OPERATIONS

MANAGEMENT
UNIT II

SYLLABUS
Unit I
Introduction to Operations Management, Nature & Scope of Operations Management,
Historical Evolution of Operations Management, Systems Perspectives of Operations
Management, and Relationship of Operations Management with Other Functional Areas,
Operations Strategy, Recent Trends in the Field of Operations Management (12 hours)
Unit II
Product Development: Product Development Process, Concurrent Engineering, Tools and
Approaches in Product Development viz: Quality Function Deployment, Design for
Manufacturability, Design for Assembly, Design for Quality, Mass Customization; Process
Selection and Facilities Layout: Determinant of Process Selection, Process-Product Matrix,
Types of Layouts, Line Balancing; Facilities Location; Work Measurement and Job Design.
(14 hours)
Unit III
Demand Forecasting; Capacity Planning; Resources Planning: Aggregate Production Planning
Materials Requirement Planning, Scheduling; Theory of constraints and Synchronous
Manufacturing; Lean Management and Just in Time Production; Supply Chain Management;
Inventory Planning and Control. (16 hours)
Unit IV
Quality Management, Quality: Definition, Dimension, Cost of Quality, Continuous
Improvement (Kaizen), ISO (9000&14000 Series), Quality Awards, Statistical Quality Control:
Variable & Attribute, Process Control, Control Chart (X , R , p , np and C chart ) Acceptance
Sampling Operating Characteristic Curve (AQL , LTPD, a & b risk ) Total Quality
Management (TQM) (14 hours)

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Product developmentis the process of designing, creating and

marketing new productsor services to benefit customers. Sometimes
referred to as newproduct development, the discipline is focused
on developingsystematic methods for guiding all the processes
involved in getting a new productto market.

The creation ofproductswith new or different characteristics that

offer new or additionalbenefitsto thecustomer.

Product development may involvemodificationof an existing product

or itspresentation, or formulation of an entirelynew productthat
satisfies a newly defined customerwantormarket niche.

The overall process of strategy, organization, concept generation,

product and marketing plan creation and evaluation, and
commercialization of a new product.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS

Product developmentis the process of designing, creating and

marketing new productsor services to benefit customers. Sometimes
referred to as newproduct development, the discipline is focused
on developingsystematic methods for guiding all the processes
involved in getting a new productto market.

The creation ofproductswith new or different characteristics that

offer new or additionalbenefitsto thecustomer.

Product development may involvemodificationof an existing product

or itspresentation, or formulation of an entirelynew productthat
satisfies a newly defined customerwantormarket niche.

The overall process of strategy, organization, concept generation,

product and marketing plan creation and evaluation, and
commercialization of a new product.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS

Five phases guide the new product development process for small
businesses:

Idea Generation

This is the initial stage where a business sources for ideas regarding a new
product. Some of the sources for new product ideas include the business
customers, competitors, newspapers, journals, employees and suppliers.
Small businesses may be limited when it comes to technical research-based
idea generation techniques. This stage is crucial as it lays the foundation for
all the other phases, the ideas generated shall guide the overall process of
product development.

Screening

The generated ideas have to go through a screening process to filter out the
viable ones. The business seeks opinions from workers, customers and other
businesses to avoid the pursuit of costly unfeasible ideas. External industry
factors affecting small businesses, such as competition, legislation and
changes in technology, influences the enterprise's decision criteria. At the
end of the screening process, the firm remains with only a few feasible ideas
from the large pool generated.

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS

Five phases guide the new product development process for small
businesses:

Concept Development

The enterprise undertakes research to find out the potential costs, revenues and
profits arising from the product. The business conducts a SWOT analysis to
identify the strengths, weakness opportunities and threats existing in the market.
The market strategy is set out to identify the product's target group, which
facilitates segmentation of the product's market. Market segmentation is
important as it enables the firm to identify its niche. The identified niche
influences most of the marketing decisions.

Product Development and Commercialization

Product development entails the actual design and manufacture of the product.
Development commences with the manufacture of a prototype that facilitates
market testing. Based upon the results of the tests, the business owner decides on
whether to undertake large-scale production or not. Favourable results precede
large-scale production and commercialization. The business launches its
promotion campaign for the new product. The market research conducted during
the conception stage influences the timing and location of the product launch.

