OPERATIONS

MANAGEMENT
 DME 842: Operations Management

Instructor:
Dr. Shamraiz Ahmad, Assistant Professor
PhD Mechanical Engineering (Sustainable
Manufacturing)
Email: shamraiz.ahmad@smme.nust.edu.pk

Department of Design and Manufacturing Engineering

SMME-NUST, Islamabad

(Week-05)
 Today’s Lecture
Topics covered:

• Job design
 Job specialization
 Job expansion
• Work measurement
 Time Study
 Pre-determined Motion Time Systems
(Therbligs)
 Work Sampling
• Work Analysis
 Process charts
 Flow diagrams
 Activity charts
Objective of Human Resource
Strategy

To manage labor and design jobs so people

are effectively and efficiently utilized

4
 People and Work System Goals

Use people efficiently Provide reasonable quality

within constraints of work life

© 1995 Corel Corp.

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 Constraints on Human Resource
Strategy
 Many decisions made about people are constrained by other decisions.

 First, the product mix may determine seasonality and stability of employment.
 Second, technology, equipment, and processes may have implications for safety and job
content.
 Third, the location decision may have an impact on the ambient environment in which the
employees work.
 Finally, layout decisions, such as assembly line versus work cell, influence job content.

 Technology decisions impose substantial constraints. For instance, some of the jobs in
foundries are dirty, noisy, and dangerous; slaughterhouse jobs may be stressful and subject
workers to stomach-crunching stench; assembly-line jobs are often boring and mind
numbing; and high capital investments such as those required for manufacturing
semiconductor chips may require 24-hour, 7-day-a-week operation in restrictive clothing.
Constraints on Human Resource
Strategy
Product strategy Process strategy
- Skills needed - Technology
- Talents needed - Machinery and
- Materials used equipment used
- Safety - Safety

Schedule
- Time of day Human Individual differences
- Strength and fatigue
- Time of year
(seasonal) Resource Who - Information processing
and response
- Stability of schedules Strategy

Location strategy Layout strategy

- Climate - Fixed position
- Temperature - Process
- Noise - Assembly line
- Light - Work cell
- Air quality - Product

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What is Job Design?
Job Design involves:
 Specifying the content of jobs (what will be
done?)
 Specifying the methods of doing the jobs (how
will be done?)
 Designing the work environment (where will
be done?)
For an individual or group of people.

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What is the Objective of Job Design?

The objective of job design is to develop jobs

that meet the requirements of the organization
and its technology and that satisfy the
jobholder’s personal and individual
requirements

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 Job Design Decisions
Who What Where When Why How
Organizational
Mental and Geographic
Time of day; rationale for
physical locale of the
Tasks to be time of the job,
characteristics organization; Method
performed occurrence in objectives and
of the location of
the work flow motivation of
work force work areas
the worker

Ultimate
Job
Structure
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 Trends in Job Design
 Quality control as part of the worker's job,
Quality at source

 Cross-training workers to perform multi-skilled

jobs.

 Employee involvement and team approaches

to designing and organizing work

 "Informating (through emails, computers)"

ordinary workers
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 Trends in Job Design (Continued)

 Extensive use of temporary workers

 Automation of heavy manual work

 Organizational commitment to
providing meaningful and rewarding jobs
for all employees

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 Job Design
Components/Strategies/Approaches
 Job/Labor Specialization
The division of labor into unique (“special”) tasks.

 Involves
 Breaking jobs into small component parts
 Assigning specialists to do each part
 First noted by Adam Smith (1776)
 Observed how workers in pin factory divided tasks into © 1995

smaller components
Corel
Corp.

 Found in manufacturing &

service industries
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 Job Specialization Often Reduces Cost

 Greater dexterity & faster learning

 Less lost time changing jobs or tools
 Use of more specialized tools
 Pay only for needed skills (labor efficiency)

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Specialization in Business: Advantages

For Management: For Labor:

1. Simplifies training 1. Low education and
skill requirements
2. High productivity
2. Minimum
3. Low wage costs
responsibilities
3. Little mental effort
needed

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 Disadvantages

For Management: For Labor:

1. Difficult to motivate 1. Monotonous work
quality 2. Limited opportunities
2. Worker dissatisfaction, for advancement
possibly resulting in 3. Little control over work
absenteeism, high
4. Little opportunity for
turnover, disruptive
self-fulfillment
tactics, poor attention
to quality
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 Job Expansion
 Process of adding more variety to jobs
 Intended to reduce boredom associated with labor specialization
 This flexibility thus benefits the employee and the organization.

