OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

PRODUCT PROCESSES
HR

OPERATION MANAGEMENT FACILITIES

MATERIALS

LAYOUT
SCHEDULING
PLANNING
 Work Study
Managing Efficiency,Processes and Productivity:
- Time Study
- Method Study
- Process Improvements
- Productivity Improvements
- Value Engineering /Cost Reduction
 Work Study
• Method Study
- Methods of performing work
and improve efficiency and economy

• Work Measurement
- Time taken to do it,
with a view to rationalization, routinisation,utilisation , cost
and incentive improvement
 Work Study
• Productivity:
- A measure of performance

- Broadly a ratio of output to input

To evaluate productivity levels and identify areas of

improvement.
 Work Study
• Methods, times and systems of performance
Improve methods –get it right
- Method study
- O&M Ergonomics
- Industrial & Systems Engineering
WORK STUDY
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Method Study Time Study
Examining a job and finding Determine the time necessary to perform
More efficient methods to a job and its elements
Perform
 Work Study
• Method study – Steps
Select<--------------------------------
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Record I I
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Examine I I
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Develop I
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 Work Study
• Time study:
- Select job & identify the work tasks
- Check the method- efficient/agreed?
- start a Time Study sheet & break work task into “units”
- several times with a stop watch & for a sample of workers, time measure
> Completion time for each unit of work in the job sequence
> Average for each worker
> Determine and apply worker effort rating for each worker
> Apply fatigue, personal & other allowances
From the observation data (worker average times) calculate standard time for the task
Fix standard time and enter into measured work manual/database.
Time Study: Rating
• Assessing the effective speed of working of the operator
relative to the observer’s concept of the rate corresponding to
standard rating.

• Most time studies in industry are used to determine standard

times for setting workloads and also as a basis for incentive
plans.

• Rating (the assessment of a worker’s rate of working) and the

allowances to be given for recovery from fatigue.
The qualified worker

• Time studies should be made on a number of qualified workers;

and very fast or very slow workers should be avoided.

• Different jobs require different human abilities. For example,

some demand mental awareness, concentration, visual
perception; others, physical strength; some acquired skill or
special knowledge.

A qualified worker is one who has acquired the skill, knowledge

and other attributes to carry out the work in hand to
satisfactory standards of quantity, quality and safety

A representative worker is defined as one whose skill and

performance is the average of a group under consideration and
who is not necessarily a qualified worker.
Standard rating and standard performance

• The principal use of work measurement is to set time standards

which can be used for a number of different purposes
(including program planning, estimating and as a basis for
incentives) for the various jobs.

• It would be no use setting standards so high that only the best

ones could attain them, since programs or estimates based on
them that would never be fulfilled.

• to set standards well within the achievement of the slowest

workers would not be contributing to efficiency.
Rating is the assessment of the worker’s rate of working relative
to the observer’s concept of the rate corresponding to
standard pace.

• By definition, rating is a comparison of the rate of working

observed by the work study person with a picture of some
standard level in mind.

• This standard level is the average rate at which qualified

workers will naturally work at a job, when using the correct
method and apply it to their work.

• This rate of working corresponds to the standard rating, and is

denoted by 100 on the recommended rating scale.
Rating is the assessment of the worker’s rate of working relative
to the observer’s concept of the rate corresponding to
standard pace.

• Standard performance is the rate of output which qualified

workers will naturally achieve without over-exertion as an
average over the working day or shift. This performance is
denoted as 100 on the standard rating and performance scales.

• The rate of working most generally accepted in the United

Kingdom and the United States, corresponding to the standard
rating is equivalent to the speed of motion of the limbs of a
man of average figure walking without a load in a straight line
on level ground at a speed of 4 miles an hour (6.4 kilometers
per hour).
What is rated?

• The purpose of rating is to determine the standard time which can be maintained by
the average qualified worker and which can be used as a realistic basis for planning,
control and incentive schemes.
• What the study person is concerned with is therefore the speed with which the
operator carries out the work, in relation to the study person’s concept of a normal
speed. Speed of what?
• Certainly not just speed of movement, because an unskilled operator may move
extremely fast and yet take longer to perform an operation than a skilled operative
who appears to be working quite slowly.
What is rated?

