Chapter 11

Work System Design

Operations Management
by
R. Dan Reid & Nada R. Sanders
2nd Edition Wiley 2005

Work System Design

Designing a work system is part of

developing an operations strategy

The work system includes:

Job design

Work measurements

Worker compensation

Job Design

Definition: specification of the work

activities for an individual or group within an
organizational setting.
Behavioral factors:

Degree of labor specialization (advantages,

disadvantages).
Job enlargement (vertical/horizontal) and job
enrichment.

Physical considerations:

Work-task continuum.

Job Design Feasibility

Issues

Technical feasibility:

Economic feasibility:

Whether the job is within physical &

mental capabilities of the workforce
Whether the cost of performing the job is
less than its added value

Behavioral feasibility:

Whether the job is intrinsically satisfying

Job Design (Trends)

Quality at the source.

Cross-trainingmulti-functional
workers.
Employee involvement/creation of
teams.
Feedback systems.
Outsourcing tasks.
Automation
Meaningful/rewarding jobs.

Workplace Changes

Labor/organizational changes.

More technology, fewer workers and

organizational layers.

Increased employee involvement.

Composition (gender/ethnic diversity).
Thus, managers have different roles.

Mentors or coaches rather than bosses.

Employee Empowerment

Assume roles once owned by managers.

Increases employee motivation and hence
productivity.
Managers must share:

Organizational performance information.

Rewards (based on organizational
performance).
Knowledge/expertise needed to enhance
organizational performance.
Decision-making power.

Involvement

Increases trust and commitment

Improves employee communications
and attitudes
Involved employees are more likely to
generate new ideas
Involved employees achieve a higher
quality of work life which generates
higher levels of commitment leading
to higher productivity

Approaches to Involving
Employees

Must be long-term, ongoing attempts

Communications efforts

feedback
bottom-up communications

attitude survey feedback

suggestion systems
team building and quality circles

Teamwork

Teams often outperform individuals.

Self-managed teams have been found
to increase organizational
performance.

Responsible for many managerial actions:

Work assignments.
Work pace.
Quality assessment.
Hiring/firing.

Cross-functional work teams (projects,

Use of Teams

Problem-solving teams:

Special-purpose task forces:

Small groups, trained in problem-solving

techniques. Used to identify, analyze, &
propose solutions to workplace problems
Highly-focused, short-term teams with a
focused agenda (often cross-functional)

Self-directed or self-managed teams:

Team members work through consensus to

plan, mange, & control their assigned work flow

QWL: Definition II

Quality of work life emphasizes improving

the human dimension of work.
HR should try to improve QWL by:

introducing participative problem solving,

restructuring work,
introducing innovative reward systems,
improving the work environment.

[Source: Wheelen and Hunger, 2000, p. 99]

Work/Life Issues: State of Utah

Dept. of Workforce Services

Successful work/life programs can

have a tremendous bottom-line
business impact by:

Reducing turnover.
Enhancing recruitment.
Reducing absenteeism.
Improving retention.
Improving productivity.
improving morale.
Strengthening employee commitment.

Work/Life Elements

Child care.
Elder care.
Employer efforts.
Health & wellness.
Parenting/fathering.
Recruiting/retention
Telecommuting.
The workplace.
Work/life balance.
[Source:
http://occ.dws.state.ut.us/WorkLife/dwsdefault.asp]

Work-task Continuum

Job Characteristics Theory

(Hackman and Oldham,
1976)

Critical Psychological States:

experience meaningfulness of the work

experience responsibility for work outcomes
knowledge of results

Core task dimensions

skill variety
task identity
task significance
autonomy
feedback

Automation:
Factors to Consider

Safety & risk of injury to workers

Repetitive nature of the task
(monotonous?)
Degree of precision required
Complexity of the task
Need for empathy, compassion, or
other emotional elements
Customer acceptance of
automation

Managements View
of Labor Specialization

Advantages:
Minimal training
required
Reasonable wages
costs
High productivity
Readily available
labor

Disadvantages:
High absenteeism
High turnover rates
High scrap rates
High number of
employee
grievances filed

Employees View
of Labor Specialization

Advantages:
Minimal credentials
required
Minimal
responsibilities
Minimal mental
effort needed
Reasonable wages

