Work Study and Measurement 1

ENGR. JOSELINDA M. GOLPEO

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Basic needs, quality of life and productivity

Basic Needs of Human

Food
Enough food every day to generate the energy needed for living and working.
Clothing
Enough clothing to afford protection from adverse weather conditions and to permit
bodily cleanliness
Shelter
A shelter that provides protection under healthy conditions and that is equipped with
certain household equipment and furniture.
Security
Security against violence and against unemployment and that provides for one’s
personal needs in sickness or old age.
Health and essential services
Safe drinking water, sanitation, access to energy use, medical care, education and a
means of transport.
What is productivity?
Productivity may be defined as follows:
OUTPUT
PRODUCTIVITY =
INPUT

Assess or measure the extent to which a certain output can be extracted from a given
input.

Example:

A potter working eight hours a day produces 400 pots a month using a wood-fired kiln. Let
us assume that as a result of a change in the method of work he was able to produce
500 pots a month instead of 400 with the same equipment and hours of work. His
productivity calculated in terms of number of pots produced will then have increased by
25percent.

Let us now assume that as a result he was unable to sell all 500 pots and had to lower his
price from $2 a pot to $1.80 a pot. If he wants to assess his productivity gain, the potter
may be more interested in using monetary terms rather than simply the number of pots
produced. He could then argue that the value of his output used to be 400 x 2 =
$800 a month and is now 500 x 1.80 = $900 a month. His input has not changed.

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Hence his productivity gain is:

Two observations:

First, productivity was used to measure increase in output expressed in numbers of pots
produced, in the first case, and in monetary terms in the second, giving different values in
each case. In other words, depending on what one is interested in measuring, the nature
of the output and input will vary accordingly.

Second, while actual production increased in this example from 400 to 500 pots,
productivity in monetary terms did not show the same corresponding increase. This means
that we have to distinguish between increased production and increased productivity,
which in this example was measured in terms of monetary gains.

Let us continue with our example and assume that the potter decided to replace his woo-
fired kiln by an oil-fired kiln. This cost him an investment of $6,000, which he reckons
should be amortized over ten years. In other words, the cost of this investment will be
$600 a year for ten years, or $50 a month. He also would need oil that would cost him
$50 a month more than what he would have paid for the wood. Let us also assume that
his production remained constant at 500 pots a month. Measured in monetary terms, the
value of his output is 500 x 1.80 =$900 per month, from which will be deducted $50 for
capital investment and &50 for fuel, or $100. Thus his monetary gain is $900 - $100 =
$800. In this case his productivity expressed in monetary gain has not improved since,
while originally he was producing only 400 pots, he sold them for $2 each – arriving at the
same financial figure.

However, out potter may wish to argue that as a result of the new kiln his quality has
improved, that he will have fewer rejects returned and that the user’s satisfaction will
increase over time so that he may be able to increase his price again. Furthermore, his
own sense of satisfaction at work has improved, as it has become much easier to operate
the new kiln. Here, the definition of the amount has been enlarged to encompass quality
and a relatively intangible factor, that of consumer satisfaction. Similarly, the input now
encompasses another intangible factor, that of satisfaction at work. Thus productivity gains
become more difficult to measure accurately because of these intangible, factors and
because of the time lag that need to be estimated until user’s satisfaction will permit an
increase in prices of the pots produced in the new kiln.

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PRODUCTIVITY IN THE INDIVIDUAL ENTERPRISE AND TASK
OF THE MANAGEMENT

Productivity in the individual enterprise may be affected by a series of external factors, as

well by the numbers of deficiencies in its operations or internal factors. Example of external
factors include the availability of raw materials and skilled labour, government policies
towards taxation and tariffs, existing infrastructure, capital availability and interest rates,
and adjustment measures applied to the economy or to a certain sectors by the
government. These external factors are beyond the control of the government. Other
factors, however, are within the control of managers in an enterprise and these are the
ones that will be discussed.

The output and input factors in an enterprise

In a typical enterprise the output is normally defined in terms of products or services

rendered.

In a manufacturing concern, products are expressed in numbers, by value by conformity

to predetermined quality standards.

In a service enterprise such as a public transport company or a travel agency, the output
is expressed in terms of the services rendered.

In a transport company this may be the number of customers or tons of cargo per kilometer
carried.

In a travel agency it could be the value of tickets or average value of tickets per customer
or so on.

Both manufacturing and service enterprises should be equally interested in consumers’ or

users’ satisfaction, such as number of complaints or rejects.

On the other hand, the enterprise disposes of certain resources or inputs which it produces
the desired output. These are:

LAND AND BUILDINGS – Land and Buildings in a convenient position

ENERGY- Energy in its various forms such as electricity, gas, oil, or solar power.

