Introduction of Work Study

What is ‘Work Study’?
According to the British Standard Institution, work study is a systematic examination of activities in order to improve the effective use of human and other material resource. In work study there is three assumptions in work study which are :

      a)      There is always more than one method to do a task or a job.

      b)      Solving problem through scientific methods is better than other method and the

      c)      Work can be measured in time unit.

Work study can be derived into two components :

The objective of work study is to find the best and most efficient way of using the available resources such as men, material and machinery. In other words, to produce the high quality production in the best minimum possible time. The time required to produce a product is depends on the manufacturing procedure and method study aims at finding the best possible manufacturing procedure which involves least time and does not cause fatigue to the workers.

Method study is one of principal techniques by which work content in the product manufacture or process could be decreased and according to the British Standard Institution method study is a systematic recording and critical examination of ways of doing a job in order to make improvement. This can be achieved by eliminating or reduce the unnecessary movement of the workers. It can be done by combining the operations, or by changing the sequence of the operations to simplify the whole operation system in order to save men energy, sources and material involved.

By applying method study, the work measurement is the next important steps to find out the time required to complete the operations. Work measurement is useful to find out the time allowed to complete the job using the selected method. Work measurement is defined by British Standard Institution as the application techniques designed to find out the time for the qualified worker to carry out a task at the defined rate of working. The time resulted from the measurement is normalized and converted into standard time and work method is called standard method.

What are the advantages of  ‘Work Study’ ?

There is four major advantages of work study which are :

      a)      Higher productive efficiency.

      b)      Create better employee-employer relations.

      c)      Provide better service to customers.

      d)     Provide better working conditions to the employee and employer.

What are the advantages that can be obtain from ‘Method Study’ ?

Method study are useful to :

      a)      Improved working processes and standardized procedures.

      b)      Create better work place layout which is more neat and clean environments and working conditions.

      c)      Reduce fatigue to the operators.

      d)     Produce better product quality.

      e)      Bring out the effective used of men, materials and machinery.

What are the advantages that can be obtain from ‘Work Measurement’ ?

Work measurement are important to :

      a)      Determine the time required to do a job which the time obtain will be compared to alternative method and     define the fastest method.

      b)      Determine the resources required, budgeting and costing for a job.

      c)      Provides information for effective production planning and maintenance procedures.

      d)     Aids in calculating exact delivery dates.

      e)      Provides a basis for fair and sound incentive schemes.