Job Design and Work Measurement

1
Job Design and Work Measurement

• HUMAN RESOURCES IN THE SYSTEM DESIGN

2
The Theory X and Theory Y assumptions of McGregor

• Theory X assumptions (negative)
• average person has an inherent dislike for work
  and will avoid it, if possible.
• People must be coerced, controlled, directed and
  threatened with punishment to put in adequate
  work efforts.
• People prefer to be directed, wish to avoid
  responsibility, and have little ambition.
• The average person is only interested in security.

3
The Theory X and Theory Y assumptions of McGregor

• Theory Y assumptions (positive)
• Physical mental effort in work as natural as
  play or rest
• People will exercise self-direction and
  self-control in the objective of the
  organization.
• Commitment to objectives is a function of
  rewards associated with achievement.
• average person learns under proper conditions
  to accept and to seek responsibility.
• capacity to exercise relatively high degree of
  imagination, ingenuity, and creativity, is
  common among people.

4
Principle of Job Design

• job design based on view to enable motivation,
  jobs must be interesting and challenging.
• allows job satisfaction and enables high
  productivity.
• Without proper job design jobs are likely to be
  dull, boring and monotonous.
• scientific management broke jobs down into small
  elements that worker would do repetitively during
  working day.

5
Principle of Job Design

• This was seen to reduce training costs and
  thought to lead to faster work,
• especially if related to an individual financial
  incentive.
• This however was the approach taken a hundred
  years ago.
• It worked in the class-structured society of the
  time when employee attitudes were not considered
  to be important.

6
JOB DESIGN

• Job design entails matching tasks or work
  activities to individuals or work groups.
• ultimate objective is to increase the efficiency
  of an organization, with the parallel goal of
  making working conditions more agreeable.
• As will be illustrated, for some situations, job
  design may be progressive moving from
  specialization to empowerment, concepts that will
  now be illustrated.

7
Empowerment
As skills increase, responsibility and job
motivation will climb
Job enrichment
Job enlargement
Job rotation
Job specialization
8
Job specialization

• Job specialization involves having people with
  certain skills who are dedicated to a certain
  activity in the operation.
• For example, specialization may involve
• foundry workers pouring molten metal
• intricate soldering on computer circuit boards
• wiring electrical control boards
• performing certain assembly-line jobs in
  automobile production.

9
Job specialization

• Frederick Taylor emphasized that job
  specialization should mean efficiency people
  performing work they know how to do well.
• However, repetitive nature means jobs can be
  boring to the point that people become sloppy
• then quality suffers and costs rise.
• Job specialization is contrary to some
  philosophies of human resource management
  although can be difficult to find people who are
  completely flexible.

10
Job specialization

• foundry worker may not have the dexterity to work
  on the same companys assembly line, for example.

11
Job rotation

• Job rotation moves beyond specialization, so
  people who have required skills can rotate (say
  on a weekly basis) from one job to another to get
  away from the job specialization rut.
• For example, assembly line workers working one
  week on engine mountings and following week on
  assembling dashboard components.
• Incorporating job rotation can help to reduce the
  monotonous aspects of the job.

12
Job rotation

• Job rotation may not be desired for everyone,
  even though the necessary skills are in place.
• In a certain chocolate factory, several groups of
  women were on the packing line, putting various
  chocolate varieties into boxes.
• Suggested these groups changed periodically, both
  in makeup and location of work.
• Idea rejected by the women they felt comfortable
  remaining with the group they knew, and in a job
  requiring little additional thought.

13
Job rotation

• Multiskills and plant flexibility
• Job rotation implies multiskills in personnel.
• advantageous and motivating for employee,
• gives employer flexibility to adjust to client
  needs.
• If customer increases order requirement, modifies
  product specifications or brings forward delivery
  date, production manager needs to have facility
  to reassign personnel accordingly.
• But company must provide appropriate training.

14
Job enlargement

• Job enlargement intended to avoid employee being
  trapped in job specialization by trying to
  improve the variety within a certain sphere of a
  persons ability and interest.
• Enlargement would mean expanding the tasks
  involved in a job.
• For example, a cutting operation could be
  enlarged by adding shaping and forming.
• This would be horizontal expansion of the job.

