   After defining every motion or category, a predetermined time was measured with a motion picture of 16 frames per second and calibrated to a normal pace "performance rating" by a system called LMS “Lowry, Maynard and Stegemerten”.

Concepts

Al tough the MTM-1 system consist of hundreds of codes and it is a very complex system to use it can however be simple explained because there are 11 head category's.   Every human motion belongs in one of following activities. But every head category can exists out of more than hundred sub codes. # Code Benaming 1 Reach Bring a empty hand to a new location by moving the arm. 2 Move Bring a loaded hand to a new location by moving the arm. 3 Grasp Close hand to get control over an object. 4 Position Postion hand with the aim to place an object. 5 Release Relase hand or open hand to abandon control over an object 6 Apply Presure Apply pressure or use of force 7 Disengage Disengage 8 Turn Turn hand 9 Steps Body, legs en foot movements 10 Crank Crank 11 Eye Eye functions

Example:  Mounting leftdoor into fixture

Action left hand Code Action right hand Code Sec Go to bin W5P     2,70 Reach bin with hand   Reach door with hand R80B 0,97  Grasp bin G1A  grasp door G1A 0,07 Reach door  M40B Door out of mal M60B 0,78 Grasp door G1A Weight door 8kg SC8/2 0,10 Bring door to body M80B Bring door to body M80B 0,97 Weigt door SC8/2 Weight door SC8/2 0,10 Turn TB1     0,67 3 steps W3P     1,62 Door to fixture M20A Door to fixture M20A 0,37 Weigt 8kg SC8/2  Weigt 8kg SC8/2 0,10     place door in fixture P1SE 0,20 Place door P1SE     0,20 Totaal   --------------------------------------> 8,86

Conclusion

MTM-1 is an universal system that is appliable on any type or kind of work.  The above example needs 19 codes to complete a take and place action of a object what could be called boring to analyse .  Altough it is a universal system it demands much time to learn and to apply.   Mostly one could say that it takes about 400 times the cycle time to analyse.  Due to this reason it is in  practise almost not applied any more. Of course their are some exceptions where MTM-1 is the only appliable system, such as short cyclic work, less then 20 seconds, where analyse in detail is important and MTM-1 and RWF are the only possible solutions. MTM-1 and DWF are competitors because next generation systems are always based on both systems.  For this reason MTM-1 and DWF are called the mothers of all systems.