WORK STUDY AND MEASUREMENT

• Work Study is an area of knowledge that addresses the problem of work simplification with the basis objectives of productivity enhancement, human comfort, and safety
• Work Study

  Concerned with the analysis of work methods and equipment used in performing a job, design of an optimum work method, and standardization of proposed work methods
• Method Study

  • Technique to reduce work content mainly by eliminating unnecessary movements by workers, materials, or equipment
  • Systematic recording and critical examination of existing and proposed ways of doing work to develop and apply easier and more effective methods and reduce costs
• Work Measurement

  • Systematic application of industrial engineering techniques to establish work content and time needed to complete tasks
  • Productivity improvement tool used to measure current productivity level and determine improvement projects' impact
  • Helps uncover non-value added areas of waste, inconsistency, and non-standardization in the workplace
  • Involves estimation of human effort needed for producing a unit of specified output from an operation
• Work measurement

  Uncover ways to make work easier and to produce products or services more quickly and economically
• Work measurement

  Estimation of the amount of human effort needed for producing a unit of specified output from an operation
• Work standard

  The amount of time taken by a well-trained worker, operating under normal conditions, to produce one unit of output
• Frederick Taylor is named as the father of scientific management and industrial engineering
• Adam Smith gave the concept of Division of Labour through his book "The Wealth of Nations" before Frederick Taylor
• James Watt, Boultin Mathew, and Robinson obtained a place in the history of Industrial Engineering for their work related to improvements in the performance of machines and industries
• Henry Laurence Gantt, who worked under F.W. Taylor, was a consulting engineer for economical shop management and for time, cost, and record-keeping
• Frank & Lillian Gilbreth reduced brick laying steps from 17 to 7 and increased the average number of bricks laid from 125 to 350 by eliminating wasted motion
• Boeing in the 1930s-1940s used time studies to measure and balance aircraft assembly lines, controlled cycle times, and produced over 13,000 B-17s
• Carl G. Barth developed a production slide rule for determining the most efficient combinations of speeds and feeds for cutting metals of various hardness
• Harrington Emerson applied scientific methods to work on the Santa Fe Railroad and wrote a book 'Twelve Principles of Efficiency'
• HB Maynard coined the term "Methods Engineering" and established the Methods Engineering Council (MEC) in Pittsburgh as a "time study training company"
• His effort resulted in excess of $1.5 million
• His effort was recognized as the term ‘Efficiency Engineering’
• HB Maynard coined the term “Methods Engineering”

  1948
• HB Maynard

  1. Established the Methods Engineering Council (MEC) in Pittsburgh as a “time study training company”

  2. Started a research project with Westinghouse in 1941 to make time study and standard setting much more fair to workman and worked with Gus Stegmerten and Jack Schwab. The three member team developed the Methods Time Measurement (MTM) work measurement technique, published in 1948

  3. Put the MTM technique into the public domain by forming the MTM Association in 1952 — Association which still exists today
• W.E Deming developed principals of statistical quality controls

  1986
• W.E Deming's "Out of the Crisis" focused on quality, not on costs
• W.E Deming emphasized continuous improvement rather than “Quotas” (Quotas are not engineered standards)
• Principles of Work Study

  • Must come from the top level management
  • People made aware of the objectives and the need of exercising such study
  • Method study must precede work measurement
• Objectives of Work Study and Measurement

  • To analyze the present method of doing a job systematically in order to develop a new and better method
  • To measure the work content of a job by measuring the time required to do the job for a qualified worker and hence to establish standard time
  • To increase productivity by ensuring the best possible use of human, machine, and material resources and to achieve the best quality product/service at minimum possible cost
  • To improve operational efficiency
  • To reduce waste through standardization of work elements of a job
  • To improve labor efficiency
  • Quantify expectations from people and processes, and communicate them
  • Determine staffing levels as output levels rise or fall
  • Assign and schedule work to people and equipment based on expectations
  • Identify and manage constraints; in equipment, process, facility
  • Balance individual workloads in lines or work groups for optimum performance
  • Offer pay related to output; labor incentives
  • Calculate actual capacity the operation can produce
  • Develop standard cost models for products and services
  • Justify equipment and automation acquisition
  • Meet financial understanding of costs
  • Judge disagreements about workload, assignments
  • Analyze variance to find problems
  • Estimate potential benefit from changes beforehand
• Benefits of Work Study and Measurement

  • Increased productivity and operational efficiency
  • Reduced manufacturing costs
  • Improved workplace layout
  • Better manpower planning and capacity planning
  • Fair wages to employees
  • Better working conditions to employees
  • Improved workflow
  • Reduced material handling costs
  • Provides a standard of performance to measure labor efficiency
  • Better industrial relations and employee morale
  • Basis for a sound incentive scheme
  • Provides better job satisfaction to employees