 Methods
 Job enlargement
 Job enrichment
 Job rotation
 Employee empowerment

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 Job Expansion
Job Enlargement: Giving a worker a larger portion of the total task
Tasks are added that require similar skill to an existing job
Job Enrichment: Increasing responsibility for planning, coordination
and control

 An example is to have department store salespeople responsible for

ordering, as well as selling, their goods.

 Job enrichment can be thought of as vertical expansion , as opposed

to job enlargement, which is horizontal.

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Job Enlargement/Job Enrichment
Enriched Job
Planning
Planning

Enlarged Job
Task
Task #2
#2 Present Task
Task #3
#3
Job

Control
Control

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Job Enlargement/Job Enrichment
Planning
Participate in a cross- Enriched job
function quality-
improvement team

Task #3 Present job Task #2

Lock printed circuit into Manually insert and Adhere labels to
fixture for next operation solder six resistors printed circuit board

Control Enlarged job

Test circuits after
assembly 21
 Limitations to
Job Enlargement/Job Enrichment
¨ Higher capital cost (additional equipment and facilities)
¨ Many individuals prefer simple jobs
¨ Higher wages are required since the worker must utilize a
higher level of skill
¨ A smaller labor pool exists of persons able and willing to
perform enriched or enlarged jobs
¨ Increased accident rates may occur
¨ Current technology in some industries does not lend itself to
job enlargement and enrichment

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 Job Rotation
Job rotation is the systematic movement of employees from one
job to another within the organization to achieve various human
resources objectives such as orienting new employees, training
employees, enhancing career development, and preventing job
boredom or burnout.
Pediatrics
Maternity

© 1995
Corel Corp.
© 1995 Corel
Corp.

Geriatrics
23
Job Rotation
 Employee Empowerment

Employee empowerment is
defined as the ways in which Employee Empowerment
organizations provide their
employees with a certain
degree of autonomy and
control in their day-to-day
Decision-Making
activities
Control

Planning

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Employee Empowerment
Self-Directed Teams
 Group of empowered individuals working together for a common
goal. They are empowered to make certain changes in their work
process
 May be organized for short-term or long-term objectives

 Reasons for effectiveness

 Provide employee empowerment
 Provide core job characteristics
 Meet psychological needs (e.g., belonging)

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Benefits of Teams

 Higher quality
 Higher productivity
 Greater worker satisfaction

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Job Design Continuum
Self-directed Teams

Increasing reliance
Empowerment
on employees’
contribution and
increasing
Enrichment
acceptance of
responsibility by
Enlargement employee

Specialization
Job Expansion

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Five core characteristics of job design

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Time and Motion study
Work Measurement

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 Work (definition)
■ Work is an activity in which one exerts physical and mental effort to accomplish
a given task or perform a duty
■ Work is more than muscular applications.

■ Combination of physical and cognitive work.

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The Pyramidal Structure of Work
■ Work consists of tasks
■ Tasks consist of work elements
■ Work elements consist of basic motion elements

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Task
■ An amount of work that is assigned to a worker or for which a worker is
responsible

■ Repetitive task – as in mass production

– Time required = 30 seconds to several minutes

■ Non-repetitive task – performed periodically, infrequently, or only once

– Time required usually much longer than for
repetitive task

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Work Element

■ A series of work activities that are logically grouped together because they have a
unified function in the task

■ Example: assembling a component to a base part using several nuts and bolts

■ Required time = six seconds or longer

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Basic Motion Elements
■ Examples:
– Reaching for an object
– Grasping the object
– Moving the object
– Walking
– Eye movement

■ A work element consists of multiple basic motion elements

■ Less than a second

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A Work System as a Physical Entity

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Three Categories of Work Systems
1. Manual work system
– Worker performs one or more tasks without the aid of powered
tools (e.g. hammers, screwdrivers, shovels)

2. Worker-machine system
– Human worker operates powered equipment (e.g. a machine
tool)
■ Physical effort (less)
■ Machine power(more)

3. Automated work system

– Process performed without the direct participation of a human
worker
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Manual Work System

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Worker-Machine System

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Automated System

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Work measurement
■ Work measurement – evaluation of a task in terms of
the time that should be allowed by an average worker to
perform the task
– 4 techniques
– Focus on human work
– Standard time/Time standard (allowed time) – amount of time that
should be allowed for an average worker to process one work unit
using the standard method and working at normal pace
– Iincludes allowance
■ Time study all the ways in which time is analyzed in
work situations

