Work Study

Definition: Work study may be defined as the analysis of a job for the purpose of finding the preferred method of
doing it and also determining the standard time to perform it by the preferred (or given) method. Work study,
therefore, comprises of two areas of study: method study (motion study) and time study (work measurement).
Role of Work Study in Improving Productivity
In order to understand the role of work study, we need to understand the role of method study and that of time study.
Method study (also sometimes called Work Method Design) is mostly used to improve the method of doing work. It is
equally applicable to new jobs. When applied to existing jobs, method study aims to find better methods of doing the
jobs that are economical and safe, require less human effort, and need shorter make-ready / put-away time. The
better method involves the optimum use of best materials and appropriate manpower so that work is performed in
well organized manner leading to increased resource utilization, better quality and lower costs.
It can therefore be stated that through method study we have a systematic way of developing human resource
effectiveness, providing high machine and equipment utilization, and making economical use of materials.
Time study, on the other hand, provides the standard time, that is the time needed by worker to complete a job by the
standard method. Standard times for different jobs are necessary for proper estimation of

manpower, machinery and equipment requirements

daily, weekly or monthly requirement of materials

production cost per unit as an input to better make or buy decision

labor budgets

worker's efficiency and make incentive wage payments.

By the application of method study and time study in any organization, we can thus achieve greater output at less
cost and of better quality, and hence achieve higher productivity.
Work Study and Ergonomics
The work study and the ergonomics are the two areas of study having the same objective: design the work system so
that for the operator it is safe, and the work is less fatiguing and less time taking.
Historical Developments
The Work of Taylor
Frederick W. Taylor is generally considered to be the founder of modern method and time study, although time
studies were conducted in Europe many years before Taylor 's time. In 1760, Jean Rodolphe Perronet, a French
engineer, made extensive time studies on the manufacture of No. 6 common pins.
Taylor began his time study work in 1881 while associated with the Midvale Steel Company in U.S.A.. He evolved a
system based on the task, and proposed that the work of each employee be planned out by the management in
advance. Each job was to have a standard time, determined by time studies made by experts. In the timing process,
Taylor advocated dividing the work into small divisions of effort known as "elements." Experts were to time these
individually and use their collective values to determine the allowed time for the task.

Early presentations of Taylor 's findings were received with little enthusiasm, because many interpreted his findings to
be somewhat new piece-rate system rather than a technique for analyzing work and improving methods. Both
management and employees were skeptical of piece rates, because many standards were earlier typically based on
the supervisor's guess or even sometimes inflated by bosses to protect the performance of their departments.
In June 1903, at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers meeting, Taylor presented his famous paper, "Shop
Management," which included the elements of scientific management: time study, standardization of all tools and
tasks, use of a planning department, use of slide rule and similar timesaving implements, instruction cards for
workers, bonuses for successful performance, differential rates, mnemonic systems for classifying products, routing
systems, and modern cost systems. Taylor 's techniques were well received by many factory managers, and by 1917,
of 113 plants that had installed "scientific management," 59 considered their installations completely successful, 20
partly successful, and 34 failures.
In 1898, while at the Bethlehem Steel Company , Taylor carried out the pig-iron experiment that became the most
celebrated demonstrations of his principles. He established the correct method, along with financial incentives, and
workers carrying 92-pound pigs of iron up a ramp onto a freight car were able to increase their productivity from an
average of 12.5 tons per day to between 47 and 48 tons per day. This work was performed with an increase in the
daily rate of $1.15 to $1.85. Taylor claimed that workmen performed at the higher rate "without bringing on a strike
among the men, without any quarrel with the men and were happier and better contented."
Another of Taylor 's Bethlehem Steel studies that became famous was on shoveling work. Workers who shoveled at
Bethlehem would use the same shovel for any joblifting heavy iron ore to lifting light rice coal. Taylor designed
shovels to fit the different loads: short- handled shovels for iron ore, long-handled scoops for light rice coal, and
showed their usefulness in improving productivity.
Not as well known as his engineering contributions is the fact that in 1881, he was a U.S. tennis doubles champion.
Here he used an odd-looking racket he had designed with a spoon curved handle.
The Work of Gilbreths
Frank and Lilian Gilbreth are considered as the founders of the modern motion study technique, which may be
defined as the study of the body motions used in performing an operation, for the purpose of improving the operation
by eliminating unnecessary motions, simplifying necessary motions, and then establishing the most favorable motion
sequence for maximum efficiency. Frank Gilbreth originally implemented ideas into the bricklayer's trade in which he
was employed. After introducing methods improvements through motion study, including an adjustable scaffold that
he had invented, as well as operator training, he was able to increase the average number of bricks laid from 120 to
350 per worker per hour.
More than anyone else, the Gilbreths were responsible for industry's recognition of the importance of a detailed study
of body motions to arrive at the best method of performing an operation that would increase production, reduce
operator fatigue. They developed the technique of filming motions for study, known as micromotion study.
The Gilbreths also developed the cyclegraphic and chronocyclegraphic analysis techniques for studying the motion
paths made by an operator. The cycle- graphic method involves fixing small electric light bulb to the finger or part of
the body being studied and then photographing the motion while the operator is performing the operation. The
resulting picture gives a permanent record of the motion pattern employed and can be analyzed for possible
improvement. The chrono- cyclegraph is similar to the cyclegraph, but its electric circuit is interrupted regularly,
causing the light to flash. Instead of showing solid lines of the motion patterns, the resulting photograph shows short
dashes of light spaced in proportion to the speed of the body motion being photographed. Consequently, with the
chronocyclegraph it is possible to determine direction and compute velocity, acceleration, and deceleration, in
addition to study of body motions.
The Work of Others
Carl G. Barth, an associate of Frederick W. Taylor, developed a production slide rule for estimating the most efficient
combinations of speeds and feeds for cutting metals of various hardnesses, considering the depth of cut, size of tool,
and life of the tool. He is also known for his work on estimation of allowances by establishing the number of footpounds of work a worker could do in a day. He developed a relationship in which a certain push or pull on a worker's
arms was equated with the amount or weight that worker could handle for a certain percentage of the day.

Harrington Emerson applied scientific methods to work on the Santa Fe Railroad and wrote a book, Twelve Principles
of Efficiency, in which he made an attempt to lay down procedures for efficient operation. He reorganized the
company, integrated its shop procedures, installed standard costs and a bonus plan, and introduced Hollerith
tabulating machines for the accounting work. This effort resulted in annual saving of $ 1.5 million and recognition of
his approach, called efficiency engineering .
In 1917, Henry Laurence Gantt developed simple graph that would present performance while visually showing
projected schedules. This production control tool was adopted by the shipbuilding industry during World War I. For
the first time, this tool demonstrated the possibility of comparing actual performance against the original plan, and to
adjust daily schedules in accordance with capacity, back log, and customer requirements. Gantt is also known for his
wage payment system that rewarded workers for above-standard performance, eliminated any penalty for failure, and
offered the boss a bonus for every worker who per formed above .standard. Gantt advocated human relations and
promoted scientific management in the back drop of an inhuman "speedup" of labor.
Motion and time study received added stimulus during World War II when Franklin D. Roosevelt, through the U.S.
Department of Labor, attempted to establish standards for increasing production. The stated policy advocated greater
pay for greater output but without an increase in unit labor costs, incentive schemes to be collectively bargained
between labor and management, and the use of time study for setting production standards.
Method Study
Method study, aims to achieve the better method of doing work, and for this reason method study is sometimes called
Work Method Design.
Definition: Method study can be defined as the procedure for systematic recording, analysis and critical examination
of existing or proposed method of doing work for the purpose of development and application of easier and more
effective method.
Method Study Procedure
The following general steps describe the procedure for making a method study.
1.

Select the job on which method study is to be applied.

2.

Obtain information and record.

3.

Examine the information critically.

4.

Develop the most practical, economical and effective method by considering real limitations of the situation.

5.

Install the new method as standard practice.

6.

Maintain the standard practice by regular follow up.

Let us consider these steps in some detail.

Selection of Job for Method Study
Practically, any activity or a job is a potential project for improvement but as the work study engineer is to sell his
ideas and maintain his existence in the organisation, he should always attempt to select those jobs for improvement
which are unpopular among employees or are considered dirty by them.
By improving such jobs, he would earn goodwill from the employees as well as the management, and can expect
their full cooperation for other studies in the future.
Considerations may be given to the following factors while selecting a job for method study

 Economic Factors
Technical Factors
Human Factors
Economic Factors:
If the economic importance of a job is small, it is not wise to start or continue a long study. Priorities should be given
to those types of job which offer greater potential for cost reduction. Such jobs are easily identifiable, as they have
High labour content, i.e. they consume more time
excessive machine or man idleness
higher frequency of occurrence, i.e. they have large demand
bottlenecks in production line
higher proportion of accidents
movement of material or men over long distance
high scrap and reprocessing costs
high payment of overtime bills.
Technical Factors: The method study engineer must have the necessary technical knowledge about the job to be
studied. Only surface knowledge about the subject may not lead to the right solution to the real problem. To illustrate,
consider that a particular machine tool in proving bottleneck. The output from this machine is not reaching the
assembly line in the required quantity. Through a preliminary study, it is found that it is running at lower speed and
feed than that recommended for the pair of work and tool material used. Just increase in speed or feed may not be
the solution of this problem. It may be possible that the machine itself is not rigid enough to operate at higher speeds
or take a deeper cut. Just increase in speed may increase the output but the quality of job may be seriously affected.
Technical expertise in machine tools and metal cutting process would be essential to solve problem of this kind.
Human Factors: Emotional reaction of the workers to the method study and changes in method are important
considerations. If the study of a particular job is suspected to cause unrest or ill feeling, it should not be undertaken,
however useful it may be from the economic point of view. It is always better to take up first those jobs which are
considered dirty', unsafe, unpleasant, boring, or highly fatiguing, and improvements brought about as a result of
method study. This would possibly ensure cooperative from the workers for the other jobs as well.
After it is recognized that a problem exists, the first step is to properly formulate it. From the general statements like
Costs are too high, Increase the production, Reduce shop floor accidents, it is necessary to determine just what
the real problem is. After it is ascertained that the problem merits consideration, it is decided whether this is the
proper time to solve it, and how much time can be spent in solving it. The problem may then be defined broadly giving
minimum constraints at this stage, as it will permit the use of imagination and creativity in finding a solution. It may
sometimes be desirable to divide the complete problem into a couple of small problems and solve them.
Information Collection and Recording
Information Collection Techniques:
The accuracy of data about the method study problem is important for the development of improved method. The
following techniques are used for the collection of information / data about the task under consideration. These are

not exclusive of each other, and for any particular method study problem, some or all the techniques may be
employed.
Observation. It is a common technique used for collecting information about the present method or the existing
problem. The method study person visits the site where the work is currently being done and observes various steps
in the method being followed. There are many instances where all the data needed is obtained by only observing the
work or work site.
Discussion. Discussion with those who do or who supervise the work can frequently provide information not
obtainable by observation. The discussion technique is commonly used where irregular work is involved or where one
is trying to analyze past work in order to improve efficiency of work to be done in future.
Even where observation by itself may accomplish the data collection task, discussion may be used for developing
good human relations.
Records. Valuable information can be obtained from past records concerning production, cost, time, inventory and
sub-contracts. For certain type of information concerning the past practice, sometimes this is the only way to obtain
authentic data.
Motion Pictures or video Films. Accurate and most detailed information can be obtained by taking motion pictures
or video film. Information obtained by this procedure can easily be transmitted / forwarded to all levels in the
organization and if needed, can be used directly for training purposes. The film can be used to focus attention at
particular point or motion in an operation. For obtaining information concerning those types of work that involve large
crew size, it is probably the only procedure.
Information Recording Techniques:
There are three main types of information recording techniques. These are
Process Charts
Diagrams
Templates
A Process Chart is a graphic means of representing the activities that occur during a manufacturing or servicing job.
There are several types of process charts. These can be divided into two groups.
(i) Those which are used to record a process sequence (i.e. series of events in the order in which they occur) but do
not depict the events to time scale.
Charts falling in this group are
Operation process chart
Flow process chart (man / material / equipment type)
Operator chart (also called Two Handed Process Chart)
(ii) Those which record events in the sequence in which they occur on a time scale so that the interaction of related
events can be more easily studied. Charts falling in this group are
Multiple activity chart

 Simo chart
Diagrams. A diagram gives pictorial view of the layout of workplace or floor on which locations of different equipment,
machines, etc. are indicated. The movement of subject (man or material) is then indicated on the diagram by a line or
a string. The diagrams are valuable in highlighting the movement so that analyst can take steps to simplify or reduce
it and thus effect saving in time or reduction in collisions / accidents.
Two types of diagrams are common: Flow diagram and string diagram.
Templates and 3-D models:
Two-dimensional cut outs made from thin card sheet representing machinery, furniture, etc. can be used for
developing new layouts and methods. The templates may have pieces of permanent magnet attached to them, so
that when used on iron board; they remain glued on the board whenever placed.
A scaled 3-D model of a working area helps easy understanding of lighting, ventilation, maintenance and safety
aspects that may be important in a method. Such models are often of great value in demonstrating the advantages of
the proposed changes to all concerned. However, their use is limited because of higher cost involved. Some
computer softwares are available which help in constructing the layout and possibility of visualizing the working of
process in a systematic way.
Before taking up descriptions of these charts or diagrams, it is necessary to know the various elements of work.
Elements of Work:
There are five basic elements of work: Operation, Inspection, Transportation, Delay, and storage. Table gives the
definitions and symbols by which these elements are represented. Also given in the Table are examples of each
element.
Sometimes, more than one element occur simultaneously. It is shown as combined element with combined symbol.
Examples are Operation in combination will inspection, and Inspection in combination with Transportation.
Operation Process Chart:
An operation process chart provides the chronological sequence of all operations and inspections that occur in a
manufacturing or business process. It also shows materials used and the time taken by operator for different
elements of work. Generally a process chart is made for full assembly, that is, it shows all the operations and
inspections that occur from the arrival of raw material to the packaging of the finished product.
Flow Process Chart:
A flow process chart is used for recording greater detail than is possible in an operation process chart. It is made for
each component of an assembly rather than for the whole assembly.
A flow process chart shows a complete process in terms of all the elements of work. There are two main types of flow
charts: product or material type , and the operator type . The product type records the details of the events that occur
to a product or material, while the operator flow chart details how a person performs an operational sequence.
An important and valuable feature of this chart is its recording of non-productive hidden costs, such as delays,
temporary storages, unnecessary inspections, and unnecessary long distances traveled. When the time spent on
these non productive activities is highlighted, analyst can take steps to minimize it and thus reduce costs.
Operator Process Chart :
It is also called Left Hand Right Hand chart and shows the activities of hands of the operator while performing a
task. It uses four elements of hand work: Operation, Delay (Wait), Move and Hold. Its main advantage lies in

highlighting un-productive elements such as unnecessary delay and hold so that analyst can take measures to
eliminate or shorten them.
Multiple Activity Chart:
Worker-Machine process chart and gang process chart fall in the category of multiple activity charts. A workermachine chart is used for recording and analyzing the working relationship between operator and machine on which
he works. It is drawn to time scale. Analysis of the chart can help in better utilization of both worker and machine time.
The possibility of one worker attending more than one machine is also sought from the use of this chart.
A gang process chart is similar to worker-machine chart, and is used when several workers operate one machine.
The chart helps in exploring the possibility of reducing both the operator time and idle machine time.
Simo Chart:
A Simo chart is another Left-Hand Right-Hand chart with the difference that it is drawn to time scale and in terms of
basic motions called therbligs. It is used when the work cycle is highly repetitive and of very short duration.

