Work Design and Measurement

Work Design and
Measurement
Chapter 7
Importance of work design:
1. The importance of work design is underscored by
an organization’s dependence on human efforts to
accomplish its goals.
2. Relevant for productivity improvement and
continuous improvement
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
Objective of Job Design:
 Productivity,
 Safety
 Quality of work life
Two basic approaches to job design:
Efficiency - emphasizes a systematic, logical
approach to job design.
Behavioral- emphasizes satisfaction of wants and
needs.
Specialization
• 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 2. Limited opportunities for advancement
resulting in absenteeism, high turnover, 3. Little control over work
disruptive tactics, poor attention to 4. Little opportunity for self-fulfillment
quality
Behavioral Approaches to Job
Design
• Job Enlargement
– Giving a worker a larger portion of the total task
by horizontal loading
• Job Enrichment
– Increasing responsibility for planning and
coordination tasks, by vertical loading
• Job Rotation
– Workers periodically exchange jobs
Motivation
Encourages workers to respond in a positive manner
to the goals of the organization
Teams
Forms of Teams
 Short term Teams
 Self-directed Teams (Long term team)

Short Term Teams
formed to collaborate on a topic such as quality
improvement, product or service design, or
solving a problem.
Self-directed Teams
Groups empowered to make certain changes in
their work processes, sometimes referred to as
self-managed teams, are designed to achieve a
higher level of teamwork and employee
involvement.
Ergonomics
Ergonomics -is the scientific discipline concerned with
the understanding of interactions among humans and
other elements of a system, and the profession that
applies theory, principles, data, and methods to design
in order to optimize human well- being and overall
system performance.
-Incorporation of human factors in the
design of the workplace.
Three Domains of Ergonomics:
Physical - (e.g., repetitive movements, layout,

health, and safety);
Cognitive – (e.g., mental workload, decision
making, human–computer interaction,
work stress);
Organizational -(e.g., communication,
teamwork, work design, and telework)
Quality of Work Life
• 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:
– Working conditions
– Compensation
– Job Design
Working Conditions
• Physical
– Temperature and humidity
– Ventilation
– Illumination
– Noise and Vibration
• Psychological
– Work Time and Work Breaks
– Worker Relationships
– Occupational Healthcare
– Safety
Compensation
• It is important for organizations to develop
suitable compensation plans for their
employees
• Compensation approaches
– Time-based systems
– Output-based systems
• Incentive programs
– Knowledge-based systems
Compensation
• Time Based System
– Compensation based on time an employee has
worked during a pay period.
• Output Based System
– Compensation based on amount of output an
employee produced during a pay period.
Individual and Group Incentive Plans
• Individual incentive plans
– Straight piecework
• Worker’s pay is a direct linear function of his or her output
– 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
descriptions of the
way the job is now being
performed . Method Analysis
• Analyzing the Job and Proposing New
Methods
- Analyzing and improving
methods is facilitated by the use of various
charts such as flow process charts and
worker-machine charts
• are used to review and critically examine
the overall sequence of an operation by
focusing on the movements of the
operator or the flow of materials
equipment are busy or idle.
• Installing the Improved Method.
-implementation of proposed method
changes requires convincing management of
the desirability of the new method and
obtaining the coop-eration of workers.
-in order to ensure that changes have
been made and that the proposed method is
functioning as expected, the analyst should
review the operation after a reasonable
period and consult again with the operator.
MOTION STUDY
Motion study Systematic study of the human motions
used to perform an operation. The purpose is to
eliminate unnecessary motions and to identify the best
sequence of motions for maximum efficiency
There are a number of different techniques that motion

study analysts can use to develop efficient procedures.
The most-used techniques are the following:
1. Motion study principles
2. Analysis of therbligs
3. Micro motion study
1) Motion study principles
Guidelines for designing motion efficient
work procedures.
In developing work methods that are motion
efficient, the analyst tries to:
1. Eliminate unnecessary motions
2. Combine activities
3. Reduce fatigue
4. Improve the arrangement of the workplace
5. Improve the design of tools and equipment
2. Analysis of therbligs
Basic elemental motions that make up a job

The use of the human body
The arrangement and conditions of the
workplace
The design of tools and equipment
3. Micro motion study

Use of motion pictures and slow motion
to study motions that otherwise would be too
rapid to analyze.
Work Measurement
• 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.
 Commonly used work measurement
techniques
Standard time
Predetermined data
Stopwatch time study
Work sampling
Work Measurement
• Standard time
– The amount of time it should take a qualified worker to complete a
specified task, working at a sustainable rate, using given methods,
tools and equipment, raw material inputs, and workplace
arrangement.
• Commonly used work measurement techniques
– Historical times
– Predetermined data
– Stopwatch time study
– Work sampling
Work Measurement Techniques
• 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.
• Stopwatch Time Study
– Used to develop a time standard based on observations of one
worker taken over a number of cycles.
• Work sampling
– a technique for estimating the proportion of time that a worker or
machine spends on various activities and idle time.
Stopwatch Time Study
• Used to develop a time standard based on observations of
one worker taken over a number of cycles.
• Basic steps in a time study:
1. Define the task to be studied and inform the worker who will be
studied
2. Determine the number of cycles to observe
3. Time the job, and rate the worker’s performance
4. Compute the standard time
Observed Time
OT 
 x i
n
where
OT  Observed time
x i  Sum of recorded times
n  Number of observations
Normal Time
NT  OT  PR
where
NT  Normal time
PR  Performance rating
Assumes that a single performance rating has been made

for the entire job
Normal Time

NT   x j  PR j 
where
NT  Normal time
x j  Average time for element j
PR j  Performance rating for element j
Assumes that performance ratings are made on an element-

by-element basis
Example
1 and 2. 4 cycles
A job has two steps:1 2 of
performance are observed. The observed time
for each step is shown in the table. Calculate
Normal Time.
Observation(min)
Step Performance Rating 1 2 3 4
1 90% 2.5 3.5 3 3
2 120% 5 6 6 5
Standard Time
ST  NT  AF
where
ST  Standard time
AF  Allowance factor
and
AFjob  1  A A  Allowance percentage based on job time
1
AFday  A  Allowance percentage based on workday
1 A
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.
Operations
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Work Design and

 Self-directed Teams (Long term team)

Physical - (e.g., repetitive movements, layout,

There are a number of different techniques that motion

Basic elemental motions that make up a job

3. Micro motion study

Assumes that a single performance rating has been made

Assumes that performance ratings are made on an element-

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