CONCURRENT ENGINEERING

Concurrent engineering, also known as simultaneousengineering, is a method of

designing and developing products, in which the different stages run simultaneously,
rather than consecutively. It decreases product development time and also the time to
market, leading to improved productivity and reduced costs.

Concurrent engineeringis a work methodology based on the parallelization of tasks

(i.e. performing tasks concurrently). It refers to an approach used inproduct
development in which functions of design engineering, manufacturing engineering and
other functions are integrated to reduce the elapsed time required to bring a new
product to the market.

Several definitions of concurrent engineering are in use.

The first one is used by theConcurrent Design Facility(ESA):

Concurrent Engineering (CE) is a systematic approach to integrated product

development that emphasizes the response to customer expectations. It embodies team
values of co-operation, trust and sharing in such a manner that decision making is by
consensus, involving all perspectives in parallel, from the beginning of theproduct life
cycle.

The second one is by Winner,1988:

Concurrent Engineering is a systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent design

of products and their related processes, including, manufacturing and support. This
approach is intended to cause the developers from the very outset to consider all
elements of the product life cycle, from conception to disposal, including quality, cost,
schedule, and user requirements.

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

In our globally-linked economy, product development capabilities are the

basis for successful competition. Successful product development requires
fundamentally improved approaches to organizing the development process,
reducing waste, and providing products to meet customer needs in order to
respond to global competition in our own markets as well as compete
effectively on a global basis.

Since product and process design have such a major influence on the
competitiveness of the enterprise, it is especially critical that the design
function be better integrated with the other functions of the enterprise. This
means integration within the engineering function (e.g., integration of both
product design with process design and integration of electrical, mechanical
and software design), integration of the design and engineering function with
the rest of the enterprise, and integration of the engineering function with
external organizations (customers and suppliers).

This integration will result in the release of more mature product designs
which can be more effectively produced within a company's existing or
planned production system and more effectively supported. New product
design and introduction lead time or time-to-market will be reduced to meet
rapidly changing technology and customer demands and increase enterprise
flexibility.

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
More specifically, the objectives of Integrated Product Development are:

The design of products to better meet customer needs and quality

expectations

The design of processes or the consideration of process capabilities in

designing products in order to produce products at a more competitive price

Reduction of product and process design cycle time or time-to-market to

bring products to market earlier

High productivity through release of producible designs and minimization of

disruptive design changes

The accomplishment of these objectives requires an integrated approach to

product and process design which considers the company's business strategy. This
integrated approach to product and process design rests on:

Alignment of product development with business strategy;

Organizational integration using product development teams or integrated

product teams as a way to organize development activities;

A well defined and optimized development process;

Integrated design automation tools oriented toward creating, analyzing and

using digital product data to move a product into production;

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Optimization of the product and process design to enhance manufacturability,

testability, affordability, reliability, maintainability, etc.

In applying these tools and concepts, the organization must be re-structured,

cultural issues considered, and communication among different functional
units improved.

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT: QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT

Quality Function Deployment(QFD) is a structured approach to defining

customer needs or requirements and translating them into specific plans to
produce products to meet those needs. The "voice of the customer" is the
term to describe these stated and unstated customer needs or requirements.

Quality function deployment (QFD)is a method to transform qualitative

user demands into quantitative parameters, to deploy the functions forming
quality, and to deploy methods for achieving the design quality into
subsystems and component parts, and ultimately to specific elements of the
manufacturing process.,as described byDr. Yoji Akao, who originally
developed QFD in Japan in 1966, when the author combined his work
inquality assuranceandquality controlpoints with function deployment used
invalue engineering.

QFD is designed to help planners focus on characteristics of a new or existing

product or service from the viewpoints ofmarket segments, company, or
technology-development needs. The technique yieldschartsandmatrices.

QFD helps transformcustomerneeds(thevoice of the customer[VOC])

intoengineeringcharacteristics (and appropriatetest methods) for a product
or service, prioritizing each product or service characteristic while
simultaneously setting development targets for product or service.

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT: QUALITY FUNCTION DEPLOYMENT

QFD is applied in a wide variety of services, consumer products, military

needs,and emergingtechnologyproducts. The technique is also included in
the newISO 9000:2000standard which focuses on customer satisfaction.

