MOST Analysis

Mission Statement

There is one specific mission for workshop number two. That mission is to prepare individuals, the practitioners and their management, to install, operate, and maintain a work measurement system.

Objectives

1. Present information, to allow management to construct a framework in which work measurement will operate effectively.
2. Present information to prepare practitioners to develop and administer accurate, straightforward, and transparent rates to meet management’s objectives.

Strategy

1. Present an outline of work measurement objectives, options and practices of what can be done, and why work measurement is so important to manufacturing productivity.
2. Present in detail a broad selection of work measurement options and practices.

Tasks

1. Prepare the organization and individuals who will perform work measurement, to construct a targeted work measurement system for the organization’s circumstances, objectives, budget, and culture. Present guidance to develop rates, to maintain historical files, and to distribute approved standards to other departments who would use them in their operations.

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Objectives

01. Work Measurement Basics: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
02. How To Establish Work Measurement Rates: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
03. Time Study Instructions And Forms: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
04. Administration Of Rates: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
05. The Art Of Work Sampling: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
06. Other Opportunities For Use Of Work Measurement: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month
07. Other Important Aspects Of Work Measurement: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. 1 Month
08. The Special Case Of Construction Piece Rates: departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development. Time Allocated: 1 Month

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Strategies

01. Work Measurement Basics: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
02. How To Establish Work Measurement Rates: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
03. Time Study Instructions And Forms: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
04. Administration Of Rates: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
05. The Art Of Work Sampling: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
06. Other Opportunities For Use Of Work Measurement: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
07. Other Important Aspects Of Work Measurement: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.
08. The Special Case Of Construction Piece Rates: Each individual department head to undertake departmental SWOT analysis; strategy research & development.

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Tasks

01. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Work Measurement Basics.
02. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze How To Establish Work Measurement Rates.
03. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Time Study Instructions And Forms.
04. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Administration Of Rates.
05. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze The Art Of Work Sampling.
06. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Other Opportunities For Use Of Work Measurement.
07. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze Other Important Aspects Of Work Measurement.
08. Create a task on your calendar, to be completed within the next month, to analyze The Special Case Of Construction Piece Rates.

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Introduction

Work Measurement, Time Study, Time and Motion Study

How long does a job take? Perhaps the single most important operating information, in any business.

When you consider the subject of work measurement, what may immediately come to mind is an incentive system, or a formal procedure even if no incentive pay is involved, to measure the work on the production floor. Those mechanisms are, and have been for many years, the basic formats to achieve practical benefits by using work measurement. Rest assured, this workshop contains all of the information to train practitioners, establish a work measurement system, set and maintain standard rates.

However, work measurement adds more value than just engineered standards. It is also the basis for individual productivity projects, because the direct observation which it requires will define just exactly what is going on, in the situation in which you are interested, and objectively quantify the times involved.

Work measurement, time study by watch or electronics, perhaps random sampling; is a superior way to learn the time involved. It also points out lost time, interference and waste, constraints, unbalanced workloads, activity that can be performed by a lower skill level; Work measurement can recognize when someone is using poor or even unauthorized methods.

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Work measurement provides current information to support multiple tools of good management

• Quantify the required time to perform a function; direct or indirect.
To serve as a basis for vital company information; standard costing, capacity, efficiency, productivity, utilization, staffing, scheduling, cost justification. Better get the times right.

• Find and manage production constraints
What is delaying output, and how do we improve? Typically observation and the watch locate constraints quickly; then evaluate options.

• Update old rates and standardize practices.
Methods, equipment, and technology evolve over time and as a result older rates become inaccurate. Use time study to update rates, then go on to standardize methods and practices across similar activity.

• Identify non-value added work.
Time study almost always reveals preventable waste, lost time, and productivity-killing practices. Study the constraint, the bottleneck, especially; whether paced by machine or labor elements. Keep the constraint loaded. In keeping with the classic mandate of “Don’t improve, remove”, eliminate non-value added activity and you’ll be able to pare crew sizes and / or increase production.

• Evaluate overloaded, and underloaded, jobs. Balance lines and workloads.
Observe and measure labor and equipment activity to resolve workload issues objectively. Then you will be able to change job content or the timing of assignments, and quickly and effectively balance workload and improve labor efficiency.