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When Are Time Standards Beneficial?
Characteristics of industrial situations in which time standards would be
beneficial
■ Low productivity: significant opportunities for improvement
■ Repeat orders: once the time standard is set for the first, it can be used for
successive ones
■ Long production runs: reduced average cost of work measurement
■ Repetitive work cycles: work measurement can be justified more readily
■ Short cycle times: requires less time to set standards

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Methods to Determine Time Standards

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 Techniques
Which to Use:
 1. Direct Time Study
The classical stopwatch study, or time study , originally proposed by Frederick W. Taylor in1881

■ Direct observation of a task using a stopwatch to record the time taken to

accomplish a task.
■ The task is usually divided into work elements and each work element is timed
seperately.
■ During the observation, the analyst evaluates the worker’s pace - performance
rating
■ Normal time
Tn=Tobs(PR)
where Tn= normal time, min; Tobs=observed time, min; PR=performance rating of
the worker’s pace

■ Standard time
Tstd=Tn(1+Apfd)
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Standard Time vs Normal Time
2. Predetermined Motion Time Systems
■ A database of normal times of basic motion elements (therbligs)
such as reach, grasp, move etc.
■ Conditions under which the motion elements (work variables) are
performed are important.
■ Example: normal time for TL
– Distance moved
– Weight of the object being moved
■ The analyst list all of the basic motion elements that comprise the
task; then normal times for basic motion elements are summed up to
obtain the normal time for the task
■ Advantages:
– No need for performance rating
– Can be applied before production starts

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“Therblig”s – 17 basic motion elements
1. Transport empty (TE) – reach for an object with empty hand – today
we call it “reach”
2. Grasp (G) – grasp an object by contacting and closing the fingers until
control has been achived
3. Transport loaded (TL) – move an object with hand and arm – today we
call it “move”
4. Hold (H) – hold an object with one hand
5. Release load (RL) – release control of an object
6. Use (U) – manipulate/use a tool

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“Therblig”s – 17 basic motion elements
7. Pre-position (PP) – position object for next operation
8. Position (P) – position object in defined location
9. Assemble (A) – join two parts
10. Disassemble (DA) – seperate multiple parts that were previously joined
11. Search (Sh) – attempt to find an object using eyes or hand

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“Therblig”s – 17 basic motion elements
12. Select (St) – choose among several objects in a group (hand-eye
coordination is involved)
13. Plan (Pn) – decide on an action (a short pause or hesitation in the
motions)
14. Inspect (I) – determine quality of object using the eyes
15. Unavoidable delay (UD) – waiting due to factors beyond worker
control
16. Avoidable delay (AD) – worker waiting
17. Rest (R) – resting to overcome fatigue

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3. Work Sampling
■ A random sampling technique to estimate the proportions of time
spent in different activities
■ Identify activities clearly. Example: machine setup, production,
idleness
■ Multiple subjects (entities) can be included
■ Observations
– Random: minimize bias
– Large in number: to achieve statistical accuracy
■ Objectives:
– Setting time standards: Statistical estimation error is high 
– Estimating resource utilization (different from other techniques) 
– Determining allowance factors (different from other techniques) 

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Allowances in Time Standards
■ Normal time is adjusted by an allowance factor Apfd to obtain the standard
time

■ Purpose of allowance factor is to compensate for lost time due to work

interruptions and other reasons

■ Standard time:
Tstd = Tn(1 + Apfd)
where pfd = personal time, fatigue, and delays

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Allowances in Time Standards
■ Personal time
– Rest room breaks, phone calls, water fountain stops, cigarette breaks (5% typical)
– For example: A larger value will be approporiate if the work environment is hot
■ Fatigue
– Rest allowance to overcome fatigue due to work-related stresses and conditions
(5% or more)
– For example: If the work is physiologically very demanding, then relaxation time
should be allowed periodically for the body to recover (in this case use 20%
allowance)
■ Delays
– Random, unavoidable interruptions
– Machine breakdowns, foreman instructions (5% typical)
– Usually management is responsible for these delays.