While many books and articles on "how to do QFD" are available, there is a
relative paucity of example matrices available. QFD matrices become highly
proprietary due to the high density of product or service information found
therein.

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT: DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURABILITY

Design for manufacturability(also sometimes known asdesign for

manufacturingor DFM) is the general engineering art ofdesigning products
in such a way that they are easy to manufacture.

The basic idea exists in almost all engineering disciplines, but of course the
details differ widely depending on the manufacturing technology. This design
practice not only focuses on the design aspect of a part but also on the
producibility.

In simple language it means relative ease to manufacture a product, part or

assembly. DFM describes the process of designing or engineering a product in
order to facilitate themanufacturingprocess in order to reduce its
manufacturing costs.

DFM will allow potential problems to be fixed in the design phase which is the
least expensive place to address them. The design of the component can have
an enormous effect on the cost of manufacturing. Other factors may affect
the manufacturability such as the type of raw material, the form of the raw
material, dimensional tolerances, and secondary processing such as finishing.

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT: DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURABILITY

The design stage is very important in product design. Most of the product
lifecycle costs are committed at design stage. The product design is not just
based on good design but it should be possible to produce by manufacturing
as well. Often an otherwise good design is difficult or impossible to produce.

Typically a design engineer will create a model or design and send it to

manufacturing for review and invite feedback. This process is called a design
review. If this process is not followed diligently, the product may fail at the
manufacturing stage.

If these DFM guidelines are not followed, it will result in iterative design, loss
of manufacturing time and overall resulting in longer time to market. Hence
many organizations have adopted concept of Design for Manufacturing.

Depending on various types of manufacturing processes there are set

guidelines for DFM practices. These DFM guidelines help to precisely define
various tolerances, rules and common manufacturing checks related to DFM.

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT: DESIGN FOR ASSEMBLY

Design for assembly(DFA) is a process by which products are designed with

ease ofassemblyin mind. If a product contains fewer parts it will take less
time to assemble, thereby reducingassembly costs.

Design for Assembly is a method of analyzing components and sub-assemblies

in order to:

Optimize the assembly process steps

Identify part relevance

Estimate the cost of assembly

The purpose of DFA is to minimize assembly cost by optimizing the assembly

process and reducing the number of parts.

Design for the minimum number of parts without sacrificing quality.

Fewer parts mean

a faster and more accurate assembly process
it results in:

Reduced inventory and number of vendors

Reduced assembly time and savings in material costs

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT: DESIGN FOR ASSEMBLY

Simplified assembly processes

It can be accomplished by:

Minimizing numbers and types of fasteners, cables, etc.

Encouraging modular, interchangeable assemblies

Building in self-fastening features

Minimizing the number of levels of assembly

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT: DESIGN FOR QUALITY

It is a concept first outlined by quality expertJoseph M. Juranin publications,

most notably Juran on Quality by Design. Juran believed that quality could be
planned, and that most quality crises and problems relate to the way in which
quality was planned.

If the quality is envisaged appropriately in the design procedure, the quality

in manufacturing can also be ensured at lesser expenses and the cost of
inspection reduces significantly. This leads to the concept of Design for
Quality.

Benefits of Design for Quality (DFQ)

(1) The DFQ process allows the engineer to identify, plan for and manage factors
that impact the robustness and reliability of the products in the design
process.
(2) DFQ reduces or eliminates the cost of quality that can be envisaged as the
cost incurred in the inspection and rework, in the procurement of
replacement materials. Appropriate DFQ procedure can also avoid defects and
errors, scrap, degradation of factory/machine capacity, re-qualifications/recertifications expenses, and overhead demands

TOOLS AND APPROACHES IN PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT: DESIGN FOR QUALITY
(3) Improved and consistent quality of parts provide better appeal to the
customers that obviously lead to greater stability of the manufacturing shops
and can create greater amount of opportunities.

The Design for Quality initiative, which originated from the Office of
Biotechnology Products (OBP), attempts to provide guidance on
pharmaceutical development to facilitate design of products and processes
that maximizes the products efficacy and safety profile while enhancing
product manufacturability.

MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Mass customizationis a marketing and manufacturing technique that

combines the flexibility and personalization of "custom-made" with the low
unit costs associated withmassproduction.