CRITICAL EXAMINATI
Critical examination of the information recorded about the process in charts / diagrams is the most important phase of
the method study. In this, each element of the work, as presently being done and recorded on the chart is subjected
to a systematic and progressive series of questions with the purpose of determining true reasons for which it is done.
Based on the reasons, improvements are found and adopted into a new method, called better method. This
examination, thus requires exhaustive collaboration with everyone whose contribution can prove useful, and also full
use of all available sources of technical information. The use of questioning technique reduces the possibility of
missing any information which may be useful for the development of better method.
A popular procedure of carrying out critical examination uses two sets of questions: Primary questions (answers to
these show up the necessity of carrying out the activity), and Secondary questions (answers to these allow
considerations to alternative methods of doing the activity). Selection of the best way of doing each activity is later
determined to develop new method which is introduced as a standard practice.
A general-purpose set of primary and secondary questions is given below:
Primary Questions:
1. Purpose. The need of carrying out the activity is challenged by the questions-What is achieved? Is it necessary?
Why?
The answers to these questions determine whether the particular activity will be included in the proposals of new
method for the process.
2. Means. The means of carrying out the activity are challenged by the questions- 'How is it done?' and 'Why that
way'?
3. Place. The location of carrying out the activity is challenged by the questions- 'Where is it done'? and 'Why there'?
4. Sequence. The time of carrying out the activity is challenged by the questions- 'When is it done'? and 'Why then'?
5. Person. The level of skill and experience of the person performing the activity is challenged by the questions'Who does it'? and 'Why that person'?
The main object of the primary questions is to make sure that the reasons for every aspect of the presently used
method are clearly understood. The answers to these questions should clearly bring out any part of the work which is
unnecessary or inefficient in respect of means, sequence, person or place.
Secondary Questions:
The aim of secondary questions is to arrive at suitable alternatives to the presently used method:
1. Purpose. If the answer to the primary question 'Is the activity necessary"? is convincingly 'Yes', alternatives to
achieve the object of carrying nut the activity are considered by the question 'What else could be done'?
2. Means. All the alternative means to achieve the object are considered by the question 'How else could it be
done'?
3. Place. Other places for carry ing out the activity are considered by the question 'Where else could it be done'?
4. Sequence. The secondary question asked under this heading is 'When else could it be clone'?

5. Person. The possibilities for carrying out the activity by other persons are considered by asking the question- 'Who
else should do it' ?
This phase involves the search of alternative possibilities within the imposed restrictions of cost, volume of
production, and the like. For this the method study man uses his own past experience with same or similar problems
or refers to text books, handbooks, etc.
The answers to the following questions are then sought through evaluation of the alternatives.
'What should be done'?
'How should it be done'?
'Where should it be done'?
'When should it be done'? and
'Who should do it'?
These answers form the basis of the proposals for the improved method. The evaluation phase requires the work
study man to consider all the possibilities with respect to the four factorseconomic, safety, work quality and human
factorsthe economic factor being the most important in most situations.
Economic considerations to any alternative refer to determination of 'How much will it cost'? and 'How much will it
save'? The purpose of evaluating safety factor is to ensure that the alternative selected shall not make the work less
safe. The evaluation of quality factor shall determine whether the alternative selected shall make for better product
quality or quality control.
And lastly human factors considerations shall ensure that the new method will be interesting, easy to learn, safe, less
monotonous and less fatiguing to the operator.
Figure shows a sample sheet used for critical examination the use of which can be quite helpful in this phase of
method study.
Description of Element:
The Present Facts
Purpose - What is
achieved ?

Alternatives
Is it necessary ?
Yes/No If yes Why ?

Means - How is it done

Why that way ?
?
Place - Where is it
Why there ?
done ?
Sequence - When is it
Why then ?
done ?
Person - Who does it ? Why that person ?

What else could be

done ?
How else could it be
done ?
Where else could it be
done ?
When else could it be
done ?
Who else could do it ?

Critical Examination Sheet

Developing Better Method:

Reference:
Selected Alternative for
Development
What?
How ?
When ?
When ?
Who ?

With the present method or procedure for the job in mind, the application of critical analysis' highlights the essential
part of the job, for which alternative ways for its carrying out are developed .
When developing alternative ways for doing a task the following may be considered.
Where and how to use man' in the process?
What better work procedure be adopted?
What better equipment be used?
What better layout of work station, shop or factory be used?
In deciding whether a particular element of work (operation, inspection, or transportation) be carried out manually or
with the help of a device, method study engineer must be well aware of things which man cannot do or does in
inferior fashion than machine. Examples of such things are:
a.

Exert large amount of force, as needed in metal cutting.

b.

Exert force precisely or smoothly at a fixed rate as needed in metal forming.

c.

Do high speed computations of complex nature.

d.

Perform repetitive tasks without suffering from side effects like boredom, fatigue, etc.

e.

Move at high speeds for hours together.

f.

Carry out several tasks simultaneously.

g.

Respond fast to frequently changing control signals.

h.

Perform satisfactorily in an environment where conditions relating to cold, heat, noise, dampness, etc. are
extreme.

In contrast, machines prove inferior generally when for carrying out a task it is necessary to
a.

Think creatively or inductively

b.

Learn

c.

Generalize

d.

Cope will unexpected events.

In most cases, the relative roles of man and machine vary from one extreme end in which entire process is manual to
the other extreme in which the process is completely mechanized with the presence of man only for monitoring,
trouble shooting, maintenance, and the like.
Man is readily available and extremely flexible tool, who has the capability of doing a large number and type of tasks
with learning and practice that is generally less expensive than the cost of creating devices for the same purpose.
Man is therefore considered a strong competitor for low, medium and even some high volume production tasks.
When an activity is decided to be carried out manually, the best work procedure is determined by considering the
principles of Motion Economy.

Equipped will the various alternative ways of carrying out essential elements of task, method study engineer has now
to choose the best alternative method. He decides upon the criteria, which may be additional fixed costs involved,
running cost, production rate, operator's fatigue, operator learning time, and the like. The weight to each criterion is
fixed and performance is predicted of each alternative with respect to each criteria. The one which gets the maximum
points is selected for adoption as a standard method.
Detailed specifications of this method are prepared with the description of procedure, workplace layout and
material/equipment to be used. This is important for
Communication of the proposed work method to those responsible for its approval
Communication of the proposed method to those concerned with its installation, for example instructors and
supervisors who are actually responsible for instructions to operators and setting up the machinery and work place
layouts.
Official record of the work method.
Installation of Improved Method:
When the proposals of the improved method for a job are approved by the management of the company, the next
step is to put this method into practice. Installation of method requires necessary prior preparation for which the
active support of everyone concerned is very important.
The activities of the installation phase include:
1. Gaining acceptance of the change by the workers involved and their representatives. The method change may
affect the routine and paper work of wages, costs, planning, and even purchase department. It may require
displacement of staff from one section to another of the organisation. Adjustments of this type need to be carried out
very carefully so that the least possible hardship or inconvenience is caused.
2. Retraining the workers. The extent to which workers need retraining will depend on the nature of the job and the
changes involved. It is much more for those jobs which have a high degree of manual dexterity and where the
workers have been doing the work by traditional methods. The use of films demonstrating the advantages of new
method as compared to traditional one are often very useful in retraining the workers.
3. Arranging the requirements of the new method. This involves (i) arranging the necessary plant, tools and equipment at all the workplaces,
(ii) arranging building-up of necessary stocks of new raw materials, and running-down of old stocks,
(iii) checking up the availability and continuity of all supplies and services, and
(iv) arranging any clerical records which may be required for purposes of control and comparison.
4. Taking other necessary actions. These will depend upon situation to situation. For example, if changes in working
hours are involved, necessary instructions should be passed on to auxiliary services such as transport, canteen,
water supply, etc. If change in wages is involved, information concerning the date of installation must reach the
costing department. Necessary instructions should be passed on to every one concerned about the time table for the
installation of the change in method.
5. Giving a trial run to the new method. It is important that all departments affected by the change are represented at
the rehearsal. It is often advantageous to conduct the rehearsal while the old method is still operating. It should
usually take place outside normal working hours; say at week-end or at holiday time so that there is no interference
with normal production. The suggestions for minor variations in the proposed method if they are worth while and cost
effective should be accepted and incorporated.

It is obvious that the method analyst has to be extra tactful and keep restraint throughout the period of installation.
The installation is considered complete when the new method starts running smoothly.
Follow-up:
The work of method study man is not complete with the installation of the improved method; the maintenance of the
new method in its specified form is also part of his activities. The main aim of maintenance of the new method is to
ensure that the workers do not slip back into old method, or introduce elements which are not part of the proposed
method.
For effective maintenance it is important to define and specify the new method very clearly. An operator chart giving
adequate details of the tools, equipment, and workplace layout and operator-motion pattern is often helpful.
The workers have tendencey to drift away from the method laid down. The purpose of the method-maintenance is to
check this tendency. But if it is found that the change from the method specified is in fact an improvement which can
be made in the method, this should be officially incorporated.
Motion Study
Motion study is a technique of analyzing the body motions employed in doing a task in order to eliminate or reduce
ineffective movements and facilitates effective movements. By using motion study and the principles of motion
economy the task is redesigned to be more effective and less time consuming.
The Gilbreths pioneered the study of manual motions and developed basic laws of motion economy that are still
relevant today. They were also responsible for the development of detailed motion picture studies, termed as Micro
Motion Studies, which are extremely useful for analyzing highly repetitive manual operations. With the improvement
in technology, of course, video camera has replaced the traditional motion picture film camera.
In a broad sense, motion study encompasses micro motion study and both have the same objective: job simplification
so that it is less fatiguing and less time consuming. While motion study involves a simple visual analysis, micro
motion study uses more expensive equipment. The two types of studies may be compared to viewing a task under a
magnifying glass versus viewing the same under a microscope. The added detail revealed by the microscope may be
needed in exceptional cases when even a minute improvement in motions matters, i.e. on extremely short repetitive
tasks.
Taking the cine films @ 16 to 20 frames per second with motion picture camera, developing the film and analyzing
the film for micro motion study had always been considered a costly affair. To save on the cost of developing the film
and the cost of film itself, a technique was used in which camera took only 5 to 10 frames per minute. This saved on
the time of film analysis too. In applications where infrequent shots of camera could provide almost same information,
the technique proved fruitful and acquired the name Memo Motion Study.
Traditionally, the data from micro motion studies are recorded on a Simultaneous Motion (simo) Chart while that from
motion studies are recorded on a Right Hand - Left Hand Process Chart.
Therbligs
On analysing the result of several motion studies conducted, Gilbreths concluded that any work can be done by using
a combination of some or all of 17 basic motions, called Therbligs (Gilbreth spelled backward). These can be
classified as effective therbligs and ineffective therbligs. Effective therbligs take the work progress towards
completion. Attempts can be made to shorten them but they cannot be eliminated. Ineffective therbligs do not
advance the progress of work and therefore attempts should be made to eliminate them by applying the Principles of
Motion Economy. Tablegives different therbligs along with their symbols and descriptions.
SIMO Chart

It is a graphic representation of an activity and shows the sequence of the therbligs or group of therbligs performed by
body members of operator. It is drawn on a common time scale. In other words, it is a two-hand process chart drawn
in terms of therbligs and with a time scale, see Figure.
Making the Simo Chart. A video film or a motion picture film is shot of the operation as it is carried out by the operator.
The film is analyzed frame by frame. For the left hand, the sequence of therbligs (or group of therbligs) with their time
values are recorded on the column corresponding to the left hand. The symbols are added against the length of
column representing the duration of the group of therbligs. The procedure is repeated for the right hand and other
body members (if any) involved in carrying out the operation.
It is generally not possible to time individual therbligs. A certain number of therbligs may be grouped into an element
large enough to be measured as can be seen in Figure.
Uses of Simo Chart
From the analysis shown about the motions of the two hands (or other body members) involved in doing an
operation, inefficient motion pattern can be identified and any violation of the principle of motion economy can be
easily noticed. The chart, therefore, helps in improving the method of doing an operation so that balanced twohanded actions with coordinated foot and eye motions can be achieved and ineffective motions can be either reduced
or eliminated. The result is a smoother, more rhythmic work cycle that keeps both delays and operator fatigue to the
minimum extent.

Cycle graph and Chrono cycle grap

These are the techniques of analyzing the paths of motion made by an operator and were originally developed by the
Gilbreths. To make a cycle graph , a small electric bulb is attached to the finger, hand, or any other part of the body
whose motion is to be recorded. By using still photography, the path of light of bulb (in other words, that of the body
member) as it moves through space for one complete cycle is photographed. The working area is kept relatively less
illuminated while photograph is being taken. More than one camera may be used in different planes to get more
details. After the film is developed, the resulting picture (cycle graph) shows a permanent record of the motion pattern
employed in the form of a closed loop of white continuous line with the working area in the background. A cycle graph
does not indicate the direction or speed of motion.
It can be used for

Improving the motion pattern, and

Training purposes in that two cycle graphs may be shown with one indicating a better motion pattern than
the other.

The chrono cycle graph is similar to the cycle graph, but the power supply to the bulb is interrupted regularly by using
an electric circuit. The bulb is thus made to flash. The procedure for taking photograph remains the same. The
resulting picture (chrono cycle graph), instead of showing continuous line of motion pattern, shows short dashes of
line spaced in proportion to the speed of the body member photographed. Wide spacing would represent fast moves
while close spacing would represent slow moves. The jumbling of dots at one point would indicate fumbling or
hesitation of the body member. A chrono cycle graph can thus be used to study the motion pattern as well as to
compute velocity, acceleration and retardation experienced by the body member at different locations. Figures show
a cycle graph and a chrono cycle graph.
The world of sports has extensively used this analysis tool, updated to video, for the purpose of training in the
development of form and skill.
Principles of Motion Economy:
These principles can be considered under three different groups.
Those related to the use of the human body.
Those related to the workplace arrangement, and
Those related to the design of tools and equipment.
1. Principles related to the use of human body:
(i) Both hands should begin and end their basic divisions of activity simultaneously and should not be idle at the same
instant, except during the rest periods.
(ii) The hand motions should be made symmetrically and simultaneously away from and toward the centre of the
body.
Momentum should be employed to assist the worker wherever possible, and it should be reduced to a minimum if it
must be overcome by muscular effort.
Continuous curved motions should be preferred to straight line motions involving sudden and sharp changes in the
direction.

 The least number of basic divisions should be employed and these should be confined to the lowest practicable
classifications. These classifications, summarized in ascending order of time and fatigue expended in their
performance, are:
Finger motions
Finger and wrist motions.
Finger, wrist, and lower arm motions.
Finger, wrist, lower arm, and upper arm motions.
Finger, wrist, lower arm, upper arm motions and body motions.
Work that can be done by the feet should be arranged so that it is done together with work being done by the
hands. It should be recognized, however, that it is difficult to move the hand and foot simultaneously.
The middle finger and the thumb should be used for handling heavy loads over extended periods as these are the
strongest working fingers. The index finger, fourth finger, and little finger are capable of handling only light loads for
short durations.
The feet should not be employed for operating pedals when the operator is in standing position.
Twisting motions should be performed with the elbows bent.
To grip tools, the segment of the fingers closed to the palm of the hand should be used.
2. Principles related to the arrangement and conditions of workplace:
Fixed locations should be provided for all tools and materials so as to permit the best sequence and
eliminate search and select .
Gravity bins and drop delivery should be used to reduce reach and move times. Use may be made of ejectors for
removing finished parts.
All materials and tools should be located within the normal working area in both the vertical and horizontal plane
( see Figure ), and as close to the point of use as possible.
Work table height should permit work by the operator in alternately sitting and standing posture.
Glare-free adequate illumination, proper ventilation and proper temperature should be provided.
Dials and other indicators should be patterned such that maximum information can be obtained in minimum of time
and error.
3. Principles related to the design of tools and equipment:
Use colour, shape or size coding to maximize speed and minimize error in finding controls.
Use simple on/off, either/or indicators whenever possible. If simple on/off indicator is not sufficient, use qualitative
type indicator, and use quantitative type indicator only when absolutely essential.

