Bedaux Unit

While F. W. Taylor remains famous for conducting time studies on employees,^[1][2] these studies' influence on subsequent workplaces have long been harder to determine.^[3][4][5][6]

Recent research has revealed that the core purpose of Taylor's time studies was to produce Unit-Times data, as espoused in his Shop Management (1903)^[7] and Concrete Costs (1912), which he co-authored with Sanford E. Thompson.^[8][9]

The key individual who spotted Taylor's focus on Unit-Times was Harrington Emerson and his firm Emerson Consulting.^[10][11] Emerson's circle was the basis for several innovations with Unit-Times by his followers Charles E. Knoeppel, Charles E. Bedaux and Earl K. Wennerlund.^[9][12]

Building on Taylor's Unit-Times, and his experience at Emerson Consulting, Bedaux introduced the practice of rating assessment. Through rating Bedaux developed the "Bedaux System of Human Power Measurement" which arrived at a universal measure for all manual work, the Bedaux Unit or B.^{[9][13][14][15][16]}

The Bedaux B, and units derived from it such as the Rowntree Mark and the Urwick, Orr & Partners Point, led to improvements in the comparability of employee and departmental efficiency,^[12] as well as labor and activist disputes about the purpose and practices of time studies and the B.^[9]

Bedaux's claims to originality in making this innovation remain a topic of debate.^{[9][14][17][18]}

The Bedaux consultancy, its offshoots, and the Bedaux System were particularly influential in Britain well into the 1950s.^[13][19]

In 1959, the British Standards Institution issued British Standard 3138 (Work Study), which was based on the Bedaux B.^[9] British Standard 3138 was reissued in 1979 and 1992, and remains in daily use in job evaluations today.^[9]