HISTORY
Partner network One-MTM starts
The members of the International MTM Directorate (IMD) vote with the required 2/3 majority for the dissolution of the organisation, which was founded in 1957. This clears the way for the establishment of a new, sustainable business model for the worldwide uniform distribution of the process language MTM. The partner network One-MTM, to which eleven national associations on four continents belong up to now, starts its work on 02.02.2020. The headquarters are at the MTM ASSOCIATION e. V. in Germany.
MTM ASSOCIATION e. V.
The Deutsche MTM-Vereinigung e. V. is opening a new chapter in its history as a non-profit industrial association: The general meeting decides to change the name Deutsche MTM-Vereinigung e. V. to MTM ASSOCIATION e. V. This and the acquisition of the exclusive rights of use of the MTM basic system (MTM-1) are logical steps towards the internationalization of the association. Many company members are active worldwide and rely on the support of the industry association, especially in the area of training. As the world's largest MTM organisation, the MTM ASSOCIATION e. V. therefore sees itself responsible for establishing and further developing MTM as a global standard in the international partner network.
MTM in Germany
In 1962, 17 well-known German companies - among them Robert Bosch GmbH, Daimler-Benz AG, Felina GmbH, IBM Deutschland, Singer Nähmaschinenfabrik AG, Maggi-GmbH and Vorwerk & Co. - founded the Deutsche MTM-Vereinigung e. V. With MTM, they have an instrument at their disposal with which they can increase productivity and thus improve their competitiveness. Today, the non-profit industrial association has a good 250 corporate members representing more than 2.5 million employees in Germany alone.
MTM is distributed worldwide
Harold Bright Maynard founded the "U.S. MTM Association for Standards and Research" in New York in 1951. The three MTM developers transfer all rights of use of the MTM process to this non-profit organisation. US-American consulting firms bring MTM to Europe in the early 1950s. Already in 1955, the first national MTM association in Europe is founded in Sweden, in 1957 in Switzerland, then in Holland and France. In Paris in 1957, all national MTM associations existing until then decide to found an International MTM Directorate (IMD), which shall ensure the worldwide uniform application of the MTM process.
"Methods-Time Measurement"
Harold Bright Maynard, John Lenhard Schwab and Gustave James Stegemerten work out the basics of MTM: They film employees of different production areas at work everywhere in the USA and decode elementary hand and finger movements as well as gaze functions, later also body, leg and foot movements. Thus, all basic movements are defined. The scientists base their system on the performance capabilities of averagely skilled workers; for the first time, a standard for evaluating human work is defined, comparable to the primitive meter. In 1948 their book "Methods-Time Measurement" is published – the official birth of the MTM method.
Method and time find each other
Numerous researchers are turning to motion studies to determine rules for motion sequences that are as time- and force-saving as possible. Asa Bertrand Segur succeeds in assigning time values to the Therbligs. Movement sequences can now also be evaluated quantitatively. He published his work in 1926 under the title "Motion Time Analysis" (MTA). Segur proves that the execution time required by people with the same skill, ability and physical effort to perform a work task depends on the method they use.
The discovery of the Therbligs
When the American building contractor Frank Bunker Gilbreth watches bricklayers at work, he notices that they are wasting energy unnecessarily. The search for the optimal working method never lets him go. In contrast to Frederick Winslow Taylor, founder of scientific management, Gilbreth is less interested in increasing work performance than in the optimal working method and workplace design. Gilbreth establishes the study of movement. For this purpose he uses film and a running timer. According to his theory, all human movements can be traced back to 17 basic movements (Therbligs). To determine the optimal working method, he now eliminates every Therblig that does not serve the progress of work. The raw material for the development of the MTM method has been found.
The Industrial Revolution
The age of the industrial revolution is changing the world. When James Watt patented his low-pressure steam engine in 1769, he heralded the greatest technical revolution in history. That the advancing mechanization of factory work demands a new corporate culture, only a few entrepreneurs recognize at the moment.