Mass customization is the new frontier in business for both manufacturing and
service industries. At its core is a tremendous increase in variety and
customization without a corresponding increase in costs. At its limit, it is the
mass production of individually customized goods and services. At its best, it
provides strategic advantage and economic value.

Many implementations of mass customization are operational today, such

assoftware-based product configurators that make it possible to add and/or
change functionalities of a core product or to build fully custom enclosures
from scratch.

This degree of mass customization, however, has only seen limited adoption.
If an enterprise's marketing department offers individual products (atomic
market fragmentation) it doesn't often mean that a product is produced
individually, but rather that similar variants of the same mass-produceditem
are available.

MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Four distinct approaches to customization are which we call collaborative,

adaptive,cosmetic, andtransparent.

Collaborative customizers conduct a dialogue with individual customers to

help them articulate their needs, to identify the precise offering that fulfils
those needs, and to make customized products for them.

Adaptive customizers offer one standard, but customizable, product that is

designed so that users can alter it themselves.

Cosmetic customizers present a standard product differently to different

customers.

Transparent customizers provide individual customers with unique goods or

services without letting them know explicitly that those products and services
have been customized for them.

As mass production took hold in the hearts and minds of managers during the
past century, the definition of a market shifted from a gathering of people for
the sale and purchase of goods at a fixed time and place to an unknown
aggregation of potential customers.

PROCESS SELECTION AND

FACILITIES LAYOUT

Operations management is the strategic administration of production

processes and personnel to maximize output, minimize errors and continually
enhance product quality. Facility layout refers to the way in which work
stations, equipment, machinery and employees are positioned within a work
facility.

Facility Layout

Facility Layoutis simply the way a facility is arranged in order to maximize

processes that are not only efficient but effective towards the overall
organizational goal. It is also dependent on process selection.

Business owners have a range of options to choose from when it comes to

designing their facilities layouts, depending on the total size of the buildings,
yards and other spaces they have to work with. Operations managers set up
production facilities in such a way as to minimize the travel or holding time
of semi-finished goods between different stations.

Noise and air pollution can be a large factor in certain businesses -- while it
may be convenient to locate a large number of work stations in a small area,
you may need to spread things out to maintain a safe and healthy work
environment.

PROCESS SELECTION AND

FACILITIES
LAYOUT
As a simple example, consider a car wash and wax business. Washing cars in

one building then driving them to an adjacent building for drying and waxing
would waste time and require two buildings rather than one. Locating a dry
and wax station immediately after the wash station in a single building would
be a more efficient facility layout.

Process Selection

Process Selectionis basically the way goods or services are made or

delivered, which influences numerous aspects of an organization, including
capacity planning, layout of facilities, equipment and design of work systems.
Process selection is primarily used during the planning of new products or
services that is subject to technological advances and competition. Process
selection is dependent on the company's process strategy, which has two main
components: capital intensity and process flexibility.

Determinants of Process Selection

Capital Intensityis simply the combination of equipment and labor that an

organization uses to accomplish some objective.

Process Flexibilityis as its name implies: how well a system can be adjusted
to meet changes in processing requirements that are interdependent on
variables such as product or service design, volume of production, and
technology.

PROCESS SELECTION AND

FACILITIES LAYOUT

MakeorBuyDecisions The extent to which an organization will produce

goods orprovidein houseasopposedtorelyingon anoutsideorganizationto
produce orprovidethem

Each step in a production process can be completed in a variety of ways.

Consider the process of sewing a garment, for example. The key to process
selection is to balance the costs, efficiency, output and quality of each option
to meet your production goals. Some options may produce a higher output per
hour while costing twice as much as other options, for example, while other
options are less costly but produce more errors.

A single employee could sew an entire garment, then pass it down to a

packaging line; several employees could be set up next to each other, each
sewing a single stitch or section before quickly passing it on, or the sewing
could be handled by a machine. The finished garment could be sent off to the
packaging line via an employee pushing large bins or via a conveyor belt
stretching around the factory, as another example.

PROCESS-PRODUCT MATRIX

The Product-Process Matrix was first introduced by Robert Hayes and Steven
Wheelwright in the Harvard Business Review in 1979.

It helps organizations identify the type of production approach they should

use for a product, based on the volumes of the product being produced, and
the amount of customization it needs.

