WORK STUDY

DEFINITION:
The definition of work study as given in the British Standard

Glossary is as follows :

Work study is a generic term for those techniques, particularly

method study and work measurement, which are used in the

examination of human work in all its contexts, and which lead

systematically to the investigation of all the factors which

affect the efficiency and economy of the situation being

reviewed, In order to effect improvement

While the linkage between work study and productivity is

apparent from the above, it is not exactly clear as to what makes it

different from other productivity raising techniques. It is thus

necessary to examine the definitions of method study and work

measurement, the two major techniques of work study.

The definition from the B.S. glossary are given below :-

Method study is the systematic recording and critical

examination of existing and proposed ways of doing work, as a

means of developing and applying easier and more effective

methods and reducing costs.

Work measurement is the application of techniques designed to

establish the time for a qualified worker to carry out a specified

job at a defined level of performance.

 Thus, method study is concerned with the reduction of the

work content of a job or operation, while work measurement is

mostly concerned with the investigation and reduction of any

ineffective time associated with it; and with the subsequent

establishment of time standards for the operation when carried out

in the improved fashion, as determined by Method study. Obviously

in such cases, work measurement is applied only after method study

has been conducted.

BASIC PROCEDURE
There are eight steps in performing a complete work study.

They are :

Step1 : Select the job or process to be studied.

Step 2: Record from direct observation everything that happens,

using the most suitable of the recording techniques (to

be explained later), so that the data will be in the most

convenient from to be analysed.

Step3: Examine the recorded facts critically and challenge

everything that is done, considering in turn: the purpose

of the activity, the place where it is performed; the

sequence in which it is done; the person who is doing it;

the means by which it is done.

Step4: Develop the most economic method, taking into account

all the circumstances.

Step5: Measure the quantity of work involved in the method

selected and calculate a standard time for doing it.

FACTOR IN THE APPLICATION OF WORK STUDY

The human factor plays a very important role in the successful

conducting and implementation of work study in organisations. The

management who is responsible for spelling out the objectives and

planning of work, the supervisor who translate these plans into day

to day operations and continuously monitor them, the worker who

carries out the operations, and the work study man who conducts

the study, all of them have to contribute positively if the study has

to succeed. The objective is to look at the ways in which these

different interacting groups can contribute.

Management and supervisor : Their roles in work study:

Before we embark on a discussion of the roles, it is first

necessary to have an understanding of how the management and

supervisor form to distinct groups in an organisation. While the

management's tasks are to put forward the objectives of the

organisation and planning of the different activities, the

supervisor's jobs are to translate these tasks into day to day

operations and monitor the progress by ensuring that the workers

perform the work as desired, and by making relevant tools available

to them.
The supervisor thus acts as the liaison between the management

and the worker. The nature of tasks, in turn, defines the respective

roles they play in a work study situation. We now discuss below the

roles under the different heads.

Role of Management:
The role of management for successful application of work

study can be summarised as follows :

a) The management should define the organisational objectives

clearly. This is important, as without clarity, the workers or

supervisors may set their own objectives, which may be in

conflict with those of the management. Work study aims at

identifying a better method of doing work, and this better

method is defined with respect to the organisational

objectives.

b) The management must try to plan in a way so as to minimise

certain ineffective time that may crop up otherwise. In case

there is some ineffective time due to management, and it is

identified as a part of a work study, management should be

open to suggestion and criticism.

c) Finally, the management should consciously attempt to

maintain good relationship with the workers and provide a good

work environment for them. This helps building up a mutual

trust which is useful for any study to succeed.

Role of the Supervisor:
The supervisory role in work study applications are summarised here:

a) As the liaison between the management and the workers, the

supervisor should clearly communicate to the workers, the

organisational objectives as laid down by the management. On

the other hand, he should be able to give a picture to the

management about the practical problems of the shop floor, to

enable the management to set realistic goals.

b) As a person who is much closer to the actual jobs than the

management, he should be fully aware of different aspects of

the work including its limitations. This should help him in

identifying potential areas of improvement, and he could be of

help in selecting the proper work for study.

c) As a person who is responsible for operationalising the plans,

the supervisor has to be associated with the study right from

selection of the job to be studied, to its implementation. This

necessitates that he is open to ideas. Status quo is normally a

favourite choice in our shop floor, more so to the supervisor,

as he himself is in the job of operationalisation of the work.

The supervisor should be conscious of this and contribute to

the study by sharing his expertise on the work with the work

study man.
Role of the worker:
As the person who is actually doing the job, the worker plays a

crucial role in successful application of any study. His values and

attitude, his behaviour, as an individual and also in group should be

taken into consideration for the purpose of the study. His role in the

study is summarised below:

a) The worker should not neglect his work or waste time

unnecessarily. Ineffective time due to a worker may crop up

because of negligence on his part. He needs to be aware of the

fact that the resulting lowering of productivity will affect him

in the long run.

b) The worker should take interest in the work and take the

initiative with work related factors. Quite often, it is possible

to select the job to be studied through the initiative taken by

the worker. Individual, formal or informal groups or sometimes

unions can be used as a platform to initiate a study.

The interaction between working conditions and work study has

been one of the factors the criticality of which has been accepted

rather late. The effects were however evident long before the

integrated set of cause i.e. the vector of working condition was

recognised and identified. The influence can be broadly categorised

into two groups, the first being of immediate nature leading to

reduction of production raise or increase in number of rejections or

increase in costs while the other being of long drawn nature like

causing disability varying from purely temporary to near permanent

permanent nature.

FACTORS AFFECTING WORKING CONDITIONS:

a) Occupational Safety and Health elements

b) Fire Prevention and Protection Elements

c) Layout and Housekeeping elements

d) Lighting and ventilation elements

e) Noise and vibration elements

f) Ergonomics elements and

g) Arrangement of working time.