• Prepare for union contract negotiation. Know precisely what the activity level is, in machine or operator-paced operations.
Objective study informs both company and union about real, not perceived, labor workloads. Observation quantifies workloads, whether too high, too low, or just right. Effective corrections to correct imbalance can include equipment and technology acquisition, work reassignment, layout change. Timing revisions, to perform some work elements at a different time, are surprisingly effective to correct overload and imbalance situations.

• Allow skilled people to spend their time concentrating on their special talents, by shifting out tasks that require a lower-skill level.
If a shortage of skilled labor is an issue for your business, work measurement is a key tool. Observe and time your skilled people to identify wasted time and the lower-skilled tasks that are assigned to them. Then eliminate the waste, and assign the lower-skill tasks to less skilled employees. In other words, free up your skilled people to use their talents. You don’t ask the surgeons to clean the operating room.

• Educate your educated guesses.
Business makes decisions based on the best available data. Employee work measurement studies will generate objective, current data. (Be careful here. The watch does not know the official party line; it may generate information that is not politically correct.)
a. Confirm to management when a certain level of performance has in fact been reached, and that it is time for the next project phase.
b. Quantify current output, activity level, lost time, workload balance.
c. Determine the relative times for manual work, compared to simple mechanization; and to full automation.

• Identify time consuming elements of labor content.

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Case Study

a. A luxury hotel wanted to determine the expected time to change a room, when a guest departed. Time study did that, and also told the client that some of their sophisticated room features, glass and marble for instance, required substantial time to clean. And, please keep the number of pillows down to save literally minutes on a room change.

b. A manufacturer believed their construction products could be installed, in the field, more quickly than competitor’s. Time study verified the claim, and was subsequently featured in ads.

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Choose a formal work measurement system; “incentives” or “piecework”, or “Reasonable Expectations” (RE). The levels of detail required and therefore the costs of these systems are not the same, so be sure that the benefits will outweigh cost.

Incentives or piece rates motivate people, but they are not free; rate setting effort, recordkeeping and reporting will increase. RE’s will result in more labor hours per unit than incentives, but less than an unmeasured situation. RE admin costs will be lower than incentives, although accuracy of the rates will be rigorous enough to support management systems.

Is there a single, simple solution to all, or even most, work measurement projects? Of course not. Work measurement projects are not all the same, because no two facilities have the same objectives nor operations. One size does not fit all.

Will your operating features be just like what is described in this workshop? Maybe not, but many will be similar. Learn the fundamentals which are presented here, and your work measurement activity can produce useful results; for instance if your objective is:

• To establish the volume produced over a given time for purposes of manning, capacity or labor cost;
• or quantify workload for individuals or for a crew;
• or balance workloads for a line or work group;
• or identify a bottleneck and alleviate it whether limited by machine or person or both;.
• or evaluate the efficacy of a method or workplace layout, or benefit of new equipment or technology.

Most of the rest of this workshop has to do with the establishment of work measurement in a working environment, with workstations that are part of a production operation.

This short section will address other very useful applications, other techniques of work measurement as they are routinely applied throughout industry. The headings listed below are just a sample of the options available when your organization has qualified work measurement practitioners available to send to an opportunity for improvement.

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Case Study

Product Costing

A manufacturer with 250 unionized employees wanted to quantify product costs. Information for labor and variable materials while available was stashed away in a filing cabinet, and had been unopened and unused for years. The decision was made to start from scratch to recreate the information rather than try to identify changes.

The work activities were repetitive but individual elements were long enough that the preferred work measurement technique selected was direct observation time study, augmented with occasional work sampling. Many different processes and machines were involved, and usually a controlling element of an operation was the machine cycle. Work positions were observed, mostly individual operators with an occasional crew. Expectations for each workstation were developed.

Simultaneously, the materials and variable overhead factors used in the processes were defined and added to the labor portion to create an engineered basis for cost definition and control and inserted into a descriptive format for standard costing.

