I can't say I agree. If a guy walks 100 feet to get a bolt and then back, two minutes later goes back that 100 feet to get another bolt then if I said, "hey dude work smarter not harder, grab a handful of bolts just in case, make one trip." From an employer stand point I would not call the guy lazy because he wanted to make less trips, I'd say he was smart because he would be saving me money on the mile he's gonna walk going for 1 bolt, 1 bolt....1 bolt.........1 bolt.......that would annoy the mother lovin' sh_t out of me.
Another, your walking from one end of the shop to the other with your grinder, you walk right past the bin with the grinding wheels you know you are gonna need. Once at the other side you drop off your grinder, walk back to the bin to get the grinding wheels. Working smarter, as you pass the wheels stick em' in your pockets, hands and take grinder and wheels at the same time, one trip.
That's my interpretation of working smarter, it's not sacrificing quality of the work just improving how the work is planned out, tasks are completed. I've got a friend that was a night shift manager in a factory over near Searcy, Ark for several years. I would hear him go off on the phone about "these dumb f'krs can only carry one thing at a time", can only complete one task at a time instead of working on multiple tasks equally to get the job done. The story about walking right past something that and then coming back for it, true, straight from his mouth, watched a guy do it except it was about 4-5 things he walked by. All little things that could have been picked up in one trip. Working smarter, apparently something that guy could not figure out. He's in Alabama now....still here it LOL
Or, what I'm about to go through. I'm sub-teaching this week. The torches are outside on the cart. The night class is about to come in. I'm gonna tell them to change out he tanks(empty) and I can almost bet that instead of rolling the cart the 30-40 to the storage area for the tanks to make the exchange they'll remove the tanks from the cart and roll them by hand. Now, if I say, work smarter not harder, roll the cart over there as it was designed to do........just my .02
with respect
Shawn