Although the Product-Process Matrix was originally created with

manufacturing in mind, we can use this tool to help make our own tasks and
projects run more efficiently.

The product-process matrix is a tool for analyzing the relationship between

the product life cycle and the technological life cycle.

The matrix itself consists of two dimensions, product structure/product life

cycle and process structure/process life cycle. The production process used
to manufacture a product moves through a series of stages, much like the
stages of products and markets, which begins with a highly flexible, high-cost
process and progresses toward increasing standardization, mechanization,
and automation, culminating in an inflexible but cost-effective process.

PROCESS-PRODUCT MATRIX

The process structure/process life cycle dimension describes the process

choice (job shop, batch, assembly line, andcontinuous flow) and process
structure (jumbled flow, disconnected line flow, connected line flow and
continuous flow) while the product structure/product life cycle describes the
four stages of the product life cycle (low volume to high volume) and product
structure (low to high standardization).
Process Structure
Process Life cycle
Stage

Process Structure
Process Life cycle
Stage

Low Volume
Unique
(One of a
kind)

Low Volume
Multiple
Products

Higher Volume
(Standardised
products)

Very High Volume

Commodity
Products

Project
Jumbled Flow
(Job shop)
Disconnected
line flow (batch)
Connected line
flow (assembly
line)
Continuous flow
(Continuous)

Job shop
Batch
Assembly Line

Continuous

PROCESS-PRODUCT MATRIX

Job Shop: A job shop is the producer of unique products; usually this product
is of an individual nature and requires that the job shop interpret the
customer's design and specifications, which requires a relatively high level of
skill and experience. Once the design is specified, one or a small number of
skilled employees are assigned to the task and are frequently responsible for
deciding how best to carry it out.

Each unique job travels from one functional area to another according to its
own unique routing, requiring different operations, using different inputs,
and requiring varying amounts of time. This causes the flow of the product
through the shop to be jumbled, following no repetitive pattern.

Batch: Firms utilizing batch processes provide similar items on a repeat basis,
usually in larger volumes than that associated with job shops. Products are
sometimes accumulated until a lot can be processed together. When the most
effective manufacturing route has been determined, the higher volume and
repetition of requirements can make more efficient use of capacity and result
in significantly lower costs.

Since the volume is higher than that of the job shop, many processes can be
utilized in repetition, creating a much smoother flow of work-in-process
throughout the shop.

PROCESS-PRODUCT MATRIX

Batch: While the flow is smoother, the work-in-process still moves around to
the various machine groupings throughout the shop in a somewhat jumbled
fashion. This is described as a disconnected line flow or intermittent flow.

Line: When product demand is high enough, the appropriate process is the
assembly line. Often, this process (along with continuous; both are in the
lower-right quadrant of the matrix) is referred to as mass production.
Labourers generally perform the same operations for each production run in a
standard and hopefully uninterrupted flow. The assembly line treats all
outputs as basically the same.

Examples of assembly lines in services are car washes, class registration in

universities, and many fast food operations.

Continuous: Continuous manufacturing involves lot-less production wherein

the product flows continuously rather than being divided. A basic material is
passed through successive operations (i.e., refining or processing) and
eventually emerges as one or more products. This process is used to produce
highly standardized outputs in extremely large volumes.

TYPES OF LAYOUTS
Types of Layout

The basic types of layouts are:

Product layout

This type of layout is generally used in systems where a product has to be

manufactured or assembled in large quantities. In product layout the
machinery and auxiliary services are located according to the processing
sequence of the product without any buffer storage within the line itself.

Process layout

In a process layout, (also referred to as a job shop layout) similar machines

and services are located together. Therefore, in a process type of layout all
drills are located in one area of the layout and all milling machines are
located in another area.

Fixed location layout

In this type of layout, the product is kept at a fixed position and all other
material; components, tools, machines, workers, etc. are brought and
arranged around it. Then assembly or fabrication is carried out. The layout of
the fixed material location department involves the sequencing and
placement of workstations around the material or product. It is used in
aircraft assembly, shipbuilding, and most construction projects.

TYPES OF LAYOUTS

Cellular manufacturing

It is a type of layout where machines are grouped according to the process

requirements for a set of similar items (part families) that require similar
processing. These groups are called cells. Therefore, a cellular layout is an
equipment layout configured to support cellular manufacturing.

