INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

COLLEGE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

HIGHER DIPLOMA IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

COURSE: FUNDAMANTAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

PRESENTED BY: IRENE MWENDE KIWOOL

ADNIM NUMBER : 003767

TO: ALLOICE LECTURER

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 QUESTION:

In order for an organization to achieve its overall goals and objectives there
is an absolute need for effective “Work Measurements or methods”

Discuss these methods exhaustively and highlight the benefits that could be
achieved from each of them?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This term paper gives a brief history of what is “work measurements” and its
purpose or objective.

Secondly this paper will analysis the various techniques and or methods of
Work measurements employed by organizations and or firm in order to
estimate the work content of a specified task, its size and the time taken by
a skilled employee to complete a particular task at a defined level of
performance.

Thirdly this paper shall highlight in a concise manner the advantages and or
benefits of the various work measurement techniques or methods.

Lastly this term paper will be concluded by highlighting the questions an

observer ought to ask himself before employing a particular technique of
work measurements.

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 INTRODUCTION

What organizations are realizing is that their likelihood of sustained success

is most dependent on learning to get the maximum out of their employees.

Work measurement is a type of work study1 technique. There is no

universally accepted definition of the term. However the British Standards
institution as defeined work measurement as:

“The application of techniques designed to establish the time for

a qualified worker to carry out a specified job at a defined level
of performance”

From the above definition it is clear that work measurement provides a basis
for comparing quantitative performance in like operations performed at
different locations and in the same operation at the same location over a
period of time.

A good work measurement system has many benefits. It helps to reduce

labor costs, increase productivity, and improve supervision, planning,
scheduling, performance appraisal, and decision making.

There are various techniques or methods used in work measurement

programs

namely: Time study, Predetermied Motion sytems,Work sampling also known

as activity sampling, Estimating and Synthesis.

Each of the aforesaid techniques have strengths and weakness hence

selecting the right technique or method is critical to the success of a work
measurement program.

WORK MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES:

There are several techniques of work measurements. These techniques are

as follows:

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Work study is the systematic study of an operation or process to ensure the best possible
use of the human and material resources available. The prime aim is to improve
productivity. The application of work study to a department or company is made to improve
the existing method of operation as a result change will occur which will affect all personnel
irrespective of their status.

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 1. TIME STUDY

This technique is defined by the British Standard of Institution as2

“a work measurement technique for recording the times and

rates of working for the elements of a specified job carried out
under specified conditions and for analyzing the data so as to
determine the time necessary for carrying out the job at a
defined level of performance.”

This type of technique of work measurement was actually developed in the

late 19th centaury and early 20th centaury by Fedrick W. Taylor3 who was the
first person to use a stop watch to study work content and hence commonly
known as the father of time study and scientific management. This
technique is deemed as the first definitive approach to work measurement.

This basic technique is a direct observation of the job while it is being

performed by a well trained and skilled employee hence it is referred to as a
retrospective method of observance.

In order for an organization to carry out this technique the following

conditions must be satisfied:

• the practitioner (observer) must be fully qualified to carry out Time

Study,
• the person performing the task must be fully trained and experienced
in the work,
• the work must be clearly defined and the method of doing the work
must be effective
• the working conditions must be clearly defined

According to F. W. Talyor there are two basic procedures that are used to
conduct this type of technique that is the analytical work study and the
constructive work study. These two procedures are carried out as follows:

The analytical work of time study is as follows:

• Divide the work of a man performing any job into simple elementary
movements
• Pick out all useless movements and discard them

2
RM CUMES FARCDAY & JOSEDPH (1972) WORK STUDY; PITMAN PUBLISHING MANAGEMENT
PUBLICATIONS FOR THE BRISTISH INSTUTUETE OF MANAGEMENT 3RD EDITION LONDON AT
PAGE 121
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Through out his professional life he worked as an apprentice machinist, time keeper,
expediter, lathe operator, gang boss foreman of the machine shop and chief engineer.

