SOME DEFINITIONS (BASED ON ILO)

 
Work Content
The work content of a job or operation is defined as:
 
Basic time + relaxation allowance + any allowance for additional work
 
— e.g., that part of contingency allowance which represents work.
 
Relaxation Allowance
Relaxation allowance is an addition to the basic to the basic time intended to provide the worker with the
opportunity to recover from the physiological and psychological effects of carrying out specified work
under specified conditions and to allow attention to personal needs. The amount of allowance will depend
on the nature of the job
 
 
Contingency Allowance
A contingency allowance is a small of allowance of time which may be included in a standard time to meet
legitimate and expected items of work or delays, the precise measurement of which is uneconomical
because of their infrequent or irregular occurrence.
 
Policy Allowances
A policy allowance is an increment, other than bonus increment, applied to standard time (or to some
constituent part of it, e.g., work content) to provide a satisfactory level of earnings for a specified level of
performance under exceptional circumstances.
 
Special Allowance
Special allowance may be given for any activities, which are not normally part of the operation cycle but
which are essential to the satisfactory performance of the work.
  

Different allowance in work content

COMPARISON
 
A comparison of different work-measurement techniques is presented in Table. In another table the
suitability of different work measurement techniques for different applications is listed. Some uses of work
measurement are:
 
1.         Method analysis
 
2.         Production Scheduling
 
3.         Cost estimation
 
4.         Wage and incentive schemes
 
5.         Manpower planning
 
6.         Standard costing and budgetary control
 
7.         Line-balancing
 
8.         Performance comparison
 
9.         Distribution of work load, and
 
10.       Scheduling of activities.
 
Comparison of Work Measurement Techniques
 
 

Issues Stopwatch Time Study Predetermined Time Work Sampling

Standard

Type of Standard Very accurate for the Extremely accurate of Fairly accurate for both
Produced repetitive task repetitive task short and long cycle
Tight Standard Very Tight Standard operations
Loose Standard

Main Advantages Accurate Accurate Ease of application

Speedy applications Speedy applications Employee’s reaction is
Generates detailed Generates detailed favaourble
informations informations May be used for the long
cycle operations.

Main Disadvantages Chances of employee Specialized training in  

reaction needed Lacks detailed
Not suited for long cycle Not suited for long cycle information
Not suited for mental or mental operation  
work Needs long sample
Chances of subjective period
leveling
 
Difficult to explain and
justify.
 
 
  
Application of different work-measurement techniques
 

Application Issues Explanation Work-measurement Technique

      Time Study PMTS Work

Sampling

Manpower Basic Need to establish Very good Too detailed; but Excellent
Requirement objective reasonably accurate good
Planning relationship between
work volume and
required man-hour

  Precision It should be accurate      

needed but may not be highly
precise.

Cost Planning Basic To allocate the cost in Excellent Very good; but Excellent
objective products and functions Too detailed

  Precision Relative precision is      

needed needed

Wage or Basic To make provision for Excellent Excellent Poor

incentive objective payment on the basic
of output

  Precision High precision is      

needed needed

Performance Basic For evaluating output Excellent Good but detailed Excellent
Comparison objective according to standard.

  Precision Fairly accurate but not      

needed too high

Distribution of Basic Time table for different Very good Good but detailed Very good
workload and objective tasks
Scheduling of
activities

  Precision Accurate for production      

needed line but moderately
accurate for distribution
 
 
 
 
SUMMARY
Work measurement is the application of different techniques that are designed to establish the time for a
qualified worker to carry out a specific job at a defined level of performance. Different approaches of work
measurement are: time study, work sampling and predetermined time standards.