Work Design

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Work Design

• Carter J. Kerk, PhD, PE, CSP, CPE
• IENG 311
• Fall 2005

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Reading Assignment

• Konz Johnson
• Chapters 11 to 13

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Work Design

• Chapter 11 Macro Ergonomics
• Chapter 12 Organization of Workstations
• Chapter 13 Workstation Design

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Chapter 11 Macro Ergonomics

• Macro Looking at the big picture
• Design jobs at the macro level as well as the
  micro level
  
• Guidelines
• Plan the Work, Then Work the Plan
• Reward Results
• Optimize Systems Availability
• Minimize Idle Capacity
• Use Filler Jobs or Filler People
• Communicate Information

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1. Plan the Work, Then Work the Plan

• Blue-collar work
• Often is repetitive
• Countable output
• Goals set by others
• White-collar work
• Often self-directed
• Great variety of tasks
• Need to plan their work, then work their plan

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Planning the Work

• List Goals
• Set Goal Priorities
• Make a TO DO List
• Set Activity Priorities

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Work The Plan

• Three Approaches to Work the Plan
• Start with As, not Cs
• Remember Pareto concept the powerful few
• Do it now
• Avoid procrastination
• Organize your time lock your door part of the
  day
  
• Cut big activities into bits
• How do you eat an elephant?
• How does the journey of a thousand miles start?

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2. Reward Results

• Try to get all workers to work hard and smart
• Types of motivation positive and negative
• Positive internal (self-motivation) or
  external
  
• External
• Financial (pay)
• Non-Financial (other incentives)

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Financial Rewards

• A Pay independent of output
• Most common
• Pay by the hour or by the month
• B Pay independent with step function
• Raise at end of year
• Size of raise is motivational
• C Piecework with guaranteed base
• Can be a win-win
• D Piecework without a guarantee
• Pays you what you are worth
• Doctors, Dentists, Stockbrokers, Insurance
  Agents, Consultants
  
• Rare in industrial workforce

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Nonfinancial Motivation

• Pygmalion Effect
• Play made into a movie My Fair Lady
• When treated like a lady, she acted like a lady
• Treat workers with respect, expect them to
  perform well, praise them, trust them
  
• Westinghouse Effect (placebo)
• Positive Rewards
• Reserved parking spots, public recognition, pins,
  buttons, badges, medals, titles, plaques, photos,
  team awards

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Negative Rewards

• Verbal abuse
• Penalty points
• For tardiness or absenteeism
• Clean the slate occasionally
• When certain levels are achieved
• Oral warning
• Written warning
• Termination

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3. Optimize System Availability

• Increase Uptime
• Longer production runs (voluntary stops)
• Increase reliability
• MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) (involuntary)
• Decrease Downtime
• Decrease voluntary downtime
• Increase maintainability
• Increase Reliability
• Statistical Quality Control
• Preventative Maintenance

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Categories of Maintenance Tasks. Maintenance has
many opportunities for improved methods and cost
reductions.
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4. Minimize Idle Capacity

• Fixed Costs
• Annual cost of many machines and people varies
  little with output
  
• Solutions
• Operate more hours/year
• Use pools Secretaries, vehicles, printers,
  technicians, copiers, lift trucks, rental
  vehicles
  
• Revise schedules renew 1/12 of licenses each
  month send out bills in logical time groups
  rather than monthly surgery does not only have
  to be done in the morning do maintenance and
  inventory work during slow times
• Encourage off-peak use Electrical demand
  controllers telephone usage airlines and hotels
  off-peak plans

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Minimize Idle Capacity

• Variable Costs
• Consider the relation among resources. Some
  machines and team members are more valuable than
  others.
  
• Human Labor Example 10 per hour, plus 30 for
  fringes 13/hr
  
• Machines
• Capital Cost Example 18K First Cost with 10
  year life 1800/yr 1/hr
  
• Utility Costs Example Electricity 7 cents/kWH
  1 hp motor uses .75 kW or only 5 cents/hr
  
• Maintenance Costs Example 1K/yr 50 cents /
  hr
  
• Conclusion The human in general are more
  expensive
  
• Solutions
• Duplicate Components
• Have spare tools or machines available
• Idle Low-cost Components
• Generally better to idle the machine and not the
  worker
  
• Not One-on-One
• Have one person run more than one machine

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5. Use Filler Jobs or Filler People

• Challenge Matching worker time to job
  requirements
  
• How do you keep people working productively on
  the critical job components?
  
