Work Study: Method Study and Work Measurement

Books authored by Shyam Bhatawdekar: 1. Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management case Studies) 2. Classic Management Games, Exercises, Energizers and Icebreakers

For owning copy/copies of these books (in printed format), write to: prodcons@prodcons.com

Alternately, you can get the first book (in printed format) directly on the internet through (amazon.com): http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-Studies/dp/1456585150/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298627848&sr=1-1

Their eBooks are available respectively at: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-ebook/dp/B004KABBMM and http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OEKF0I

(Refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia “Management Universe” at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/) 

Organization’s Most Important Jobs

• Finding the customers and retaining them. For this, continually provide maximum value for money (VFM) to the customers to sustain highest level of customer satisfaction.
• Improving overall productivity and thereby, minimizing the overall costs as much below the price as possible and thus maximizing profits.

Value for Money to Customers (VFM)

Value to customer (VFM) = (Total quality “Q” X Total service inclusive of pre, during and post customer service “S” X Relationship with customers “R”) divided by (Price “P” X Lead times “L”)

Therefore, value for money to customers should be continually enhanced by continual improvements in:

• Quality.
• Price: price being normally an outcome of the market forces of supply and demand, in order to make profits the overall costs should be kept well below those price levels. Only the price competitiveness can be achieved.
• Delivery.
• Service and relations.

Productivity

Productivity is the measure of output per unit of input.

Therefore, the equation for productivity = Output quantity/ Input quantity

It is important that the output should be an acceptable output to the users or customers. So enters the quality. Therefore, in order to reckon and emphasize qualitative changes in output and input, the equation of productivity will read as given below:

Productivity = Output quality and quantity/ Input quality and quantity

Productivity, thus, can be improved by three ways:

• Increase output and keep input constant.
• Keep output constant and decrease input.
• Increase both, output as well as input making sure that the proportion of increase in output is more than that of input.

Normally, outputs are: goods (products) and/or services.

Normally, inputs are various resources: man (labor), machine (equipment), material, money (capital) and also, time and information.

Work Study: The Pioneering Technique of Improving Value for Money and Productivity

Work study, under the major discipline of industrial engineering, emerged as the earliest effectiveness and efficiency technique that even to date remains the basic to all other techniques that developed later. Work study was the sequel to Taylor’s famous scientific management.

Work Study is defined as the systematic examination of the methods of carrying on activities so as to improve the effective use of resources and to set up standards of performance for the activities being carried out.

Work study has two major branches:

1. Method study
2. Work measurement

Method Study

Method study is the systematic recording and critical examination of existing and proposed ways of doing work, as a means of developing and applying easier and more effective methods and reducing costs.

It uses different sets of techniques to do so.

Objectives of Method Study

• Improvement in use of all the inputs i.e. men, machines, material, money and also, time and information.
• Economy in human effort and reduction of unnecessary fatigue.
• Layout improvements.
• Improvement in design of plant and equipment.
• Improvement in safety standards and procedures.
• Development of better working environment.

Seven Steps of Carrying Out Method Study: The Process

1. Define existing method.
2. Record existing method.
3. Examine existing method.
4. Develop new method.
5. Define new method.
6. Install new method.
7. Maintain new method.

Different Recording Techniques

• Outline process charts
• Flow process chart: man type, material type, equipment type
• Two handed process chart
• Multiple activity chart: using time scale
• Simo chart: using time scale
• Flow diagrams
• String diagrams
• Cyclegraph
• Chronocyclegraph
• Travel Chart

Some Details on Step 3 of the Process of Method Study i.e. Examine

Examine step uses questioning technique. Each activity of the method under examination subjected to systematic and progressive series of questions. There are two types of questions asked:

1. Primary questions
2. Secondary questions

Primary questions:

Questions are asked and answers found out on:

• Purpose: for which activity is being done.
• Place: at which activity is being carried out.
• Sequence: in which activity is being performed.
• Person: by whom activity is being rendered.
• Means: by which activity is being accomplished.

This primary examination is carried out with a view to

• Eliminate,
• Combine,
• Rearrange and/or
• Simplify the activities

Secondary Questions

During the secondary questions, answers to the primary questions are subjected to further query to determine whether possible alternatives of place, sequence, persons and means are practicable and preferred as a means of improvement upon the existing method.

1. Purpose:

• What is done?
• Why is it done?
• What else might be done?
• What should be done?

2. Place:

• Where is it done?
• Why is it done there?
• Where else might it is done?
• Where should it be done?

3. Sequence:

• When is it done?
• Why is it done?
• When might it be done?
• When should it be done?

4. Person:

• Who does it?
• Why does that person do it?
• Who else might do it?
• Who should do it?

5. Means:

• How is it done?
• Why is it done that way?
• How else might it be done?
• How should it be done ?

Some Details on Step 5 of the Process of Method Study i.e. Define New (Improved) Method

A report on new improved method should be prepared. It should include:

• Description of the method.
• Relative costs in material, labor and overheads of the new method and the existing method and expected savings.
• Cost of installing the new method, including cost of new equipment and of re-laying out shops or working areas.
• Diagram of the work place layout.
• Tools and equipment to be used and diagrams of jigs/fixtures etc.
• Executive actions required to implement the new method.