Occupational safety and health:

Occupational safety aspects have become an integrated part of

management function today. The level of occupational study is

primarily designated by the occurrence of accidents in an

organisation. The safety of the worker performing to complete any

given task is determined by a rather complex interaction of in built

product safeties of the different aids being used by the worker,

layout and housekeeping of the workplace, work posture and other

elements of working conditions vector.

 The level of in built product safety of the different aids being

used are primarily dictated by the price of the products but can be

increased substantially by marginal modification to adopt to the

situation in which it will ultimately be used, such as, providing

guards, by modifying lever handles, illumination provided on the

machine and providing improvised tool/work trays.

However, for aids which are to be used by immobile mode, that

is, at different places and may be by different persons the scope of

improving the safety features gets limited considerably.

Statistics, however , indicate that the most frequent type of

accidents are not connected with the so called 'highly dangerous

machines' like machine saws and power presses nor with the highly

dangerous working materials like, explosives or volatile inflammable

liquids. These statistics indicate that very ordinary mundane actions

like stumbling, falling, being struck by a falling object, by a crane or

any projected part of a moving object do cause a very large portion

of accidents. These statistics further indicate that young workers

considered to be possessing a very high level of physical and psycho

sensorial fitness are a most accident prone segment of the

workforce.
Fire Prevention and Protection:
Occurrence of accidents involving fire and/or explosions always

result in direct and indirect costs. The extent of damage depends on

the intensity and spread of fire as well as on the nature of work

material involved, and on the climatic condition existing at the time

of occurrence of such activities.

The first principle of prevention of fire is to adopt design and

construction strategies of buildings which offer in built fire

resistance capabilities. The second principle is to give adequate

training to workers and impose bans on smoking and prohibiting

usage of potential ignition source and naked flames, particularly in

areas which can be considered to prove fatal to the occurrence of

fire accidents. The third principle is to make available fire fighting

devices like extinguishers, not constituting supplementary hazards,

in easily and commonly accessible locations. The fourth principle is to

adopt a suitable reliable alarm and system or warning system capable

of emitting audible warning signals throughout the building. The

fifth principle is to have the management (both supervisory and

operational) to be well acquainted and vested with their role in the

event of a fire taking place and the kind of leadership they should

provide to be work force.

To have the principles enunciated and translated into reality

and to yield effective results in case of fire, the following

supplementary activities play a very important role:

a) Regular mock fire fighting exercises at different levels

involving the fire fighting team already trained.

b) A system of periodic inspection by full time fire inspectors of

the potentially hazardous (fire prone) work areas and the fire

fighting equipment and systems as well as the fire

alarm/warning systems installed.

c) A suitable liaison with the local fire brigade office and with

central fire brigade authorities.

Layout and housekeeping:

To control the extent of damage caused and the spread of fire in

case of occurence of a fire accident, isolation of fire prone work

areas through optimum layout of the workplace usually provides an

effective strategy.

The general principles to be adhered to for arriving at a

reasonably good work place layout design are as follows:

a) Sufficient window area, close to 20% of the floor area should be

provided.

b) Minimum ceiling height should be 3 meters and each worker

should be provided with at least 10 cube meters of air and a

minimum free floor area of 2 square metres.

c) Traffic aisle should be wide enough to allow free movement of

vehicles and of workers at peak hours as well as it should be

enough for the fastest possible evacuation in emergency

situation.
d) Walls and ceiling should have a finish which prevent accumulation

of dirt, dust and absorption of moisture. Floor covering should

be of non-slip, non-dust forming and easy to clean naturally.

Lighting and climate conditioning:

The mostly used communication medium for the data/information

relevant for performing a task is of visual nature. So to make the

information transfer effective a high level of visibility of the

equipment, the product and the information are absolutely essential.

Presence of good visibility ensures an accelerated rate of production

and hence increased productivity. Its absence may cause

occupational health hazards like persistent headache, frequent

visual fatique and also lack of occupational safety causing avoidable

accidents.

Visibility depends on the quality of illumination, which in turn,

depends on a number of factors, like the work piece size and colour,

its distance from the eyes, contrasts of colour and lighting levels

with the background and the flare.

A Work Place Layout:

Les us now look at a typical work place with the principles of motion

economy and the notes in the previous section in mind.

1. A fixture has been provided for holding the work piece (here the

chassis of the meter), leaving both the operative's hands free

for assembly work. The use of one hand purely for holding the

part being worked on should always be avoided, except for

operations so short that a fixture would not be justified.

2. The power screwdriver and box spanner are suspended in front

of the operative so that she has to make only a very short and

easy movement to grasp them and bring them to the work. They

are, however, clear of the surface of the table and of the work.

The hammer and hand screw driver for use with the left hand

are within easy reach, so that the operative can pick them up

without searching, although picking up the screw driver might

involve a little fumbling. They are in line with the trays of parts

but below them, and so do not get in the way.

3. All the small parts are close to the operative, well within the

maximum working area. Each part has a definite location and the

trays are designed with scoop fronts for easy withdrawal, parts

being drawn forward with the tips of the fingers and grasped as

they come over the rounded edge. They are arranged for

symmetrical movements of the arms, so that parts which are

assembled simultaneously are picked up from trays in the same

relative position to the operative , on either side of her. It will

be noted that the trays come almost in front of the operative,

 but this is not important in this case as the length of reach is

not excessive and will not involve much play of the shoulder and

back muscles.

4. The operative has taken a small number of the formed wire parts

normally kept in a tray to her left front and placed them

conveniently in front of and to the side of the work piece, in

order to make a shorter reach.

5. The backrest of the operative's chair is an interesting and

ingenious improvisation. Special chairs with this type of backrest

were not produced locally.