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 • Study one after another just how wach several skilled workmen makes
each lementary movement and with the aid of a stop watch select the
qyickest and best method of making each elememnatry movement
known in the trade
• Describe, record and index each elementary movement with its proper
times so that it can be quickly found.
• Study and record the percentage which must be added to the actual
working time of a goos workman to cover avoidable delays,
interruptions and minor accidents
• Study and record the percentage which must be added to cover the
newness of a good workman to a job the first few times that he does it.
• Study and record the percentage of time that must be allowed for rest
and the intervals at which the ret must be taken in order to offset the
physical fatigue.

The constructive work time study is as follow:

• Add together into various groups such combinations of elementary

movements as are frequently used in the same sequence in the trade
and record and index these groups so that they can be readily found
• From these several records it is comparatively easy to select the
proper series of motions which should be used by a workman in
making any particular article and by summing the times of these
movements and adding proper percentage allowances to find the
proper time for doing almost any class of work
• The analysis of a piece of work into its elements almost always reveals
the fact that many of the conditions surrounding and accompanying
the work are defective for instance that improper tools are used, that
the machines used in connection with it need perfecting that the
sanitary conditions are bad etc. and knowledge so obtained leads
frequently to constructive work of a high order to the standardization
of tolls and conditions to the invention of superior methods and
machines.

Advantages

 worker cooperation unnecessary

 workplace uninterrupted
 performance ratings unnecessary
 consistent
 it is easy to collect, to understand, and communicate.

Disadvantages

 ignores job context

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  may not reflect skills and abilities of local workers
 does not provide information that will aid the company in
improving its output in the future.

PREDETERMINED MOTION TIME SYSTEMS (PMTS)

This technique is defined as:

“An organized body of information on procedures and techniques

employed in the study and evaluation of work elements
performed by human power in terms of the method or motions
used their general and specific nature the conditions under
which they occur and the application of prestandardized or
predetermined times which their performances requires.”

This technique was developed around 1930 and 1940 when the united stated
of America(USA) brought rapid war mobilization which led to shortage of
material and manpower. There was little time in which to achieve
tremendous increases in productivity. Therefore it was during this period
that Frank and Lilian Gilbreth introduced the concept of motion time analysis,
work factor and motion time standards.

Advantages

• Can be used to study high-volume settings such as a workstation or an

assembly line
1) May be established in a laboratory environment, where the procedure
will not upset actual production activities;
2) Can be used for planning as the standard can be set before a task is
actually performed;
3) No performance ratings are necessary;
• Particularly effective in firms that do substantial numbers of studies of
similar tasks.
• when properly executed, this method yields very accurate times.

The disadvantage is that the results are not easy to communicate

Predetermined time standards have several advantages over the traditional

stopwatch method; including:

a. Absence of stopwatch reduces Hawthorne effect

b. Excessive values alert analyst to potential Ergonomic issues
c. Methods sensitive (‘How’ task is done is recorded)

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d. No performance rating eliminates inherent inaccuracies
e. Consistent regardless of who performs the work or by whom the study is
performed
f. Requires fewer observations, thereby reducing the amount of time
required to develop standards
g. Can be understood by personnel at all levels of the organization
h. Widely accepted by labor unions as an impartial “umpire”

2. WORK SAMPLING METHOD

This type of technique is also called Activity sampling method.

Activity Sampling is a statistical technique that can be used as a means for

collecting data. It is defined by British standard as:

“A technique in which a large number of observations are made

over a period of time of one group of machines, processes or
workers. Each observation records what is happening at that
instant and the percentage of observations recorded for a
particular activity or delay is a measure of the percentage of
time during which that activity or delay occurs.”

Advantages of work sampling

• This method is easy to learn and use, and it provides more operational
detail than historical data.
• 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

The disadvantage of work sampling is

• that it requires thousands of samples to establish an accurate measure

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

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 3. ESTIMATING

This technique is defined as

A means for assessing the time required to carry out work based
on knowledge and experience of a similar types of work without
a detailed breakdown of the work into elements and their
corresponding times at a defined level of performance.

