EN412300 Industrial Work Study and Productivity Improvement

Time Study

Asst. Prof. Sirawadee Arunyanart

Department of Industrial Engineering
Khon Kaen University
 Time Study
It is important to develop performance measures to ensure that the
employees are performing up to the set standards. It is equally important
for any organization to utilize the employees or personnel effectively.

Time study is a study of the operational steps or production procedure

and the time consumed by them, for the purpose of devising methods of
increasing efficiency or productivity of workers.

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 Objectives of Time Study
▪ Used as information for scheduling and planning work
▪ Used in calculation of the standard cost and budget preparation
▪ Used in estimation of the product cost before actual production, which
is useful in pricing decisions
▪ Used in calculation of efficiency of machine, the number of machines
that one worker can control, and used to balance the assembly line
▪ Used as a basis for determining incentives (wage incentive) and
controlling labor costs

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 Time Study Techniques

➢ Direct Time Study (Stopwatch method) (การศึกษาเวลาโดยตรง)

➢ Work Sampling (การสุม่ งาน)
➢ Predetermined-Time System (การศึกษาเวลาโดยระบบหาเวลาก่อนล่วงหน้า)
➢ Standard Time Data System (ระบบข้อมูลเวลามาตรฐาน)

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 Direct Time Study
▪ Direct and continuous observation of a task using a stopwatch or
other timekeeping device to record the time taken to accomplish the
task.
▪ While observing and recording the time, an evaluation of the
worker’s performance level is made to obtain the normal time for the
task.
▪ The data are then used to compute a standard time for the task.

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 Direct Time Study
Advantage
➢ Is the only technique to get time directly
from the actual work
➢ Able to observe work throughout the
work cycle and able to directly give
suggestion for work improvement to
worker
➢ Able to know the intervening events that
occur during work, which is the cause of
not fully efficient work
➢ Is a basic method that is easy to learn
and understand
Disadvantage
➢ Information of worker efficiency is
required
➢ The standard time depends on small
sample size, that is the time is obtained
from a small number of workers
➢ Take long time to study
➢ Expense is higher than other techniques
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 Work Sampling
▪ A statistical technique for determining the proportion of time spent by
workers in various defined categories of activity (e.g. setting up a
machine, assembling two parts, etc.).
▪ It is as important as all other statistical techniques because it permits
quick analysis, recognition, and enhancement of job responsibilities,
tasks, performance competencies, and organizational work flows.
▪ Other names used for it are 'activity sampling', 'occurrence sampling',
and 'ratio delay study'.

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 Work Sampling
Advantage Disadvantage
➢ Gives an unbiased result since workers ➢ Is not economical for short cycle jobs. It
are not under close observation is also uneconomical to study a single
➢ The study may be interrupted at any worker or even small group of workers
time without affecting the results ➢ Workers may change their normal
➢ Can be conducted by anyone with method of working when they see an
limited training - no need to have experts observer. Therefore, the results from the
➢ Is economical and less time-consuming work study may not be accurate
than time study. This is because more ➢ The observations are limited or
than one worker can be studied at the insufficient. So, the results may not be
same time and observer needs not to be accurate.
present himself for a long time.
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 PTS
▪ A technique based on the analysis of work into basic human
movements, classified according to the nature of each movement
and the conditions under which it is made.
▪ Tables of data provide a time, at a defined rate of working, for each
classification of each movement.
▪ It is used to construct Standard Time at a variety of levels – macro,
operation, feature and product – and form the foundation of Industrial
Engineering practices and Costing procedures.

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 PTS
Advantage
➢ No timing is required so it eliminates
inaccuracies associated with stopwatch time
study
➢ Since times can be calculated before
starting the work, this procedure is useful in
methods design, equipment selection and
design and production planning and control
➢ The basic times determined with the use of
PMT system are relatively more consistent
➢ Time standard for a job can be obtained
without going to the work place
➢ The use of PTS forces the analyst to study
the method in detail. This sometimes helps
to further improve the method.
Disadvantage
➢ Can only deal with manual motions of an
operation
➢ Is not economical for non repetitive
operations
➢ Is restrictive in nature because they have
been built on data taken from particular
operations and thus it provides better results
only if applied to that type of work/operation
➢ All categories of motions have not been
taken into consideration while collecting PTS
data
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 Standard Time Data System

▪ A database of normal time values, usually organized by work

elements that can be used to establish time standards for tasks
composed of work elements similar to those in the database.
▪ Use the existing information of time to make a standard time formula
such as standard formula for calculating turning time.

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 Standard Time Data System
Advantage Disadvantage
➢ Standard time can be set before ➢ Large amount of data is required to build
production database
➢ Avoid need for performance rating which ➢ Require considerable time and cost
is a controversial step in direct time ➢ Risk of improper applications – attempt
study to set standard for tasks not covered by
standard time data system

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