 All levers, handles, wheels and other control devices should be readily accessible to the operator and should be
designed so as to give the best possible mechanical advantage and utilize the strongest available muscle group.
Their direction of motion should conform to stereo-typed reactions.
Use quick acting fixture to hold the part or material upon which the work is being performed.
Use stop guides to reduce the control necessary in positioning motions.
Operating, set-up and emergency controls should be grouped according to the function.
Design of Workplace Layout
The design of workplace layout involves the following

Determination of work surface height

Design of operator chair (if work is to be done in sitting posture), or allowing the use of antifatigue mats for
standing operator

Determination of location of tools, materials, controls, displays and other devices.

We shall consider these briefly.

Work Place Height
This should be decided from the standpoint of comfortable working posture for the operator. Generally, it is equal to
the elbow height of operator whether work is done in standing or sitting posture. However, for work involving lifting of
heavy parts, it is useful to lower the work surface height by as much as 20 cm. This would reduce the fatigue to the
trunk of operator. Similarly, it may be useful to raise the work surface height when work involves visual examination of
minute details of fine parts. This would reduce the eye fatigue to the operator. Alternatively, the work surface may be
inclined by 15 degrees or so. Work surface height may also be made adjustable in situations where operator is
permitted to do work in alternatively sitting and standing postures.
Design of Operator Chair
A seated posture is better than standing posture from the standpoint of stress reduction on the feet and the overall
energy expenditure. A well-designed seat should

Provide trunk stabilization so that a good posture is maintained,

Permit change of posture, and

Not unduly press the thigh tissues.

This requires the use of ergonomic considerations and anthropometric dimensions of operator so that appropriate
dimensions are chosen for the following features of chair
(i) Seat Height
(ii) Seat Depth
(iii) Seat Width

(iv) Seat Inclination

(v) Arm Rests
(vi) Back Rest
(vii) Foot Rest
It is necessary to provide adjustability, particularly with respect to seat height, in order that the same seat (or chair) is
useable by many operators doing same job.
Standing for long periods of time on a cemented floor is fatiguing. If operator has to work only in standing posture, it is
essential to provide resilient anti-fatigue floor mats. Such mats allow small muscle contractions in the legs and force
the blood to keep circulating.
Determination of location of tools, materials, controls, displays and other devices.
We all know that greater the distance through which operator moves his body member while doing work, larger is the
requirement of muscular effort, control and time. This means that all tools, materials, controls, etc need to be located
within close reach of the operator. In this context, two areas can be identified: normal working area and maximum
working area. Figure identifies these areas in horizontal and vertical planes.
Within these areas, all tools, materials, controls, displays and other devices must be located on the basis of any of
the following principles.
(i) Importance Principle. According to this principle, the most important item or group of items is first located within the
normal area in the best position. The next important component item or group of items is then selected and located in
the best location within the remaining area. In this way, all the items are located.
(ii) Frequency of Use Principle. According to this principle, the item with the greatest frequency of use has the highest
priority for location at the optimum position. From within the remaining items to be located in the remaining area, the
same principle can then be applied repetitively.
(iii) Functional Principle. This principle provides for grouping of items according to their function. For instance, all
controls that are functionally related may be grouped together and located at one place.
(iv) Sequence of Use Principle. According to this principle, items are located according to sequence of their use. For
illustration, let us consider the case of assembly. As we know, an assembly is made by assembling the subassemblies in a specific order. From motion economy or production efficiency point of view, it would be better if subassemblies and other items are located in the sequence in which they are to be used in assembly.
Further, for better productivity, it is important that location of all tools, materials and controls be fixed so that their
"search" and select" is minimized.
Work Measurement
Work measurement refers to the estimation of standard time for an activity, that is the time allowed for completing one
piece of job by using the prescribed method. Standard time can be defined as the time taken by an average
experienced worker for the job with provisions for delays beyond the worker's control.
There are several techniques used for estimation of standard time in industry. These include time study, work
sampling, standard data, and predetermined motion time system.

Applications:
Standard times for operations are useful for several applications in industry, like
Estimating material, machinery, and equipment requirements.
Estimating production cost per unit as an input to

Preparation of budgets

Determination of selling price

Make or buy decision

Estimating manpower requirements.

Estimating delivery schedules and planning the work
Balancing the work of operators working in a group.
Estimating performance of workers and using that as the basis for incentive payment to those direct and indirector
labor who show greater productivity.
We will study some of the popular techniques of work measurement.
TIME STUDY. It is the most versatile and the most widely used technique of work measurement.
Definition:
Time study is a technique to estimate the time to be allowed to a qualified and well-trained worker working at a
normal pace to complete a specified task by using specified method.
This technique is based on measuring the work content of the task when performed by the prescribed method, with
the allowance for fatigue and for personal and unavoidable delays.
Time Study Procedure:
The procedure for time study can best be described step-wise, which are self explanatory.
Step 1: Define objective of the study. This involves statement of the use of the result, the precision desired, and the
required level of confidence in the estimated time standards.
Step 2: Verify that the standard method and conditions exist for the operation and the operator is properly trained. If
need is felt for method study or further training of operator, the same may be completed before starting the time
study.
Step 3: Select operator to be studied if there are more than one operator doing the same task.
Step 4: Record information about the standard method, operation, operator, product, equipment, and conditions on
the Time Study observation sheet.
Step 5: Divide the operation into reasonably small elements, and record them on the Time Study observation sheet.

Step 6: Time the operator for each of the elements. Record the data for a few number of cycles on the Time Study
observation sheet. Use the data to estimate the total number of observations to be taken.
Step 7: Collect and record the data of required number of cycles by timing and rating the operator.
Step 8: Calculate the representative watch time for each element of operation. Multiply it by the rating factor to get
normal time.
Normal time = Observed time x Rating factor
Calculate the normal time for the whole operation by adding the normal time of its various elements.
Step 9: Determine allowances for fatigue and various delays.
Step 10: Determine standard time of operation.
Standard time = Normal time + allowances
Selection of job for Time Study
Time Study is conducted on a job
which has not been previously time-studied.
for which method change has taken place recently.
for which worker(s) might have complained as having tight time standards.
Selection of Worker for Time Study
The selection of worker for time study is a very important factor in the success of the study. If there is only one person
on the job, as usually is, then there is no choice. But if more than one person is performing the same operation, the
time study man may time one or more of the workers. If all the workers are using the same method for doing the job
and there is different in the rate of their doing it, it is necessary to select a suitable worker for the study. The worker
on which time study should be conducted must

have necessary skill for the job.

have sufficient experience with the given method on the job (that is, he should have crossed the learning
stage).

be an average' worker as regards the speed of working.

be temperamentally suited to the study (those who can't work in normal fashion when watched, are not
suitable for the study).

have knowledge about the purpose of study.

Time Study Equipment

The following equipment is needed for time study work.

 Timing device
Time study observation sheet
Time study observation board
Other equipment
Timing Device. The stop watch ( see Figure ) is the most widely used timing device used for time study, although
electronic timer is also sometimes used. The two perform the same function with the difference that electronic timer
can measure time to the second or third decimal of a second and can keep a large volume of time data in memory.
Time Study Observation Sheet. It is a printed form with spaces provided for noting down the necessary information
about the operation being studied, like name of operation, drawing number, and name of the worker, name of time
study person, and the date and place of study. Spaces are provided in the form for writing detailed description of the
process (element-wise), recorded time or stop-watch readings for each element of the process, performance rating(s)
of operator, and computation. Figure shows a typical time study observation sheet.
Time Study Board. It is a light -weight board used for holding the observation sheet and stopwatch in position. It is of
size slightly larger than that of observation sheet used. Generally, the watch is mounted at the center of the top edge
or as shown in Figure near the upper right-hand corner of the board. The board has a clamp to hold the observation
sheet. During the time study, the board is held against the body and the upper left arm by the time study person in
such a way that the watch could be operated by the thumb/index finger of the left hand. Watch readings are recorded
on the observation sheet by the right hand.
Other Equipment. This includes pencil, eraser, device like tachometer for checking the speed, etc.
Dividing Work into Short Elements
Timing a complete task as one element is generally not satisfactory. For the purpose of time study the task is
normally broken
into short elements and each element is timed separately, for the following
reasons:
(1) To separate unproductive part of task from the productive one.
(2) To improve accuracy in rating. The worker may not work at the
same speed throughout the cycle. He may perform some elements faster and
some slower. Breaking of task into short elements permits rating of each
element separately which is more realistic than just rating once for the complete
cycle.
(3) To identify elements causing high fatigue. Breaking of task into short elements permits giving appropriate rest
allowances to different elements.
(4) To have detailed job specifications. This helps in detection of any variation in the method that may occur after the
time standard is established.
(5) To prepare standard data for repeatedly occurring elements.
The following guidelines should be kept in mind while dividing a task into elements.
(1) The elements should be of as short duration as can be accurately timed. (This in turn, depends on the skill of the
time study man, method of timing and recording, and many other factors. Generally, with the stop watch, elements of

duration less than 0.03 to 0.05 minute are difficult to time accurately. The elements should not normally be longer
than 0.40 min.).
(2) Manually performed elements should be separated from machine paced elements. (Time for machine paced
elements can be determined by calculation). Machine elements are not rated against a normal. This rule also helps in
recognition of delays.
(3) Constant elements should be separated from variable elements.
(Constant elements are those elements which are independent of the size, weight,
length, or shape of the workpiece. For example, the time to pick screw driver
from its place and bring it to the head of a screw is constant, whereas the time
to tighten or loosen the screw is a variable, depending upon the length and
size of the screw).
(4) The beginnings and endings of elements should be easily distinguishable. These should preferably be associated
with some kind of sound.
(5) Irregular elements, those not repeated in every cycle, should be separated from regular elements. For example, if
the jig is cleaned off after every ten parts produced, "cleaning" is an irregular element, and its time should be spread
over ten cycles.
(6) Unnecessary motions and activities should be separated from those considered essential.
(7) Foreign or accidental elements should be listed separately. Such elements are generally of non-repetitive type.
Number of cycles to be timed.
The following general principles govern the number of cycles to get the representative average cycle time.
(1) Greater the accuracy desired in the results, larger should be the number of cycles observed.
(2) The study should be continued through sufficient number of cycles so that occasional elements such as setting-up
machine, cleaning of machine or sharpening of tool are observed for a good number of times.
(3) Where more than one operator is doing the same job, short study (say 10 to 15 cycles) should be conducted on
each of the several operators than one long study on a single operator.
It is important that enough cycles are timed so that reliable average is obtained.
Following techniques are used to determine the number of cycles to be timed.
(i) Use of Tables: On the consideration of the cost of obtaining the data and the desired accuracy in results, most
companies have prepared their own tables for the use of time study people, which indicate the number of cycles to be
timed as a function of the cycle time and the frequency of occurrence of the job in the company. For example, one
Company uses the Table for such purposes.
(ii) Statistical methods: On the basis of the requirements of the particular situation
involved, accuracy and confidence level are decided (An accuracy of a confidence level of 95% is considered
reasonable in most cases). A preliminary study is conducted in which some (say N) cycles are timed. Standard
deviation o of these (N) observations is calculated as

(iii) Mundel Method: In this method the following steps are followed.
Step 1. Take a few good watch readings of the work cycle. (Generally, 10 readings are taken if cycle time is less than
2 minutes, otherwise 5 readings).

Step 2. Find the ratio

, where H and L are respectively the highest and the lowest value of the leading.

Step 3. Corresponding to the value of the ratio, determine the number of observations from the Table.
Normal Performance
There is no universal concept of Normal Performance. However, it is generally defined as the working rate of an
average qualified worker working under capable supervision but not under any incentive wage payment scheme. This
rate of working is characterized by the fairly steady exertion of reasonable effort, and can be maintained day after day
without undue physical or mental fatigue.
The level of normal performance differs considerably from one company to another. What company a calls 100
percent performance, company B may call 80 percent, and company C may call 125 percent and so on. It is
important to understand that the level that a company selects for normal performance is not critical but maintaining
that level uniform among time study persons and constant with the passage of time within the company is extremely
important.
There are, of course, some universally accepted benchmark examples of normal performance, like dealing 52 cards
in four piles in 0.5 minute, and walking at 3 miles per hour (4.83 km/hr). In order to make use of these benchmarks, it
is important that a complete description about these be fully understood, like in the case of card dealing, what is the
distance of each pile with respect to the dealer, technique of grasping, moving and disposal of the cards.
Some companies make use of video films or motion pictures for establishing what they consider as normal speed or
normal rate of movement of body members. Such films are made of typical factory jobs with the operator working at
the desired normal pace. These films are found to be useful in demonstrating the level of performance expected from
the operators and also for training of time study staff.

Table: No. of Observations, (Mundel Method)

The number of observations for 5% precesion and 95% confidence level. If 10% precesion and 95% confidence
level is to be used, divide the number of observations given in this table by 4.
Number of observations required 5% precesion and 95% confidence level

0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.20 0.22 0.24
Sample 5
Sample 10

Sample 5
Sample 10

4
2

8
4

12
7

17
10

23
13

30
17

38
22

47
27

27
33

68
39

0.26

0.28

80
46

93
53

0.30 0.32 0.34 0.36 0.38 0.40 0.42 0.44 0.46 0.48

0.50

107
61

296
170

121
69

137
78

154
88

171
98

190
108

210
120

230
132

250
144

273
156

Performance Rating
During the time study, time study engineer carefully observes the performance of the operator. This performance
seldom conforms to the exact definition of normal or standard. Therefore, it becomes necessary to apply some
'adjustment' to the mean observed time to arrive at the time that the normal operator would have taken to do that job
when working at an average pace. This 'adjustment' is called Performance Rating.
Determination of performance rating is an important step in the work measurement procedure. It is based entirely on
the experience, training, and judgment of the work-study engineer. It is the step most subjective and therefore is
subject to criticism.
Performance Rating can be defined as the procedure in which the time study engineer compares the performance of
operator(s) under observation to the Normal Performance and determines a factor called Rating Factor.

System of Rating
There are several systems of rating the performance of operator on a job.
These are:
Pace Rating
Westinghouse System of Rating
Objective Rating
Synthetic Rating
A brief description of each rating method follows.

