Chapter 7

Design of Work Systems

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 WORK DESIGN

Job
design

WORK Work
Compe
measur
nsation DESIGN ement

Motivat
ion

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Quality of Work Life
Quality of work life affects workers overall
sense of well-being and contentment, but also
their productivity
Important aspects of quality of work life:
How a worker gets along with co-workers
Quality of management
Working conditions
Compensation

7-3
Working Conditions
Temperature & Illumination
Humidity

Ventilation Noise & Vibration

7-4
Working Conditions (contd.)
Work Time & Safety
Work Breaks

Occupational Ethical Issues

Healthcare

7-5
Accident
Any unplanned or unwanted event that may lead
to physical harm, damage to property, or even
loss of human lives and property.

7-6
Causes of Accident
Unsafe act (carelessness)
Unsafe condition (hazards)

7-7
Job Design
Job design
The act of specifying the contents and methods of jobs
What will be done in a job
Who will do the job
How the job will be done
Where the job will be done
Objectives
Safety
Quality of work life
Productivity

7-8
Job Design Success
Job design success factors:
Carried out by personnel with appropriate training and
background
Consistent with the goals of the organization
In written form
Understood and agreed to by both management and
employees

7-9
Ergonomics
Ergonomics (human factors)
The scientific discipline concerned with the understanding of
interactions among human and other elements of a system
Three domains of ergonomics
Physical (repetitive movements, layout, health, safety)
Cognitive (mental workload, decision making, HCI, and work
stress)
Organizational (communication, teamwork, work design, and
telework)

7-10
Efficiency vs. Behavioral Job Design
Efficiency School
Emphasizes a systematic, logical approach to job
design
A refinement of Frederick Winslow Taylors scientific
management concepts
Behavioral School
Emphasizes satisfaction of needs and wants of
employees

7-11
Specialization
Specialization
Work that concentrates on some aspect of a product
or service

7-12
Behavioral Approaches to Job Design
Job enlargement horizontal loading
Giving a worker a larger portion of the total task
Job rotation
Workers periodically exchange jobs
Job enrichment vertical loading
Increasing responsibility for planning and coordination
tasks

7-13
Methods Analysis
Methods Analysis
Analyzing how a job gets done
It begins with an analysis of the overall operation
It then moves from general to specific details of the
job concentrating on
Workplace arrangement
Movement of workers and/or materials

7-14
The Need for Methods Analysis
The need for methods analysis can arise from a
variety of sources
Changes in tools and equipment
Changes in product design or introduction of new
products
Changes in materials and procedures
Government regulations or contractual agreements
Accidents or quality problems

7-15
Methods Analysis Procedure
1. Identify the operation to be studied, and gather relevant
data
2. Discuss the job with the operator and supervisor to get their
input
3. Study and document the present methods
4. Analyze the job
5. Install the new methods
6. Follow up implementation to assure improvements have
been achieved

7-16
Guidelines for Selecting a Job to Study

Consider jobs that:

Have a high labor content
Are done frequently
Are unsafe, tiring, unpleasant, and/or noisy
Are designated as problems
Quality problems
Processing bottlenecks
etc.

7-17
Analyzing the Job: Flow Process Charts

Flow process chart

Chart used to examine the overall sequence of an operation by
focusing on movements of the operator or flow of materials

7-18
Analyzing the Job: Worker-Machine Chart

Worker machine chart

Chart used to determine portions of a work cycle during which an
operator and equipment are busy or idle

7-19
Motion Study
Motion study
Systematic study of the human motions used to perform an
operation
Motion Study Techniques
Motion study principles guidelines for designing motion-
efficient work procedures
Analysis of therbligs basic elemental motions into which a job
can be broken down
Micromotion study use of motion pictures and slow motion to
study motions that otherwise would be too rapid to analyze
Charts activity or process charts, simo charts (simultaneous
motions)

7-20
Developing Work Methods
In developing work methods that are motion
efficient, the analyst attempts to
Eliminate unnecessary motions
Combine activities
Reduce fatigue
Improve the arrangement of the workplace
Improve the design of tools and equipment

7-21
Work Measurement
Work measurement is concerned with how
long it should take to complete a job.

It is not concerned with either job content or

how the job is to be completed since these are
considered a given when considering work
measurement.

7-22
Work Measurement

Commonly used work measurement techniques

Stopwatch time study
Historical times
Predetermined data
Work sampling

7-23
Standard Time
Standard time
The amount of time it should take a qualified worker to
complete a specified task, working at a sustainable
rate, using given methods, tools and equipment, raw
material inputs, and workplace arrangement.