Disadvantages:
Boredom
Little growth
opportunity
Little control over
work
Little room for
initiative
Little intrinsic
satisfaction

Eliminating Employee
Boredom

Job enlargement

Job enrichment

Horizontal expansion of the job by increasing the

scope of the work assigned
Enhances pride of work and sense of
accomplishment, but reduces productivity
Vertical expansion of the job by increased worker
responsibilityplanning and inspecting
Adds sense of control and enhances sense of
pride

Job rotation

Shifting of cross trained workers to other tasks

Broadens understanding and can reduce fatigue

Alternative Workplaces

Alternative workplaces are made possible

by
technologies like email, e-networks, cell
phones, & video conferencing. Current
situation:

More than 30 million employees work in

alternative workspaces
A survey at IBM reveals that 87% of alternative
workplace employees believe their
effectiveness has increased significantly
Sun Microsystems gives many of its designers
the option to work at home
GE sales people work from home and hotel
offices

Financial Incentive Plans

Basic compensation systems: hourly pay,

straight salary, piece rate, commissions.
Individual/group plans:

Performance is rewarded based on measures of

output (similar to piece rates) and/or measures
of quality.
pay for knowledge.

Organizational plans:

Profit sharing.
Gain sharing (based on costs/outputs,
participative management).

Scanlon Plan: rewards employees for organizational

improvements.

Work Methods Studies

Individual/group operations: use

charting (operations charts, workermachine charts, simultaneous motion
charts, activity charts) with time
studies or standard time data to
analyze/evaluate work efficiency.
Overall operations: identify non-valueadding (waste) and inefficient
activities for process/productivity
improvement

Study the Job

1.

2.

3.

4.

Picks up wire in left

hand and moves it to
the terminal
Simultaneously picks up
solder iron in right hand
and moves to the
terminal
Solders wire to terminal
and replaces solder iron
in holder
Solders terminal #1,
then
#2 - #6, going right to
left

Flowchart the Process

Importance of the Work

Environment

Working conditions can effect worker

productivity, product quality, and worker
safety
Temperature, ventilation, noise, and
lighting are all factors in work system
design
Congress passed OSHA in 1970 to mandate
specific safety conditions that must be met
The Americans with Disabilities Act also
outlines reasonable workplace
accommodations that industry must make

Work Measurement

Standard time:

The length of time a qualified worker,

using appropriate tools & procedures, will
take to complete a job

Standard time is used in:

Costing the labor component of products

Tracking employee performance
Scheduling & planning required
resources

Setting Standard Times

Step 1: Choose the specific job to be

studied

Step 2: Inform the worker of the study

Step 3: Break the job into distinguishable

elements

Step 4: Calculate the number of cycles to

observe

Step 5: Time each element, record data &

rate the workers performance

Step 6: Compute the standard time

Doing a Time Study

When making a time study

several decisions are made
to assure desired results:

# of observations to make
Desired level of accuracy
Desired level of confidence
for the estimated standard
time

Desired accuracy level is

typically expressed as a %
of the mean observed
times
In next column is a formula
for determining the number
of observations needed

z s
n
n:
number
observations

a of
xdesired

z: provides

statistical confidence (e.g.:

1.96 for 95%)
s: observed standard
deviation in time required to
complete the task element
a: desired accuracy or
precision
x-bar: the mean observed
time to complete the task

Pats Pizza Place: Pat hires an analyst to determine a

standard time to prepare a large pepperoni and cheese
pizza. He takes 10 observations of the 7 elements and
calculates the mean time and the standard deviation per
element. He must then calculate the # of observations to be
within 5% of the true mean 95% of the time.

The analyst must calculate the observations for each element

to determine how many additional observations must be
taken. The maximum number of 25 (in this case) for element
#7 means that an additional 15 observations must be made
and then the observed times are revised.