Pace Rating
Under this system, operator's performance is evaluated by considering his rate of accomplishment of the work. The
study person measures the effectiveness of the operator against the concept of normal performance and then
assigns a percentage to indicate the ratio of the observed performance to normal or standard performance.
In this method, which is also called the speed rating method, the time study person judges the operators speed of
movements, i.e. the rate at which he is applying himself, or in other words "how fast" the operator performs the
motions involved.
Westinghouse System of Rating
This method considers four factors in evaluating the performance of operator: skill, effort, conditions, and consistency.
Skill may be defined as the proficiency at of an individual in following the given method. It is demonstrated by coordination of mind and hands. A person's skill in a given operation increases with his experience on the job, because
increased familiarity with work brings speed, smoothness of motions and freedom from hesitations.
The Westinghouse system lists six classes of each factor. For instance the classes of skill are poor, fair, average,
good, excellent and superskill, as given in a Table . Each class has further two degrees. The time study person
evaluates the skill displayed by the operator. And puts it in one of the six classes and also decides the degree in that
class, higher or lower, i.e. 1 or 2. As equivalent % value of each class of skill is provided in the Table, the rating is
translated into its equivalent percentage value, which ranges from +15 % (for super skill of higher degree) to -22 %
(for poor skill of lower degree).
In a similar fashion, the ratings for effort, conditions, and consistency are given using the Table for each of the factors.
By algebraically combining the ratings with respect to each of the four factors, the final performance-rating factor is
estimated.
Objective Rating
In this system, speed of movements and job difficulty are rated separately and the two estimates are combined into a
single value. Rating of speed or pace is done as discussed earlier, and the rating of job difficulty is done by selecting
adjustment factors corresponding to characteristics of operation with respect to (i) amount of body used, (ii) foot
pedals, (iii) bimanual ness, (iv) eye-hand co-ordination, (v) handling requirements and (vi) weight handled or
resistance encountered. Mundel and Danner have given Table of % values (adjustment factors) for the effects of
various difficulties in the operation performed.
For an operation under study, a numerical value for each of the six factors is assigned, and the algebraic sum of the
numerical values called job difficulty adjustment factor is estimated.
The rating factor R can be expressed as
R=PxD
Where: P = Pace rating factor, and
D = Job difficulty adjustment factor.
Synthetic Rating
This method of rating has two main advantages over other methods. These are (i) it does not rely on the judgment of
time study person and (ii) it gives consistent results.

The time study is made as usual. Some manually controlled elements of the work cycle are selected. Using a PMT
system (Pre-determined motion time system), the times for these selected elements are determined. The times of
these elements as determined are compared with the actual observed times and the performance factor is estimated
for each of the selected elements.
Performance or Rating Factor, R = P / A
Where P = Predetermined motion time of the element, and
A = Average actual observed time of the element.
The overall rating factor is the mean of rating factors determined for the selected elements. This is applied uniformly
to all the manually controlled elements of the work cycle.
Example
A work cycle has been divided into 8 elements and time study has been conducted. The average observed times for
the elements are given in the following Table:
Element No.

Element
Type

Average
actual time
(minutes)

0.14

0.16

0.30

0.52

0.26

0.45

0.34

0.15

M = Manually Controlled, P = Power Controlled

Total observed time of work cycle = 2.32 min.
Suppose we select three elements 2, 5 and 8 (These must be manually controlled elements). By using some PMT
system, suppose we determine the times of these elements as
Elements No.

PMT System times (min)

0.145

0.255

0.145

Rating factor for element 2 = 0.145 / 0.16 = 90.62 %.

Rating factor for element 5 = 0.255 / 0.26 = 98.08 %.
Rating factor for element 8 = 0.145 / 0.15 = 96.66 %.
The mean of the rating factors of selected elements = 95.12 % or say 95 % is the rating factor that will be used for all
the manual elements of the work cycle.
The normal time of the cycle can than be calculated as.

Element No.

Element
Type

Average
actual time
(min)

0.14

0.16

0.30

0.52

0.26

0.45

0.34

0.15

PMT system
time (min)
Performance
Rating
Factor

0.145

95

95

0.255

100

95

95

0.145

95

95

95

Normal Cycle Time

= 0.95(0.14+0.16+0.52+0.26+0.45+0.34+0.15) +1.00(0.30)
=1.92+0.30
=2.22 minutes
It is to be noted that power controlled (or machine-paced) elements are always given 100% rating.
Allowances
The readings of any time study are taken over a relatively short period of time. The normal time arrived at, therefore,
does not include unavoidable delay and other legitimate lost time, for example, in waiting for materials, tools or
equipment; periodic inspection of parts; interruptions due to legitimate personal needs, etc. It is necessary and
important that the time study person applies some adjustment, or allowances, to compensate for such losses so that
fair time standard is established for the given job.
Allowances are generally applied to total cycle time as some percentage of it, but sometimes these are given
separately for machine time as some % and for manual effort time some other %. However, no allowances are given
for interruptions which may be due to factors which are within the operator's control or which are avoidable.
Most companies allow the following allowances to their employees.
Constant allowances (for personal needs and basic fatigue)
Delay Allowance (for unavoidable delays)
Fatigue Allowance (for job dependent fatigue)
Personal Allowance
Special Allowance

Delay Allowance
This time allowance is given to operator for the numerous unavoidable delays and interruptions that he experiences
every day during the course of his work. These interruptions include interruptions from the supervisor, inspector,
planners, expediters, fellow workers, production personnel and others. This allowance also covers interruptions due
to material irregularities, difficulty in maintaining specifications and tolerances, and interference delays where the
operator has to attend to more than one machine.
Fatigue Allowance
This allowance can be divided into two parts: (i) basic fatigue allowance and (ii) variable fatigue allowance. The basic
fatigue allowance is given to the operator to compensate for the energy expended for carrying out the work and to
alleviate monotony. For an operator who is doing light work while seated, under good working conditions and under
normal demands on the sensory or motor system, a 4% of normal time is considered adequate. This can be treated
as a constant allowance.
The magnitude of variable fatigue allowance given to the operator depends upon the severity of conditions, which
cause extra (more than normal) fatigue to him. As we know, fatigue is not homogeneous. It ranges from strictly
physical to purely psychological and includes combinations of the two. On some people it has a marked effect while
on others, it has apparently little or no effect. Whatever may be the kind of fatigue-physical or mental, the result is
same-it reduces the work output of operator. The major factors that cause more than just the basic fatigue includes
severe working conditions, especially with respect to noise, illumination, heat and humidity; the nature of work,
especially with respect to posture, muscular exertion and tediousness, and like that.
It is true that in modern industry, heavy manual work, and thus muscular fatigue is reducing day by day but
mechanization is promoting other fatigue components like monotony and mental stress. Because fatigue in totality
cannot be eliminated, proper allowance has to be given for adverse working conditions and repetitiveness of the
work.
Personal Allowance

This is allowed to compensate for the time spent by worker in meeting the physical needs, for instance a periodic
break in the production routine. The amount of personal time required by operator varies with the individual more than
with the kind of work, though it is seen that workers need more personal time when the work is heavy and done under
unfavorable conditions.
The amount of this allowance can be determined by making all-day time study or work sampling. Mostly, a 5 %
allowance for personal time (nearly 24 minutes in 8 hours) is considered appropriate.
Special Allowances
These allowances are given under certain special circumstances. Some of these allowances and the conditions
under which they are given are:
Policy Allowance: Some companies, as a policy, give an allowance to provide a satisfactory level of earnings for a
specified level of performance under exceptional circumstance. This may be allowed to new employees, handicap
employees, workers on night shift, etc. The value of the allowance is typically decided by management.
Small Lot Allowance: This allowance is given when the actual production period is too short to allow the worker to
come out of the initial learning period. When an operator completes several small-lot jobs on different setups during
the day, an allowance as high as 15 percent may be given to allow the operator to make normal earnings.
Training Allowance: This allowance is provided when work is done by trainee to allow him to make reasonable
earnings. It may be a sliding allowance, which progressively decreases to zero over certain length of time. If the effect
of learning on the job is known, the rate of decrease of the training allowance can be set accordingly.
Rework Allowance: This allowance is provided on certain operation when it is known that some percent of parts made
are spoiled due to factors beyond the operator's control. The time in which these spoiled parts may be reworked is
converted into allowance.
Different organizations have decided upon the amount of allowances to be given to different operators by taking help
from the specialists / consultants in the field and through negotiations between the management and the trade
unions. ILO has given its recommendations about the magnitude of various allowances, as shown in Table.
Example:
In making a time study of a laboratory technician performing an analysis of processed food in a canning factory, the
following times were noted for a particular operation.
Run

10

11

12

Operatio
n time
(sec.)

21

21

16

19

20

16

20

19

19

20

40

19

Run

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

Operatio
n time
(sec.)

21

18

23

19

15

18

18

19

21

20

20

19

If the technician's performance has been rated at 120 percent, and the company policy for allowance (personal,
fatigue, etc.) stipulates 13 percent,

 Determine the normal time.

Determine the standard time.
Watch readings falling 50 % above and 25 % below the average may be considered as abnormal.
Ans:

Work Samplin
Work Sampling (also sometimes called ratio delay study) is a technique of getting facts about utilization of machines
or human beings through a large number of instantaneous observations taken at random time intervals. The ratio of
observations of a given activity to the total observations approximates the percentage of time that the process is in
that state of activity. For example, if 500 instantaneous observations taken at random intervals over a few weeks
show that a lathe operator was doing productive work in 365 observations and in the remaining 135 observations he
was found 'idle' for miscellaneous reasons, then it can be reliably taken that the operator remains idle (135/500) x 100
= 27 % 0f the time. Obviously, the accuracy of the result depends on the number of observations. However, in most
applications there is usually a limit beyond which greater accuracy of data is not economically worthwhile.
Use of Work Sampling for Standard Time Determination
Work sampling can be very useful for establishing time standards on both direct and indirect labor jobs. The
procedure for conducting work sampling study for determining standard time of a job can be described step-wise.
Step 1 . Define the problem.
Describe the job for which the standard time is to be determined.
Unambiguously state and discriminate between the two classes of activities of operator on the job: what are the
activities of job that would entitle him to be in 'working" state.
This would imply that when operator will be found engaged in any activity other than those would entitle him to be in
"Not Working" state.
Step 2. Design the sampling plan.
Estimate satisfactory number of observations to be made.
Decide on the period of study, e.g. two days, one week, etc.
Prepare detailed plan for taking the observations.
This will include observation schedule, exact method of observing, design of observation sheet, route to be followed,
particular person to be observed at the observation time, etc.
Step 3. Contact the persons concerned and take them in confidence regarding conduct of the study.
Step 4. Make the observations at the pre-decided random times about the working / not working state of the operator.
When operator is in working state, determine his performance rating. Record both on the observation sheet.
Step 5. Obtain and record other information. This includes operator's starting time and quitting time of the day and
total number of parts of acceptable quality produced during the day.
Step 6. Calculate the standard time per piece.
We will now briefly discuss some important issues involved in the procedure.
Number of Observations

As we know, results of study based on larger number of observations are more accurate, but taking more and more
observations consumes time and thus is costly. A cost-benefit trade-off has thus to be struck. In practice, the following
methods are used for estimation of the number of observations to be made.
(i) Based on judgment. The study person can decide the necessary number of observations based on his judgment.
The correctness of the number may be in doubt but estimate is often quick and in many cases adequate.
(ii) Using cumulative plot of results. As the study progresses the results of the proportion of time devoted to the given
state or activity, i.e. Pi from the cumulative number of observations are plotted at the end of each shift or day. A
typical plot is shown in Figure. Since the accuracy of the result improves with increasing number of observations, the
study can be continued until the cumulative Pi appears to stabilize and collection of further data seems to have
negligible effect on the value of Pi.
(iii) Use of statistics. In this method, by considering the importance of the decision to be based on the results of study,
a maximum tolerable sampling error in terms of confidence level and desired accuracy in the results is specified. A
pilot study is then made in which a few observations are taken to obtain a preliminary estimate of Pi. The number of
observations N necessary are then calculated using the following expression.
The number of observations estimated from the above relation using a value of Pi obtained from a preliminary study
would be only a first estimate. In actual practice, as the work sampling study proceeds, say at the end of each day, a
new calculation should be made by using increasingly reliable value of Pi obtained from the cumulative number of
observations made.
Determination of Observation Schedule
The number of instantaneous observations to be made each day mainly depends upon the nature of operation. For
example, for non-repetitive operations or for operations in which some elements occur in-frequently, it is advisable to
take observations more frequently so that the chance of obtaining all the facts improves. It also depends on the
availability of time with the person making the study. In general, about 50 observations per day is a good figure. The
actual random schedule of the observations is prepared by using random number table or any other technique.
Design of Observation Sheet
A sample observation sheet for recording the data with respect to whether at the pre-decided time, the specified
worker on job is in 'working' state or 'non-working' state is shown in Figure. It contains the relevant information about
the job, the operators on job, etc. At the end of each day, calculation can be done to estimate the percent of time
workers on the job (on an average) spend on activities, which are considered as part of the job.
Conducting Work Sampling Study
At the predecided times of study, the study person appears at the work site and observes the specific worker (already
randomly decided) to find out what is he doing. If he is doing activity which is part of the job, he is ticked under the
column 'Working' and his performance rating is estimated and recorded. If he is found engaged in an activity which is
not a part of job, he is ticked under the column 'Not Working'. At the end of day, the number of ticks in 'Working'
column is totaled and average performance rating is determined.
The observed time (OT) for a given job is estimated as

The normal time (NT) is found by multiplying the observed time by the average performing index (rating factor).

Where =

is average rating factor to be determined as

, Figure

The standard time is determined by adding allowances to the normal time.

Example
A work sampling study was made of a cargo loading operation for the purpose of developing its standard time. The
study was conducted for duration of 1500 minutes during which 300 instantaneous observations were made at
random intervals. The results of study indicated that the worker on the job was working 80 percent of the time and
loaded 360 pieces of cargo during the study period. The work analyst rated the performance at 90 %. If the
management wishes to permit a 13 % allowance for fatigue, delays and personal time, what is the standard time of
this operation?
Ans:
Here, total study period = 1500 minutes
Working fraction = 80 percent
Average rating = 90 percent
Number of units loaded = 360
Allowances = 13 %
Advantages and Disadvantages of Work Sampling in Comparison with Time Study.
Advantages
Economical
Many operators or activities which are difficult or uneconomical to measure by time study can readily be measured
by work sampling.
Two or more studies can be simultaneously made of several operators or machines by a single study person.
Ordinarily a work study engineer can study only one operator at a time when continuous time study is made.

 It usually requires fewer man-hours to make a work sampling study than to make a continuous time study. The cost
may also be about a third of the cost of a continuous time study.
No stopwatch or other time measuring device is needed for work sampling studies.
It usually requires less time to calculate the results of work sampling study. Mark sensing cards may be used which
can be fed directly to the computing machines to obtain the results just instantaneously.
Flexible
6. A work sampling study may be interrupted at any time without affecting the results.
7. Operators are not closely watched for long period of time. This decreases the chance of getting erroneous results
for when a worker is observed continuously for a long period, it is probable that he will not follow his usual routine
exactly during that period.
Less Erroneous
8. Observations may be taken over a period of days or weeks. This decreases the chance of day-to-day or week-toweek variations that may affect the results.
Operators Like It
9. Work sampling studies are preferred to continuous time study by the operators being studied. Some people do not
like to be observed continuously for long periods of time.
Observers Like It
10. Work sampling studies are less fatiguing and less tedious to make on the part of time study engineer.
Disadvantages
Work sampling is not economical for the study of a single operator or operation or machine. Also, work-sampling
study may be uneconomical for studying operators or machines located over wide areas.
Work sampling study does not provide elemental time data.
The operator may change his work pattern when he sees the study person. For instance, he may try to look
productive and make the results of study erroneous.
No record is usually made of the method being used by the operator. Therefore, a new study has to be made when
a method change occurs in any element of operation.
Compared to stop watch time study, the statistical approach of work sampling study is difficult to understand by
workers.
Computerized Work Sampling
Use of a computer can save as much as 30 to 40 percent of the total work sampling study cost. This is because too
much clerical effort is involved in summarizing work sampling data, e.g. in determining the number of observations
required, determining the daily observations required, determining the number of trips to the area being studied per
day, determining the time of each observation, calculating the accuracy of results, plotting data on control charts and

like that. Computers can be used for mechanization of the repetitive calculations, display of control charts and
calculation of daily as well as cumulative results.