7-24
Stopwatch Time Study
Used to develop a time standard based on observations
of one worker taken over a number of cycles.
Basic steps in a time study:
1. Define the task to be studied and inform the worker who will be
studied
2. Determine the number of cycles to observe
3. Time the job, and rate the workers performance
4. Compute the standard time

7-25
Number of Cycles to Observe
The number of observations to collect is a function of
Variability of the observed times
The desired level of accuracy
Desired level of confidence for the estimated job time

2 2
zs zs
n or n
ax ex
where
z # of normal stddev. needed for desired confidence
s Sample standard deviation
a Desired accuracy percentage
e Maximum acceptable error
x Sample mean
7-26
Observed Time

OT
x i

n
where
OT Observed time
x i Sum of recorded times
n Number of observatio ns

7-27
Normal Time

NT OT PR
where
NT Normal time
PR Performanc e rating
Assumes that a single performance rating has been made
for the entire job

7-28
Performance Rating Table (Four-factor system)
Skill Effort
+0.15 A1 Superskill +0.13 A1 Excessive
+0.13 A2 +0.12 A2
+0.11 B1 Excellent +0.10 B1 Excellent
+0.08 B2 +0.08 B2
+0.06 C1 Good +0.05 C1 Good
+0.03 C2 +0.02 C2
0.00 D Average 0.00 D Average
-0.05 E1 Fair -0.04 E1 Fair
-0.10 E2 -0.08 E2
-0.16 F1 Poor -0.12 F1 Poor
-0.22 F2 -0.17 F2
Conditions Consistency

+0.06 A Ideal +0.04 A Perfect

+0.04 B Excellent +0.03 B Excellent

+0.02 C Good +0.01 C Good

0.00 D Average 0.00 D Average

-0.03 E Fair -0.02 E Fair

-0.07 F Poor -0.04 F Poor

7-29
Normal Time

NT
x j PR j
n
where
NT Normal time
x j Average time for element j
PR j Performanc e rating for element j

Assumes that performance ratings are made on an element-

by-element basis

7-30
Normal Time
An operation takes 0.50 minutes to finish.
Normal time given the performance ratings
Excellent skill, B2 +0.08
Good effort, C2 +0.02
Good condition, C +0.02
Good consistency, C +0.01
Total +0.13
Normal time = .50 x 1.13 = 0.565

7-31
Standard Time
ST NT AF
where
ST Standard time
AF Allowance factor
and
AFjob 1 A A Allowance percentage based on job time
1
AFday A Allowance percentage based on workday
1 A

Use job time when different jobs have different allowances.

Else, use workday when jobs are similar and have the same
allowance factors.
7-32
ILO RECOMMENDATIONS

7-33
 An analyst has timed a metal-cutting operation
for 50 cycles. The average time per cycle was
10.40 minutes, and the standard deviation was
1.20 minutes for a worker with a performance
rating of 125 percent. Assume an allowance of
16 percent of job time. Find the standard time
for this operation.

7-34
 A job was timed for 60 cycles and had an
average of 1.2 minutes per piece. The
performance rating was 95 percent, and
workday allowances are 10 percent. Determine
each of the following:
Observed time
Normal time
Standard time

7-35
 A time study was conducted on a job that contains four
elements. The observed times and performance ratings
for six cycles are shown in the following table.
OBSERVATIONS (MINUTES PER CYCLE)
Element Performance 1 2 3 4 5 6
Rating
1 90% 0.44 0.50 0.43 0.45 0.48 0.46
2 85 1.50 1.54 1.47 1.51 1.49 1.52
3 110 0.84 0.89 0.77 0.83 0.85 0.80
4 100 1.10 1.14 1.08 1.20 1.16 1.26

a. Determine the average cycle time for each element.

b. Find the normal time for each element.
c. Assuming an allowance factor of 15 percent of job time, compute
the standard time for this job.
7-36
Historical Times
Standard Elemental Times are derived from a
firms own historical time study data.
Over time, a file of accumulated elemental times that
are common to many jobs will be collected.
In time, these standard elemental times can be
retrieved from the file, eliminating the need to go
through a new time study to acquire them.

7-37
Historical Times (contd.)
Procedure:
1. Analyze the job to identify the standard elements.
2. Check the file for elements that have historical times
and record them. Use time studies to obtain others,
if necessary.
3. Modify the file times if necessary.
4. Sum the elemental times to obtain the normal time,
and factor in allowances to obtain the standard time.

7-38
Predetermined Time Standards
Predetermined time standards involve the use of
published data on standard elemental times.
Developed in the 1940s by the Methods Engineering Council.
The MTM tables are based on extensive research of basic
elemental motions and times.
To use this approach, the analyst must divide the job into its
basic elements (reach, move, turn, etc.) measure the distances
involved, and rate the difficulty of the element, and then refer to
the appropriate table of data to obtain the time for that element

7-39
Work Sampling
Work sampling is a technique for estimating the
proportion of time that a worker or machine spends on
various activities and idle time.
work sampling does not require timing an activity or involve
continuous observation of the activity
Uses:
1.ratio-delay studies which concern the percentage of a
workers time that involves unavoidable delays or the
proportion of time a machine is idle.
2.analysis of non-repetitive jobs.