15
Job enrichment

• Job enrichment means expanding the job vertically
  by adding design and planning elements.
• For example, purchasing secretary whose basic job
  is correspondence for a group of purchasing
  people could have the job enriched by planning
  the work assignments of the group, being an
  intermediate in customer contacts and perhaps
  helping evaluate some proposals.

16
Job enrichment

• That is, the secretarys job is enriched from
  becoming a secretary to being more an assistant.
• This is certainly the situation today when many
  of the classic secretarial duties are less
  required as more and more people have their own
  personal computer.

17
Empowerment

• Empowerment is an extension of job enrichment
• by adding complete employee trust to the job and
  responsibilities not originally associated with
  the job.
• Consider the two following examples, one in a
  service industry, the other in manufacturing.

18
Empowerment

• Nordstrom
• US fashion retailer, based in Seattle,
  Washington,
• believes in empowering its workers.
• Employee Handbook consists of a single sheet of
  paper urging people to set their goals high,
• stating the companys confidence in their ability
  to meet them and spelling out a single corporate
  rule
• Use your good judgement in all situations.

19
Empowerment

• Nordstrom (contd)
• employees respond by serving customers
  assiduously, even writing personal thank-you
  notes or pumping up flat tyres in the car park.
• company run by collective leadership of
  fourth-generation Nordstroms,
• company devolves merchandise-buying to local
  level, in contrast to most department stores,
  which buy centrally.

20
Empowerment

• Chrysler
• When Chrysler, US-based car manufacturer, sets
  out to create new model, or revamp an old one, it
  forms team of about 700 people from engineering,
  design, manufacturing, marketing and finance,
• includes specialists of all kinds. Chrysler
  labels them a self-contained multidisciplinary
  group.
• A vice-president acts as father to the group,
  but the actual work directed by leaders below
  that rank

21
Empowerment

• Chrysler (contd)
• Top management meet with the group to sketch out
  a vision for the vehicle and set aggressive goals
  for design, fuel economy and cost.
• Management works out a contract with the team,
  setting out objectives, after which the group is
  empowered to take over complete responsibility.

Decision making
Non-interference
Support/ facilitation
22
Special considerations in job design

• Equal Opportunities

• Ergonomics

• Basic skill level

• Work schedules

23

• Equal Opportunities

• At beginning of last century, men dominated the
  workforce, principally in manufacturing.
• Women moving into the factories began in World
  War I.
• When war broke out, women filled role of men who
  were on the war front and some remained when war
  ended.
• similar situation occurred during World War II.

24

• Equal Opportunities

• Since 1950s, proportion of women in work- force
  has continued to rise,
• in Europe in 1994, women represented 41.4 per
  cent of the work force.
• from 48.7 in Sweden to 34.0 in Spain.
• Data are similar for USA and Japan and, in all
  three regions, proportion of women working is
  increasing.

25

• Equal Opportunities

• Thus, in job design, aptitudes and
  characteristics of women, compared to men, need
  considering.
• In assembly work, involving activities like
  detailed soldering, mounting of sub-assemblies in
  motors, clocks or computers, women are considered
  to have more dexterity than men.
• Work anatomically fits a man better that involves
  physical strength, such as erecting scaffolding,
  building construction, etc.

26

• Equal Opportunities

• NOT stereotyping people in employment, but
• are jobs, the design of which is better suited to
  women, and vice-versa.
• women replacing men in many forms of employment,
  but wages/salaries less than men.
• argument that women perform better than men in
  certain activities is sometimes hiding the fact
  that company can pay them lower wages which
  reduces product costs!

27

• Ergonomics

• Ergonomics in job design pays attention to
  equipment and machinery by balancing work of
  employee with the machine or task at hand
• to minimize human effort and make work as
  comfortable as possible, for example
• Renault VI designed its buses so assembly work on
  roof of bus can be performed at arms length,
  rather than operator straining at connecting
  elements above his or her head.

28

• Ergonomics

• Computer keyboards have been redesigned so that
  they are more comfortable to the operator.
• Cooking appliances in restaurant kitchens are,
  where possible, placed so that chefs do not have
  to do excessive bending.
• (Back and neck problems among restaurant kitchen
  staff are common.)

29

• Basic skill level

• In job design, even though an individual may be
  competent at performing the work, some basic
  skills may be lacking.
• For example, with globalization, there is
  considerable movement of people whose language or
  other skills may not be sufficient.
• At the work-centre level, operators may not speak
  the native language.