Predetermined Motion Time System

A predetermined motion time system (PMTS) may be defined as a procedure that analyzes any manual activity in
terms of basic or fundamental motions required to perform it. Each of these motions is assigned a previously
established standard time value and then the timings for the individual motions are synthesized to obtain the total
time needed for performing the activity.
The main use of PMTS lies in the estimation of time for the performance of a task before it is performed. The
procedure is particularly useful to those organizations which do not want troublesome performance rating to be used
with each study.
Applications of PMTS are for
(i) Determination of job time standards.
(ii) Comparing the times for alternative proposed methods so as to find the economics of the proposals prior to
production run.
(iii) Estimation of manpower, equipment and space requirements prior to setting up the facilities and start of
production.
(iv) Developing tentative work layouts for assembly lines prior to their working in order to minimize the amount of
subsequent re-arrangement and re-balancing.
(v) Checking direct time study results.
A number of PMTS are in use, some of which have been developed by individual organizations for their own use,
while other organizations have developed and publicized for universal applications.
Some commonly used PMT systems are:

Work factor (1938)

Method Time Measurement (1948)

Basic Motion Time (1951)

Dimension Motion Time (1954)

Important considerations which may be made while selecting a PMT system for application to particular industry are:
1.

Cost of Installation. This consists mainly of the cost of getting expert for applying the system under
consideration.

2.

Application Cost. This is determined by the length of time needed to set a time standard by the system
under consideration.

3.

Performance Level of the System. The level of performance embodied in the system under consideration
may be different from the normal performance established in the industry where the system is to be used.
However, this problem can be overcome by 'calibration' which is nothing but multiplying the times given in
the PMT Tables by some constant or by the application of an adjustment allowance.

4.

Consistency of Standards. Consistency of standards set by a system on various jobs is a vital factor to
consider. For this, the system can be applied on a trial basis on a set of operations in the plant and
examined for consistency in the so obtained operation times.

5.

Nature of Operation. Best results are likely to be achieved if the type and nature of operations in the plant
are similar to the nature and type of operations studied during the development of the system under
consideration.

Advantages and limitations of using PMT systems

Advantages
Compared to other work measurement techniques, all PMT systems claim the following advantages:
1.

There is no need to actually observe the operation running. This means the estimation of time to perform a
job can be made from the drawings even before the job is actually done. This feature is very useful in
production planning, forecasting, equipment selection, etc.

2.

The use of PMT eliminates the need of troublesome and controversial performance rating. For the sole
reason of avoiding performance rating, some companies have been using this technique.

3.

The use of PMT forces the analyst to study the method in detail. This sometimes helps to further improve
the method.

4.

A bye-product of the use of PM times is a detailed record of the method of operation. This is advantageous
for installation of method, for instructional purposes, and for detection and verification of any change that
might occur in the method in future.

5.

The PM times can be usefully employed to establish elemental standard data for setting time standards on
jobs done on various types of machines and equipment.

6.

The basic times determined with the use of PMT system are relatively more consistent.

Limitations
There are two main limitations to the use of PMT system for establishing time standards. These are: (i) its application
to only manual contents of job and (ii) the need of trained personnel. Although PMT system eliminates the use of
rating, quite a bit of judgment is still necessarily exercised at different stages.
Physiological Methods for Work Measurement
The physiological cost to an operator of performing any given physical work results from the activities of the muscles
of arms, legs, back and other parts of the body and is, therefore, affected by the number and type of muscles
involved in either moving the body member(s) or controlling antagonist contraction.
The activities of body muscles cause changes in oxygen consumption, heart rate, body temperature, lactic acid
concentration in blood, 17-ketosteroid excretion in urine, pulmonary ventilation, and other factors. Studies have
shown that some of these factors are only slightly affected by muscular activity. The important factors which have
linear correlation with the physiological cost of work performed by an individual are oxygen consumption, heart rate,
and pulmonary ventilation.
Increase in Heart Rate
When a person is at rest, his heart rate is at a fairly steady level (generally at about 70 beats/minute). Then when he
starts doing some muscular work his pulse rate increases rapidly to about 110 beats/minute and remains near to this
level during the working period. When work ends, the recovery begins and his heart rate drops off and finally returns
to the original resting level ( Figure ).

The increase in heart rate during work has been used as an index of the physiological cost of the job. Some
physiologists have also proposed the use of 'the rate of recovery immediately after work stops' for the evaluation of
physiological cost of certain types of work. It is to be noted that the total physiological cost of a task consists of the
energy expenditure during work and the energy expenditure above the resting rate during the recovery period. It is
generally agreed that the optimum limit of industrial performance is reached when the average pulse rate during the
work lies 30 beats/minute above the resting pulse rate.
Measurement. With every heart beat, a small electric potential is generated. This signal can be picked up by placing
silver electrodes on either side of the chest, and transmitted to a receiver, where these can be counted directly or
recorded continuously on a ruled graph paper or integrated over time to measure in units of beats per minute with the
help of a cardiotachometer.
Another method of getting the heart beat signals is through the use of an ear lobe unit, which is a photo duodiode
with a light source. This unit is mounted on an ear of the subject in such a way that the duodiode is on one side and
the light source is on the other side of the ear. As the capacity of the ear lobe changes due to the blood surges
through the ear with beats of the heart, impulses are created which are transmitted and recorded.
A simple method to get the heart beat rate is through the use of a stethoscope and stop watch. Studies have shown
that the data obtained in this manner are fairly reliable and also easy to obtain.
Oxygen Consumption. It may be defined as the volume of oxygen which a person extracts from the air he inhales.
Increase in the rate of oxygen consumption from the resting level to the working level is also taken as a measure of
the physiological cost of the work done. The oxygen consumption per unit time is usually measured indirectly. To do
this the volume of air exhaled by a person in a certain time is collected and the oxygen content of this air is
determined. For this, use is made of a portable respirometer. It is a lightweight gas meter which is worn on the back
of the subject. A mask is fitted on the face of the subject, and the exhaled air is collected in the respirometer through
a rubber tube. The respirometer directly shows the volume of exhaled air in litres.
A sample of the exhaled air is taken out at random intervals into a rubber bladder and an analysis is carried out of its
content. Comparison is then made between the oxygen content of the two samples-drawn from the exhaled air and
another from the room air. For each litre of oxygen consumed by the human body, there is an average energy
turnover of 4.8 Kcal.
Table gives the general values of oxygen consumption, lung ventilation, rectal temperature and heart beats at the
different work loads.
Physiological measurements can be used to compare the energy cost to the operator on a job for which no time
standard exists, with the energy cost to the same operator on a similar operation for which a satisfactory time
standard already exists. By this comparison it is possible to establish the time standard on the job for which it does
not exist already. For the sake of illustration, consider a job of lifting boxes weighing 2-3 kgs. from the floor level and
placing it on a conveyor belt. For this job a time standard of 6 seconds (10 boxes/min.) is being used. When energy
measurements were taken, it was found that to Mr. Singh, the operator on the job, the energy cost of this job was 300
W. Let us suppose now that there is another jab, similar to the first one, with the difference that here, the weight of the
boxes is 5-6 kgs. If it is required to establish the t ime standard for this job, we need Mr. Singh to do this job of
handling 5-6 kg. boxes at various speeds. From the energy cost data collected on him, we can select the speed of
working that gives an energy cost of 300 W. So, by keeping the energy cost of the two jobs same, the time standard
(the number of 5-6 kg. boxes/min.) can be determined.

Table

Work Load

Very low
(Resting)
Low
Medium
High
Very High
Extremely
High (Sport)
Introduction

Oxygen
consumption(l/min)

Lung
ventilation
(l/min)

Rectal
Temperature (oC)

Heart beats
(beats/min)

0.25 - 0.3

6-7

37.5

60 - 70

0.5 - 1.0
1.0 - 1.5
1.5 - 2.0
2.0 - 2.5

11 - 20
20 -31
31 - 43
43 - 56

37.5
37.5 - 38.0
38.0 - 38.5
38.5 - 39.0

75 -100
100 - 125
125 - 150
150 - 175

2.5 - 4.0

60 - 100

Over 39.0

Over 175

The rapidly increasing global competition over the past decade has led to the emergence of new scenarios for most
of the industrial sectors. The industries are now associated with rapid technological changes and product variety
proliferation in order to remain competitive. The competitiveness of a company is mostly dependent on its ability to
perform well in dimensions such as cost, quality, delivery, dependability and speed, innovation and flexibility to adapt
itself to variations in demand.
Aiming at improving organizational performance through the effective use of production capability and technology,
operations strategy such as total quality management (TQM), quality function deployment (QFD), six sigma, business
process re-engineering (BPR), just in time (JIT), benchmarking, performance measurement and many others are
commonly used. The concept of quality has evolved from mere specifications, controls, inspections, systems, and
methods for regulatory compliance to a harmonized relationship with business strategies aimed at satisfying both the
internal and external customer. Today, quality and value are, first and above all, givens, and the customer expects
them. Quality in the successful organization is fully integrated into all of the business processes and is an extension
of everything else that has to happen along the path to success, both for the company and for the people involved.
Quality Definition(s)
As Specified by Joseph Juran, Quality is the fitness of use i.e. it is the value of the goods and services as perceived
by the supplier, producer and customer. The measure also pertains to the degree to which products and services

conform to specifications, requirements and standards at an acceptable price. Some of the definitions of the term
Quality', provided by quality gurus are as follows:

Quality is fitness for use (JURAN)

Quality is conformance to requirements (CROSBY)

The efficient production of the quality that the market expects (DEMING)

Quality is what the customer says, it is (FEIGENBAUM)

Quality is the loss that a product costs to the society after being shipped to the customer (TAGUCHI)

The totality of features and characteristics of a product or services that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or
implied needs of the customers (ASQC)

A quality system is the agreed on company wide and plant wide operating work structure, documented in
effective, integrated, technical and managerial procedures for guiding the co-coordinated actions of people,
the machines, or the information of company in the best and most practical ways to assume customer
quality satisfaction and economical costs of quality. (FEIGENBAUM)

Dimensions of Product Quality

As prescribed by Garvin, the eight dimensions of quality are:

Performance

(will the product do the intended job?)

Reliability

(how often the product fails?)

Durability

(how long the product lasts?)

Serviceability

(how easy is to repair the product?)

Aesthetics

(what does the product look like?)

Features

(what does the product do?)

Perceived quality (what is the reputation of a company or its products?)

Dimensions of Service Quality

Reliability

Responsiveness

Competence

Courtesy

Communication

Credibility

Security

Three Aspects of Quality (Figure)

The three aspects of quality and their linkages with each other have been depicted in the figure below:
Quality of Design: Consumer's Perspective
The product must be designed to meet the requirement of the customer. The product must be designed right first time
and every time and while designing all aspects of customer expectations must be incorporated into the product. The
factors need to consider while designing the product are:
Type of product

Cost
Profit
policy of
the
company

Demand

Availability
of the parts
Quality of Conformance: Manufacturer's Perspective
The product must be manufactured exactly as designed. The activities involved at this stage include: defect finding,
defect prevention, defect analysis, and rectification. The difficulties encountered at the manufacturing stage must be
conveyed to the designers for modification in design, if any. The two-way communication between designer and
manufacturing may help to improve the quality of the product.
Quality of Performance
The product must function as per the expectations of the customer. The two way communication between designers
and customer is the key to have a quality product.
Evolution of Quality (Figure)
During the early days of manufacturing, an operative's work was inspected and a decision made whether to accept or
reject it. The focus was just to accept or reject the products based on the specification. No effort was made on defect
prevention.
In the 1920's statistical theory began to be applied effectively to quality control, and in 1924 Shewhart made the first
attempt of a modern control chart. His work was later developed by Deming and the early work of Shewhart, Deming,
Dodge and Romig constitutes much of what today comprises the theory of statistical process control (SPC). However,
there was little use of these techniques in manufacturing companies until the late 1940's.

In the early 1950's, quality management practices developed rapidly in Japanese plants, and become a major theme
in Japanese management philosophy, such that, by 1960, quality control and management had become a national
preoccupation.
In 1969, Feigenbaum presented a paper in a conference and the term total quality was used for the first time,
and referred to wider issues such as planning, organization and management responsibility. Ishikawa presented a
paper explaining how total quality control in Japan was different, it meaning company wide quality control,
and describing how all employees, from top management to the workers, must study and participate in quality control.
Company wide quality management was common in Japanese companies by the late 1970's.
Total quality management (TQM) came into existence in 1980 by the western world. TQM is now part of a much wider
concept that addresses overall organizational performance and recognizes the importance of processes.
As we move into the 21st century, TQM has developed in many countries into holistic frameworks, aimed at helping
organizations achieve excellent performance, particularly in customer and business results.

Historical Aspects of Quality

Edward Deming
o

Postulated Statistical QUALITY Control Principles

14 Points of QUALITY Management

these Principles successfully adapted by Japanese Manufactures

William Crosby
o

Emphasized Humanistic Behavioral Aspects of QUALITY Improvement

Becoming More Important Now

Joseph Juran's QUALITY Trilogy

A. QUALITY Planning
o

Set of QUALITY Goals

Set Plans for Operations Based on these Goals

B. QUALITY Control
o

Responsible for Meeting QUALITY Goals

Prevent Adverse Changes

Set and Observe

Performance Measures

Compare with Industry Standards

Benchmarking

C. QUALITY Improvement
o

Moving from Current Level to the Next Higher Level

Organize Teams, Train Operators to identify and Correct QUALITY Problems

Quality Control
Inspection, analysis and action applied to a portion of the product in a manufacturing operation to estimate overall
quality of the product and determine what, if any, changes must be made to achieve or maintain the required level of
quality.
Quality control of a product can be viewed as a system which ensures

Proper Planning

Right Design

Proper equipment

Proper Inspection

Corrective action

Traditional Concept: Quality Control has been concerned with detecting poor quality in manufacturing products and
taking corrective action to eliminate it.
Modern Concept: Quality Control encompasses a broader scope of activities including:

Robust design

Statistical Proecess Control

Two aspects of quality control

Off-line quality control

On-line quality control

Off-line quality control encompasses all those activities that are performed before the actual manufacturing of the
product or service rendered
On-line quality control activities start from the manufacturing of a product till it goes in the field and also after sale
service. The quality tools used in the phase are Statistical Process control and Acceptance Sampling
Importance of Quality Control

Quality is vital in all areas of business, including the product development and production functions

Cost of quality is ultimately reduced by investing money up front in quality design and development

Typical costs of poor quality include downtime, repair costs, rework, and employee turnover

Benefits of Quality Control

A well-established, committed quality system in an organization will render the following benefits

Improvement in the quality of product

Higher productivity

Cost reduction

Continuous improvement in quality of product

Quality Costs
Quality costs components are

Prevention costs

Appraisal costs

Internal Failure Costs

External Failure Costs

Prevention costs
These costs are incurred in the process of trying to prevent defects and errors from occurring. The costs involved are
for

planning the quality control process

training and educating

designing the product for quality

designing the production system for quality

preventive maintenance

Appraisal costs (detection costs)

These are the costs of determining the current quality of the production system or inspection and testing through
sampling. The costs involved are for

measuring and testing parts and materials

conducting statistical process control

receiving inspection

reporting on quality

Internal Failure Costs

These costs are incurred when defects and errors are found before shipment or delivery to the customer. The costs
involved are for

labor and materials that are scrapped

reworking and retesting to correct defects

lost profits

External Failure Costs

These are the costs of trying correct defects and errors after receipt by the customer.
The costs involved are for

quick response to complaints

adjustments to correct the problem

lost goodwill

warranties and insurance

settlements of lawsuits

product recall

COQ = Prevention Cost + Appraisal Cost + Internal Failure Cost + External Failure Cost

Cost of Conformance

Cost of Non-Conformance

Traditional View of Quality Costs

Modern/Contemporary View of Quality Costs
Normal Cost of Quality Distribution when Quality System is NOT in Place
Optimum Cost of Quality Distribution when Quality System is in Place

Seven Basic Quality Control Tools

Histograms

Run Charts

Pareto Charts

Flow Charts

Scatter Diagrams

Cause and Effect Diagrams

Control Charts

Histograms
A Histogram is a bar graph used to present frequency data. Histograms provide an easy way to evaluate the
distribution of data over different categories
Steps in making Histogram

Define Categories for Data

Collect Data, sort them into the categories

Count the Data for each category

Draw the Diagram. Each category finds its place on the x-Axis.

