OPERATIONAL MANAGE-

MENT

Work Design
and Measure-
ment
Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.
 Learning objectives:
•Explain the importance of work design.
•Compare and contrast the two basic approaches
to job design.
•Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
standardization.
•Describe behavioral approaches to job design.
•Discuss the impact of working conditions on job
design.
•Compare the advantages and disadvantages of
time-based and output-based pay systems.
 Learning objectives:
•Explain the purpose of methods analysis and de-
scribe how methods studies are performed.
•Describe four commonly used techniques for mo-
tion study.
•Define a standard time.
•Describe and compare time study methods and
perform calculations.
•Describe work sampling and perform calculations.
Job Design
Job Design
-The act of specifying the contents and
methods of jobs.
•What will be done in a job
•Who will do the job
•How the job will be done
•Where the job will be done
Importance

•Organization’s are dependent on human efforts to

accomplish their goals.
•Many job design topics are relevant to continuous
and productivity improvement.

Objectives

•Productivity
•Safety
•Quality of work life
 Two basic ap-
proaches to job
design
Two basic approaches to job design:

•Efficiency
-Emphasizes a systematic, logical approach to job de-
sign

•Behavioral
-Emphasizes satisfaction of needs and wants of em-
ployees
Specialization
• Work that concentrates on some aspect of a product or
service.
Advantages
For management: For employees:
1. Simplifies training 1. Low education and skill requirements
2. High productivity 2. Minimum responsibility
3. Low wage costs 3. Little mental effort needed

Disadvantages
For management: For employees:
1. Difficult to motivate quality 1. Monotonous work
2. Worker dissatisfaction, possibly resulting in 2. Limited opportunities for advancement
absenteeism, high turnover, disruptive tac- 3. Little control over work
tics, poor attention to quality 4. Little opportunity for self-fulfillment
Behavioral Approaches to Job Design
Job Enlargement
•Giving a worker a larger portion of the total task by hori-
zontal loading.

Job Rotation
•Workers periodically exchange jobs.

Job Enrichment
•Increasing responsibility for planning and coordination
tasks, by vertical loading.
Motivation
•Motivation is a key factor in many aspects of
work life.
-Influences quality and productivity
-Contributes to the work environment

•Trust is an important factor that affects moti-

vation.
Teams
Short-term team
-Formed to collaborate on a topic or solve a problem

Long-term teams
-Self-directed teams.
-Groups empowered to make certain changes in their
work processes.
Benefits of teams
-Higher quality
-Higher productivity
-Greater worker satisfaction

Team problems
-Some managers feel threatened
-Conflicts between team members
Quality of Work life
Quality of Work
•Quality of work life affects not only workers’ overall
sense of well-being and contentment, but also their
productivity.

•Important aspects of quality of work life:

-How a worker gets along with co-workers
-Quality of management
-Working conditions
-Compensation
Compensation System
•Time-based system
-Compensation based on time an employee
has worked during the pay period.

•Output-based (incentive) system

-Compensation based on amount of output
an employee produced during the pay period.
Comparing Compensation Approaches
Management Workers
TIME-BASED
Advantages
1. Stable labor costs
1. Stable pay
2. Easy to administer
2. Less pressure to produce than
3. Simple to compute pay
under output system
4. Stable output

Disadvantages 1. No incentive for workers to in-

1. Extra efforts not rewarded
crease output
OUTPUT-BASED
Advantages
1. Lower cost per unit
1. Pay related to efforts
2. Greater output
2. Opportunity to earn more

Disadvantages
1. Wage computation more diffi-
cult
1. Pay fluctuates
2. Need to measure output
2. Workers may be penalized be-
3. Quality may suffer
cause of factors beyond their
4. Difficult to incorporate wage
control (e.g., machine break-
increases
down)
5. Increased problems with
scheduling
 Individual and Group Incentives
Plans
Individual incentive plans
•Straight piecework
-Worker’s pay is a direct linear function of his or her output.
-Minimum wage legislation has reduced their popularity.
•Base rate + bonus
-Worker is guaranteed a base rate, tied to an output standard,
that serves as a minimum.
-A bonus is paid for output above the standard.
Group incentive plans
-Tend to stress sharing of productivity gains with employees.
 Knowledge-Based Pay System
•Knowledge-based pay
-A pay system used by organizations to reward workers who un-
dergo training that increases their skills.
Three dimensions:
•Horizontal skills
-Reflect the variety of tasks the worker is capable of per-
forming.
•Vertical skills
-Reflect the managerial skills the worker is capable of.
•Depth skills
-Reflect quality and productivity results.
 Management Compensation
•Many organizations used to reward managers based on out-
put.

