ACTIVITY SAMPLING A large number of instantaneous observations are made over a period of time of a group of machines, process or workers.

Each observation record what is happening at that instant and the percentage of observations recorded for a particular activity or delay is a measure of the per centage of time during which that activity or delay occur. It is a statistical s ampling technique as its name suggests. If it were possible to look down a whole plant shop full of machines continuous ly day in and day out and record every stoppage of every machine, a complete pic ture of the production time and stoppage time for the whole shop for that period would have been obtained. This will be impossible without keeping a large numbe r of men permanently on the job something which is very expensive. The best method is to make a number of tours to the plant at irregular interval noting the machines working, machine stopped and the cause of each stoppage. If sufficiently large number of readings is taken at random intervals, the percenta ge of readings recording a machine working will tend to equal the percentage tim e it is doing so. The percentage readings recording an operator as doing a certain operation or g roup of operation is an estimate of the percentage of time actually spent on the se operations. Types of information provided by an activity sampling a) Proportion of working day during which workers/machines are producing. b) The proportion of the working days used up by delays. Reasons for each d elay must be recorded. c) The relative activity of different workers and machines. To make an activity sampling a study man requires a number of duplicated sheets with a space for each machine or a sheet for each group of machines of the same types or those making the same type of product. He makes a systematic tour to t he plant or shop machine by machine or work place by work place. If a machine is running he make a mark or a tick if it is stopped he finds out the reason first and makes a code letter to denote the cause of stoppage. Operators were to carry on their work as if obs