LINE BALANCING

Line Balancing is levelling the workload across all processes in a cell or value
stream to remove bottlenecks and excess capacity. Aconstraintslows the
process down and results ifwaitingfor downstream operations andexcess
capacityresults in waiting and no absorption offixed costs.

Aproductionstrategythat involves setting an intendedrateof production

forrequiredmaterialsto be fabricated within a particulartime frame.
Inaddition,effectiveline balancing requires assuring that every
linesegment'sproductionquotacan be met within the time frameusingthe
availableproduction capacity.

There are two types of line balancing, which we have explained as

Static Balance Refers to long-term differences in capacity over a period of

several hours or longer. Static imbalance results in underutilization of
workstations, machines and people.

Dynamic Balance Refers to short-term differences in capacity, like, over a

period of minutes, hours at most. Dynamic imbalance arises from product mix
changes and variations in work time unrelated to product mix.

FACILITIES LOCATION

Corporate expansion means not only getting more office space, but also
facilities to manufacture and store supplies and products. Choosing a facility
location requires significant financial investment, and therefore prudent
planning, to ensure the location is the most cost-effective and functional of
all your options. Utilize a broad financial view of each proposed site, taking
into account not only its purchase or lease cost but the money put into it over
the long term.

Layout

The physical layout of the facility location will determine whether future
expansion can include adding more facility buildings and enlarging
manufacturing space within the site. Whether buildings and manufacturing
lines must be created by scratch or they are already exist on-site with
minimal renovations is also a consideration.

Cost

The cost of relocating facilities to the site is a major factor in determining

the acceptability of a location. Cost can involve tailoring existing buildings to
fit your operations or building an operation from scratch. Land may be cheap,
but to make it workable might be expensive.

FACILITIES LOCATION

Logistics

The site must have adequate transportation routes to get goods to and from
the site. The facility itself must come equipped with adequate electrical and
plumbing to run an effective operation; if they don't yet exist they must be
cheap enough to install at the site.

Labor

A facility requires labor to run. Management staff might relocate from other
areas, but on the ground workers are sourced locally. A facility close enough
to a municipality with a healthy supply of labor to operate it is a must.

Political Stability

Companies that locate facilities in international locations might benefit from

a cost perspective; however, an unstable local government that puts smooth
operations at risk are a deterrent to choosing to locate there.

FACILITIES LOCATION

Regulations

Stringent local environmental regulations that limit the nature of business

operations can deter a company from choosing a particular location. In
addition, government regulations and taxes of various kinds can prove costly
down the line. On the flip side, government tax incentives that encourage
corporate development can prove a benefit to certain locales.

Community

Facility locations are not temporary; the choice you make will stick with your
company for the long haul. It's therefore key that your company fits with the
community it's associated with. Although the municipality might appreciate
your company's facility because it creates jobs, some might resent your
presence because of aesthetics or environmental factors. Maintaining a
hassle-free relationship with the locals helps ensure your licenses and permits
are easier to obtain and maintain over the life of the site.

WORK MEASUREMENT AND JOB

DESIGN

Work measurementis the application of techniques designed to establish the

time for an average worker to carry out a specifiedmanufacturingtask at a
defined level of performance. It is concerned with the length of time it takes
to complete a work task assigned to a specific job.

Work measurement helps to uncover non-standardization that exist in the

workplace and non-value adding activities and waste. A work has to be
measured for the following reasons:

To discover and eliminate lost or ineffective time.

To establish standard times for performance measurement.

To measure performance against realistic expectations.

To set operating goals and objectives.

Work measurement, as the name suggests, provides management with a

means of measuring the time taken in the performance of an operation or
series of operations in such a way that ineffective time is shown up and can
be separated from effective time. In this way its existence, nature and extent
become known where previously they were concealed within the total.

WORK MEASUREMENT AND JOB

DESIGN

The following are the principal techniques by which work measurement is

carried out:

1.

Time study: Time Study consists of recording times and rates of work for
elements of a specified job carried out under specified conditions to obtain
the time necessary to carry out a job at a defined level of performance.

2.

Activity sampling: Activity sampling is a technique in which a large number of

instantaneous observations are made over a period of time of a group of
machines, processes or workers. Each observation records what is happening
at that instant and the percentage of observations recorded for a particular
activity or delay is a measure of the percentage of time during which the
activity or delay occurs.