This method developed the work measurement technique known as

analytical estimating

The British standard Institution defines analytical estimating as

“A work measurement technique being a development of

estimating whereby the time required to carry out elements of a
job at a defined level of performance is estimated partly from
knowledge and practical experience of the elements concerned
and partly from synthetic data.”

This technique is normally used to assess workloads over a reasonably long

planning period (such as a shift, a week or more). This technique is used
when there is often insufficient synthetic data available to allow standards to
be established and consequently the standards must be constructed using
whatever data that is available.

This technique follows the basic work measurement process of:

Analysis: In AE, the ‘analysis’ phase consists of breaking a task down into its
basic component operations or elements so that these can be individually
assigned time values.

Measurement: Standard times, where available from another reliable

source, are applied to these elements. Where no such times are available, a
time for each element is estimated based on experience of the work under
consideration. Importantly, this estimating is carried out by an worker skilled
and experienced in the work being measured and who has had additional
training in the process of estimating. Based on this experience and training,
he/she simply estimates the time that would be required by a fully
competent and experienced worker, working at a defined level of
performance to complete the element of work.

Synthesis: When a time has been assigned to each element, they are added
together to give the ‘basic time’ for the complete task, taking account of the
specific frequencies with which each element would occur in the defined

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task. Rather than applying allowances to individual elements, relaxation and
contingency allowance are applied to basic time to give the standard time.

The analysis into elements is a key factor in producing reliable times, since,
while time estimates for individual elements may be "inaccurate", any errors
are random and will compensate for each other. Additionally, since the
technique is normally used for assessing workloads over a reasonably long
planning period, errors in individual tasks will also cancel each other out.

ADVANTAGES

• Useful for setting standards for a job when there are unlikely to be
more than a very few repetitions, or where no two jobs are likely to be
the same (e.g, in some repair or maintenance work).

• that a standard time can be set prior to the start of a job. This is
helpful in costing and scheduling. Usually, an experienced person in
doing the particular kind of work does the estimating.

• Experience is used to visualize what steps are required to do the job.

The times are then estimated and some allowances are added. The
actual time is noted when the job is actually done, and in that way, the
estimator builds up an increasing body of knowledge for that kind of
work.
• Estimating is strictly related to the particular body of knowledge each
estimator has.

4. SYNTHESIS

The British standard Institution defines Synthesis as

“A work measurement technique for building up the time for a

job or parts of a job at a defined level of performance by totaling
element times obtained previously from time studies on other
jobs containing the elements concerned or from synthetic data.”

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 WORK
MEASUREMENT

Direct measurement Indirect measurement

Predetermined
Time study Work Estimatin
Motion time study
g
systems

Standard
data

Comparative
estimating

Job standards

CONCLUSION

Work measurement offers one of the most reliable ways to achieve the
benefits of increased production at lower costs for the advantage of
everyone that is from the managers, workers to the consumer.

As discussed above there are indeed various techniques that an organization

can use in order to measure the level of work performed. However the

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question is how does the organization determine which is the best method to
use.

THE METHOD TO EMPLOY

In order for an organization to establish the best technique / method to use

in order to measure the work of its qualified personnel then the Observer
conducting the work measurement ought to ask himself the following
questions

1. What is the purpose of the measurement that is what is the

organization trying to achieve by caring the measurement?

2. What is the level of precision or detail the organization requires?

3. Is there any pre-determined or standard data available?

4. Are there any real deadlines for the availability of measured data?

5. How much would it cost to undertake the measurement by different

means? Is the cost justified by the benefits?

6. What techniques is the observer experienced in?

REFRENCES

1. RM Cumes Faraday & Joseph (1972) Work Study; Pitman Publishing

Management Publications For The British Institute Of Management 3rd
Edition London

2. Operations management with CR Rom by Ray wild 6th Edition published

in 2002 by continuum

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