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 EXAMPLE -01

■ The time study of a work operation at a Red Lobster restaurant yielded an

average observed time of 4.0 minutes. The analyst rated the observed
worker at 85%. This means the worker performed at 85% of normal when
the study was made. The firm uses a 13% allowance factor. Red Lobster
wants to compute the normal time and the standard time for this
operation.
EXAMPLE -01
EXAMPLE -02
EXAMPLE -02
Other Types of Allowances
■ There are other reasons for adding allowances, which are
not as common as PFD allowances. They are applied in
addition to Apfd
■ Contingency Allowance
– Additional allowance due to a problem with the task (e.g., raw
material problem ) - not greater than 5%
– Temporary basis – after solving the underlying problem, it will
disappear
■ Policy allowance: They are based on company policy
– Machine allowance (set by company policy as a part of the wage
incentives.)
– Training allowance – for teaching new workers
– Learning allowance – learning a new task

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Standard Hours and Worker Efficiency

■ Two (three) common measures of worker productivity used in

industry
– Standard hours – represents the amount of work actually accomplished during a
given period (shift, week)

– Quantity of work units (in terms of time) produced

Hstd = Q Tstd
where
Hstd =standard hours accomplished, hr
Q = quantity of work units completed during the period, pc
Tstd =standard time per work unit, hr/pc

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Example 3: Determining Standard Time and Standard Output

■ Given: The normal time to perform the regular work cycle is 3.23 min. In
addition, an irregular work element with a normal time = 1.25 min is
performed every 5 cycles. The PFD allowance factor is 15%.
■ Determine
(a) the standard time
(b) the number of work units produced during an 8-hr shift if the worker's
pace is consistent with standard performance.

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Example 3:Solution
(a) Normal time Tn = 3.23 + 1.25/5
= 3.48 min
Standard time Tstd = 3.48 (1 + 0.15)
= 4.00 min
(b) Number of work units produced during an 8-hr shift
Qstd = 8.0(60)/4.00 = 120 work units

■ Normal time of a task involves normal times for regular and irregular
work elements

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 Method Analysis

■ Methods analysis focuses on how a task is accomplished

■ Method Analysis is a system that involves developing work procedures that are safe and
produce quality products efficiently.
 Tools of Methods Analysis

 Process charts
 Flow diagrams
 Activity (worker-machine) charts
 Operations charts (right-hand, left-hand charts)

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 Process Chart
Graphic representations that depict a sequence of steps for a process.

SUBJECT: Request tool purchase

Dist (ft) Time (min) Symbol Description
   D  Write order
   D  On desk
75    D  To buyer
   D  Examine
 = operation;  = transport;  = inspect; D = delay;  = storage

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FLOW PROCESS CHART ANALYST PAGE
Job Requisition of petty cash D. Kolb 1 of 2

Details of Method
Requisition made by department head
Put in “pick-up” basket
To accounting department
Account and signature verified
Amount approved by treasurer
Amount counted by cashier
Amount recorded by bookkeeper
Petty cash sealed in envelope
Petty cash carried to department
Petty cash checked against requisition
Receipt signed
Petty cash stored in safety box

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 Flow Diagram
Flow diagrams are schematics (drawings) used to investigate movement of people
or material.

Buyer

75 ft.

You

67
Flow Diagram and Process Chart of Axle-
Stand Production Line

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 Activity Chart for Two-Person
Oil-Change Crew
Activity charts are used to study
and improve the utilization of
an operator and a machine or
some combination of operators
(a “crew”) and machines.

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Activity Chart

Subject: Semi-Auto Machine Present

Time Operator Machine

1 Load machine Being loaded

2
3
Idle Run
4
5
6 Unload Being Unloaded

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 Operations Chart
(Left Hand/Right Hand)
Body movement is analyzed
by an operations chart . It is
designed to show economy
of motion
by pointing out wasted
motion and idle time
(delay).

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Designing the Work Environment

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 Designing the Work Environment
 Illumination, noise and vibration, temperature, humidity, and air quality are work-
environment factors under the control of the organization and the operations manager.

 Illumination is necessary, but the proper level depends on the work being performed.
other lighting factors are important. These include reflective ability, contrast of the
work surface with surroundings, glare, and shadows.

 Noise of some form is usually present in the work area, and most employees seem to
adjust well. However, high levels of sound will damage hearing. Extended periods of
exposure to decibel levels above 85 dB are permanently damaging.
 Working Conditions
Temperature & Ventilation
Humidity

Illumination Color

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 Working Conditions (cont’d)
Noise & Vibration Work Breaks

Safety Causes of Accidents

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