3.

Predetermined motion time systems: A predetermined motion time system is

a work measurement technique whereby times established for basic human
motions (classified according to the nature of the motion and the conditions
under which it is made) are used to build up the time for a job at a defined
level of performance.

WORK MEASUREMENT AND JOB

DESIGN

The following are the principal techniques by which work measurement is

carried out:

4. Synthesis from standard data: Synthesis is a work measurement technique for

building up the time for a job at a defined level of performance by totalling
element times obtained previously from time studies on other jobs containing
the elements concerned, or from synthetic data.
5. Estimating: The technique of estimating is the least refined of all those
available to the work measurement practitioner. It consists of an estimate of
total job duration (or in common practice, the job price or cost). This
estimate is made by a craftsman or person familiar with the craft. It normally
embraces the total components of the job, including work content,
preparation and disposal time, any contingencies etc., all estimated in one
gross amount.
6. Analytical estimating: This technique introduces work measurement concepts
into estimating. In analytical estimating the estimator is trained in elemental
breakdown, and in the concept of standard performance. The estimate is
prepared by first breaking the work content of the job into elements, and
then utilising the experience of the estimator (normally a craftsman) the time
for each element of work is estimated - at standard performance.

WORK MEASUREMENT AND JOB

DESIGN

The following are the principal techniques by which work measurement is

carried out:

7. Comparative estimating: This technique has been developed to permit speedy

and reliable assessment of the duration of variable and infrequent jobs, by
estimating them within chosen time bands. Limits are set within which the
job under consideration will fall, rather than in terms of precise capital
standard or capital allowed minute values. It is applied by comparing the job
to be estimated with jobs of similar work content, and using these similar
jobs as "bench marks" to locate the new job in its relevant time band known as Work Group.

Uses of Work Measurement

To compare the efficiency of alternative methods. Other conditions being

equal, the method which takes the least time will be the best method.

To balance the work of members of teams, in association with the multiple

activity charts, so that, as far as possible, each member has tasks taking an
equal time.

To determine, in association with man and machine multiple activity charts,

the number of machines a worker can run.

WORK MEASUREMENT AND JOB

DESIGN

Job design(also referred to aswork designortask design) is the specification

of contents, methods and relationship of jobs in order to satisfy technological
and organizational requirements as well as the social and personal
requirements of the job holder.

Its principles are geared towards how the nature of a person's job affects their
attitudes and behaviour at work, particularly relating to characteristics such as
skill variety and autonomy.

The aim of a job design is to improvejob satisfaction, to improve through-put,

to improve quality and to reduce employee problems (e.g., grievances,
absenteeism).

Techniques of job design:

Job rotation: Job rotationis a job design method which is able to enhance
motivation, develop workers' outlook, increase productivity, improve the
organization's performance on various levels by its multi-skilled workers, and
provides new opportunities to improve the attitude, thought, capabilities and
skills of workers. Job rotation is also process by which employees laterally
mobilize and serve their tasks in different organizational levels; when an
individual experiences different posts and responsibilities in an organization,
ability increases to evaluate his capabilities in the organization.

WORK MEASUREMENT AND JOB

DESIGN

Job enlargement: Hulin and Blood (1968) defineJob enlargementas the

process of allowing individual workers to determine their own pace (within
limits), to serve as their own inspectors by giving them responsibility for
quality control, to repair their own mistakes, to be responsible for their own
machine set-up and repair, and to attain choice of method.Frederick Herzberg
referred to the addition of interrelated tasks as 'horizontal job loading'.

Job enrichment: Job enrichmentincreases the employees autonomy over the

planning and execution of their own work. Job enrichment has the same
motivational advantages of job enlargement, however it has the added benefit
of granting workers autonomy.Frederick Herzbergviewed job enrichment as
'vertical job loading' because it also includes tasks formerly performed by
someone at a higher level where planning and control are involved.

An operations manager uses job design techniques to structure work to meet

the physical and behavioural needs of the employee.

Trends in production job design include quality and maintenance of the

equipment as part of the worker's job. Today many workers are cross-trained
to perform multi-skilled jobs and total quality programs are important for all
employees. Team approaches, informing, use of temporary workers,
automation, and organizational commitment are other key issues in job design
decisions.