• The only thing that counts is the effective speed of the operation. Judgment of effective
speed can only be acquired through experience and knowledge of the operations being
observed. Should effort be rated, and if so, how?

• The problem arises as soon as it becomes necessary to study jobs other than very light
work where little muscular effort is required. Effort is very difficult to rate.

• Operations involving mental activities (for example, judgment of finish in inspection of

work) are most difficult to assess.
Factors affecting the rate of working

• Differences in actual times for a particular element may be due to factors

outside or within the control of the worker.

Factors outside of the operator’s control may be:

• differences in the quality or other characteristics of the material used,

although they may be within the prescribed tolerance limits;
• changes in the operating efficiency of tools or equipment within their useful
life;
• minor and unavoidable changes in methods or conditions of operation;
• differences in the mental attention necessary for the performance of certain
elements;
• changes in climatic and other surrounding conditions such as light,
temperature, etc.
Factors affecting the rate of working

Factors within the operator’s control may be:

• acceptable differences in the quality of the product;

• differences due to the individual’s ability;
• differences due to the attitude of mind, especially the attitude
to the organization for which he works.
 Rating
Scales of rating
• The 0 -100 scales has, however, certain important advantages which have
led to its adoption as the British Standard.

How the rating factor is used

• It is usual practice to round off ratings to the nearest multiple of

five on the scale; that is to say, if the rate is judged to be 13 per
cent above standard, it would be put down at 115.
• If the study person’s ratings were always perfect, however
many times an element were rated and timed, the results
should be that:

Observed time x rating = a constant

Scales of rating

• Provided that the element is of the type described as a constant

element and that it is always performed in the same way.
• An example, expressed numerically, might read as follows:
• .

• This basic time (0.20 minutes in the example) represents the time the
elements would take to perform (in the judgment of the observer) if the
operator were working at the standard rate, instead of the faster one actually
observed.
Time study: From study to standard time

• Basic time is the time for carrying out an element of work at standard rating,
i. e.

Observed time x observed rating

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Standard rating
Work content
• The work content of a job or operation is defined as:

Basic time + relaxation allowance + any allowance for additional work,

i.e., that part of contingency allowance which represents work.

Allowances
• Many jobs require human effort, and some allowance must be
made for recovery from fatigue for relaxation. Allowance must
also be made to allow a worker to attend to personal needs; and
other allowances (e.g. contingency allowances) may also have to
be added to the basic time in order to give the work content.

• The difficulty experienced in preparing a universally accepted set

of exact allowances that can be applied to every working
situation anywhere in the world is due to various reasons. The
most important among them are:

– Factors related to the individual. If every worker in a

particular working area were to be considered individually, it
might well be found that a thin, active, alert worker at the
peak (top) of physical condition required a smaller allowance
to recover from fatigue than a fat, incompetent (unskilled)
worker.
Allowances

– Factors related to the nature of the work itself. Many of the

tables developed for the calculation of allowances give figures
which may be acceptable for light and medium work in
industry but which are inadequate when applied to
operations involving very heavy and exhausting work. (i.e.,
furnaces in steel mills).

Examples of these factors are: whether a worker has to

perform the work standing up or sitting down, and position
during work; whether force has to be used to move or carry loads
from one place to another; whether the work itself results in
excessive eye or mental strain, and so on.
Allowances

• Each of these will affect the amount of relaxation allowances

needed.
– Factors related to the environment. Particular relaxation
allowances, have to be determined with due regard to various
environmental factors such as heat, humidity, noise, dirt,
vibration, lighting intensity, dust, wet conditions, etc.
Calculation of allowances
• It will be seen from this model that relaxation allowances (which are
intended to assist recovery from fatigue) are the only essential part of
the time added to the basic time.

• Other allowances, such as contingency, policy and special allowances

are applied under certain conditions only.

