Design of Work Systems
Chapter 7
Work design
Job design
Work measurement
Establish time standards
Worker compensation
Human resources greatest asset
Largest number of employees in operations
Must consider the jobs people do
Job Design
Specify content and methods
Goal - productive and efficient
Who will do the job,
How will the job be done, and
Where will the job be done
Job Design
Job design success
Experienced personnel
Consistent with organization’s goals
Written
Understood and agreed to by management
Job Design Models
Efficiency model - economic
Taylor and scientific management
Reduce decision making by workers
Behavioral model - satisfaction
Satisfaction of employee wants and needs
Efficiency approach not appropriate in all cases
Concern with uninteresting jobs and lack of control
Behavioral Approach
Job enlargement
larger portion of the total task
horizontal loading
Job rotation
workers exchange jobs
Job enrichment
increase responsibility for planning & coordination
vertical loading
Specialization
Goal - focus efforts and become proficient
Jobs have a narrow scope
Two extremes, professionals and line workers
High productivity and low unit costs
Limited mental requirements
Frustrated employees
Specialization Advantages
Simplifies training
High productivity
Low wage costs
For labor
Low education & skills
Minimum responsibilities
Little mental effort
Specialization Disadvantages
Difficult to motivate quality
Worker dissatisfaction
For labor
Monotonous work
Limited advancement
Little control
Little opportunity for self-fulfillment
Team-Based Approaches
Use of teams is a significant change
Self-directed teams (self-managed)
Increase teamwork & employee involvement
Empowered to make changes
Workers are experts in the processes
Teamwork requires training
Reduce managers
Improved responsiveness
Team-Based Approaches
Football team
Baseball team
Soccer team
Tennis doubles team
Methods analysis
Start of the job design process
Reasons for:
Technology changes
Product design changes, new products
Changes in materials or procedures
Gov’t regulations or procedures
Accidents, quality, etc.
Productivity improvements
Existing and new jobs
Methods analysis procedures
Identify operation & gather information
Discuss job with operator & supervisors
Study & document present method
Analyze the job
Propose new methods
Install new methods
Follow-up
Which process to study?
Increase productivity and reduce costs
Jobs that:
have a high labor cost
are done frequently
are unsafe, tiring, unpleasant, noisy
are designated as problems
bottlenecks, quality problems
Documenting the process
Use charts, graphs, and verbal descriptions
Standard charts
Flow process chart
focus on movements of operator or materials
identify nonproductive parts of the process
Worker-machine charts
focus on idle time of worker and machine
Flow process chart
Review & examine overall sequence
Helpful questions
Why a delay or storage?
How can travel time/distances be reduced?
Can materials handling be reduced?
Could it be rearranged?
Can similar activities be grouped?
Could more equipment help?
Does the worker have ideas for improvement?
Installing the improved method
What to change
What to change it to
How to initiate the change
Convince management
Convince workers
Provide training
Plan the implementation
Follow-up
Ensure perpetuation of the change
Visit/review the operation after time
Motion study
Systematic study of human motions used in an operation
Eliminate unnecessary motions, determine best sequence
Techniques
Motion study
Analysis of therbligs
Micromotion
Charts
Motion study principles
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
Use of the body
Arrangement of workplace
Design of tools and equipment
Therbligs
Basic elemental motions
Eliminate, combine or rearrange
Search, select, grasp, hold, transport, release
Inspect, position, plan, rest, delay
Lots of work
Short repetitive jobs
Micromotion study
Use camera and slow motion
Repetitive operations
Simo charts (left-hand, right hand)
Working Conditions
Temperature and humidity
Ventilation
Illumination
Color
Noise and vibration
Work breaks
Safety
Work measurement
Stopwatch time study
one worker over several cycles
Standard elemental times
accumulated historical data
Predetermined time standards
published data
Work sampling
Estimate proportion of time spent on activities
Compensation
Time-based system
Output-based system
Individual incentive plans
Group incentive plans
Knowledge-based pay systems
Management compensation
Form of incentive plan
Accurate
Easy to apply and understand
Consistent
Flow process chart