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MATERIALS- Materials that can be converted into products to be sold, both as raw
materials or auxiliary materials such as solvents or other chemicals and paints needed in
the process of manufacturing and packaging material.

MACHINES AND EQUIPMENT- machines and equipment necessary for the operational
activities of the enterprise, including those intended for transport and handling, heating or
air conditioning, office equipment, computer terminals and the like.

HUMAN RESOURCES- Men and Women trained to perform the operational activity, to
plan and control, to buy and sell, to keep of track accounts and to perform other operations
such as maintenance or administrative and secretarial jobs.

CAPITAL- it is used to finance the purchase of land, machinery, equipment, materials and
labour, and to pay for the services rendered by human resources.

THE TASK OF MANAGEMENT

The management of an enterprise is responsible for seeing that the enterprise resources
mentioned above are combined in the best possible way to achieve the highest
productivity. In any concern larger than a one-person business (and to some extent even
in a one-person business,) harnessing and coordinating these resources and balancing
one resource against another is the task of management. In any concern larger than a
one-person business (and to some extent even in a one-person business,) harnessing and
coordinating these resources and balancing one resource against another is the task of
management. The enterprise – like a driverless coach – moves forward jerkily, now held
up for lack of material, now for lack of equipment, because machines or equipment are
badly chosen even more badly maintained, or because energy sources are inadequate or
employees unwilling to contribute their best.

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Figure 1. Role of the management in coordinating the resources of an enterprise.
In this quest for higher productivity, an efficiency-minded management acts to influence
one or both of the two factors, the output (i.e products and services) or the input (i.e
the five resources at its disposal). Thus management may be able to produce a larger
quantity of, and/or better-quality or higher-value products or services with the same
input, or it may achieve a better result by changing the nature of the input such as
investing in advanced technology, information systems and computers or by using an
alternative source of raw material and energy.

Work Study and Productivity

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

How the total time of a job is made up

 A Man-hour

 A Machine-hour

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 A. W o r k c o n t e n t a d d e d b y p o o r d e s i g n o r s p e c i f i c a t i o n o r
product or its p art, or impro per utilizati on of
materials
 Poor design and frequent design changes
 W ater of materi al s
 Incorrect quality standards

B. W ork content added by inefficient of production or

operation
 Poor layout and utilization of space
 In a d e q u a t e m a t e r i a l s l a n d i n g

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  Frequent stoppages as production changes from one
product to another
 Ineffective method of wo rk
 Poor planning inventory
 F re quent br ea kdown of machi n e and e quipmen t
C. W o r k c o n t e n t r e s u l t i n g m a i n l y t h e c o n t r i b u t i o n o f
hu man resou rce s
 Absenteeism and lateness
 Poor wo rkmanshi p
 Accidents and occupational hazards
D. I n e f f e c t i v e t i m e w i t h i n t h e
control of the worker
 Absence, lateness and idleness
 Careless workmanship
 Accidents
Interrelationship of the various methods use to reduce
ineffective time .

WORK STUDY

- It is the body of knowledge concerned with the analysis of the work methods and
the equipment used in performing a job, the design of an optimum work method
and the standardization of proposed work methods.

- It is 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.

- Technique used in the examination of human work in all contexts, and which lead
systematically to the investigation of all the factors which affect the efficiency and
economy of the situation being reviewed, in order to effect improvement.

- Work Study has contributed immeasurably to the search for better method, and the
effective utilization of this management tool has helped in the accomplishment of
higher productivity.

- Work Study is a management tool to achieve higher productivity in any organization

whether manufacturing products or offering services to its consumers.

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OBJECTIVES OF WORK STUDY:

- 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 workers and hence to establish standard time.

- To increase the productivity by ensuring the best possible use of human., machine
and material resources and to achieve best quality product or service at minimum
possible cost.

- To improve operational efficiency.

BENEFITS OF WORK STUDY:

- Increased productivity and operational efficiency

- Reduce manufacturing cost
- Improve work place layout
- Better man power planning and capacity planning
- Fair wages to employees
- Better working conditions to employees

- Improved work flow

- Reduce material handling costs
- Provides a standard performance to measure labor efficiency.
- Better industrial relations and employees moral
- Basis for sound incentive scheme
- Provide better job satisfaction to employees.
- Determine the best or most effective men of accomplishing a necessary operation
or function.

I. WHY IS WORK STUDY VALUABLE?

Work study succeeds because it is systematic both in the investigation of the problem
being considered and in the development of its solution. Systematic investigation takes
time. It is therefore necessary, in all but the smallest firms, to separate the job of making
work studies from the task of management.

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It is continuous observation and study at the workplace or in the area where the activity is
taking place that the facts can be obtained. This means that work study must always be
the responsibility of someone who is able to undertake it full time, without direct
management duties, someone in a staff and not a line position. Work study is a service to
management and supervision.