• Relaxation allowance is an addition to the basic time intended to

provide the worker with the opportunity to recover from the
physiological and psychological effects of carrying out specified work
under specified conditions and to allow attention to personal needs.

• The amount of allowance will depend on the nature of the job.

Relaxation allowances are calculated so as to allow the worker to recover from
fatigue.

Fatigue may be defined as a physical and/or mental weariness, real or imagined,

existing in a person and harmfully affecting the ability to perform work. The
effects of fatigue can be lessened by rest pauses, during which the body
recovers from its effort.

• Allowances for fatigue are normally added element by element to the basic
times, so that a work value for each element is built up separately, the
element standard times being combined to give way the standard time for
the whole job or operation.

• In this way it is possible to deal with any extra allowance which may be
required to compensate for severe climatic conditions, since the element may
sometimes be performed in cool weather and sometimes when it is very hot.
Relaxation allowances have two major components:

fixed allowances and variable allowances.

Relaxation allowances

Fixed allowances are composed of:

• Allowances for personal needs. This allowance provides for the

necessity to leave the workplace to attend to personal needs
such as washing, going to the bathroom or getting a drink.
• Common figures applied by many enterprises range from 5 to 7
per cent.

• Allowances for basic fatigue. This allowance, always a constant,

is given to take account of the energy expended while carrying
out work and to lessen monotony.

• A common figure is 4 per cent of basic time. This is considered to

be sufficient for a worker who carries out the job while seated,
who is engaged on light work in good working conditions.
Variable allowances are added to fixed allowances when working
conditions differ noticeably from those stated above, for instance
because of poor environmental conditions that cannot be
improved, added stress and strain in performing the job in
question, and so on.

• Relaxation allowances are given as percentages of the basic time.

They are normally calculated on an element-by-element basis.

Rest pauses

• Relaxation allowances can be taken in the form of rest pauses.

While there is no hard and fast rule governing rest pauses, a
common practice is to allow a 10 to 15 minute break at mid-
morning and mid-afternoon, often joined with facilities for tea,
coffee or cold drinks and snacks, and to permit the rest of the
relaxation allowance to be taken at the good judgment of the
worker.
Variable allowances

Rest pauses are important for the following reasons:

• They break up the monotony of the day.

• They give workers the chance to recover from fatigue and to

attend to personal needs.

• They reduce the amount of time off taken by workers during

working hours.

• Where workers are working in conditions of heat, cold, noise or

vibration it may be necessary to introduce mandatory rest pauses
as part of a work-rest routine to ensure the health and safety of
the workers.
Other allowances
• It is sometimes necessary to include allowances other than relaxation allowances in the
compilation of standard time.

Contingency allowances
• A contingency allowance is a small allowance of time which may be included in a
standard time to meet reasonable and expected items of work or delays.
• The exact measurement of which is uneconomical because of their rare or irregular
occurrence
• Contingency allowances should not be greater than 5 per cent, and should only be
given in cases where the study person is absolutely satisfied that the contingencies
cannot be eliminated and that they are justified.

Special allowances
• Special allowances may be given for any activities which are not normally part of the
operation cycle but which are essential to the satisfactory performance of the work.
• Such allowances may be permanent or temporary; wherever possible, these allowances
should be determined by time study.
Start-up allowance to compensate for time taken by any work and
any enforced waiting time which necessarily occurs at the start of
a shift or work period before production can begin.

A shut-down allowance may be given for work or waiting time

occurring at the end of the day.

A cleaning allowance is given when the worker has to give attention

from time to time to cleaning his machine or workplace.

