Job Design and Work Study

Course: IPE 483 (Production

Planning and Control)
 Job Design
Systematic attempt to organize tasks, duties and responsibilities
into a unit of work to achieve certain objectives
 identification of individual tasks
 specification of methods of performing the tasks
 combination of tasks into specific jobs

Job Design Factors:

• The complexity of the work - both in terms of its variety or breadth
• The work processes involved
• Nature of the people currently employed
 Job Design

What Who Where When How

Tasks to Person Location Time Method

be to of to to
Performed Perform Work Area Perform Perform

Ultimate Job Structure

 Job Design
Approaches to Modern Job Design

 Job Rotation
 Job Enlargement
 Job Enrichment

Job Rotation
• Increases task variety by periodically shifting workers among jobs
involving different tasks
• Effective way to develop multiple skills in employees, which benefits
the organization while creating greater job interest and career
options for the employee
 Job Design
Approaches to Modern Job Design
Job Enlargement
• Increases in job tasks and responsibilities to make a position more
challenging
• Horizontal expansion of a job – involves the addition of tasks at the
same level of skill and responsibility

Job Rotation and Enlargement

• allow workers to learn more than one task, thus increasing their value to
the employer
• As workers are allowed to perform many tasks, they can be used more
flexibly as circumstances require
 Job Design
Approaches to Modern Job Design
Job Enrichment
• Frederick Herzberg’s view of job enrichment is based on the two-
factor theory of motivation (See Appendix A).
• Seeks to add profundity to a job by giving workers more control,
responsibility, and freedom of choice over how their job is
performed.
• Occurs when the work itself is more challenging, when there is
prospect for growth, and when responsibility, feedback, and
recognition are provided
• Grants additional authority and freedom to workers
 Job Design

Job Characteristics Model

• Skill Variety: The degree to which the job requires workers to use a variety
of different activities, talents, Skills for successful completion of jobs
• Task Identity: The degree to which the job allows workers to complete
whole tasks from start to finish, rather than disjointed portions of the job
• Task Significance: The degree to which the job significantly impacts the
lives of others both within and outside the workplace
• Autonomy: The degree to which the job allows workers freedom in
planning, scheduling and the methods used to complete the job
• Feedback: The degree to which the job itself provides workers with clear,
direct and understandable knowledge of their performance
 Job Design

Principles of Job Design

 Provide variety in terms of the kind of work carried out

 Allow people to get direct feedback on results
 Allow scope for development by enabling the job to become bigger
as the person becomes more skilled and knowledge
 Have clear objectives and outputs
 Have clear reporting lines
 Give people some control over output and pace
 Give people the opportunity to comment and suggest changes to
the work process
 Be supported by the appropriate level of resources and effective
process
 Job Design
Work Study

Technique to judge the effectiveness and efficiency of a

work/function/task
Work study is the systematic examination of the method of carrying
activities, so as to improve the effective use of resources and to setup
standards of performance for the activities being carried out 

 Examining the way an activity is being carried out

 Simplifying or modifying the method
 Reduce unnecessary or excess work
 Wasteful use of resources
 Setting up a time standard for performing that activity
 Job Design
Objectives of Work Study
 To Reduce cost
 To Increase productivity
 To Increase profitability
 To Increase job security
 To Make the work easier and comfortable
 To Establish fair task for everyone
 To Check achievements against standard

Major Branches
 Method Study
 Work Measurement
 Job Design

Steps of Method Study

 Select – work to be studied

 Define – scope of work
 Record – relevant information
 Examine – the recorded information
 Develop – improved way of doing things
 Implement – newly developed method as standard practice
 Maintain – the newly implemented method
 Work Measurement
Vital inputs for:
• Manpower and machine planning
• Reducing labour costs
• Scheduling
• Budgeting
• Designing incentive systems

Standard Time
Amount of time a qualified worker (an average skilled worker) should
spend to complete a specified task, working at a normal pace, using
given methods, tools and equipment, raw material and workplace.

Most commonly used methods of work measurement:

• Time study
• Historical times
• Predetermined data
• Work sampling
 Work Measurement
Time Study
• Most widely used method of work measurement
• Especially appropriate for short, repetitive tasks
Average of a few properly trained workers’
performed time are taken as the standard

Basic steps:
• Define the task to be studied, and inform the worker(s) who will be studied
• Determine the number of workers and cycles to be observed
• Time the job and rate the performance
• Compute the standard time
 Work Measurement
Standard Elemental Time (SET)
derived from a firm’s own historical time study data
• A time study department accumulates a file of elemental times that are
common to many jobs
• After a certain point, many elemental times can be retrieved from the file
• Eliminate need for analysts to go through a complete time study to obtain
those

Predetermined Time Standards (PDTS)

published data on standard elemental times
• Commonly used system is Method-Time Measurement (MTM)
• MTM tables are based on extensive research of basic elemental times
 Work Measurement
Work Sampling

technique for estimating the proportion of working time and idle time

appropriate for long, non-repetitive tasks

Two primary uses:

• Ratio-delay studies: concern the percentage of worker’s time

that involves delay
• Analysis of non-repetitive jobs: percentage of time an employee
spends doing various
jobs
 Work Measurement
Observed Time (OT): simply the average of the recorded times

OT 
 x i

n
Normal Time (NT): observed time adjusted for worker performance

NT  OT * PR Performance Rating, PR

Standard Time (ST): normal time required for a job plus

an allowance time for different delays

ST  NT  ( AF * NT )
Allowance Factor, AF
 Work Measurement

Example 1.
Assuming that the observed time for an operation of assembling
an electric switch is 1.00 min. If the performance rating of the
worker is 120%, find normal time. If an allowance of 10% is
allowed for the operation, determine the standard time.

Solution:
Given,
Observed time= 1.00 min
Rating =120%
Allowance=10%.

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 Work Measurement

Example 1 (Continued)
Assuming that the observed time for an operation of assembling
an electric switch is 1.00 min. If the performance rating of the
worker is 120%, find normal time. If an allowance of 10% is
allowed for the operation, determine the standard time.

Solution:
NT= 1* (120/100) = 1.20 min

ST= NT (1+AF) = 1.20 (1+0.1) = 1.32 min.

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Thank You
 Appendix A
Frederic Herzberg’s two-factor theory of
motivation