1.

cycle or trend exist but actually it is not

2.

cycle or trend does not exist but actually they exist

To overcome this problem a thumb rule is to look at the data for a long period of time
Pareto Chart
VILFREDO PARETO an Italian economist provided a golden rule which fits into many managerial situations. The
golden rule he noticed is WEALTH IS CONCENTRATED IN A FEW PEOPLE. Pareto principle : The majority
of wealth is held by a disproportionately small segment of the population. This principle is also known as 80 / 20
principle. 80% of the problems are caused by 20% of the causes
JURAN has noticed that this principle applies to quality improvement as well. According to Juran the problems that
occur a few are very frequent while other important problems occur seldom. He given the phrase as Vital few and
the trivial many
Pareto Charts are used to apply the 80/20 rule of Joseph Juran which states that 80% of the problems are the result
of 20% of the problems. A Pareto Chart can be used to identify that 20% root causes of problem.
A Perot chart is similar like histogram
Steps in making Pareto Charts

First define categories

Sort the data into the Categories and find

out the

frequency of occurrence of each category

Arrange the categories in descending order

The Pareto Chart of the following problem is given below:

Problem Type

Frequency

40

Annual Cost on Rs.1000

20

Cumulative%

40

look like a fishbone it is therefore also called fish-bone diagram. Cause and effect diagram enables a team to focus
on the content of a problem. It helps to provide a comprehensive picture of the problem and the root causes of the
same.
Steps in making Cause and Effect Diagram

Determine the Effect or Problem

Categorize the possible causes

Describe the possible causes

1.

Draw an arrow horizontally pointing to an effect

2.

Draw four or more branches off the large arrow to represent main categories of potential causes. Typical
categories are man, machinery, methods, and materials.

3.

Secondary causes can be listed on branches off the category branches.

4.

Additional causes can be branched off the Secondary causes.

5.

Additional Causes, if any, may further be branched off the tertiary causes. The process goes on till all the
possible causes have been explored.

Control Chart
Control charts are statistical tool, showing whether a process is in control or not. It is a graphical tool for monitoring
the activities of an ongoing process also referred as Shewhart control charts.
Steps in making control chart

Define Upper limit, lower limit and Center line

Draw Chart

Plot the data points into chart

Interpret the control chart

Details regarding control chart is given in the next lectures

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Lecture 6
Control Charts (Figure)
Control charts are statistical tool, showing whether a process is in control or not. It is a
graphical tool for monitoring the activities of an ongoing process also referred as
Shewhart control charts. Control charts are used for process monitoring and variability
reduction.
Before discussing and calculating the limits etc. of control charts, it is necessary to
understand causes of variations present in the system. Variability is an inherent feature
of every process. Production data always have some variability.
Causes of Variations
Two types of causes are present in the production system

Special causes: Variation due to identifiable factors in the production process.

Examples of special causes include: wrong tool, wrong production method,
improper raw material, operator's skill, wrong die etc. Control of process is
achieved through the elimination of special causes. According to Deming, only
15% of the problems are due to the special causes. Special causes or also
sometimes referred asAssignable causes

Common causes: Variation inherent in the process. Improvement of process is

accomplished through the reduction of common causes and improving the
system. According to Deming, 85% of the problems are due to the common
causes.

Assignable causes are controlled by the use of statistical process charts.

Steps in constructing a control chart

Decide what to measure or count

Collect the sample data

Plot the samples on a control chart

Calculate and plot the control limits on the control chart

Determine if the data is in control

If non-random variation is present, discard the data (fix the problem) and
recalculate the control limits

When data are with in the control limits we leave the process assuming there
are only chance causes present

A process is in control IF

No sample points outside control limits

Most points near process average or center line

About equal number of points above and below the center line

Sample point are distributed randomly

Figure: Control Chart Representing Limits, Special Causes, Common Causes

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Lecture 7&8
Types of Process Data
Two types of process data:
1. Variable: continuous data. Things we can measure. Example includes length,
weight, time, temperature, diameter, etc.
2. Attribute: discrete data. Things we count. Examples include number or percent
defective items in a lot, number of defects per item etc.
Types of Control Charts: the classification of control charts depend upon the type of
data.
1. Variable charts: are meant for variable type of data. X bar and R Chart, X bar
and sigma chart, chart for the individual units
2. Attribute chats : are meant for attribute type of data. p chart, np chart, c chart, u
chart, U chart
Control charts for the variable type of data (X bar and R charts)
In the x bar chart the sample means are plotted in order to control the mean value of a
variable. In R chart, the sample ranges are plotted in order to control the variability of a
variable

Centre line, upper control limit, lower control limit for x bar and R charts are calculated.
The formulae used are as following:

= mean of the ith sample

n

= sample size,

Xi

= ith data

Ri

= range of ith sample

Xmax(i)

= maximum value of the data in ith sample

Xmin (i)

= minimum value of the data in ith sample

= mean of g samples

(Centre Line for X bar chart)

= mean of mean of g samples
g

= number of samples

sx

= standard deviation of samples

= estimate of standard deviation of population

d2

= parameter depends on sample size n

(Upper control limit for X bar chart)

A2

= parameter depends on sample size

value of A2 can be directly obtained from the standard tables

(Lower control limit for X bar chart)

where

(Upper control limit for R chart)

where

(Lower control limit for R chart)

Example:
Mean values and ranges of data from 20 samples (sample size = 4) are shown in the
table below:
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
Mean
of Rang
of Rang
of Rang
of
Rang
of
Rang
S.N
S.N
S.N
S.N
S.N
Sampl e
Sampl e
Sampl e
Sampl e
Sampl e
e
e
e
e
e
1

10

10

13

12

17

12

15

11

10

11

14

12

18

15

12

11

11

12

15

11

19

11

11

12

13

16

15

20

10

Sum of mean of 20 samples =

= 232

Average of mean values of 20 samples =

= 11.6 (Center Line of X bar Chart)

Average of Ranges of 20 samples

Upper Control Limit of X bar chart

= 4.15 (Center Line of R Chart)

= 11.6 + A2 4.15 (A2 = 0.729 for sample size 4)

= 14.63

Lower Control Limit of X bar chart

= 11.6 - A2 4.15 (A2 = 0.729 for sample size 4)

= 8.57

Upper Control Limit of R chart

= D3 4.15 (D3 = 2.282 for sample size 4)

= 9.47

Lower Control Limit of R chart

9.5

= D4 4.15 (D4 = 0 for sample size 4)

X-Bar Chart
Sample data at S.N 2, 16, and 18 are slightly above the UCL. Efforts must be made to
find the special causes and revised limits are advised to calculate after deleting these
data.

R Chart
All the data are within the LCL and UCL in R Chart. Hence variability of the process
data is not an issue to worry.
Control charts for Attribute type data (p, c, u charts)
p-charts calculates the percent defective in sample. p-charts are used when
observations can be placed in two categories such as yes or no, good or bad, pass or
fail etc.
c-charts counts the number of defects in an item. c-charts are used only when the
number of occurrence per unit of measure can be counted such as number of
scratches, cracks etc.
u-chart counts the number of defect per sample. The u chart is used when it is not
possible to have a sample size of a fixed size.
For attribute control charts, the estimate of the variability of the process is a function of
the process average.
Centre line, upper control limit, lower control limit for c, p, and u charts are calculated.
The formulae used are as following:
p-chart formulae
= centre line of p chart

Where n is the sample size. Sample size in p chart must be

Sometimes LCL in p chart becomes negative, in such cases LCL should be taken as 0
c-chart formulae
= centre line of c chart

u-chart formulae

=
ci =number of defects in ith sample
k = number of samples
ni = size of ith samples

Example: p-chart
Data for defective CDs from 20 samples (sample size = 100) are shown in the table
below:
No. of
Sample
Defective CDs
No.
=x

Proportion
Defective =
x/sample size

No. of
Sample
Defective CDs
No.
=x

Proportion
Defective =
x/sample size

.04

11

.06

.03

12

.05

.03

13

.04

data show cyclic pattern. Process appears to be out of control and also there is a strong
evidence that data are not from independent source.
Example: c-chart
Data for defects on TV set from 20 samples (sample size = 10) are shown in the table
below:
Sample No. No. of Defects Sample No. No. of Defects Sample No. No. of Defects Sample No. No. of Defects
1

11

16

12

17

13

18

14

19

10

15

20

CL =

c-Chart
None of the sample is out of the LCL and UCL. But the chart shows cyclic trend.

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Lecture 9
Process Capability
Process Stability
A process output is considered stable when it consists of only common-cause variation
and has the reproducibility over a long period of time. Common-cause variation
originates from the basic elements of a manufacturing process. Which are 5 Ms:

Machine,

Man (operator),

Material,

Method of work, and

Measurement system

UNSTABLE PROCESS
(As mean value and Variance of the process is continuously varying)
STABLE PROCESS
(As mean value and Variance of the process is constant)
The process parameters can not be correctly estimated for an unstable process
because of the following reasons.

No well defined output distribution

Misleading decisions

No useful estimation of process capability

No useful purpose for process improvement

Process Capability
Prerequisites for process capability is to estimation of process average and process
standard deviation.
Process Capability for Bilateral Specification

A process producing a characteristic with a bilateral specification meets the minimum

requirement of capability when it is stable, and has no more than 0.135 percent of its
output for this characteristic outside either specification limit.
Process Capability for Unilateral Specification
A process producing a characteristic with a unilateral specification meets the
minimum requirement of capability when it is stable, and has no more than 0.135
percent of its output for this characteristic outside the single specification limit.

Why Processes Fail?

Process variation (spread) is too large

Process average is not properly centered

Process average is not properly centered and Process Variation is too large

Measuring Process Capability

1. Capability Index, Cp For bilateral specification
When Process average is equal to nominal value:
Cp = (USL LSL) / 6s
When process average is not equal to nominal value:
Cp = Minimum (m - LSL/ 3s , USL- m / 3s )
2. Capability Index, Cp For unilateral specification
In case of USL :
Cp = Maximum (USL- m / 3s , USL-X / 3s )
In case of LSL :
Cp = Maximum (m-LSL / 3s , X - USL / 3s )

Cp values

Capability Ratings

Cp 2.00

Terrific

1.67 Cp < 2.00

Excellent

1.33 Cp < 1.67

Good

1.00 Cp < 1.33

Fair

0.67 Cp < 1.00

Poor

Cp < 0.67

Terrible

Flow Chart for Conducting a Process Capability

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Lecture 1
Facility location
Location can be defined as a place to put something. Facility location means a place
to put the facility. Facility location decisions are strategic, long term, and non-repetitive
in nature. Without sound location planning in the beginning, the new facility may pose
continuous operating disadvantages for the future operations. Location decisions are
affected by many factors, both internal and external, to the organization's operations.
Internal factors include the technology used, the capacity, the financial position, and the
work force required. External factors include the economic, political, and social
conditions in the various localities. Thus, for long term benefits of the facility, a sound
and careful location planning is required.

Location planning deals with determining the optimal location for one or more new
facilities to serve a set of customers. This type of problem arises in many areas, such
as location of manufacturing facility, storage facility, etc. Location planning may involve
finding the best site for the plant, which is termed as plant location. Location planning
may also involve deciding the location of each specific piece of machinery and
equipment in a particular area of a facility ( Tompkins, J. A., et al., Facility
Planning, Second Edition , John Wiley & Sons, NY, 1996 ).
When does a facility location (plant location) decision arise?

It may arise when a new facility is to be located

In some cases, a poor site restricts the facility or plant operations and
subsequent expansions, thereby necessitating setting up the facility at a new
site.

The growing volume of a business makes it advisable to establish additional

facilities in new territories.

New economic, social, legal or political factors could suggest a change of the
location of the existing plant.

Factors affecting the facility location study

Location studies are normally made in two phases,
(1) The general territory selection phase and
(2) The exact site selection phase
The important factors to be considered for the selection of territory and subsequent
selection of a particular site are:
Market: It is a very important factor with respect to both phases of location studies. If
product is fragile and susceptible to spoilage, proximity of the facility to the market is
critical. If the product is relatively cheap and transportation cost is high, a location close
to the markets is desirable.
Raw material and supplies: The facility in general should be near to the vendors /
suppliers. This will further reduce the transportation cost of incoming materials and the
lead-time of the inventory replenishment.
Transportation facilities: Transportation facilities must be available.
Climate: Climate is another important factor to be considered for the facility location
especially in industries where special constraints are needed, for example the textile
industry requires a high humidity zone.

 Site size: The plot of land must be large enough to hold the facilities required by the
proposed facility. Sometimes a good site may not have the required area.
Community attitude: Community attitude is difficult to evaluate. Normally communities
provide the overwhelming support to new industries, because this generates significant
employment opportunities to the local people. Moreover, infrastructure development of
the city or town progresses very rapidly. In some cases, when there is a fear of
generation of pollution, community attitude goes in the reverse.
Other factors that may also affect the facility location decisions are manpower
availability, land cost, waste disposal, and pollution.
Requirements governing the choice of a plant in a city location
The requirements that govern the choice of a plant or a facility to be located in a city
location include availability of adequate supply of labor force, high proportion of skilled
employees, small plant site or multi-floor operations, good communication facilities,
good banking and health care delivery system, and rapid contact with customers and
suppliers.
Requirements governing the choice of a plant in a country location
The requirements that govern the choice of a plant or a facility to be located in a country
location include large plant site, lesser effort required for anti-pollution measures, lower
taxes, unskilled labor force requirement, and low wages.
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Lecture 2
Analytical Methods of Location Planning
The various analytical methods of location planning are affected by the way the
distances are measured and the objective function is used.
Distance measure
The distance measure involved in a facility location problem is an important element in
formulating an analytical model. There are two ways to measure the distance between
two facilities.
1. Rectilinear Distance
2. Euclidean Distance
Rectilinear distance
When distance between two facilities is measured along path that is orthogonal to each
other, then that distance is termed as rectilinear distance. Suppose two facilities are

located at points represented by ( X 1 , Y 1 ) and at ( X 2 , Y 2 ) (figure 1), then the

rectilinear distance between the facilities will be :
|X1-X2|+|Y1-Y2|

Figure 1: Rectilinear Distance

Euclidean distance
When distance is measured along straight-line path between the two facilities, then that
distance is termed as Euclidean distance. Suppose two facilities are located at points
represented by ( X 1 , Y 1 ) and at ( X 2 , Y 2 ) (figure 2), then the Euclidean distance
between the facilities will be
{(X1-X2)2+(Y1-Y2)2}1/2

Figure 2: Euclidean Distance

The whole family of distance measure ( D K ) for the distance between two points ( X 1 ,
Y 1 ) and ( X 2 , Y 2 ) is defined by the following formula:
D K = { ( | X 1 - X 2 | ) K + ( |Y 1 - Y 2 |) K } 1 / K
when K =1 the above equation takes the form as:
D 1 = { ( | X 1 - X 2 | ) + ( |Y 1 - Y 2 | ) }
This equation gives the measure of rectilinear distance.
when K =2 the above equation takes the form as:
D 2 = { ( | X 1 - X 2 | ) 2 + ( |Y 1 - Y 2 |) 2 } 1 / 2
This gives the measure of Euclidean distance.
Techniques of conducting a facility location study

The following techniques may be used for deciding the best location of a facility.