7-40
Work Sampling
Estimates percent of time a worker
spends on various tasks
Requires random observations to
record worker activity
Determines how employees allocate
their time
Can be used to set staffing levels,
reassign duties, estimate costs, and set
delay allowances
7-41
Work Sampling

Advantages of work sampling

Less expensive than time study
Observers need little training
Studies can be delayed or interrupted
with little impact on results
Worker has little
chance to affect
results
Less intrusive
7-42
Work Sampling

Disadvantages of work sampling

Does not divide work elements as
completely as time study
Can yield biased results if observer does
not follow random pattern
Less accurate, especially when
job element times are short

7-43
Work Sampling

1. Take a preliminary sample to obtain

estimates of parameter values
2. Compute the sample size required
3. Prepare a schedule for random
observations at appropriate times
4. Observe and record worker activities
5. Determine how workers spend their
time
7-44
Work Sampling

Determining the sample size

z2 p(1 - p)
n=
h2
where n = required sample size
z = standard normal deviate for desired confidence
level
p = estimated value of sample proportion
h = acceptable error level in percent

7-45
Determine Sample Size

Common z Values
Desired z Value
Confidence (standard deviation required for
(%) desired level of confidence)
90.0 1.65
95.0 1.96
95.45 2.00
99.0 2.58
99.73 3.00

7-46
Work Sampling Example
Wants employees idle 25% of the time
Sample should be accurate within 3%
Wants to have 95.45% confidence in the results

z2 p(1 - p)
n=
h2

where n = required sample size

z = 2 for a 95.45% confidence level
p = estimate of idle proportion = 25% = .25
h = acceptable error of 3% = .03

(2)2 (.25)(.75)
n= = 833 observations
(.03)2
7-47
Work Sampling Example
No. of
Observations Activity
485 On the phone or meeting with a welfare client
126 Idle
62 Personal time
23 Discussions with supervisor
137 Filing, meeting, and computer data entry
833
All but idle and personal time are work related.
Percentage idle time = (126 + 62)/833 = 22.6%.
Since this is less than the target value of 25%, the workload needs to
be adjusted.

7-48
Work Sampling Time Studies

Salespeople

Sales in Travel
person 20%
20%
Telephone
sales Paperwork
12% 17%
Lunch and
personal
10%
Telephone
within firm Meetings
13% and other
8%

7-49
Work Sampling Time Studies
Startup/pep talk
Assembly-Line 3%
Employees
Breaks and lunch
10%

Dead time
between tasks
13%
Productive Unscheduled tasks
work and downtime
67% 4%
Cleanup
3%

7-50
 A job in an insurance office involves telephone
conversations with policyholders. The office
manager estimates that about half of the
employees time is spent on the telephone. How
many observations are needed in a work
sampling study to estimate that time percentage
to within 6 percent and have a confidence of 98
percent?

7-51
Motivation
Motivation is a key factor in many aspects of
work life
Influences quality and productivity
Contributes to the work environment
Trust is an important factor that affects
motivation

7-52
Teams
Teams take a variety of forms:
Short-term team
Formed to collaborate on a topic or solve a problem
Long-term teams
Self-directed teams
Groups empowered to make certain changes in their
work processes

7-53
Teams
Benefits of teams
Higher quality
Higher productivity
Greater worker satisfaction
Team problems
Some managers feel threatened
Conflicts between team members

7-54
Compensation
It is important for organizations to develop
suitable compensation plans for their employees
Compensation approaches
Time-based systems
Output-based systems
Incentive systems
Knowledge-based systems

7-55
Compensation Systems
Time-based system
Compensation based on time an employee has
worked during the pay period
Output-based (incentive) system
Compensation based on amount of output an
employee produced during the pay period

7-56
Incentive Plan Success
To obtain maximum benefit from an incentive
plan, it should be
1. Accurate
2. Easy to apply
3. Consistent
4. Easy to understand
5. Fair
There should also be an obvious relationship between
effort and reward, and no limit on earnings

7-57
Individual and Group Incentive Plans
Individual incentive plans
Straight piecework
Workers pay is a direct linear function of his or her output
Minimum wage legislation has reduced their popularity
Base rate + bonus
Worker is guaranteed a base rate, tied to an output standard,
that serves as a minimum
A bonus is paid for output above the standard
Group incentive plans
Tend to stress sharing of productivity gains with employees

7-58
Knowledge-Based Pay Systems
Knowledge-based pay
A pay system used by organizations to reward workers who
undergo training that increases their skills
Three dimensions:
Horizontal skills
Reflect the variety of tasks the worker is capable of
performing
Vertical skills
Reflect the managerial skills the worker is capable of
Depth skills
Reflect quality and productivity results

7-59
Management Compensation
Many organizations used to reward managers based on
output
New emphasis is being placed on other factors of
performance
Customer service
Quality
Executive pay is increasingly being tied to the company
or division for which the executive is responsible

7-60