“𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.”
– Frank Gilbreth
In the early days of my career as an industrial engineer, I spent a lot of time chasing decimals. Stopwatch in hand, I conducted time studies with rigor. I measured cycle times, recorded observations with precision, and learned to calculate repeatable standards. Every second had to be justified. Every motion analyzed.
Back then, time was everything.
But as my experience grew, I learned something more powerful. Time is not the root cause—it’s the symptom. And motion is what shapes it.
This is the heart of motion vs time lean thinking: rather than reacting to how long tasks take, we must first understand how work is done and why it moves the way it does.
When Time Was Everything
I remember the pressure of getting time studies just right, repeating observations, calculating standard times, and training myself to see and measure with precision. The stopwatch wasn’t just a tool; it was a symbol of discipline and rigor. Every observation mattered. Every second had to be accounted for and justified.
That mindset isn’t wrong. In fact, the discipline behind it is foundational. Time studies still have value when used for the right purpose. But time, as I later realized, tells you only that something is wrong. It doesn’t tell you *why*.
The Trap of Chasing Speed
Over time, I saw that many teams fall into the same trap I once did: They chase time. They focus on how to do things faster without stepping back to ask whether the work itself makes sense, whether the motions behind the time are purposeful, necessary, or even humane.
When you chase time, you become reactive. You trim seconds here and there. You increase pressure. You ask for more throughput without changing the design. Eventually, people get tired. They work around the system instead of with it. And in the long run, you don’t gain speed, you lose sustainability.
Speed that is imposed rather than designed leads to burnout, errors, and rework.
Time Is the Symptom. Motion Is the Cause.
That’s when Frank Gilbreth’s quote hit me with full force: “Time is the shadow of motion.”
In other words, time is the effect. Motion is the cause. If you want to sustainably reduce time and improve performance, you have to study the motion.
Gilbreth, one of the pioneers of motion study, understood something deeply human: people don’t just complete tasks. They move through them. Their experience, flow, fatigue, and efficiency are shaped by how work is designed and how motion is supported (or hindered).
Time can tell us that something took too long. But only motion can show us *why*.
What Happens When You Study Motion
The shift from studying time to studying motion fundamentally changes how we approach improvement. Instead of measuring how long a task takes, we ask questions like:
Are tools and materials placed to support flow, or are they forcing extra motion?
Does the work environment match the natural movements of the human body?
Can a new person understand what to do just by looking at the setup?
Are we performing only what’s essential, or are we burdened by assumptions and complexity?
Here are four areas where studying motion leads to meaningful, sustainable improvements:
1. Part Presentation: Enabling Flow Through Placement
One of the simplest and most overlooked contributors to wasted motion is poor layout. When materials, tools, or information are placed inconsistently, or far from where they’re needed, workers must walk, reach, search, or adjust repeatedly.
That motion isn’t always visible unless you’re watching for it. A time study might show a long task time. But it won’t tell you that someone had to reach over their shoulder ten times an hour or walk 20 extra feet between steps.
Reshaping the presentation of parts, so they’re always ready, visible, and in the right location, naturally reduces time. But more importantly, it reduces fatigue and increases consistency.
Safe, Natural Motion: Designing for the Human Body
Not all motion is created equal. Some motions are smooth and ergonomic; others are awkward and strain-inducing.
When systems are designed without understanding the natural movement of the human body, they lead to stress injuries, slower cycles, and inconsistent outcomes.
Motion study helps us notice these mismatches. Instead of designing for machines or metrics, we begin to design for humans. The best lean systems don’t just produce faster—they produce *sustainably*, with less physical and cognitive burden.
And that matters not just for performance, but for retention and morale. People stay longer, learn faster, and contribute more when work fits them, not the other way around.
3. Intuitive Work: Supporting People at Every Skill Level
Good systems make the next step obvious.
In many organizations, tasks are overly reliant on tribal knowledge. A new person struggles because nothing is labeled, tools are hard to find, and there’s no clear sequence. So they ask questions, or worse, they guess.
Motion-based thinking asks: Can someone new understand what to do just by looking at the setup?
By designing intuitive work environments with clear signals, standardized layouts, and visual cues, we reduce variation, rework, and frustration. We also increase the confidence of our teams.
And when people feel confident, they move with purpose. Motion becomes fluid. Time drops.
4. Task Simplification: Doing What Truly Matters
One of the hardest habits to break is our tendency to add.
We add steps "just in case." We keep doing things because we always have. We build in checks and double-checks without asking whether the original process could be simplified.
Studying motion makes waste more visible. It forces us to ask: Are we doing what matters, or everything we ever thought we might need?
Simplification isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about clarity. About reducing noise. About freeing people to focus on what creates value.
The Payoff: Speed Without Burnout
When you improve motion, time drops naturally and sustainably. There’s no need to push harder or go faster. The system supports the speed.
This is one of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned in decades of practice: Speed isn’t something you chase. It’s something that follows good design.
The core idea behind motion vs time lean thinking is that motion creates the system design, while time reflects its outcome.
When we stop chasing time and start designing systems that fit the human beings doing the work, we unlock a different kind of performance. One where:
Quality improves because variation goes down
Engagement improves because people feel supported
Safety improves because stress and fatigue decrease
And yes, productivity improves, without the burnout
Questions Worth Asking
As leaders, coaches, or improvement professionals, we often jump to solutions. We want faster results, better numbers, more output.
But sometimes, the more useful path is to step back and ask:
Are our teams burned out from chasing time, or supported by systems that simplify motion?
Are we measuring outcomes, or studying causes?
Are we reacting to delays, or redesigning the flow of work?
Time Still Matters. But It's Not the Starting Point.
To be clear, time studies aren’t obsolete. When done with the right purpose, they remain valuable. But they are diagnostic tools, not design tools.
The starting point of improvement shouldn’t be "how long does this take?"
It should be: “How is the work done, and why does it move the way it does?” In the world of motion vs time lean thinking, time is treated as the result, not the starting point.
Once we understand motion, we can redesign it. Once motion improves, time takes care of itself.
Conclusion: Focus on What Moves People
Frank Gilbreth understood something many of us forget in the pursuit of efficiency: motion isn’t just mechanical. It is human. And when we respect motion, we respect people.
If you're trying to improve performance in your organization, whether in manufacturing, healthcare, services, or any other domain, start with motion. Study the work as it is. Observe how people move. Ask how the system supports them or forces workarounds.
Design for motion, not just measurement.
Because when the system fits the person doing the work, performance follows, and people thrive.
Comments