Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Operations Management
by
R. Dan Reid & Nada R. Sanders
2nd Edition © Wiley 2005
Work System Design
Designing a work system is part of
developing an operations strategy
The work system includes:
Job design
Work measurements
Worker compensation
Job Design
Definition: specification of the work activities for
an individual or group within an organizational
setting.
Behavioral factors:
Degree of labor specialization (advantages,
disadvantages).
Job enlargement (vertical/horizontal) and job
enrichment.
Physical considerations:
Work-task continuum.
Job Design Feasibility Issues
Technical feasibility:
Whether the job is within physical & mental
capabilities of the workforce
Economic feasibility:
Whether the cost of performing the job is less
than its added value
Behavioral feasibility:
Whether the job is intrinsically satisfying
Job Design (Trends)
Quality at the source.
Cross-training—multi-functional workers.
Employee involvement/creation of teams.
Feedback systems.
Outsourcing tasks.
Automation
Meaningful/rewarding jobs.
Workplace Changes
Labor/organizational changes.
More technology, fewer workers and
organizational layers.
Increased employee involvement.
Composition (gender/ethnic diversity).
Thus, managers have different roles.
Mentors or coaches rather than “bosses.”
Employee Empowerment
Assume roles once owned by managers.
Increases employee motivation and hence
productivity.
Managers must share:
Organizational performance information.
Rewards (based on organizational performance).
Knowledge/expertise needed to enhance
organizational performance.
Decision-making power.
Involvement
Increases trust and commitment
Improves employee communications and
attitudes
Involved employees are more likely to
generate new ideas
Involved employees achieve a higher quality
of work life which generates higher levels of
commitment leading to higher productivity
Approaches to Involving
Employees
Must be long-term, ongoing attempts
Communications efforts
feedback
“bottom-up” communications
attitude survey feedback
suggestion systems
team building and quality circles
Teamwork
Teams often outperform individuals.
Self-managed teams have been found to
increase organizational performance.
Responsible for many managerial actions:
Work assignments.
Work pace.
Quality assessment.
Hiring/firing.
Cross-functional work teams (projects,
committees).
Use of Teams
Problem-solving teams:
Small groups, trained in problem-solving techniques.
Used to identify, analyze, & propose solutions to
workplace problems
Special-purpose task forces:
Highly-focused, short-term teams with a focused
agenda (often cross-functional)
Self-directed or self-managed teams:
Team members work through consensus to plan,
mange, & control their assigned work flow
QWL: Definition II
“Quality of work life emphasizes improving the
human dimension of work.”
HR should try to improve QWL “by:
introducing participative problem solving,
restructuring work,
introducing innovative reward systems,
improving the work environment.”
n7 25 observatio ns
a x 0.05 0.24
Other Time Factors Used in
Calculating Standard Time
The normal time (NT) is the mean observed time multiplied by
the performance rating factor (PRF)
The PRF is a subjective estimate of a worker’s pace relative to a
normal work pace
The frequency of occurrence (F) is how often the element must
be done each cycle.
NT=(OT)(PRF)(F)
The allowance factor (AF) is the amount of time allowed for
personal, fatigue, and unavoidable delays
Standard Time=normal time x allowance factor, where:
1 1
AFTme Worked 1.176 117.6%
1 PFD 1 0.15
ST (NT)(AF)
Calculating Normal Time and
Standard Time at Pat’s Pizza
A B C D E F
12 Example 11.4 Calculating Standard Time for a Hand-Tossed Cheese and Pepperoni Pizza
13 Revised Observed Performance Rating Frequency Normal Time Standard Time
14 Work Element Time (minutes) Factor (minutes) (minutes)
15 1. Get ball of dough 0.15 0.90 1 0.135 0.159
16 2. Flatten dough 0.25 1.00 1 0.250 0.294
17 3. Spin and toss dough 0.60 0.85 1 0.510 0.600
18 4. Place dough on counter 0.15 1.10 1 0.165 0.194
19 5. Pour sauce on formed dough 0.30 1.20 1 0.360 0.423
20 6. Place grated cheese on top 0.28 1.00 1 0.280 0.329
21 7. Place pepperoni on sauce 0.28 0.95 1 0.266 0.313
22 Total Time 1.966 2.312
2
2.17
n 0.2 1 0.2 302 observations
0.05
Final Step – After making the 302 observations, the secretary was making
reservations 60 times or 19.9%. This estimate can now be used to make the
decision on savings that might result by consolidating this task with an in
house travel agency
Worker Compensation Systems
Compensation is the third part of work system design
Time-based plans (day pay) versus output-based systems
(incentive pay)
Group incentive plans: profit sharing & gain sharing
Plans put part of a worker’s salary at risk
Does the compensation system undermine teamwork?
Does plan prevent free-riders not doing their fair share?
Does the incentive plan encourage workers to support the long-
term health of the organization?
Learning Curves
When the number of times the task is
repeated doubles, the time per task
reduces as shown in the graph
With an 85% learning curve rate, the
2nd time a task is done will take 85%
of the 1st time.
The 4th time will take 85% of the 2nd
T x Ln = time required to perform
If an employee took 12 hours to a task the nth time
complete an initial task, how long will T = the time required to perform
the 16th time take (4th doubling) the task the first time
L = the rate of learning
Hours for 16th task 12 x (.85)4 6.26 hours n = the number of times the task
has doubled
Chapter 11 Highlights
Work system design involves job design, work
measurements, and worker compensation.
Relevant job design issues include design feasibility, the
choice of human or machine, the use of teams, and the
location where the work is to be done.
Methods or process analysis is concerned with how the
employee does the job and is used to make
improvements.
Work measurement is used to determine standard times
and are usually based on time studies. Standard times
are used for product costing, process evaluations, and for
planning workloads and staffing.
Chapter 11 Highlights (Continued)
Doing a time study requires breaking the job into work
elements and determining the number of observations.
Work sampling involves random observations of a worker
to determine the proportion of time spent on each
activity.
Standard times are developed with time studies,
elemental time data, and predetermined time data.
Worker compensation systems are time-based or out-put
based and can be based on individual or group
performance.
Learning curves show the rate of learning that occurs
when an employee repeats the same task over time.
Chapter 11 Homework Hints
11.5: calculate normal time (NT)
11.6: use NT from 11.5 and allowance factor—job time
[AFJOB] to calculate standard time (ST)
11.7: use the total ST from 11.6 to calculate the number of
units.
11.8: use NT from 11.5 and allowance factor—time worked
[AFTIME WORKED] to calculate ST
11.9: use the total ST from 11.8 to calculate the number of
units.
11.10: check the book for help in finding “other factors” to
choose between the two models calculated above.
11.19: refer to example 11.6 and use table 11-9 for data to
calculate the time based on the learning curve.
Note that each problem is worth 5 points for a total of 35
points for the assignment.