Tool allowance is an allowance of time to cover the adjustment and

maintenance of tools.
Some allowances are normally given per occasion or per batch. Such
allowances are;
Set-up allowance, given to cover the time required for preparing a
machine or process for production, an operation which is
necessary at the start of production on a batch of fresh products
or components.
Dismantling allowance may be given, to cover the time needed for
making alterations to machine or process settings after
completing a run of production.
Reject allowance may be included in a standard time when the
production of a proportion of defective products is inherent in
the process, but is perhaps more usually given as a temporary
addition to standard times, per job or per batch, if an occasional
bad group of material has to be worked.
Learning allowances may be given to trainee operators engaged on
work for which standard times have been issued, as a temporary
benefit while they develop their ability.
Training allowance is a similar allowance given to an experienced
worker to compensate for the time he is required to spend
instructing a trainee, while both are working on jobs for which
standard times have been set.
Implementation allowance, given to workers asked to adopt a new
method or process to encourage them to attempt an enthusiastic
implementation of the new ways.
Small batch allowance is required to allow a worker working on
small batches to decide what to do and how to go about it and
then to work up to a standard performance by practice and
repetition.
 Work Study
• Example standard time calculation:
Element Basic Time Relaxation% Effort% Standard time
1 2.50 10 110 3.03

2 4.80 10 110 5.81

3. 3.60 15 110 4.55

Standard time Total……………………………………………..13.39 minutes

 Work Study
Method Analysis
• Development of methods is a cooperative effort of
the design, process and methods analyst.
• This is done both for jobs being done for the first
time and also as continuous improvement
• The methods are evaluated and optimised on a
continuous basis.
• Change in design, facilities and other variables lead
to change in methods and hence need analysis.
 Work Study
Method analysis
• Approach:
- The Process Chart approach
> Describe an existing method
> Analysts get idea with the clear description of the process
> This helps in understanding and improving the process
Some of the flow charts commonly used are:
- The Material Flow Chart
A graphic representation of the sequence of operations,
transportations, Inspections, delays and storage occurring during the
process
 Work Study
Method analysis
• Operation occurs when object is intentionally changed in any of the
physical or chemical characteristics, assembled, disassembled from
another object or is prepared for another operation
• Transportations occurs when an object is moved from one to another
place, except when such movement is a part of the operation
• Inspections occur when an object is examined for identification or is
verified for quality or quantity in any of its characteristics
• Storages occur when an object is kept and protected against unauthorised
removal
• Delays occur to an object when conditions, except those which
intentionally change the physical or chemical characteristics of the object
do not permit or require immediate performance for the next planned
step.
 Work Study
Method analysis
• Process Chart characteristics:
Activity Symbol
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Operation Oo
ork
Stur
Transportation dyk
Inspection Me
thS
odt
anu
alyd
Storage
sisy
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Delay e
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 Work Study
Method analysis
• Work Station flow process chart
In the course of analysing, if analyst observes materials or men
movement, analyst will examine the methods being employed in various
work stations.
Workstation is defined as the area occupied by the operator and the
equipment with which he works.
Picks up box of flat plates
Carries box to inspection bench
Places box on the bench
Inspects flat plates
Places good plates in container
Carries container of good plates to skid and so on
 Work Study
Method analysis
Man and Machine Charts

A graphic representation of the coordinated activities of a man and a

machine described in terms of independent work, combined work and
waiting. The duration of various activities is represented by bars which
are drawn to length against time scale.
 Work Study
Motion Study
• To study and improve the motion of an operator
for performing task.
Operator Process chart:
A graphical presentation of coordinated activities of an operators
‘s right and left hands. These activities are described in terms of operations,
transportations, holds and delays.
An operation occurs whenever the hand picks up, drops, lays down, positions,uses or
assembles something.
Transportation occurs whenever the hand moves from one position to another at the work
place.
Hold occurs whenever the hand holds an object so that the other hand may do something
on the object
Delay occurs when the hand is idle, in the sense that it is not performing an operation, a
transportation or hold.
 Work Study
Motion Study
• The simultaneous motion cycle chart:
An improved Operator Process chart, where it yields a more
detailed description of the observed motion pattern and
hence is often more capable of revealing deficiencies and
hence more scope of improvements.
It observes and records actions like –
Search,select,grasp,transport empty,transport
loaded,hold,release load,position,pre-
position,inspect,assemble,disassemble,use, unavoidable
delay, avoidable delay, plan, rest for overcoming fatigue