Job Design

&
Work Measurement
 JOB DESIGN
 Job design involves specifying the content
and methods of jobs. Job designers focus on
◦ what will be done in a job
◦ who will do the job
◦ how the job will be done and
◦ where the job will be done.
 The objectives of job design include
◦ productivity
◦ safety and
◦ quality of work life.
 Two Thoughts
 Two basic schools of thought.
◦ efficiency school : emphasizes a systematic, logical approach
to job design
◦ behavioral school : emphasizes satisfaction of wants and
needs.
 The efficiency approach, a refinement of Frederick
Winslow Taylor’s scientific management concepts,
received considerable emphasis in the past.
 The behavioral approach followed and has continued to
make inroads into many aspects of job design.
 It is noteworthy that specialization is a primary issue
of disagreement between the efficiency and behavioral
approaches.
 Specialization
 The term specialization describes jobs that have a very narrow
scope. Examples range from assembly lines to medical specialties.

 College professors often specialize in teaching certain courses, some

auto mechanics specialize in transmission repair, and some bakers
specialize in wedding cakes.

 The main rationale for specialization is the ability to concentrate

one’s efforts and thereby become proficient at that type of work.

 At the other end of the scale are assembly-line workers, who are
also specialists, although much less glamorous.

 The advantage of these highly specialized jobs is that they yield high
productivity and relatively low unit costs, and they are largely
responsible for the high standard of living that exists today in
industrialized nations.
Advantage and Disadvantages of
Specialization
Behavioral Approaches to Job Design
 Job enlargement means giving a worker a larger
portion of the total task. This constitutes horizontal
loading —the additional work is on the same level
of skill and responsibility as the original job.
 Job rotation means having workers periodically
exchange jobs. A firm can use this approach to
avoid having one or a few employees stuck in
monotonous jobs.
 Job enrichment involves an increase in the level of
responsibility for planning and coordination tasks.
It is sometimes referred to as vertical loading.
 Ergonomics
 Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific discipline
concerned with the understanding of interactions among
humans and other elements of a system, and the profession
that applies theory, principles, data and methods to design in
order to optimize human well-being and overall system
performance.

 Ergonomists contribute to the design and evaluation of tasks,

jobs, products, environments and systems in order to make
them compatible with the needs, abilities and limitations of
people.

 In the work environment, ergonomics also helps to increase

productivity by reducing worker discomfort and fatigue.
Components of comfortable
Workstation
 METHODS ANALYSIS- HOW
 One of the techniques used by self-directed
teams and work analysts is methods analysis,
which focuses on how a job is done.
 Job design often begins with an analysis of the
overall operation. It then moves from general
to specific details of the job, concentrating on
arrangement of the workplace and movements
of materials and/or workers.
 Methods analysis can be a good source of
productivity improvements
Basic procedure in Methods Analysis
 Identify the operation to be studied, and gather all
pertinent facts about tools, equipment, materials, and so
on.
 For existing jobs, discuss the job with the operator and

supervisor to get their input.

 Study and document the present method of an existing job

using process charts. For new jobs, develop charts based

on information about the activities involved.
 Analyze the job.
 Propose new methods.
 Install the new methods.
 Follow up implementation to assure that improvements

have been achieved.

Flow
Process
Chart
Format of a flow Process Chart
 Ideas for improvements
 Why is there a delay or storage at this point?
 How can travel distances be shortened or avoided?
 Can materials handling be reduced?
 Would a rearrangement of the workplace result in
greater efficiency?
 Can similar activities be grouped?
 Would the use of additional or improved
equipment be helpful?
 Does the worker have any ideas for
improvements?
 Motion Study
 Systematic study of the human motions used
to perform an operation
 There are a number of different techniques

that motion study analysts can use to develop

efficient procedures. The most-used
techniques are the following:
1. Motion study principles.
2. Analysis of therbligs.
3. Micromotion study.
4. Charts
 Motion Study Principles
 Gilbreth’s work laid the foundation for the
development of motion study principles,
which are guidelines for designing motion-
efficient work procedures. The guidelines are
divided into three categories:
◦ principles for use of the body,
◦ principles for arrangement of the workplace,
◦ and principles for the design of tools and
equipment.
 Use of the human body
1. Both hands should begin and end their basic
divisions of accomplishment simultaneously and
should not be idle at the same instant, except
during rest periods.

2. The motions made by the hands should be

made symmetrically.

3. Continuous curved motions are preferable to

straight-line motions involving sudden and sharp
changes in direction.
 Arrangement and conditions of the
workplace
1. Fixed locations for all tools and material
should be located to permit the best sequence
and to eliminate or reduce the therbligs’ search
and select.

