Work Study and Employee Productivity |
Work study is the systematic examination of the methods of carrying on activities so as to improve the effective use of resources and to set up standards of performance for the activities being carried out. Work study then aims at examining the way an activity is being carried out, simplifying or modifying the method of operation to reduce unnecessary or excess work, or the wasteful use of resources, and setting up a time standard for performing that activity. The relation between productivity and work study is thus obvious. You can download A Set of Eight Ultimate HR Tools for HR Managers HERE. If work study results in cutting down the time of performing a certain activity by 20 per cent, merely as a result of rearranging the sequence or simplifying the method of operation and without additional expenditure, then productivity will go up by a corresponding value, that is by 20 per cent. To appreciate how work study acts to cut down costs and reduce the time of a certain activity, it is necessary to examine more closely what that time consists of. How the Total time of a Job is Made Up The time taken by a worker or a machine to carry out an operation or to produce a given quantity of a certain product may be considered as made up in the following manner: Basic work content + work content added by poor product design or materials utilization + work content added by in-efficient methods or operation + in-effective time resulting from human resources contribution. The basic work content of the product or operation Work content means, of course, the amount of work "contained in" a given product or a process measured in "work-hours" or "machine hours".
- A work-hour is the labor of one person for one hour. The basic work content is the time taken to manufacture the product or to perform the operation if the design or specification of the product or service provided were perfect, if the process or method of operation were perfectly carried out, and if there were no loss of working time from any cause whatsoever during the period of the operation (other than legitimate rest pauses permitted to the operative). The basic work content is the irreducible minimum time theoretically required to produce one unit of output.This is obviously a perfect condition which never occurs in practice, although it may sometimes be approached, especially in line manufacturing or process industries. In general, however, actual operation times are far in excess of it on account of excess work content. The work content is increased by the following: A. Work content added by poor design or specification of product or its parts, or improper utilization of materials
Poor design and frequent design changes
Waste of materials
Incorrect quality standards B. Work content added by inefficient methods of manufacture or operation
Poor layout and utilization of space
Inadequate materials handling
Ineffective method of work
Poor planning of inventory
Frequent breakdown of machines and equipment C. Work content resulting mainly from the contribution of human resources
Absenteeism and lateness
Poor workmanship You can download excellent powerpoint slides on HR Management and Human Capital Strategy HERE.
Accidents and occupational hazards
Source:
C.R.Wynne- Roberts and George Kanawaty, Introduction to Work Study, International Labour Office. You can obtain this fine book
here |