Work study is the basic tool of lean manufacturing, helping to create a basic but very important platform for lean manufacturing implementation. Now a day’s trends measure performance or study processes with the help of work-study tools of lean manufacturing. Monitoring & measuring the performance of processes and machines and calculating manpower utilization is a necessary requirement for each & every small or large-scale organization. Without the help of work-study, you can’t measure utilization.
A work-study is an initial tool to start a work process optimization exercise. The next step is to work on a study guide on which lean manufacturing tools to implement processes-wise like 6 ‘S’, Kaizen, Poka Yoke, SMED, etc.
In this article what did you learn?
- History of work-study.
- What is work-study & its types?
- Practical implementation steps of method study.
- Important criteria for method study implementation.
- What are the tools used in the method study?
- Techniques of work measurement.
- Benefits of work-study.
History of work-study.
Invented by: – Frederick Winslow Taylor.
What is work-study?
A work-study is basically a scientific technique to analyze work or processes to be performed. The main objective to conduct a work-study is to know the ground reality of processes for improvement or optimizing perspective. Basically, work-study provides the actual status of processes to be performed & compare with the ideal conditions or targeted condition.
The work-study broadly categorizes into two parts as per listed below. Review the attached image for a better understanding.
- Method Study.
- Work Measurement.
Now let’s understand each part of the work-study in detail.
1. Method Study.
Method study is a technique to analyze the process of work-study with the help of several tools. The main purpose to conduct a method study is to identify opportunities for process optimization in the broader view. Also able to analyze individual processes for value-added & non-value-added perspectives.
Practical steps to implement method study.
Important criteria for method study implementation of any processes.
To observe any processes for improvement point of view, method study criteria will be defined into three categories in the broader view. There are several factors to vary on each criterion.
- Economical aspect: – In an economical aspect of the method study, review the detailed process with respect to cost optimization opportunities. Identify major key possibilities during the method study. Review important topics to be considered for the economical aspect listed below.
- Scope for manpower optimization
- Bottleneck operation.
- Inventory reduction.
- Material handling reduction.
- Idleness due to manpower or machines.
2. Technical aspect: – In a technical aspect of the method study, view each process in technical improvement parameters. The main objective is to identify opportunities for minimizing waste from processes. Review the attached key important topics for the technical aspect.
- Check the process sequences & identify opportunities for changeover reduction.
- Check minor stoppages during processes.
- Possibilities for flow management improvement.
- Opportunity for layout changes
- Opportunity for space optimization.
3. Human aspect: – In a human aspect of the method study observed the basic requirement of the human asset to be fulfilled as well as also verify how they are dedicated towards the organization. Try to observe the actual ground-level conditions of human relations with organizations. Review certain points to be reviewed during the method study.
- Human safety.
- Talent utilization.
- Human relation with organization.
- Disciplinary effectiveness.
Review the attached informative image for a better understanding of how method study is to be applied in a real process & what mindset to be considered for the review person.
Now, after reviewing the economical, technical & human aspects of process-related method study we should require to monitor another aspect the technological aspect. In above three parameters suggest the majority of processes change internally. Now the very important aspect of technology is to suggest a process comparison of current Vs latest technology up-gradation.
- Technological Aspect: – Technological aspect is one of the important aspects & we require to include in the method study. Now a day’s future aspects of industries are day by day going towards digitization (Industry 4.0) & focused to reduce manual work & minimize or eliminate repetitive errors.
Review certain attached parameters during the method study.
- Bifurcation of processes into manual, semi-automatic, and automatic tasks. Identify technological activities suitable to manual tasks to replace processes.
- Check out possibilities to improve quality with technology up-gradation.
- Possibilities to reduce time & human fatigue with upgrade technology.
Tools used in method study
Reviewing the below-attached tools can help to analyze the process in a better way.
- Operation process chart – OPC is also renamed as an outline process chart that can help to define the process in two ways operation & inspection sequences.
- Flow process chart: – flow process chart is defining all the processes in 5 activities as operation, inspection, transportation, delay, and storage.
- Multiple activity chart: – multiple activity chart is defined as the comparison of more than two activities in a single time frame.
- Two-handed process chart: – two handed process chart is described as performing two hands individually within a single time frame.
- Flow diagram: – flow diagram chart is defining all the processes in a scaleable layout mode.
- Travel chart: – travel chart is to identify movement between all workstations or processes.
- String diagram: – string diagram is the same as the flow diagram but all the workstation represents by a scale-able string.
2. Work Measurement
Work measurement is a technique of work-study & developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor. The work measurement technique is mostly used in many small-scale & large-scale industries to measure the performance of processes. The main key objective to use work measurement is to verify ground conditions by comparing design conditions and the second is for improving process perspective.
In each organization’s work, a measurement study is conducted based on activity parameters compare with the time frame. The time frame of work measurement is decided based on seconds, minutes & hours as per the nature of the process.
Techniques of work measurement.
Time study: – time study is a very simple & most usable tool of work measurement. Basically in the time study process is divided into smaller activities & measure by each activity’s time with the help of a stopwatch.
Video time study: – video-time study is a technique of time study but the only difference with time study is capturing entire processes in the video.after capturing the video analyze each process individually with the help of the process video.
Activity sampling: – activity sampling or work sampling is a technique to measure the time of processes whereas not possible to capture with direct time studies. Activity sampling is generally used for larger activities that have an activity start to completion time large.
Predetermined motion time study: – PMTS analyzes the time of detailed human movements for different processes.
Synthesis from standard data: – synthesis is basically the standard of data including different processes to be developed for future analysis purposes.
Analytical estimating: – analytical estimating is a technique to estimate process time before the process is actually performed with the help of predefined standard data.
The basic & most widely used work measurement technique is time study. Review sample time study of one of the machining operations.