• Examples
• Restaurants between meal times
• Maintenance worker finishes a work order 45
  minutes before shift ends
  
• Solutions
• Adjust Workload Use filler jobs
• Adjust Workforce Use filler people

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Adjust Workload Use Filler Jobs

• Job Enlargement
• Workers are flexible and cross-trained and thus
  more versatile
  
• Short Jobs
• Break large jobs into smaller components
• Fit these small components in during perceived
  idle time
  
• Have lists of short, low priority tasks always
  available
  
• Maintenance, housekeeping, clerical,
  recordkeeping
  

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Adjust Workforce Use Filler People

• Staggered Work Times
• Use common sense schedules (Movie 9 to 5)
• Dont assume 8-5 is always best
• Consider four 10 hour shifts and Flex Time
• Temporary Workers
• Seasonality farms, construction, retail _at_ Xmas
• Temp Firms all levels of workers
• Temps can cost more, but no-layoffs are possible
• Part-Time Workers (
• May work better for tedious tasks
• Can flex the hours better than with full-timers
• Job Sharing Two or more people fill one job

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6. Communicate Information

• Maintain good flow of communications at all
  levels
  
• Machine to human effective displays and
  feedback
  
• Management to workers effective training and
  job aids, quality issues, safety
  
• Worker to worker quality, production, safety
  issues
  
• Workers to management maintenance, quality,
  production, safety issues
  

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Chapter 12Organization of Workstations

• Nine Guidelines
• Use specialization even though it sacrifices
  versatility
  
• Consider Group Technology
• Consider both non-progressive and progressive
  assembly
  
• Balance flow lines
• Minimize material handling cost
• Decouple tasks
• Make several identical items at the same time
• Combine operations and functions
• Vary environmental stimulation inversely with
  task stimulation
  

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1. Use specialization even though it sacrifices
versatility

• Use special-purpose equipment, material, labor,
  and organization
  
• First seek the simplicity of specialization,
  thereafter distrust it
  
• Advantages greater capability, lower production
  cost/unit
  
• Disadvantages less flexible, slightly higher
  capital cost

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2. Consider Group Technology

• With high quantities, form a flow line
• Otherwise, look to form families of nearly
  identical items Group Technology
  
• Benefits product design and common mfg
• Group by similarities in part geometry or
  processes required
  
• Use Cells Flexible Mfg System Adaptive Mfg
  System Versatile Mfg System
  
• See next slide

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Cell Layout Example. Note that multi-skilled
operators tend multiple machines the machines
need not be in the production sequence. It also
is relatively easy to add or subtract workers if
production requirements change.
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3. Consider both non-progressive and progressive
assembly

• Consider an assembly of N elements with
  sufficient product demand to require m people to
  work.
  
• Non-progressive assembly Each worker does all N
  elements, with a complete workstation, job
  enlargement
  
• Progressive assembly Each worker does N/m
  elements, an assembly line, job simplification,
  Taylorism

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Non-Progressive Assembly

• Advantages
• No balance delay time, workers arent waiting on
  other workers
  
• scheduling flexibility increases, different
  stations make different products
  
• Shocks machine breakdowns, interruptions,
  absenteeism only affect on station
  
• MSDs lessened because of greater variety of
  motions and longer cycle times
  
• Satisfaction absenteeism and turnover tend to be
  less
  
• Disadvantages
• Higher direct labor cost/unit, higher skill
  requirements, higher equipment capital costs,
  increase WIP, increased supervision

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4. Balance Flow Lines

• Do you really want the line balanced? See 6
• If so there are line balancing techniques
• Standard Balancing Technique (Section 12.4.1)
• Modified Technique (Section 12.4.2)

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5. Minimize Material Handling Cost

• MH is not value-added
• Analyze the individual components
• MH Cost/Yr Capital Cost Operating Cost
• Operating Cost (Number of trips/yr)(Cost/Trip)
• Cost/Trip Fixed Cost/Trip (Variable
  Cost/Distance)(Distance/Trip)
  
• Component Analysis
• Example Minimizing Distance/Trip (see next
  slide)

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Bus Service (such as from a power and free
conveyor or an automatically guided vehicle)
follows a standardized route while Taxi Service
(such as from a lift truck) goes directly to the
desired location. Bus service tends to be
cheaper than taxis, but it will take longer for
the delivery.
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6. Decouple Tasks

• Just-in-Time (JIT), see Box 12.1
• Simplistically, reduce the cost of inventory
  (WIP) and buffers
  
• Real purpose of JIT? It forces mgt to solve
  problems. Consider the flow of inventory as a
  river. When inventory is reduced, rocks
  (problems) appear. Now solve them and reduce
  inventory even more
• This leads us to Lean Concepts

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Six Strategies to Remove the Rocks

• Limit product variety or use group technology
• Produce only what the consumer wants and only
  when it is wanted pull not push
  
• High quality SPC, Quality Circles, Foolproof
  processes (poka-yoke)
  
• High equipment availability Use PM and skilled
  employees
  
• Short setup times (see next slide) with small
  lots
  
• Cross-trained workers empowered with Kaizen

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Steps to Single-Minute Setup
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Flow Lines
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Other Flow Line Options
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Both Information and Material Flow In and Out of
a Workstation
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