30

• Basic skill level

• Thus, in the job design, operating instructions
  need to be translated, or kept simple.
• It may be better to avoid figures and letters and
  use colours and symbols instead.
• Cashiers at McDonalds and Burger King use symbol
  cash registers, which avoid the need for the
  cashiers to perform calculations.

31

• Work schedules

• Countries have legal standard work schedules
  based on a certain number of hours per week.
• Britain and USA 40 hours.
• France 39 hours, with proposal to go to 35 hours
  per week by 2000.
• these times used to be spread evenly over a
  five-day week.
• Now, many firms have flexible work schedules to
  suit both employee and employer.

32

• Work schedules

• For example, may work ten hours for four days
  rather than eight hours for five.
• Or if eight hours a day, employee can start
  later and finish later, provided is present
  during core hours of the firm.
• Or employees works 50-hour week when there is
  heavy customer demand and 30 or less hours per
  week when demand is slack.
• requires attention to scheduling, so firm does
  not lose competitiveness.

33
Attitude Towards Employees

• Communication
• Working environment
• Company objectives
• Management style and decision making

34
Attitude Towards Employees

• All operations involve members of management, or
  senior people, dealing with lower-level
  employees.
• The way these lower-level people are treated and
  addressed can have a significant impact on
  working relationships and on motivation, which
  have a direct bearing on productivity and cost.

35
WORK MEASUREMENT

• Machine standard
• Labour standard
• Time and motion study.

• Reasons for standards
• Criticism of labour standards

36
WORK MEASUREMENT

• Work measurement is process of establishing time
  a given task would take when performed by
  qualified worker working at defined level of
  performance.
• various ways in which work may be measured and
  variety of techniques been established.
• Basic procedure, irrespective of measurement
  technique being used, consists of three stages

37
WORK MEASUREMENT

• analysis phase where job divided into convenient,
  discrete components, known as elements
• measurement phase where a measurement technique
  is used to establish time required (by a
  qualified worker working at a defined level of
  performance) to complete each element of work
• synthesis phase various elemental times added,
  together with appropriate allowances (see below),
  to construct standard time for complete job.

38
WORK MEASUREMENT

• Techniques used to measure work can be classified
  into those relying on direct observation of the
  work, and those that do not.
• E.g., some techniques, such as predetermined
  motion-time systems and use of synthetic or
  standard data can provide times from simulation
  or even visualisation of the work.
• However, data on which such techniques are based
  likely based on earlier observation of actual work

39
WORK MEASUREMENT

• Direct observation techniques (such as time study
  and analytical estimating) include a process for
  converting observed times to times for the
  "qualified worker working at a defined level of
  performance."
• The commonest of these processes is known as
  rating.

40
WORK MEASUREMENT

• involves observer (after appropriate training)
  making assessment of worker's rate of working
  relative to the rate of standard rating.
• assessment based on factors involved in the work
• effort, dexterity, speed of movement, consistency
• assessment made on rating scale, of which there
  are three or four in common usage.
• On 0-100 scale, observer judges worker's rate of
  working as age of standard working rate (100)

41
WORK MEASUREMENT

• The rating is then used (in a process known as
  "extension" in time study) to convert the
  observed time to the basic time using the simple
  formula
• Basic time observed time x observed rating/
  standard rating
• Rating regarded as controversial measurement
• Where different observers rate differently,
  resulting basic times are not comparable.
• However, practised rating practitioners are
  remarkably consistent.

42
WORK MEASUREMENT

• advantage of structured systematic work
  measurement gives common currency for evaluation
  and comparison of all types of work.
• results are commonly used as basis of planning
  and scheduling of work, manpower planning, work
  balancing in team working, costing, labour
  performance measurement, and financial
  incentives.
• less common product design, methods comparison,
  work sequencing workplace design.

43
Any Questions?
Taken from Operations Management A Supply
Chain Approach by Derek L. Waller, Chapter 8,
published 2001 by Thompson Learning Unit 98, Job
Design by Coventry University, revised Oct. 1999.
Web address http//www.kbe.cov.ac.uk/EMDATA/98JOB
DES.html Productivity Futures Work Measurement.
Web address http//www.lmu.ac.uk/lis/imgtserv/too
ls/workmeas.htm