Factor rating method

Transportation method

Factor rating method

The factor rating method is explained below by an example of deciding the best site out
of the three proposed sites.

To evaluate these alternative sites we identify five factors such as raw material,
market, land cost, community attitude, and transportation facility.
Provide the weights to each factor. Suppose we allocate 10 points to market and
raw material, 8 points to land cost, 7 points to community attitude, and 6 points to
transportation facilities.

Rate each alternative for each factor on a scale of 10. Suppose, for factor raw
material the A alternative gets 9 points, B alternative gets 10 points
and C alternative gets 8 points.

Repeat the same procedure (step 3 and 4) for other factors.

Multiply the weights of each factor with the rating of each alternative and record
on the lower half of the rectangle under each alternative.

Tabulate all the above information as given in Table 1.

Add the score of each alternative and record in front of Total.

The best alternative is that alternative which has the maximum score. If two or
more alternatives have the maximum score, then those alternatives should be
selected and a separate evaluation should be made for those alternatives only.

Table 1: Factor Rating Chart

Factors
Raw material

Weights Location A Location B

10

10
90

Market

10

Location C
8

100
8

80
9

80
Land cost

80
8

56
Community
attitude

10

347

64
10

63
7

48
Total

8
64

70
Transportation
facilities

90

70
10

42
349

60
364*

* Best Alternative is Location C

Transportation method:
The transportation problem is concerned with the distribution of goods or services from
various sources to various destinations. The transportation problem can be formulated
as a linear programming problem. The total transportation cost at various locations can
be calculated and the location with the least total transportation cost can be chosen
(Turner, W.C, et al., Introduction to Industrial and System Engineering, Second Edition,
Prentice Hall, Inc. New Jersey 1987).
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Lecture 3
Problem 1:
Suppose a manufacturing unit has two plants at location X and Y . These plants ship
the parts to five distribution centers namely A, B, C, D, and E. These distribution
centers, in turn, supply to retail outlets. The cost of transportation of a single part varies
from manufacturing unit to distribution center. Table 2 provides the information of per
unit cost from various sources to various destinations. For example, from plant X to
distribution center A , the unit cost of transportation is Rs.30 per unit. Moreover, Table
2 also provides the information regarding the capacity of manufacturing units and
demand of various distribution centers.
Table 2: Per-unit Cost Between Various Sources and Destinations

Demand

500

700

300

400

600

2500
2500

The total cost of transportation if the plant is located at Z is:

Total cost = 500 x 30 + 200 x 25 + 300 x 34 + 300 x 32 + 100 x 42 + 600 x 40 + 500 x
21
= Rs.78500
Table 7
A
Plant X

B
Rs.30

300
Plant Y

Rs.25

Rs.35

Rs.34

Rs.41

1000

Rs.28

Rs.32

Rs.42

Rs.40

1000

Rs.39

500

400
Rs.30

Rs.25

200
Demand

Capacity

700
Rs.32

Plant T

Rs.28

600
Rs.40

300
500

700

300

400

600

2500
2500

The total cost of transportation if the plant is located at T is:

Total cost = 300 x 30 + 700 x 25 + 400 x 42 + 600 x 40 + 200 x 30 + 300 x 28= Rs.
81700
The total transportation cost is less in the case when new plant is located at site Z.
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Lecture 4
Facilities Layout Design and Facilities Location

Facilities layout design refers to the arrangement of all equipment, machinery, and
furnishings within a building envelope after considering the various objectives of the
facility. The layout consists of production areas, support areas, and the personnel areas
in the building (( Tompkins, J. A., et al., Facility Planning, Second Edition , John Wiley &
Sons, NY,1996 ).
Need of Facilities Layout Design
The need for facilities layout design arises both in the process of designing a new
layout and in redesigning an existing layout. The need in the former case is obvious but
in the latter case it is because of many developments as well as many problems with in
the facility such as change in the product design, obsolescence of existing facilities,
change in demand, frequent accidents, more scrap and rework, market shift,
introduction of a new product etc.
Objectives of Facilities Layout Design
Primary objectives of a typical facility layout include
(1) Overall integration and effective use of man, machine, material, and supporting
services,
(2) Minimization of material handling cost by suitably placing the facilities in the best
possible way,
(3) Better supervision and control,
(4) Employee's convenience, safety, improved morale and better working environment,
(5) Higher flexibility and adaptability to changing conditions and
(6) Waste minimization and higher productivity.
Types of Layout
The basic types of layouts are:

Product layout

Process layout

Fixed position layout

Cellular layout

Product layout
This type of layout is generally used in systems where a product has to be
manufactured or assembled in large quantities. In product layout the machinery and

auxiliary services are located according to the processing sequence of the product
without any buffer storage within the line itself. A pictorial representation of a product
type of layout is given in Figure 1. The advantages and disadvantages are given in
Table 1.

Figure 1: A Pictorial Representation of Product Type of Layout

Table 1: Advantages And Disadvantages of Product Type of Layout
ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

Low material handling cost per unit

Machine stoppage stops the line

Less work in process

Total production time per unit is short

Product design change or process

change causes the layout to become
obsolete

Low unit cost due to high volume

Slowest station paces the line

Less skill is required for personnel

Higher equipment investment usually

results

Smooth, simple, logical, and direct

flow

Less machine utilization

Inspection can be reduced

Delays are reduced

Effective supervision and control

Less flexible

Process layout
In a process layout, (also referred to as a job shop layout) similar machines and
services are located together. Therefore, in a process type of layout all drills are located
in one area of the layout and all milling machines are located in another area. A
manufacturing example of a process layout is a machine shop. Process layouts are also
quite common in non-manufacturing environments. Examples include hospitals,
colleges, banks, auto repair shops, and public libraries ( Muther, R, Systematic Layout
Planning, Second Edition , CBI Publishing Company, Inc. Boston, 1973 ).
A pictorial representation of a process type of layout is given in Figure 2. The
advantages and disadvantages are given in Table 2.

Figure 2: A Pictorial Representation of Process Type of Layout

Table 2: Advantages And Disadvantages of Process Type of Layout
ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

Better machine utilization

Increased material handling

Highly flexible in allocating personnel

and equipment because general
purpose machines are used.

Increased work in process

Longer production lines

Critical delays can occur if the part

obtained from previous operation is
faulty

Routing and scheduling pose

continual challenges

Diversity of tasks for personnel

Greater incentives to individual

worker

Change in Product design and

process design can be incorporated
easily

schedules, part lists, operations to be performed etc.

Calculation of production rate and equipment requirements

Data analysis and its presentation in the form of various charts .

Calculations of space requirements and allocation of activity areas

Development of block plan, plot plan, and detailed layout.

Evaluation , selection , and installation of layout.

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Lecture 1
INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE
Material handling is a necessary and significant component of any productive activity. It
is something that goes on in every plant all the time. Material handling means providing
the right amount of the right material, in the right condition, at the right place, at the right
time, in the right position and for the right cost, by using the right method. It is simply
picking up, moving, and lying down of materials through manufacture. It applies to the
movement of raw materials, parts in process, finished goods, packing materials, and
disposal of scraps. In general, hundreds and thousands tons of materials are handled
daily requiring the use of large amount of manpower while the movement of materials
takes place from one processing area to another or from one department to another
department of the plant. The cost of material handling contributes significantly to the
total cost of manufacturing.
In the modern era of competition, this has acquired greater importance due to growing
need for reducing the manufacturing cost. The importance of material handling function
is greater in those industries where the ratio of handling cost to the processing cost is
large. Today material handling is rightly considered as one of the most potentially
lucrative areas for reduction of costs. A properly designed and integrated material
handling system provides tremendous cost saving opportunities and customer services
improvement potential.
DEFINITIONS
There are many ways by which material handling has been defined but one simple
definition is Material handling is the movement and storage of material at the lowest
possible cost through the use of proper method and equipment.
Other definitions are:

Material handling embraces all of the basic operations involved in the movement
of bulk, packaged, and individual products in a semisolid or solid state by means
of machinery, and within limits of a place of business.

Material handling is the art and science of moving, storing, protecting, and
controlling material

Material handling is the preparation, placing, and positioning of materials to

facilitate their movement or storage.

OBJECTIVES OF MATERIAL HANDLING

The primary objective of a material handling system is to reduce the unit cost of
production. The other subordinate objectives are:
1. Reduce manufacturing cycle time
2. Reduce delays, and damage
3. Promote safety and improve working conditions
4. Maintain or improve product quality
5. Promote productivity
i.

Material should flow in a straight line

ii.

Material should move as short a distance as possible

iii.
iv.

Use gravity

Move more material at one time

v.

Automate material handling

6. Promote increased use of facilities

i.

Promote the use of building cube

ii.

Purchase versatile equipment

iii.

Develop a preventive maintenance program

iv.

Maximize the equipment utilization etc.

7. Reduce tare weight

8. Control inventory
Reduce Cost of Handling
The total cost of material handling per unit must decrease. The total cost per unit is the
sum of the following:
1. Cost of material handling equipment both fixed cost and operating cost
calculated as the cost of equipment divided by the number of units of material
handled over the working life of the equipment.
2. Cost of labor both direct and indirect associated cost calculated in terms of
cost per unit of material handled.
3. Cost of maintenance of equipment, damages, lost orders and expediting
expenses, also calculated, in terms of cost per unit of material handled.
Reduced Manufacturing Cycle Time
The total time required to make a product from the receipt of its raw material to the
finished state can be reduced using an efficient and effective material handling system.
The movement of the material can be faster and handling distance could be reduced
with the adoption of an appropriate material handling system.
LIMITATIONS OF AUTOMATED MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEMS:
A good management practice is to weigh benefits against the limitations or
disadvantages before contemplating any change. Material handling systems also have
consequences that may be distinctly negative. These are:
1. Additional investment
2. Lack of flexibility
3. Vulnerability to downtime whenever there is breakdown
4. Additional maintenance staff and cost
5. Cost of auxiliary equipment.
6. Space and other requirements:
The above limitations or drawbacks of adopting mechanized handling equipment have
been identified not to discourage the use of modern handling equipment but to
emphasize that a judicious balance of the total benefits and limitations is required

before an economically sound decision is made.

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Lecture 2
WHEN TO DESIGN A MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEM?
The need to design a material handling system arises when:
1. A new product is being planned for manufacture
2. Change in the existing product design requiring a corresponding change in the
layout
3. Obsolescence of facilities
4. Frequent accidents
5. Adoption of new safety standards
SCOPE OF MATERIAL HANDLING
The scope of material handling activity in any industry depends on the type and size of
industry, the product manufactured, the value of the product, the value of the activity
being performed, and the relative importance of material handling activity to the other
activities. However, it should be emphasized that a sizable portion of total material
handling activity is not in manufacturing but in the fields of distribution, service
industries, agriculture, and construction. It is very important that both the beginning
student and material-handling engineer be aware of the material handling applications
in the following areas:
1. Industrial material handling
2. Transportation industries
3. Warehousing
4. Extractive industries
5. Process industries
PRINCIPLES OF MATERIAL HANDLING
The College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education (CICMHE), sponsored by
Material Handling Institute Inc., adopted 20 principles of material handling.
These principles (Table 1.) represent the experience of designers who have been

working in the design and operations of handling systems. These principles serve as
rough guides or rules of thumb for material handling system design. The designers of
material handling systems are usually advised to follow the following principles.
However, in some cases they might not be able to apply them to the fullest extent
because of factors such as the limitation on capital, physical characteristics of the
building, and capability of the equipment.
Table 1. Material Handling Principles
1. Planning Principle

11.Flexibility Principle

2. Systems Principle

12.Mechanization
Principle

3. Material Flow
Principle

13.Cost Principle

4. Simplification
Principle

14.Ergonomic Principle
15.Energy Principle

5. Gravity Principle
16.Ecology Principle
6. Space Utilization
Principle

17.Computerization
Principle

7. Safety Principle
18.Orientation Principle
8. Standardization
Principle
9. Maintenance
Principle

19.Layout Principle
20.Unit Load Principle

10.Obsolescence
Principle

FACTORS FOR CONSIDERATION IN MATERIAL HANDLING SYSTEM DESIGN

The material handling system design process is iterative. The analyzer has to go back
and forth between the different steps until a satisfactory design has been obtained and
can be implemented. The major factors for consideration in material handling system
design are:
1. Material

i.
ii.

Form gas, liquid, semi liquid, solid

Nature bulk, unit load, individual items, fragile, sturdy, bulky

iii.

Characteristics chemical, electrical, mechanical

iv.

Quantity pieces, pounds, gallons, other

2. Move
i.

Source and destination receiving, stockroom, ware house, same floor, other
floor, other department
ii.

Route location , range, path, cross traffic

iii.
iv.

Distance horizontal, vertical, inclined

Frequency intermittent, uniform, regular, irregular, unpredictable

v.

Speed

3. Methods
i.
ii.
iii.

Unit or load bulk, items, containers

Manpower one, several, many, none

Equipment conveyor, forklift truck, crane etc.

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Lecture 1
INTRODUCTION, IMPORTANCE & DEFINITION
Reliability is an engineering discipline for applying scientific know-how to a component,
assembly, plant, or process so it will perform its intended function, without failure, for
the required time duration when installed and operated correctly in a specified
environment.
Reliability is "quality changing over time" or A motion picture instead of a snapshot
Reliability is a measure of the result of the quality of the product over the long run.
Reliability terminates with a failurei.e, unreliability occurs. Business enterprises
observe the high cost of unreliability. The high cost of unreliability motivates an
engineering solution to control and reduce costs.

MIL-STD-721C Definitions of Terms for Reliability and Maintainability gives the following
definition for reliability:
Reliability is the probability than an item can perform its intended function without failure
for a specified interval under stated conditions.
This definition provides the following four aspects of reliability:
1. Reliability is a probability based concept; the numerical value of the reliability is
between 0 and 1
2. The functional performance of the product has to meet certain stipulations and a
functional definition of failure is needed. For example, a failure means different
things to the user and to the repair person.
3. It implies successful operation over a certain period of time
4. Operating or environmental conditions under which product use takes place are
specified
Cost of Unreliability
Cost improvement efforts are more productive when motivated from the top-down rather
than bottom-up because it is a top management driven effort for improving costs.
Finding the cost of unreliability (COUR) starts with a big-picture view and helps direct
cost improvement programs by identifying:
1. Where is the cost problem--what sections of the plant,
2. What magnitude is the problem--all business loss costs are included in the
calculation, and
3. What major types of problems occur
Cost of unreliability programs study plants as links in a chain for a reliability system, and
the costs Incurred when the plant, or a series of plants, fail to produce the desired
result.
Cost of unreliability begins with the big picture of failures to produce the desired
business results driven by failures of the process or it's equipment. Elements of the
process are considered as a series reliability model comprising links in a chain of
events that deliver success or failure. Logical block diagrams of major steps or systems
are identified. Failure costs are calculated by category expecting that history tends to
repeat in a string of chance events unless the problems have been permanently
removed and success demonstrated by objective measures.

