Chapter 11 – Work System

Design

Operations Management
by
R. Dan Reid & Nada R. Sanders
4th Edition © Wiley 2010

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 Learning Objectives
 Describe the elements of work system
design and the objectives of each element
 Describe relevant job design issues
 Describe methods analysis
 Understand the importance of work
measurement
 Describe how to do a time study
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 Learning Objectives – con’t
 Describe how to do work sampling
 Develop standard times
 Show how to use work standards
 Describe compensation plans
 Describe learning curves

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 Designing a Work System
Designing a work system is part of developing an
operations strategy
 Effective operations strategy provides structure for
company productivity
 The work system includes:
 Job design
 Work measurements
 Worker compensation

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 Design a Job
 Job Design specifies work activities of an
individual or group
 Jobs are designed by answering questions
like:
 What is the job’s description?
 What is the purpose of the job?
 Where is the job done?
 Who does the job?
 What background, training, or skills are required to do
the job?

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 Additional Job Design Factors
 Technical feasibility:
 The job must be physically and mentally doable
 Economic feasibility:
 Cost of performing the job is less than the
value it adds
 Behavioral feasibility:
 Degree to which the job is intrinsically
satisfying to the employee
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 Machines or People - Should
the Job Be Automated?
 Safety & risk of injury to workers
 Repetitive nature of the task
(monotonous?)
 Degree of precision required
 Complexity of the task
 Need for empathy, compassion, or other
emotional elements
 Need for personal customer relationships
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 Levels of Labor Specialization
 Level of labor specialization can:
 Reduce the employee’s scope of expertise (higher
levels of specialization)
 Increase the employee’s scope of expertise (lower
levels of specialization)
 Work satisfaction helps define level of
specialization
 Specialization can result in employee boredom

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 Specialization: Management’s View
Advantages: Disadvantages:
 Readily available labor  High absenteeism
 Minimal training  High turnover rates
required  High scrap rates
 Reasonable wages  Grievances filed
costs
 High productivity

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 Specialization: Employee’s View
Advantages: Disadvantages:
 Minimal credentials  Boredom

required  Little growth

 Minimal opportunity
responsibilities  Little control over work

 Minimal mental effort  Little room for initiative

needed  Little intrinsic

 Reasonable wages satisfaction

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 Eliminating Employee Boredom
 Job enlargement
 Horizontal expansion of the job through increasing the
scope of the work assigned.
 Job enrichment
 Vertical expansion of the job through increased worker
responsibility
 Adding work planning or inspection to a routine
assembly task
 Job rotation
 Shifting of cross trained workers to other tasks
 Broadens understanding and can reduce fatigue
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 Team Approach to Job Design
 Problem-solving teams:
 Small groups, trained in problem-solving techniques.
Used to identify, analyze, & propose solutions to
workplace problems
 Special-purpose task forces:
 Highly-focused, short-term teams with a focused
agenda (often cross-functional)
 Self-directed or self-managed teams:
 Team members work through consensus to plan,
manage, & control their assigned work flow
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 Methods Analysis
A detailed step-by-step analysis of how a given job
is performed
 Can distinguish between value-added & non-

value-added steps
 Analysis can revise the procedure to improve

productivity
 After improvement, must revise the new standard

operating procedure
 Follow-up to insure that changes actually improve

the operation
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 Methods Analysis
Method analysis consists of:
1. Identify the operation to be analyzed
2. Gather all relevant information
3. Talk with employees who use the operation
4. Chart the operation
5. Evaluate each step
6. Revise the existing or new operation as needed
7. Put the revised or new operation into effect, then
follow up on the changes or new operation

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 Methods Analysis at FEAT Company: The methods analyst has
been asked to review the transformer wiring operation because of
past quality problems from poor solder joints. The solder operation
sequence and the workstation layout are shown below.

1. Picks up wire in left hand and

moves it to the terminal
2. Simultaneously picks up
solder iron in right hand and
moves to the terminal
3. Solders wire to terminal and
replaces solder iron in holder
4. Solders terminal #1, then
#2 - #6, going right to left

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Analyst’s Recommendations: A. Maize reviews the workplace
layout and the present flow chart (below), and recommends
reversing the solder sequence from #6-#1, which is less
problematic for the right handed operator. He schedules a follow
up to insure that the new method has fixed the quality problem.

