Standard times, Norm times.

Standard times became a hot issue in the second halve of the twentieth century.
As mass production became more eminent, unit price became a dominant factor to survive in a high competitive market.   Labour cost which is influence able by external parameters was therefore an important key factor to minimise the production cost of a modern product.

In the early days of Industrial engineering, engineers used the stopwatch to determine the production time but as not all workers perform work in the same time the question raised how to set labour times which are acceptable to every valid worker regardless gender and performance capacity.    An uniform labour time which is acceptable to any worker is called the standard time or the minimum needed production time frequently called "Normal Time".

Labour times clocked with stopwatch are corrected in plus or minus in function of the pace of the operator to obtain a standardised time.   The pace of the operator is a parameter to evaluate in the determination of the standard times during the measurement.

In the fifties the technological race started to determine standard times faster based on the study of human motions. The aim was to eliminate the evaluation of pace as this is a subjective matter and lead very often to internal discussions.
Time study based on human motions where born and are called : "Predetermined time study systems".    Every human motion gets a predetermined time at a standardised time or at pace 100.