Other Time Factors Used in

Calculating Standard Time

The normal time (NT) is the mean observed time

multiplied by the performance rating factor (PRF)
The PRF is a subjective estimate of a workers pace relative
to a normal work pace
The frequency of occurrence (F) is how often the
element must be done each cycle.
NT=(OT)(PRF)(F)
The allowance factor (AF) is the amount of time allowed
for personal, fatigue, and unavoidable delays
Standard Time=normal time x allowance factor,
where:
1
1

1.176 117.6%
1 PFD 1 0.15
ST (NT)(AF)
AFTme Worked

Calculating Normal Time and

Standard Time at Pats Pizza

The standard time for preparing a large, hand-tossed

pepperoni pizza is 2.312 minutes. This means that a worker
can prepare 207 pizzas in an 8-hour shift (480 minutes
divided by 2.312 minutes)

Other Time Study

Methods

Elemental time data for typical work

elements from previously completed time
studies can be stored in a data base for use
on future similar studies.
Predetermined time data (e.g. MTM and
MTS) is a larger database of valid work
element times used to set standards for
common job elements

Reach, grasp, move, engage, insert, turn, etc.

Work Sampling is a technique for

estimating the proportion of time a worker

Work Sampling Procedure

Identify the worker or machine to be

sampled
Define the activities to be observed
Estimate the sample size based on level of
accuracy and confidence level
Develop the random observation schedule.
Make observations over a time period that
is representative of normal work conditions
Observe, record data, and check to see if
the estimated sample size remains valid
Estimate the proportion of the time spent
on the given activity

Work Sampling Example: We are interested in estimating

the proportion of time spent by secretaries arranging and
scheduling travel. We are considering the possibility of
bringing an on site travel agency to free up secretaries from
this time consuming task. We estimate that the proportion
might be as high as .50.

Step 1 We need to estimate the number of observations needed to

provide an estimate with 97% confidence
(z=2.17), and the resulting

estimate will be within 5% of its p

true
value. We use
0.5
2

z
2.17
n p 1 p
0.5 1 0.5 470.89 observations
e
0.05

Step 2 Based on the first 30 observations the secretary was

making travel reservations 6 times (6 out of 30 observations = 0.2).
With this new estimate, recalculate the sample size needed .
2

2.17
n
0.2 1 0.2 302 observations
0.05

Final Step After making the 302 observations, the secretary was
making reservations 60 times or 19.9%. This estimate can now be
used to make the decision on savings that might result by
consolidating this task with an in house travel agency

Worker Compensation
Systems

Compensation is the third part of work system

design

Time-based plans (day pay) versus output-based

systems (incentive pay)

Group incentive plans: profit sharing & gain

sharing

Plans put part of a workers salary at risk

Does the compensation system undermine teamwork?
Does plan prevent free-riders not doing their fair share?
Does the incentive plan encourage workers to support the
long-term health of the organization?

Learning Curves

When the number of times the

task is repeated doubles, the
time per task reduces as shown
in the graph

With an 85% learning curve rate,

the 2nd time a task is done will
take 85% of the 1st time.

The 4th time will take 85% of the

2nd

If an employee took 12 hours to

complete an initial task, how long

th
4 th
the 16
time
Hours will
for 16th
task
12 xtake
(.85)(4
6.26 hours

doubling)

T x Ln = time required to
perform a task the nth
time
T = the time required to
perform the task the first
time
L = the rate of learning
n = the number of times the
task has doubled

Chapter 11 Highlights

Work system design involves job design, work

measurements, and worker compensation.
Relevant job design issues include design
feasibility, the choice of human or machine, the
use of teams, and the location where the work is
to be done.
Methods or process analysis is concerned with how
the employee does the job and is used to make
improvements.
Work measurement is used to determine standard
times and are usually based on time studies.
Standard times are used for product costing,
process evaluations, and for planning workloads

Chapter 11 Highlights
(Continued)

Doing a time study requires breaking the job into

work elements and determining the number of
observations.
Work sampling involves random observations of a
worker to determine the proportion of time spent
on each activity.
Standard times are developed with time studies,
elemental time data, and predetermined time
data.
Worker compensation systems are time-based or
out-put based and can be based on individual or
group performance.
Learning curves show the rate of learning that

Chapter 11 Homework
Hints

11.5: calculate normal time (NT)

11.6: use NT from 11.5 and allowance factorjob
time [AFJOB] to calculate standard time (ST)
11.7: use the total ST from 11.6 to calculate the
number of units.
11.8: use NT from 11.5 and allowance factortime
worked [AFTIME WORKED] to calculate ST
11.9: use the total ST from 11.8 to calculate the
number of units.
11.10: check the book for help in finding other
factors to choose between the two models
calculated above.
11.19: refer to example 11.6 and use table 11-9 for
data to calculate the time based on the learning
curve.