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    Practical Guide To Work Study [Revised Edition]
    Practical Guide To Work Study [Revised Edition]
    Practical Guide To Work Study [Revised Edition]
    Ebook153 pages1 hour

    Practical Guide To Work Study [Revised Edition]

    By Kerwin Mathew

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    About this ebook

    DESCRIPTION OF BOOK
    This book serves as an easy-to-understand guide to engineers, production supervisors and managers, lay people and students on the subject of work study.

    In any organization, be it the office where filing work and typing activities are carried out, or the factory where production of goods takes place, there is inevitably inefficiency, such as unnecessary movements resulting in fatigue in the person performing the task and hence inducing even greater inefficiency, and longer time taken to perform a task than is necessary. This is a big headache for management, resulting in loss of earnings and in some cases loss of business and even closure of company. The heavy responsibility of work study or methods analysis falls squarely on the shoulders of the work study officer or the industrial engineer.

    This book will be important to those who are keen on efficiency, eliminating wasted effort, time and materials, higher productivity, and, higher profitability, in the organization. It shows the reader how a desirable work method could be systematically designed such that a job could be performed with the least effort and time, the least wastage of materials and the greatest efficiency or productivity possible. Several case studies are incorporated to challenge the reader’s creativity of thought.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    The author has published about 20 books, two of which have been adopted as reference texts and commended by professional bodies. He was also the editor of a book of essays. He has many years of experience in electronics and manufacturing. He has taught many professional, management and technical subjects for years. He has published a number of important papers, including several papers on the solutions to some famous, unsolved problems, in research journals and has served on the faculty of an American research university as a professor. He has received publicity from the press for some intellectual achievement.
     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKerwin Mathew
    Release dateNov 7, 2014
    ISBN9781502246370
    Practical Guide To Work Study [Revised Edition]
    Author

    Kerwin Mathew

    Kerwin Mathew has published about 20 books, two of which have been adopted as reference texts and commended by professional bodies. He was also the editor of a book of essays. He has taught many professional and management subjects for years. He has published a number of important papers, including several papers on the solutions to some famous, unsolved problems, in research journals and has served on the faculty of an American research university as a professor. He has received publicity from the press for some intellectual achievement.  

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      Book preview

      Practical Guide To Work Study [Revised Edition] - Kerwin Mathew

      PRACTICAL GUIDE TO WORK STUDY [REVISED EDITION]

      PREFACE

      This book serves as an easy-to-understand guide to engineers, production supervisors and managers, laymen and students on the subject of work study.

      In any organization, be it the office where filing work and typing activities are carried out, or the factory where production of goods takes place, there is inevitably inefficiency, such as unnecessary movements resulting in fatigue in the person performing the task and hence inducing even greater inefficiency, and longer time taken to perform a task than is necessary. This is a big headache for management, resulting in loss of earnings and in some cases loss of business and even closure of company. The heavy responsibility of work study or methods analysis falls squarely on the shoulders of the work study officer or the industrial engineer.

      In most organizations today, e.g., in shipyards and manufacturing companies, work study officers and industrial engineers are employed in droves. These efficiency experts are indeed worth every cent they are paid. They help the organization to reduce wastage, cut down costs and increase productivity and profits. Thus, in an essential way, they help to ensure the survival of the organization.

      For students taking up a course or examinations on industrial engineering, this book will certainly give them a good, easy grasp of the subject of work study. For production management staff and industrial engineers, it will serve as a handy reference text. For the layman, it will be a teach yourself book on work study. To add a practical touch to the book, and to challenge the reader, several case studies have been included, which if properly carried out, should provide him a good feel for the subject.

      For anyone who is at all concerned about efficiency, this book will demonstrate to him what efficiency really is.  

      Kerwin Mathew, Ph.D., PE, CMfgT, CPM

      CONTENTS

      Preface

      1.   A Few Words About Work Study

      2.   Introduction To Work Study

      3.   Work Measurement

      4.   Nature And Definition Of Work Study

      5.   Survey And Selection Of Job For Work Study

      6.   Recording: Techniques Of Recording

      7.   Examination And Development

      8.   Installation And Maintenance

      9.   The Role Of The Supervisor In The Study Process

      10. Tips On How Work Study Can Be Efficiently Carried Out

      11. Summary And Review

      12. Appendices

      1  A FEW WORDS ABOUT WORK STUDY

      Work study or methods analysis concerns the development of more efficient work methods. More efficient work methods draw the firm closer to its goal of maximizing profit. Thus, in work study, it is essential to study the way in which work is being carried out, with a view towards developing a procedure which if adopted would serve to increase the profits of the firm.

      There are no hard and fast rules to work study. It should however be emphasized that the best time to develop a good method is when preparations are made to perform a task for the first time. The same principles would of course be involved as are involved in the analysis of an existing method. However, there is no need for describing the existing method as none exists. But every proposal for an original method should be analyzed and treated as though it were an existing method.

      Finally, it should be emphasized that though the human element is important to method improvement, other aspects such as plant layout and materials handling should also be looked into.

      2  INTRODUCTION TO WORK STUDY

      INTRODUCTION

      Work study can be defined as the study of methods of working in order to discover ways of making more economical use of manpower, materials, machinery and money. It is divided into two elements as follows:-

      WORK STUDY comprises of:

      [i]  METHOD STUDY (to improve methods of production, leading to better use of:

      Manpower, Material, Equipment, Plant) 

      [ii] WORK MEASUREMENT (to evaluate human effectiveness, leading to improvement in:

      Staffing, Planning & Control, Incentive Schemes)

      DEFINITION OF WORK STUDY

      Work study is a generic term for the techniques, such as method study and work measurement, which are utilized in the evaluation of human work in all its contexts and which systematically lead to the investigation of all the factors that affect the efficiency and economy of the work situation under review, so that there will be improvement.

      Methods analysis concerns finding the best way of performing the job.

      Work measurement concerns finding the length of time the job takes to complete, through time study.

      For instance, if one were trying to find a way of improving the method of washing commercial vehicles, one would first use method study to find the most efficient work system, questioning every aspect of the current way of performing the job.

      After having found a better method, one could use work measurement to find out how many man-hours are required in washing one vehicle. With this information, the manpower requirements could be established and a financial incentive scheme could be implemented to encourage the staff to maintain a good work-rate throughout the day.

      Questions for Review

      1. Describe the relationship between methods analysis and work measurement.

      3  WORK MEASUREMENT

      INTRODUCTION

      A lot can be written about work measurement. In this chapter, an overview of work measurement, which is only one aspect of work study, will be given.

      WHAT WORK MEASUREMENT IS

      Work measurement is the process of measuring or forecasting the rate of output of an existing or newly designed operation and determining how much time is taken up for the various productive and nonproductive activities of an operation, process or job, as well as determining the standard times which represent the allowable time for the performance of the work. Work measurement, being a generic term, concerns all the techniques of time measurement of the work systems. The results of work measurement are used as an analytical tool for the evaluation of work methods, determining the standard time values for given tasks, cost analysis and comparisons, and developing standard time data systems.

      LABOR STANDARD

      The actual work standard may differ greatly from the scientifically established industrial engineering standard. The informal organization with

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