DESIGNING FOR RELIABILITY

Reliability does not just happen. It requires that the following three key elements be in
place
1. A commitment from top management to ensuring reliability
2. A reliability policy (that goes hand-in-hand with a Quality Policy)
3. A philosophy that designs reliability in at an early stage
WAYS TO IMPROVE RELIABILITY

Use proven designs

Use the simplest possible designs

Use proven components that have undergone reliability component testing

Use redundant parts in high risk areas. Placing two components in parallel will
reduce the overall probability of failure

Always design fail safe

Specify and use proven manufacturing methods

MEASURES OF RELIABILITY
Reliability is the probability that a system will still be functioning at time t.

This can be expressed as the cumulative distribution of failure

These two measures are the mirror image of each other (Refer Figure below). The
reliability will start at 1 and decay to approach 0 over time. The cumulative distribution
of failure will start at 0 (no failures) and approach 1 as all the items fail over time. The
slope of the reliability curve at any time t is the failure rate at that point in time. These
measures give the overall reliability or failure at time t

Probability density function

We wish to have an idea of the probability of an item failing in a given unit time period.
This is termed the probability density function and is given by

The failure or hazard rate gives the failure density over a period of time as with the
probability density function, but is based on the current population. This gives a much
better indication of the changing reliability of a system over time.

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Lecture 2
BATH TUB CURVE
Most products go through three distinct phases from product inception to wear out.
Figure below shows a typical life cycle curve for which the faiure rate is plotted as
function of time.

Infancy / Green / Debugging / Burn-in-period: Many components fail very soon after
they are put into service. Failures within this period are caused by defects and poor
design that cause an item to be legitimately bad. These are called infant mortality
failures and the failure rate in this period is relatively high. Good system vendors will
perform an operation called "burn in" where they put together and test a system for
several days to try to weed out these types of problems so the customer doesn't see
them.
Chance failure / Normal Operating Life: If a component does not fail within its infancy, it
will generally tend to remain trouble-free over its operating lifetime. The failure rate
during this period is typically quite low. This phase, in which the failure rate is constant,
typically represents the useful life of the product.
Wear out / Ageing: After a component reaches a certain age, it enters the period where
it begins to wear out, and failures start to increase. The period where failures start to
increase is called the wear out phase of component life.
Reliability Determination
In the adult or mature phase the failure rate of a component or system is constant.
Under such conditions the time to failure follows an exponential law, and the probability
density function of exponential distribution is as given below:

Where ? denotes the failure rate. The Mean time to failure MTTF for the exponential
distribution is
MTTF = 1 / ?
If the failure rate is constant, the MTTF is the reciprocal of the failure rate. For
repairable system it is also equal to MTBF.
The reliability at time t, R(t), is the probability of the product lasting up to at least time t.

It is given by

EXAMPLE:
Assume we have an automobile that is operating in its mature phase and has the
following failure history:
Time to failure (hours): 100 800 1280 2600
The MTBF is given by: [100+800+1280+2600] / 4 = 1195 hours/failure
This gives a constant failure rate of: 1 / 1195 = 0.000836 failures/hour.
What reliability can be expected from the automobile after 40, 200, 1000, and 5000
hours?

t-hours

40

200

1000

5000

Reliability

97%

84.6%

43.4%

1.5%

Being able to predict reliabilities is particularly useful in terms of maintenance

scheduling of machinery.
Assume a minimum reliability of 0.9 can be accepted from the automobile, at what point
would a service be required?

Thus, the automobile needs servicing every 126 hours to keep a minimum reliability of
0.9
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Lecture 3
SYSTEM RELIABILITY
Series System : When components are in series and each component has a reliability R
i . If one component fails, the system fails.

The overall reliability of a series system shown above is:

R AB = R1 x R2 x R3
If R1 = R2 = R3 = 0.95
RAB = R1 x R2 x R3 = 0.95 x 0.95 x 0.95 = 0.86
R total is always < than R1 or R2 or R3
Parallel System : When components are in parallel and each component has a
reliability Ri. If one component fails, the system does not fail.

RAB= 1 - probability (1 & 2 both fail)

The probability of 1 failing is = (1 - R1 )
The probability of 2 failing is = (1 - R 2 )
Overall reliability is R AB =1 - (1 - R 1 ) (1 - R 2)
If R1= 0.9 and R2 =0.8
R AB =1 - (1 - 0.9) (1 - 0.8) = 0.98
R Totalis always > than R1 or R2
MAINTAINABILITY
Maintainability is a design characteristic dealing with the ease, accuracy, safety, and
economy in the performance of maintenance functions. It may be defined in several

ways:

The probability that an item will be restored within a given period of time

The probability that maintenance will not be required more than x times a given
period of time

The probability that the maintenance cost will not exceed y Rupees in a given
period of time

Maintainability is the ease and speed with which any maintenance activity can be
carried out on an item of equipment. It may be measured by Mean Time to Repair.
Once a piece of equipment has failed it must be possible to get it back into an operating
condition as soon as possible, this is known as maintainability .
To calculate the maintainability or Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) of an item, the time
required to perform each anticipated repair task must be weighted (multiplied) by the
relative frequency with which that task must be performed (e.g. no. of times per year).
Maintenance categories

Corrective maintenance: unscheduled maintenance to restore a system to a

specified level of performance

Preventive maintenance: scheduled maintenance to retain a system at a

specified level of performance

MEASURES OF MAINTAINABILITY
Maintenance Elapsed-Time Factors

Mean corrective maintenance time (Mc)

Mean preventive maintenance time (Mp)

Mean active maintenance time (MT = Mc + Mp)

Logistic delay time (LDT)

Administrative delay time (ADT)

Maintenance down time (MDT=MT+LDT+ADT)

Maintenance Labour-Hour Factors

Maintenance labor-hours per cycle, etc.

Maintenance Frequency Factors

Mean time between maintenance

Maintenance Cost Factors

Maintenance cost per system operating period, etc.

AVAILABILITY
The ability of an item to be in a state to perform a required function under given
conditions at a given instant of time or during a given time interval, assuming that the
required external resources are provided.
Availability at its simplest level
Availability = Uptime / (Downtime + Uptime)
The time units are generally hours and the time base is 1 year .
From the design area of concern this equation translates to
Availability(Intrinsic) A i = MTBF / (MTBF + MTTR)
MTBF = Mean time between failures
MTTR = Mean time to repair / Mean time to replace.
Operational availability is defined differently
Availability (Operational) A o = MTBM/(MTBM+MDT).
MTBM = Mean time between maintenance.
MDT = Mean Down Time.
System Availability
System Availability is calculated by modeling the system as an interconnection of parts
in series and parallel. The following rules are used to decide if components should be
placed in series or parallel:

If failure of a part leads to the combination becoming inoperable, the two parts
are considered to be operating in series

If failure of a part leads to the other part taking over the operations of the failed

part, the two parts are considered to be operating in parallel.

The calculations of system availability are similar to system reliability
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Lecture 1
Project Management
A project is a well defined task which has a definable beginning and a definable end
and requires one or more resources for the completion of its constituent activities, which
are interrelated and which must be accomplished to achieve the objectives of the
project. Project management is evolved to coordinate and control all project activities in
an efficient and cost effective manner. The salient features of a project are:

A project has identifiable beginning and end points.

Each project can be broken down into a number of identifiable activities which
will consume time and other resources during their completion.

A project is scheduled to be completed by a target date.

A project is usually large and complex and has many interrelated activities.

The execution of the project activities is always subjected to some uncertainties

and risks.

Network Techniques
The network techniques of project management have developed in an evolutionary way
in many years. Up to the end of 18th century, the decision making in general and
project management in particular was intuitive and depended primarily on managerial
capabilities, experience, judgment and academic background of the managers. It was
only in the early of 1900's that the pioneers of scientific management, started
developing the scientific management techniques. The forerunner to network
techniques, the Gantt chart was developed, during world war I, by Henry L Gantt, for the
purpose of production scheduling. An example of Gantt chart is shown in Figure 1. The
Gantt chart was later modified to bar chart ( Figure 2 ), which was used as an important
tool in both the project and production scheduling. The bar charts, then developed into
milestone charts ( Figure 3 ), and next into network techniques (such as CPM and
PERT).
Network Construction
A network is the graphical representation of the project activities arranged in a logical

sequence and depicting all the interrelationships among them. A network consists of
activities and events.
Activity
An activity is a physically identifiable part of a project, which consumes both time and
resources. Activity is represented by an arrow in a network diagram ( Figure 4 ). The
head of an arrow represents the start of activity and the tail of arrow represents its end.
Activity description and its estimated completion time are written along the arrow. An
activity in the network can be represented by a number of ways: (i) by numbers of its
head and tail events (i.e. 10-20 etc.), and (ii) by a letter code (i.e. A, B etc.). All those
activities, which must be completed before the start of activity under consideration, are
called its predecessor activities. All those activities, which have to follow the activity
under consideration, are called its successor activities ( Figure 5 ). An activity, which is
used to maintain the pre-defined precedence relationship only during the construction of
the project network, is called a dummy activity. Dummy activity is represented by a
dotted arrow and does not consume any time and resource (Figure 6 ). An unbroken
chain of activities between any two events is called a path.
Event
An event represents the accomplishment of some task. In a network diagram, beginning
and ending of an activity are represented as events. Each event is represented as a
node in a network diagram. An event does not consume any time or resource. Each
network diagram starts with an initial event and ends at a terminal event. Each node is
represented by a circle ( Figure 7) and numbered by using the Fulkerson's Rule.
Following steps are involved in the numbering of the nodes:

The initial event, which has all outgoing arrows and no incoming arrow, is
numbered as 1.

Delete all the arrows coming out from the node just numbered (i.e. 1). This step
will create some more nodes (at least one) into initial events. Number these
events in ascending order (i.e. 2, 3 etc.).

Continue the process until the final or terminal node which has all arrows coming
in, with no arrow going out, is numbered.

An illustration of Fulkerson's Rule of numbering the events is shown in Figure 8 . As a

recommendation it must be noted that most of the projects are liable for modifications,
and hence there should be a scope of adding more events and numbering them without
causing any inconsistency in the network. This is achieved by skipping the numbers
(i.e. 10, 20, 30).
Rules for drawing network diagram

Rule 1: Each activity is represented by one and only one arrow in the network.
Rule 2: No two activities can be identified by the same end events ( Figure 9 ).
Rule 3: Precedence relationships among all activities must always be maintained.
Rule 4: Dummy activities can be used to maintain precedence relationships only when
actually required. Their use should
be minimized in the network diagram
( Figure 10 ).
Rule 5: Looping among the activities must be avoided( Figure11 ).
CPM and PERT
The CPM (critical path method) system of networking is used, when the activity time
estimates are deterministic in nature. For each activity, a single value of time, required
for its execution, is estimated. Time estimates can easily be converted into cost data in
this technique. CPM is an activity oriented technique.
The PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Technique) technique is used, when activity
time estimates are stochastic in nature. For each activity, three values of time
(optimistic, most likely, pessimistic) are estimated. Optimistic time (to) estimate is the
shortest possible time required for the completion of activity. Most likely time (tm)
estimate is the time required for the completion of activity under normal circumstances.
Pessimistic time (tp) estimate is the longest possible time required for the completion of
activity. In PERT -distribution is used to represent these three time estimates (Figure
12). As PERT activities are full of uncertainties, times estimates can not easily be
converted in to cost data. PERT is an event oriented technique. In PERT expected time
of an activity is determined by using the below given formula:

The variance of an activity can be calculated as:

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Lecture 2
Calculation of Time Estimates in CPM
In the project network given in figure below, activities and their durations are specified
at the activities. Find the critical path and the project duration.

Calculations in Network Analysis

The following calculations are required in network analysis in order to prepare a
schedule of the project.
a. Total completion time of the project
b. Earliest time when each activity can start (i.e. earlist start time)
c. Earliest time when each activity can finish (i.e. earlist finished time)
d. Latest time when each activity can be started without delaying the project (i.e.
latest start time)
e. Latest time when each activity can be finished without delaying the project (i.e.
latest finish time)
f. Float on each activity (i.e. time by which the completion of an activity can be
delayed without delaying the project)

g. Critical activity and critical path

The symbols used in the calculations are shown in table below.
Symbol

Description

Ei

Earliest occurance time of event i

Lj

Latest allowable occurance time of event j

tEi-j

Estimated completion time of activity (i,j)

(EST)ij

Earliest starting time of activity (i,j)

(EFT)ij

Earliest finishing time of activity (i,j)

(LST)ij

Latest starting time of activity (i,j)

(LFT)ij

Latest finishing time of activity (i,j)

The computations are made in following steps.

(a) Forward Pass Computations :

(b) Backward Pass Computations :

(c) Calculation of Slack:

Event slack is defined as the difference between the latest event and earlist event
times.
Slack for head event = Lj - Ej
Slack for tail event = Li - Ei
The calculations for the above taken example network are summarised below in the
table.
Predecessor
Event i

Successor
j

10

Event

S(i)
tEi-j

(EST)ij

(EFT)ij

(LST)ij

(LFT)ij
Slack

15

12

12

19

20

17

17

22

10

20

15

22

22

10

25

16

21

30

15

30

11

12

23

19

30

20

25

22

27

25

30

20

30

22

30

22

30

25

35

10

27

37

30

40

25

45

15

27

42

35

50

30

35

10

30

40

30

40

30

40

30

38

35

43

35

45

10

40

50

40

50

40

45

38

45

43

50

(d) Determination of Critical Path:

The sequance of critical activities in a network is called the critical path. The activities
with zero slack of head event and zero slack for tail event, are called as crititcal
activities. In the taken network, the following activities are critical activities: 5 - 10, 10 20, 20 - 30, 30 - 35, 35 - 45.
Thus the critical path is A - E - G - K - M.
Critical path duration is 7 + 15 + 8 + 10 + 10 = 50.
Calculation of Expected Time and Variance of a Path in PERT
The Expected Time of a chain of activities in series, is the sum of their expected times.
Similarly the variance of the path, is the sum of variances of activities on the path. In
Figure below, three activities A,B and C are connected in series, (i.e. form a path). Their
time estimates to-tm-tpare given along the activity arrows. The expected time of the
path 1-2-3-4 is calculated as:

As the length of the path ,that is the number of activies connected in series
increases,the variance of the path and hence the uncertainty of meeting the expected
time also increases.
An Example
In the network of figure below, the PERT time estimates of the activities are written
along the activity arrows in the order to-tm-tp. Compute the expected time and variance
for each activity. Also compute the expected duration and standard deviation for the
following paths of the network.
(a) 10-20-50-80-90
(b) 10-30-50-70-90
(c) 10-40-60-80-90

The computation of expected times and variances for different activities are carried in a
table given below.
Activity

Time Estimates

Expected Time

Variance

tm

tp

tE

12

9.00

1.00

30

5.33

1.00

10

40

10

14

18

14.00

1.78

20

50

10

13

10.00

1.00

20

70

4.5

0.69

30

50

10

12

9.33

1.78

40

50

11

14

11.00

1.00

40

60

10

15

10.00

2.78

50

70

4.00

0.11

50

80

11

15

17

14.67

1.00

60

80

12

9.17

0.69

10

20

10

to

70

90

80

90

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4
6

8
7

10

7.67

1.00

7.17

0.25