Some Details on Step 6 of the Process of Method Study i.e. Install New (Improved) Method

• Gaining acceptance of the change by the Management.
• Gaining acceptance of the change by the workers.
• Keeping a close eye on the progress of implementation of the new method till it starts running satisfactorily.

Classic Example of Early Application of Method Study as Done by Taylor in his Shoveling Experiment

• Tons handled on piece work during the year ended 30th April 1901: 924,040
• Cost of handling these materials: $30,798
• Former cost per year: $67,215
• Net saving: $36,417
• Average cost per ton: now $0.033, formerly $0.072
• Average earnings per man per day: now $1.88, formerly, $1.15
• Average tons handled per man per day: now $57, formerly $16
• Number of men: now 140, formerly 400 to 600

Motion Economy Principles

As an important part of method study, Frank Gilbreth and his wife Lillian Gilbreth, through their various experiments, institutionalized motion and time study through their famous motion economy principles. (You may find it very interesting to refer their biographical 1950 film and book Cheaper by the Dozen).

If one can study the motions and micro motions performed in carrying out an activity and economize on them- try to reduce them, the time taken for the activity can be significantly reduced.

For this, the movements are classified in 5 classes as given below:

• Class 1: Body members moved in this class are fingers and the pivot is knuckle.
• Class 2: Body members moved in this class are hands and fingers and the pivot is wrist.
• Class 3: Body members moved in this class are forearms, hands and fingers and the pivot is elbow.
• Class 4: Body members moved in this class are upper arms, forearms, hands and fingers and the pivot is shoulder.
• Class 5: Body members moved in this class are torso, upper arms, forearms, hands and fingers and the pivot is trunk.

Further, Gilbreth came out with the idea of conducting micro motion study. To facilitate it, a set of fundamental motions required for a worker to perform a manual operation was defined. The set consists of 18 elements, each describing a standardized activity. The set is called “therblig” (read Gilbreth in reverse order and you get this term “therblig” with ‘th’ treated as one letter). These are listed below:

• Search
• Find
• Select
• Grasp
• Hold
• Position
• Assemble
• Use
• Disassemble
• Inspect
• Transport loaded
• Transport unloaded
• Pre-position for next operation
• Release load
• Unavoidable delay
• Avoidable delay
• Plan
• Rest to overcome fatigue

Classic Example of Early Application of Motion and Time Study as Done by Gilbreth in his Bricklaying Improvement

Frank Gilbreth designed a special scaffold and a new brick laying procedure that reduced the movements needed from 18 to 5 and in one case to 2. The worker’s productivity increased from laying 120 bricks per hour to laying 350 bricks per hour. The new procedure also decreased fatigue.

Work Measurement

Work measurement is the application of techniques designed to establish the time for a qualified worker to carry out a task at a defined rate of working or at a defined level of performance.

It measures the time taken in performance of an operation or a series of operations and in can separate out ineffective time from effective time. Thus ineffective time can be studied and by way of method study described in earlier paragraphs, the ineffective operations can be reduced or eliminated.

Fair Day’s Work

Amount of work that can be produced by a qualified worker/employee when working at normal pace and effectively utilizing his time and where work is not restricted by process limitations.

Objectives of Work Measurement

• Finding ineffective time in an activity or a process (series of activities).
• Setting standard (norms) for output level.
• Evaluating workers’ performance.
• Assessing and planning manpower needs.
• Determining available capacity.
• Comparing various work methods.
• Facilitating operations scheduling.
• Establishing wage incentive schemes.

Some Techniques of Work Measurement

• Stop-watch time study.
• Work sampling.
• Predetermined time standards (PTS).
• Standard Data.

Conceptual Framework for Carrying Out Work Measurement

It is essential to understand the following concepts in order to undertake work measurement exercise in any organization:

• Qualified worker: Qualified worker is one who is accepted as having the necessary physical attributes, who possess the required intelligence and education and who has acquired the necessary skills and knowledge to carry out the work in hand to satisfactory standards of safety, quantity and quality.
• Standard rating: Rating is the assessment of the worker’s rate of working relative to the observer’s concept of the rate corresponding to standard pace (or standard rate).
• Standard performance (pace or rate): It is the rate of output which a qualified worker will naturally achieve without over-exertion as an average over the working day or shift, provided that he knows and adheres to the specified method and provided that he is motivated to apply himself to his work. The time taken to achieve the standard performance by the qualified worker is called “standard time”.

Steps in Carrying Out Work Measurement (Determining the Standard Time): The Process

1. Obtain and record all available information about the job, the worker and the surrounding conditions likely to affect the execution of the work.
2. Record the complete description of the method, break it down into elements.
3. Measure with a stopwatch and record the time taken by the worker to perform each element of the operation.
4. Assess the rating of the worker.
5. Extend the observed time to “basic time” by factorizing the actual time (observed time) by the assessed rating.
6. Determine the allowances (e.g. personal allowances, relaxation allowances, allowances for the working conditions etc) to be made over and above the “basic time” for the operation.
7. Apply those allowances on the “basic time”.
8. Thus, determine the “standard time” for the operation.

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