•New emphasis is being placed on other factors of perfor-

mance.
-Customer service
-Quality

•Executive pay is increasingly being tied to the success of the

company or division for which the executive is responsible.
Method Analysis
Method Analysis
•Analyzing how a job gets done.
•It begins with an analysis of the overall op-
erationIt then moves from general to specific
details of the job concentrating on:
-Workplace arrangement.
-Movement of workers and/or materials.
The Need for Methods Analysis
•The need for methods analysis can arise from a va-
riety of sources:
1.Changes in tools and equipment.
2.Changes in product design or introduction of new
products.
3.Changes in materials and procedures.
4.Government regulations or contractual agree-
ments.
5.Accidents or quality problems.
Method Analysis Procedure
1. Identify the operation to be studied, and gather relevant
data.
2. Discuss the job with the operator and supervisor to get
their input.
3. Study and document the present methods.
4. Analyze the job.
5. Propose new methods.
6. Install the new methods.
7. Follow up implementation to assure improvements have
been achieved.
Guidelines for Selecting a Job to Study
•Consider jobs that:
1. Have a high labor content
2. Are done frequently
3. Are unsafe, tiring, unpleasant, and/or noisy
4. Are designated as problems
-Quality problems
-Processing bottlenecks
-etc.
Analyzing the Job: Flow Process
Charts

•Flow process chart

-Chart used to examine the overall se-
quence of an operation by focusing on
movements of the operator or f low of
materials.
Example
of Flow
Process
Chart:
Analyzing the Job: Worker-Machine
Chart

•Worker machine chart

-Chart used to determine portions of a
work cycle during which an operator and
equipment are busy or idle.
Example of
Working
Machine
chart:
Motion Study
 Motion Study
•Motion study
-Systematic study of the human motions used to perform an operation

•Motion Study Technique

–guidelines for designing motion-efficient work procedures.
•Analysis of therbligs
–basic elemental motions into which a job can be broken down.
•Micromotion study
–use of motion pictures and slow motion to study motions that otherwise
would be too rapid to analyze.
•Charts
–activity or process charts, simo charts (simultaneous motions).
Developing Work Methods
•In developing work methods that are motion effi-
cient, the analyst attempts to:
-Eliminate unnecessary motions
-Combine activities
-Reduce fatigue
-Improve the arrangement of the workplace
-Improve the design of tools and equipment
Work Measurements
Work Measurements
•Work measurement is concerned with how
long it should take to complete a job.

•It is not concerned with either job content or

how the job is to be completed since these are
considered a given when considering work
measurement.
 Work Measurements
•Standard time
-The amount of time it should take a qualified worker to com-
plete a specified task, working at a sustainable rate, using given
methods, tools and equipment, raw material inputs, and work-
place arrangement.

•Commonly used work measurement techniques

-Stopwatch time study
-Historical times
-Predetermined data
-Work sampling
Work Measurements Techniques
•Stopwatch Time Study
-Used to develop a time standard based on observations of one worker
taken over a number of cycles.
•Standard Elemental Times or Historical times
-are derived from a firm’s own historical time study data.
•Predetermined time standards
-involve the use of published data on standard elemental times.
•Work sampling
-a technique for estimating the proportion of time that a worker or ma-
chine spends on various activities and idle time.
Number of Cycles to Observe
•The number of observations to collect is a function of
-Variability of the observed times
-The desired level of accuracy
-Desired level of confidence for the estimated job time
Observed Time
 Normal Time

Assume that a single performance rating has been

made for the entire job.
 Normal time

Assumes that performance ratings are made on an

element-by-element basis.
Standard Time
 Work Sampling
•Work sampling is a technique for estimating the proportion of
time that a worker or machine spends on various activities and
the idle time.
•Work sampling does not require timing an activity or involve
continuous observation of the activity
Uses:
1. Ratio-delay studies which concern the percentage of a
worker’s time that involves unavoidable delays or the proportion
of time a machine is idle.
2. Analysis of non-repetitive jobs.
Work Sampling
Job Design Success
•Success factors:
-Carried out by personnel with appropriate train-
ing and background.
-Consistent with the goals of the organization.
-In written form.
-Understood and agreed to by both management
and employees.
Operations Strategy
•It is important to make design of work systems a key
element of strategy:
-People are still at the heart of the business.
-Workers can be valuable sources of insight and
creativity.
-It can be beneficial to focus on quality of work
life and instilling pride and respect among workers.
-Companies are reaping gains through worker
empowerment.
THANK YOU FOR LISTEN-
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Reporters:

Janet Loresto
Jane Javier
Jean Ann Mercado
Jensen Kurtney Roadilla