1. It is means of raising the productivity of a plant or operating unit by the

reorganization of work, a method which normally involves little or no capital
expenditures on facilities and equipment.

2. It is systematic. This ensures that no factor affecting the efficiency of an operation

is overlooked, whether in analyzing the original practices or in developing the new
and that all the facts about the operation are available.

3. It is the most accurate means yet evolved of setting standards of performance, on

which the effective planning and control of production depends.

4. It can contribute to the improvement of safety and working conditions at work by

exposing hazardous operations and developing safer methods of performing
operations.

5. The savings resulting from properly applied work study start at once and continue
as long as the operation continues in the improved form.

6. It is a tool which can be applied everywhere. It can be used with success wherever
work is done or plant is operated, not only in manufacturing shops but also in offices,
stores, laboratories and service industries such as wholesale and retail distribution
and restaurants, and on farms.

7. It is relatively cheap and easy to apply.

8. It is the one of the most penetrating tools of investigation available to management.
This makes it an excellent weapon for starting an attack on inefficiency in any
organization since, in investigating one set of problems, the weaknesses of all the
other functions affecting them will gradually be laid bare.

It is not enough for work study to be systematic. Work study must be applied continuously,
and throughout the organization. The full effect felt in an organization only when work study
is applied everywhere, and when everyone become imbued with the attitude of mind which
is the basis of successful work study: intolerance of waste in any

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form, whether of material, time, effort or human ability: and the refusal to accept without
question that thing must be done in a certain way because that is the way they have always
been done.

II. TECHNIQUES OF WORK STUDY AND THEIR

RELATIONSHIP

The term “work study” embraces several techniques, but in particular, method study and
work measurement. Method study is associated with the reduction of the work content of
a job or operation, while work measurement is mostly concerned with the investigation and
reduction of any ineffective time associated with it.

1. M E T H O D S T U D Y

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
costs.

Subjecting each part of a given piece of work to close analysis to eliminate every
unnecessary element or operation, as a means of approaching the quickest and best
method of performing the work. It also includes formulation of incentive schemes, and
improvement and standardization of equipment, methods, operator training, working
conditions, etc. Also called methods engineering.

Objectives of method study

1. Improvement of processes and procedures.

2. Improvements of factory, shop and workplace layout and of design of plant and
equipment.
3. Economy of human efforts and the reduction of unnecessary fatigue
4. Improvement in the use of materials, machines and man power.
5. The development of a better physical working environment.

2. W O R K M E A S U R E M E N T

Work measurement is the application of techniques designed to establish the time for an
average worker to carry out a specified manufacturing task at a defined level of
performance. It is concerned with the length of time it takes to complete a work task
assigned to a specific job.

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This is important. Work measurement measures 'how much work' in a given task, not how
long the work will take. However, it does tell us how long the work will take if the person
carrying out that work works at a pre-defined rate and takes all the rest breaks they are
entitled to.

USES OF WORK MEASUREMENT:

Measure and monitor performance

Work measurement provides a common 'currency' of 'standard hours' or 'standard

minutes' which allows:

 the outputs of different units and departments to be compared;

 the outputs of the same unit or department to be compared over time;
 Actual output to be compared with planned output.

Determine workforce levels

Since work measurement provides a reliable figure for the amount of work (and the time it
should take at a defined level of performance), it allows managers to estimate the
workforce requirements of a given scheduled output and to plan for overtime working,
additional labor requirements and so on.

Compare working methods

If we can measure, or reliably estimate, the time taken to complete an activity using a
variety of working methods, we can use this data as one of the key factors in comparing
those methods.

Assist in preparing budgets

Time standards can be used to convert planned output levels into working hours and
then into labor costs.

Provide a basis for incentive payment schemes

Actual hours taken to complete a fixed amount of work can be compared to the planned
hours and this ratio used as the basis of a performance calculation. The calculated
performance can be compared to a target performance level and bonus payments made
where the actual performance exceeds planned.

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Work measurement helps to uncover non-standardization that exist in the workplace and
non-value adding activities and waste. A work has to be measured for the following
reasons:

1. To discover and eliminate lost or ineffective time.

2. To establish standard times for performance measurement.
3. To measure performance against realistic expectations.
4. To set operating goals and objectives.
5. To compare the efficiency of alternative methods. Other conditions being equal,
the method which takes the least time will be the best method.
6. To balance the work of members of teams, in association with the multiple activity
charts, so that, as far as possible, each member has tasks taking an equal time.
7. To determine, in association with man and machine multiple activity charts, the
number of machines a worker can run.

WORK MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES:

There is a variety of work measurement techniques, each suited to different types of work
or to different forms of measurement (depending, for example, on the uses to which the
measurement data is to be put and the degree of 'accuracy' and 'reliability' required).

The most common are:

 Time Study
 Pre-determined Motion Time Systems
 Activity Sampling
 Analytical Estimating
 Synthesis.

