To know about work measurement techniques

1. WORK MEASUREMENT
TECHNIQUES

3. Historical data method
Past performance is used as a
guideline for setting work performance
standards.However, past performance
is not the best basis for fixing
performance standards. This is
because there may be many changes
in technology, employees’ behavior,
abilities, etc.

4. Time study
stop watch is the most commonly used work measurement
method. This technique was developed by Frederick Winslow
Taylor (1856-1915).
Time study is best suited for short-cycle repetitive jobs. Most of
the production jobs can be easily timed by a time-study.
Time study procedure consists of the following steps:
 Select the job to be timed.
 Standardize the method of doing the job.
 Select the worker to be studied.
 Record the necessary details of the job and conditions of work.
 Divide the job into elements. Here, ’element’ is a part of the
job.
 Find out the time taken to do every single element.
 Keep provisions for relaxation, etc.

5. Work Sampling
WORK SAMPLING METHOD WAS ORIGINAL DEVELOPED BY LEONARD HENRY CALEB
TIPPETT (1902-1985) IN BRITAIN IN 1934.
THE WORKERS ARE OBSERVED MANY TIMES AT RANDOM. IT IS DONE TO FIND OUT FOR
HOW MUCH TIME THE WORKER IS ACTUALLY ON THE JOB. IT CHECKS HOW LONG HE IS
WORKING AND HOW MUCH TIME HE IS NOT WORKING (IDLE TIME).
WORK SAMPLING METHOD INVOLVES FOLLOWING THREE MAIN STEPS:
 DECIDING WHAT ACTIVITIES ARE DEFINED AS ’WORKING’. NON-WORKING ARE
THOSE ACTIVITIES WHICH ARE NOT DEFINED AS WORKING.
 OBSERVE THE WORKER AT SELECTED INTERVALS AND RECORD (WRITE DOWN)
WHETHER HE IS WORKING OR NOT.
 CALCULATE THE PORTION OF TIME (P), A WORKER IS WORKING.

6. Synthesis method
The full job is first divided into elements (parts).
The time taken to do each element of the job is found out and synthesized (totaled). This
gives the total time taken for doing the full job.
the time taken to do each element of the job is found out from previous time studies
Standard-data is the normal time taken for doing routine jobs. Standard data is easily
available for routine-jobs like fitting screws, drilling holes, etc. So there is no need of
calculating these times repeatedly
For example, a job of publishing a book contains four elements viz; typing, editing,
printing and binding. The time taken for doing each element is first found out. Suppose,
typing takes 40 days, editing takes 30 days; printing takes 20 days and binding takes 10
days. Then the time taken to do all the elements are totaled. That is, it takes 40 + 30 + 20 +
10 = 100 days to publish a book. This information is taken from previous time studies of
other printing jobs or from the standard data.

7. Predetermined motion time
system
In ’Predetermined Motion Time System’ method or
The normal times are fixed for basic human motions. These time values are
used to fix the time required for doing a job. Normally, three times are fixed for
one job. That is, one time is fixed for each level of performance. The level of
performance may be normal, fast and very-fast.

8. Analytical estimating
Analytical estimating method or technique is used for fixing the
standard time for jobs, which are very long and repetitive. The standard-
time is fixed by using standard-data. standard data is not available, then
the standard time is fixed based on the experience of the work-study
engineer.