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 The Work Environment
 Working conditions can effect worker productivity,
product quality, and worker safety
 Temperature, ventilation, noise, and lighting are all
factors in work system design
 Congress passed OSHA in 1970 to mandate specific
safety conditions that must be met

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 Work Measurement
 Work Measurement helps determine how
long it should take to do a job
 Involves determining Standard Time
 Standard time: the length of time a qualified
worker, using appropriate processes and tools
to complete a specific job, allowing time for
personal fatigue, and unavoidable delays

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 Work Measurement
 Standard time is used in:
 Costing the labor component of products
 Tracking employee performance
 Scheduling & planning required resources

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 Setting Standard Times
Step 1: Choose the specific job to be studied
Step 2: Tell the worker whose job you will be studying
Step 3: Break the job into easily recognizable units
Step 4: Calculate the number of cycles you must observe
Step 5: Time each element, record data & rate the
worker’s performance
Step 6: Compute the normal time
Step 7: Compute the standard time

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 How to do a Time Study
 When making a time study several decisions
are made to assure desired results:
 # of observations to make
 Desired level of accuracy
 Desired level of confidence for the estimated
standard time
 Desired accuracy level is typically expressed
as a % of the mean observed times

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 Other Time Factors Used in
Calculating Standard Time
 The normal time (NT) is the mean observed
time multiplied by the performance rating
factor (PRF)
 The PRF is a subjective estimate of a worker’s
pace relative to a normal work pace
 The frequency of occurrence (F) is how
often the element must be done each cycle.

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 Other Time Factors Used in
Calculating Standard Time
 The allowance factor (AF) is the amount of time
allowed for personal, fatigue, and unavoidable delays
 Standard Time=normal time x allowance factor,
where:

1 1
AFTme Worked    1.176  117.6%
1  PFD 1  0.15
ST  (NT)(AF)

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 Calculating Normal Time and
Standard Time at Pat’s Pizza
A B C D E F
12 Example 11.4 Calculating Standard Time for a Hand-Tossed Cheese and Pepperoni Pizza
13 Revised Observed Performance Rating Frequency Normal Time Standard Time
14 Work Element Time (minutes) Factor (minutes) (minutes)
15 1. Get ball of dough 0.15 0.90 1 0.135 0.159
16 2. Flatten dough 0.25 1.00 1 0.250 0.294
17 3. Spin and toss dough 0.60 0.85 1 0.510 0.600
18 4. Place dough on counter 0.15 1.10 1 0.165 0.194
19 5. Pour sauce on formed dough 0.30 1.20 1 0.360 0.423
20 6. Place grated cheese on top 0.28 1.00 1 0.280 0.329
21 7. Place pepperoni on sauce 0.28 0.95 1 0.266 0.313
22 Total Time 1.966 2.312

 The standard time for preparing a large, hand-tossed pepperoni

pizza is 2.312 minutes. This means that a worker can prepare 207
pizzas in an 8-hour shift (480 minutes divided by 2.312 minutes)

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 Other Time Study Methods
 Elemental time data establishes standards based
on previously completed time studies, stored in an
organization’s database.
 Predetermined time data (e.g. MTM and MTS) is a
published database element time data used for
establishing standard times
 Reach, grasp, move, engage, insert, turn, etc.
 Work Sampling is a technique for estimating the
proportion of time a worker spends on an activity
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 Work Sampling Procedures
1. Identify the worker or machine to be sampled
2. Define the activities to be observed
3. Estimate the sample size based on level of accuracy and
confidence level
4. Develop the random observation schedule. Make
observations over a time period that is representative of
normal work conditions
5. Make you observations and record the data. Check to see
whether the estimated sample size remains valid
6. Estimate the proportion of the time spent on the given
activity
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 Compensation
Compensation is the third part of work system design
 Time-based plans (pay based on the number of hours
worked) vs. output-based systems (pay based on the
number of units completed)
 Group incentive plans: profit sharing & gain sharing
 Plans put part of a worker’s salary at risk
 Does the compensation system undermine teamwork?
 Does plan prevent free-riders not doing their fair share?
 Does the incentive plan encourage workers to support the long-
term health of the organization?

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 Worker Compensation Systems –
con’t
 Group incentive plans reward employees when
company achieves certain performance objectives
 Profit sharing – a employee bonus pool based on
sharing of company’s profits
 Gain sharing – emphasizes cost reduction rather than
profits
 Plans put part of a worker’s salary at risk
 Compensation system may undermine teamwork

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