2. Gravity bins and drop delivery should reduce

reach and move times; wherever possible,
ejectors should remove finished parts
automatically.
Design of Tools and Equipment
1. All levers, handles, wheels, and other control
devices should be readily accessible to the
operator and designed to give the best
possible mechanical advantage and to utilize
the strongest available muscle group.

2. Parts should be held in position by fixtures.

 Analysis of Therbligs
 Therbligs are basic elemental motions. The term
therblig is Gilbreth spelled backward
 a list of some common ones will illustrate the

nature of these basic elemental motions:

◦ Search implies hunting for an item with the hands and/or
the eyes.
◦ Select means to choose from a group of objects.
◦ Grasp means to take hold of an object.
◦ Hold refers to retention of an object after it has been
grasped.
◦ Transport load means movement of an object after hold.
◦ Release load means to deposit the object.
◦ Some other therbligs are inspect, position, plan, rest, and
delay.
 Micromotion Study
 introducing motion pictures for studying motions,
called micromotion study.
 This approach is applied not only in industry but

also in many other areas of human endeavor, such

as sports and health care.
 Use of the camera and slow-motion replay enables

analysts to study motions that would otherwise be

too rapid to see.
 In addition, the resulting films provide a permanent

record that can be referred to, not only for training

workers and analysts but also for settling job
disputes involving work methods.
 WORK MEASUREMENT
 Job design determines the content of a job, and
methods analysis determines how a job is to be
performed.
 Work measurement is concerned with determining

the length of time it should take to complete the job.

 Job times are vital inputs for

◦ capacity planning
◦ workforce planning
◦ estimating labor costs
◦ scheduling
◦ budgeting and
◦ designing incentive systems
 Standard Time
 A standard time is the amount of time it should
take a qualified worker to
◦ complete a specified task,
◦ working at a sustainable rate,
◦ using given methods, tools and equipment,
◦ raw material inputs, and workplace arrangement
 commonly used methods of work measurement
are
◦ stopwatch time study,
◦ historical times,
◦ predetermined data, and
◦ work sampling
 Stopwatch Time Study
 Introduced by Fredrick Taylor.
 Developed a time standard based on observations
of one worker taken over a number of cycle
 Most appropriate for short, repetitive tasks
 Basic Steps in a Time Study
 The basic steps in a time study are the
following:
1. Define the task to be studied, and inform the
worker who will be studied.
2. Determine the number of cycles to observe
3. Time the job, and rate the worker’s performance.
4. Compute the standard time..
 Three Time Standards
 Time standard involves computation of three times:
 Observed Time (OT)
 The observed time is simply the average of the
recorded times.

 Normal Time (NT)

◦ The normal time is the observed time adjusted for worker performance. It is
computed by multiplying the observed time by a performance rating. That is,
◦ NT = OT X PR
◦ where PR is Performance Rating
 Standard Time
 The normal time does not take into account such
factors as personal delays (getting a drink of water
or going to the restroom), unavoidable delays
(machine adjustments and repairs, talking to a
supervisor, waiting for materials), or rest breaks.
 The standard time for a job is the normal time
multiplied by an allowance factor for these delays.
The standard time is
 ST = NT X AF
 = NT x(1+A) where A is Allowance Percentage
Problem on Time Study
 Predetermined Time Standards

 involve the use of published data on standard elemental times.

 A commonly used system is Methods-Time Measurement (MTM), which
was developed in the late 1940s by the Methods Engineering Council.

 The MTM tables are based on extensive research of basic elemental

motions and times.
◦ Jobs are divided into its basic elements (reach, move, turn, disengage),
◦ measure the distances involved (if applicable),
◦ rate the difficulty of the element, and
◦ then refer to the appropriate table of data to obtain the time for that element.
 The standard time for the job is obtained by adding the times for all of
the basic elements.
 Times of the basic elements are measured in time measurement units
(TMUs);
 one TMU equals .0006 minute.
 Work Sampling

 Work sampling is a technique for estimating the proportion of

time that a worker or machine spends on various activities
and the idle time.
 Unlike time study, work sampling does not require timing an
activity, nor does it even involve continuous observation of
the activity. Instead, an observer makes brief observations of
a worker or machine at random intervals and simply notes the
nature of the activity.
 For example, a machine may be busy or idle; a secretary may
be typing, filing, talking on the telephone, and so on; and a
carpenter may be carrying supplies, taking measurements,
cutting wood, and so on.
 The resulting data are counts of the number of times each
category of activity or non-activity was observed.