(iii.

) Allowances – workers are not machines

and cannot be expected to work continuously
through out the day without relaxation.

 Process Allowance
 Relaxation Allowance
 Contingency Allowance
Benefits of Time Study

 Helps in setting of production schedules for use in production

planning and control
 Helps to measure the efficiency of each worker by laying down
standards
 It aids management to formulate a sound wage policy and
incentive schemes
 It creates time consciousness in workers
 Helps in reduction of costs
 It enables computation of standard costs
 It helps in improving the working conditions
 It enables management to evaluate alternative methods of
work by time comparisons and thus to find out ‘the one best
way’ of doing a job
 Limitations of Time Study
 It cannot be undertaken until product, equipment, working
conditions and working method are all standardised.
 Not of much use for jobs repetitve in nature.
 Standards based upon time study affect adversely the quality of
the product.
 Standards are difficult to set on indirect labour jobs such as clerical
and supervisory staff.
 Incorrect standards may be fixed.
 Activity Sampling
ACTIVITY SAMPLING ALSO CALLED WORK SAMPLING REPRESENTS
ANOTHER TECHNIQUE OF WORK MEASUREMENT THAT HAS GAINED
INCREASED ATTENTION THESE DAYS. AS THE NAME SUGGESTS ACTIVITY
SAMPLING INVOLVES THE APPLICATION OF STATISTICAL SAMPLING TO
JOBS OR ACTIVITIES.
N= PQZ²/A²
N = NO. OF OBSERVATIONS
P = PERCENTAGE OF ITEM/PERSONS POSSESSING A PARTICULAR
CHARACTERISTIC IN THE SAMPLE DRAWN
Q = PERCENTAGE OF ITEMS/PERSONS NOT POSSESSING THE
PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTIC IN THE SAMPLE DRAWN (1-P)
A = DESIRED ACCURACY
Z = DESIRED CONFIDENCE LEVEL
 Procedure:
 The total working time of all workers who perform the operations is
broken down into instants of time that are used as the basic unit of
sampling.
 The exact instants of time for actual observations are determined
by some random method.
 The observer tallies the action occuring at a large number of
different instants of time.
 Afterwards, the total number of instants at which each type of
activity has been observed is divided by the total number of
observations.
 The results he gets represent the percentages of instants at
which each type of activity was observed. These percentages
serve as the basic data provided by work sampling. They are
very useful because they yield directly whatever information
that is considered necessary for determining allowances.
 Merits of work sampling
 Suitable for jobs with long cycle time.
 Activities which are costly to measure by time study can be
measured by work sampling.
 It requires less man hours to conduct a work sampling study as
compared to time study.
 Single observer can conduct several work sampling studies
simultaneously.
 No timing device is required.
 Observer need not be a trained analyst.
 It is less tedious and less fatiguing.
 Demerits
 Insufficient observations may produce inaccurate results.
 The technique is uneconomical for short cycle jobs.
 The work sampling technique is a statistical technique which may
not be easily understandable to the management and workers.
 The technique does not normally account for the speed of the
operator.
 Indirect method
PREDETERMINED MOTION TIME SYSTEM
(P.M.T.S)
PMTS IS BASED ON THE ANALYSIS OF WORK INTO BASIC
HUMAN MOVEMENTS, CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE
NATURE OF EACH MOVEMENT AND CONDITIONS UNDER
WHICH IT IS MADE. IN THIS INDIVIDUAL MOVEMENTS ARE
ANALYZED AND THEN THE TIME REQUIRED FOR THESE
MOTIONS IS DETERMINED. POPULAR SYSTEMS LIKE M.T.M.
IS INSTALLED NOW A DAYS.
BOTH MOTION AND TIME STUDY ARE COMPLEMENTARY TO
EACH OTHER. TIME STUDY IS NECESSARY TO MEASURE THE
ECONOMIES OF MOTION STUDY SO AS TO FIND ‘THE ONE
BEST WAY’ OF DOING A JOB.
 Tools of motion study

a) Process charts
b) Applications of Laws of Motion economy
c) Preparation of questionnaires
d) Therbligs
e) Micro-motion study
a) Process charts
A chart may be a diagram, a picture or a
graph which gives an overall view of a
situation, say a process. All the details
about an existing methods/ process are
recorded and represent in chart.
b)Laws of motion economy

This principle form a set of rules:

 Both hands should work and rest at the same time
 Motions of arm should be made in opposite and
symmetrical direction.
 Work should be arranged to permit an easy and
natural rhythm where ever is possible.
 c)Preparation of questionnaire

Questionnaire means a set of printed or written

questions with the choice of answers devised for
the purpose of a survey. Some questions can be
asked like:
 How , when, where and why job is to be done?
 Can some operations be done by machines?
 Can we combine operations?
d)Therbligs
The word therblig was the creation the
Frank B Gilbreth and Lillian Moller
Gilbreth. It is the reversal of the name
Gilbreth. Therbligs are 18 kinds of
elemental motions used in the study of
motion economy in the workplace.
e)Micro motion study
Micro motion study technique is best suited for those
operations or activities which are of short duration and
which are repeated hundred of times. This study can be
done with the help of high speed films.
Thus micro motion study is the technique of recording and
analyzing the timing of basic elements of an operation
with the objective of achieving the best method of
performing the operation.