What is Job Design?

Job design is the function of specifying the work activities of an individual or group in an organizational setting.

The objective of job design is to develop jobs that meet the requirements of the organization and its technology and that satisfy the jobholders personal and individual requirements.
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Decisions in Job Design

Who What Where When Time of day; time of occurrence in the work flow Why Organizational rationale for the job; objectives and motivation of the worker How Method of performance and motivation

Mental and physical characteristics of the work force

Tasks to be performed

Geographic locale of the organization; location of work areas

Ultimate Job Structure

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Trends in Job Design

1. Quality control as part of the worker's job 2. Cross-training workers to perform multiskilled jobs 3. Employee involvement and team approaches to designing and organizing work 4. "Informating" ordinary workers through telecommunication networks and computers 5. Extensive use of temporary workers 6. Automation of heavy manual work 7. Organizational commitment to providing meaningful and rewarding jobs for all employees
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Behavioral Considerations in Job Design

Degree of Specialization

Job Enrichment (vs. Enlargement)

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Sociotechnical Systems
Skill Variety Feedback Task Identity Task Autonomy

Process Technology Needs

Worker/ Group Needs

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Physical Considerations

Attitude isnt everything

Can a worker perform physically?

Work Physiology

Sets work-rest cycles based on energy expenditure

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Work Methods
A Production Process

Workers Interacting with Other Workers

Ultimate Job Design

Worker at a Fixed Workplace

Worker Interacting with Equipment

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Work Measurement:

Why do We Need to Set Work Standards?

1. To schedule work and allocate capacity 2. To provide an objective basis for motivating the workforce and measuring their performance 3. To bid for new contracts and to evaluate performance on existing ones

4. To provide benchmarks for improvement

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Time Study:

The Search for Measurable Job Elements

Short in duration--but long enough to time

Separate worker actions from machine actions Define any delays by the operator or equipment into separate elements
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Determining Standard Times

Calculate them yourself Use elemental standard-time data Use pre-determined motion-time data systems

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Time Study Example Problem

You want to determine the standard time for a job. The employee selected for the time study has produced 20 units of product in 8 working hours. Your observations made the employee nervous and you estimate that the employee worked about 10 percent faster than what is a normal pace for the job. Allowances for the job represent 25 percent of the normal time. Question: What are the normal and standard times for this job?
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Work Sampling

Use inference to make statements about work activity based on a sample of the activity. Output of Work Sampling:
Performance Measurement Time Standards

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Advantage of Work Sampling over Time Study

Several work sampling studies may be conducted simultaneously by one observer. The study may be temporarily delayed at any time. The observer need not be a trained analyst unless determining a time standard. No timing devices are required. Work of a long cycle time may be studied with a fewer observer hours. Minimizes effects of short-period variations and influence by the operator or worker.
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Basic Compensation Systems

Hourly Pay Straight Salary Piece Rate

Commissions
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Financial Incentive Plans

Individual and Small-Group Plans

Output measures Quality measures Pay for knowledge

Organization-wide Plans
Profit sharing Gainsharing

Bonus

output May be part of participative management

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based on controllable costs or units of

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Scanlon Plan

Basic Elements
The ratio

Total labor cost Ratio = Sales value of production

Standard for judging business performance Depends on reduction in costs below the preset ratio

The bonus

The production committee

The screening committee
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Levis Jeans Case

Moved away from piece rates. Team concept put in place in their factories. Brought in consultants to reengineer team process. Questions

What went wrong with the team process? What should have been done differently? Was the final result inevitable?
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Business Process Reengineering

Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical, contemporary measures of performance such as cost, quality, service, and speed.
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Source: Hammer, Michael and James Champy (1993) Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. New York: Harper Irwin/McGraw-Hill

Key Words

Fundamental Why do we do what we do? Radical Business reinvention vs. business improvement Dramatic

Reengineering should be brought in when a need exists for heavy blasting. a collection of activities that takes inputs and creates an output that is of value to a customer.
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Business Process

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Business Process Reengineering

Continuous Improvement Or Reengineering?
Senior Management Middle Management Supervisory Management
Decide What Business We Are In

Eliminate An Existing Process

Replace An Existing Process

Workers

Improve An Existing Process

Principles of Reengineering

Organize around outcomes, not tasks

Put the decision point where the work is performed, and build control into the process
Merge information-processing work into the work that produces the information Treat geographically dispersed resources as though they were centralized Link parallel activities instead of integrating their results
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The Reengineering Process (1 of 2)

1. State a Case for Action

2. Identify the Process for Reengineering

3. Evaluate Enablers of Reengineering

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The Reengineering Process (2 of 2)

4. Create a New Process Design
5. Understand the Current Process (high level only)

6. Implement the Reengineered Process

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Reengineering & Continuous Improvement

Reengineering Similarities Basis of analysis Performance measurement Organizational change Behavioral change Time investment Differences Level of change Starting point Participation Typical scope Risk Primary enabler Type of change Process Rigorous Significant Significant Substantial Radical Clean slate Top-down Broad, cross-functional High Information technology Cultural and Structural Continuous Improvement Process Rigorous Significant Significant Substantial Incremental Existing process Bottom-up Narrow, within functions Moderate Statistical control Cultural

Source: Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business School Press from Process Innovation Reengineering Work Through Information Technology by Thomas H. Davenport. Boston: 1993 p. 51. Copyright 1993 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Irwin/McGraw-Hill
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Integrating Reengineering and Continuous Improvement

Sequence Change Initiatives Create a Portfolio of Process Change Programs Limit the Scope of Work Design Undertake Improvement through Innovation

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A System of Process Improvement:

Continuous Improvement & Reengineering

Productivity

time
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Re-engineering: Current Situation

Specialization
Lots of handoffs (white space) Lots of opportunity for defects

E F G

A
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B
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The Re-engineered Process

Ownership Reduced handoffs Reduced cycle time and defects

B G

D
E
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A
F

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The Reengineering Process

Why is it that we accept a 4 week wait to see a doctor, but in the mortgage business, the consumer dictates the closing dates to the mortgage company?

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Six Sigma: DMAIC vs. DMADV

Define Measure Analyze
Continuous Improvement Reengineering

Improve Control

Design Validate

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