However the basic methodology of work measurement remains common to all of these
techniques. This is to:

Analyze the work being measured into its constituent parts (called 'elements' in a number
of the measurement techniques)

Measure the time taken to complete each of these elements, using some process (which
is part of the specific measurement technique) that converts any observed or recorded
times to a time at a defined level of performance

Synthesis the time for the whole job of work by combining these element times according
to the specific frequency with which they should occur in the work when carried out as

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properly specified, and making due allowance for such factors as the need for workers to
recover from stresses and fatigue brought about by doing this work.

There are eight steps in for the Basic Procedure of work-

study. These are:
1. Select

 The task to be studied

 The job or process to be studied
2. Record

 By collecting data at source & by direct observation

 Collect relevant data about the job or process, using the
most suitable data collection technique (explained in
part two ), so th at the data will be in the most
c o n v e n i e n t f o r m t o b e a n a l y z ed .
3. Examine

 By cha l len gi ng the purpo se, pl ace, se quence & method

o f w o rk
 The recorded facts critically and challenge everythin g
that is done, considering in turn: the purpose of the
acti vi ty; the pl a ce whe r e i t i s per for med; the sequ ence
in whi ch i t i s don e; the per son who is doin g it; the
meansbywhichitisdone.
4. Develop

 New methods, drawing on contribution of those

c o n c e r n ed

The most econo mi c method, takin g i nto accoun t all the
ci rcums tance s and drawi ng as appropri ate i n variou s
producti on man agement techni que s (e xpl ai ned i n part
three) , as wel l as on the contributi ons of manage rs,
super vi sor s, wo rker s and other sp eci al is ts wi th wh o m
ne w app roaches shoul d be e xp l ored and di scussed.
5. Evaluate

 Results of alternative solutions

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  The resul ts attai ned by the i mproved metho d co mpared
wi th the quanti ty of wor k i n vol ved a nd cal cul ate a
standardtimeforit.
6. Define

 New methods & present findings

 The new metho d and the rel a ted ti me and p re sent i t to
all those concerned, either verbally or in writing, using
de monstration s.
7. Install

 New methods & train those involved

 The new metho d, trai nin g tho se in vol ve d, as an agreed
practi ce wi th the al lotted ti me of operati on.
8. Maintain

 Establish control procedure

 The new standa rd practi ce b y mo ni toring the resul ts and
compari n g them wi th the o ri gi nal ta rgets

Steps 1, 2 and 3 occur in every study, whether the technique being used is method
study or work measurement. Step 4 is part of method study practice, while step 5 calls for
the use of work measurement. It is possible that after a certain time the new method may
prove to be in need of modification, in which case it would be re-examined again using the
sequences of basic procedure of work study.

WORK STUDY AND PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW

Brief Background

 Work Study emerged in the early part of this century as a technique aimed at
rationalizing and measuring work the emphasis was on economy of motion and
movement.
 In the late 1940’s and later on in the 1960’s, other disciplines were developed,
namely industrial engineering and production management respectively.
 with time many of them began to rely increasingly on sophisticated quantitative
methods such as operations research to resolve ever more complicated operational
problems.

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  Advances in the fields of computers and information systems helped to boost
production management techniques to the level attained at present.

Production Management

 Production management deals with the decision making related to production

process of that the resulting goods and service is produced according to
specifications in the amounts and at the scheduled demanded and at minimum cost.

Functions:

 Product design
 Quality control
 Layout and materials handling
 Production planning and control
 Maintenance management
 Work study

Product Design

 is concerned with the form and function of a product. Form design involves the
determination of what a product would look like the shape and appearance of the
product. Functional design deals with what function the product will perform and
how it performs.

Quality Control

 is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production.
This approach places an emphasis on three aspects:

1.) Elements such as controls, job management, defined and well managed
processes, performance and integrity criteria, and identification of records

2.) Competence, such as knowledge, skills, experience, and qualifications

3.) Soft elements, such as personnel integrity, confidence, organizational

culture, motivation, team spirit, and quality relationships.

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Layout and Material Handling

 maximizing the effectiveness of the production process and meeting the needs of
employees.
 An effective layout involves least material handling and less costly material handling
equipments. It permits material handling without any loss of time, with minimum
delays and least backtracking. The total number of movements and the distances
moved are also considerably reduced in properly design plant layout.

Production Planning and Control

 It entails the acquisition and allocation of limited resources to production activities

so as to satisfy customer demand over a specified time horizon.

Maintenance Management

 Maintenance management encompasses and supplies solutions for the planning

and control of activities associated with maintenance activities of a plant or facility.
Generally, it incorporates labor and materials and may include the management of
maintenance stores.
 Main objective of the maintenance is to have increased availability of production
systems, with increased safety and optimized cost.

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