Chapter 10: Human resources and Job Design.

Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities. Ergonomics is employed to fulfill the two goals of health and productivity. It is relevant in the design of such things as safe furniture and easy-to-use interfaces to machines and equipment. Proper ergonomic design is necessary to prevent repetitive strain injuries, which can develop over time and can lead to long-term disability. Therefore, understanding ergonomics issues helps to improve human performance. The three major ergonomic and work environment issues include: Operator Input to Machine. Evaluate hand tools, pedals, levers, or button. Feedback to Operators. Sight, sound and feel The Work Environment. Illumination, noise and vibration, temperature, humidity and air quality.

1.

Describe how the company handle its human resource capacity at different times of the day and different day of the week. Consider the use of over-time, part time employees and contracting out comer of the tasks. To make sure that human resource can achieve an effective human resource capacity, three distinct decision area should be consider: 1. Labor Planning Determining staffing policies that deal with: Employment stability Labor is treated as a variable cost. The cost incurs in hiring and termination, unemployment insurance and premium wages.Based on forecasting, the labor planning will follow demand exactly. Human resources matches direct labor costs to production. HR will hold employment constant and maintains trained workforce. HR also will minimize hiring, termination, and unemployment costs.

Work Schedule The standard work schedule is still 8 hours days. However a currently popular variation is a work schedule called flextime. Flextime allows employees within limits to determine their own schedule. Other option is called flexible workweek. It often calls for fewer but longer days such as 10 hour days or as in the case of light assembly plants, 12 hour shift.

Work rules Many organizations have strict job classification and work rules that specify who can do what, when they can do it and under what conditions they can do it. It restricts employee flexibility on the job, which in turn reduces the flexibility of the operation function.

2. Job Design It specifies the tasks that constitute a job for an individual or a group.

Job specialization Job expansion Psychological components Self-directed teams Motivation and incentive

3. Labor Standards Amount of time required to perform a job or part of the job.

2.

Demonstrate the application of ergonomics at the workplace. Consider all workstations. Ge Shen Company already outlines and provides a few rules to make sure that all workers can achieve a high performance during their works. All rules that already outline including: Practice 5s at workplace

WIP

Provide Work in Procedure (WIP) for all staff

All stock are label and arranged properly

Tools, equipments and Workstation follow ergonomic standards

Clean Workstation

Manual Spray

Provide different types of tool and equipment to facilitate employees

Robot Spray

Rotor Spray

Proper attire during working

All equipment within the comfort zone

Comfort Zone

Ergonomics issue during lifting the raw material.

Ergonomic issue during repairing works.

3.

How can manual handling be improved? Manual handling includes carrying, pushing, pulling, lifting, and restraining.

Employers are required to identify, assess and control all the risks arising from workplace manual handling. Particularly, the control of manual handling injury risk through good design of all plant, equipment, containers, the working environment and improved work practices. To overcome manual handling problems, there are several steps that employers can do: Identify risks Manual handling tasks likely to be a risk to employees should be identified by employers. This should be carried out in consultation with employees and their health and safety representatives. This can be carried out through a various methods. Check workplace injury records Talk to employees and their representative Look at the workplace

Assess Risks Having identified the workplace tasks that present a manual handling risk to employees, these tasks/risks should then be assessed to find the specific cause of the problem. The following may provide assistance in this process:

Control risks Eliminate or reduce of identified and assessed risk factors. The best way to make manual handling safer is to redesign the task or environment, to eliminate, or control the risk factors. 4. Suggest workstation improvement using ergonomics principles. 1. Work in Neutral Postures Our posture provides a good starting point for evaluating the tasks that we do. The best positions in which to work are those that keep the body "in neutral" by maintains the "S-curve" of the spine.

2. Reduce Excessive Force

Excessive force on our joints can create a potential for fatigue and injury. In practical terms, the action item is for us to identify specific instances of excessive force and think of ways to make improvements.

3. Keep Everything in Easy Reach

The next principle deals with keeping things within easy reach. In many ways, this principle is redundant with posture, but it helps to evaluate a task from this specific perspective.

4. Work at Proper Heights Working at the right height is also a way to make things easier. 5. Reduce Excessive Motions
The next principle to think about is the number of motions you make throughout a day, whether with your fingers, your wrists, your arms, or your back.

6. Minimize Fatigue and Static Load

Holding the same position for a period of time is known as static load. It creates fatigue and discomfort and can interfere with work.

7. Minimize Pressure Points

Another thing to watch out for is excessive pressure points, sometimes called "contact stress."

8. Provide Clearance
Having enough clearance is a concept that is easy to relate to 9. Move, Exercise, and Stretch To be healthy the human body needs to be exercised and stretched.

10. Maintain a Comfortable Environment

This principle is more or less a catch-all that can mean different things depending upon the nature of the types of operations that you do.

Work in Neutral Postures

Before

Improvement

Before

Improvement

Keep Everything in Easy Reach

Before

Improvement

Minimize Pressure Points

Improvement Before

Maintain a Comfortable Environment

Before

Improvement

5.

The mechanics have to stand most of the time. What are the effects of standing over prolonged period of time and how the pain can be reduced? Long periods of standing work can cause back pain, leg swelling, problems with blood circulation, sore feet and tired muscles. There are several ways to overcome the problem when standing work cannot be avoided. Provide a chair or stool should for the worker and he or she should be able to sit down at regular intervals.

The work surface should be adjustable for workers of different heights and for different job tasks. A footrest should be provided to help reduce the strain on the back and to allow the worker to change positions. Shifting weight from time to time reduces the strain on the legs and back.

There should be a mat on the floor so the worker does not have to stand on a hard surface. A concrete or metal floor can be covered to absorb shock. The floor should be clean, level and not slippery.

Workers should wear shoes with arch support and low heels when performing standing work. There should be adequate space and knee room to allow the worker to change body position while working. The job should be designed to allow the worker to keep the arms low and the elbows close to the body. Ensure a good body position for standing work.

6.

If the companies want to use time study to measure and plan its human resource requirements, what operations would be most suitable? Time study is a direct and continuous observation of a task, using a timekeeping device to record the time taken to accomplish a task. A time study can be used for an activity when the task is repetitive in nature. It is often used when:

there are repetitive work cycles of short to long duration, wide variety of dissimilar work is performed process control elements constitute a part of the cycle

As for Ge Shen Company, the time study is most suitable to be done during secondary processes for plastic parts decoration and assembly process. 7. How would you recommend the company to carry out the time study? Give example of one operation. For Ge Shen Company, they state that one of the company strength is Time to Market which reduce manufacturing lead time through continual improved facilities and technical know-how to enable customers to launch products on time or ahead of time. Therefore time study data should be conducted on repetitive tasks and anything that affects the promised delivery date or time to their customer. One example of the operation that time study can be conducted is during assembly the semi finished and finished (OEM) product. 8. What are other uses of time study for these companies? Time study also can be used to identify any non value added activities NVA in the process. Process should be assumed as lean processing without any kinds of waste. It also can eliminate unnecessary movement and ineffective time, time during which no effective work is being perform, whatever the cause.

9.

Some customers complained that the waiting time for the service is just too long. What would be the best actions for the company to take in order to reduce the waiting time? The company should first identify the constraint of the waiting time before

taking

any

action.

To

overcome

the

problems,

it

is

recommended for the company to: Extend the measurement of waiting times to include the point of referral to service, in order to reflect customers' actual experience.

Systems for prioritizing customer can help manage demand, though these may be controversial and require considerable investment and commitment.

Emphasize

system

and

process

redesign

to

address

inefficiency and poor performance.