The financial system was in place to accept the standard costing, so it was quickly put to use. This company engaged in international trade, and a significant reason for developing accurate standard costs was to meet provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

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Case Study

Relocation, On The Site, Another State

A manufacturer planned an across-town relocation of six production lines, and expected new equipment and a better layout to cut labor cost. Time study and work sampling were applied to confirm the expectations for direct and maintenance operator work and activity levels in the new location, where arrangement and dimensions were not the same.

A manufacturer with a thousand people and two major product lines relocated half of production to a plant in another state.
Work measurement confirmed and amended methods descriptions which were in effect, and established current rates. The rates were used to set up and balance production lines, establish manning levels and predict output for manufacturing and distribution at the new location.

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Case Study

Measure Workloads

If a workload is considered to be high or unequal, time study is used to review individual workloads. Analysis routinely identifies a practical solution to rebalance the activity, quite often a change in sequence or timing. Such instances may occur through a grievance or a major change in technology.

Time study was used in a highly automated beverage container facility to provide objective workload data for a quality inspector, and resolve a union – management disagreement. The work level was out of balance during the shift, heavily front-loaded, From observations, the content and length of each of the work elements was clear. A revision of the timing and scheduling of work elements resolved the issue for all concerned

A roofing materials manufacturer schedules periodic work measurement in the form of time study and work sampling, to quantify workloads on a manufacturing line in advance of union contract negotiations. Both company and union are informed of the results.

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Case Studies

Standardize Internal Practices

An on-line medical billing company used an old system to set expectations for operators, who, while seated and on the telephone with a client, routinely performed their duties in front of two video screens.

The work measurement practitioners were experienced billing operators themselves, and had earlier been part of the formal training section. They learned work measurement techniques very rapidly, and used handheld electronic devices for these studies. They revised outdated practices and rates and improved output. In the eyes of management perhaps the most important contribution was to standardize practices in the departments which dealt with different geographical locations.

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Case Studies

Bring Order To Chaos

Processors of returned and surplus merchandize buy trailer loads of unsold merchandise from big box stores, and when those large cartons of hastily boxed goods are dumped onto conveyors to be repackaged, the scene is chaotic.

Outdoor barbeque grills and bicycles can literally be in the same container with Christmas tree ornaments and cell phones and peanut butter crackers; all unsold, all scooped off store shelves and into large cartons.

Direct observation was the technique chosen by a re-packager to understand just what was happening and then to develop a sequence and workflow to rebrand and reprice the materials.

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Case Studies

In The Warehouse Or DC

Modern electronics can decrease the labor content by providing guidance and routes to human operators and by scanning bar codes on product and locations, and work measurement will measure the new work content. Work measurement of these practices when put into effect by warehouse personnel will allow effective assignment to the variable throughput.

A distributor slimmed down the product line and placed it in another location, and took advantage of the opportunity to add electronic and mechanical assists. In the relocated Distribution Center operation, work measurement determined just how to utilize the new layout effectively, to assign and balance workloads for put-away then pick and pack lines, set output rates, and calculate manning levels.

Time study and work sampling quantified rates for lift truck drivers, to stage commercial HVAC units in an outdoor yard, and later load them for shipment to DC or customer. Then, in several distribution centers, activity of lift truck drivers was studied and timed. It was possible to established both receive and ship rates for the physical characteristics of that facility. However, as a precautionary note, geometry and distances in different DC’s may well vary enough to affect a rate. External conditions such as reliability of trucker schedule and weather are out of the control of the DC, and easily affect an outcome.

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Case Studies

A New Set Of Eyes

Just the presence of a different set of eyes to observe a situation will be an advantage, as that set will see events from a different perspective. Especially when the viewer is an experienced work measurement practitioner, there are likely to be useful new insights.

An experienced practitioner visited a food canning company and observed a situation where a food item being filled into a container was spilling on the floor. The plant operator, used to seeing that particular spill, did not register it as a controllable waste. A brief review showed the food item was raised in order to gravity feed but the height was six feet, when three feet would have been ample. A reduction in the height and therefore the drop reduced the spill dramatically.

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Case Studies

But The Calculation Says,

On an assembly line for a metal product, Ray-Ban Aviator model sunglasses it happened to be, occasionally there would be a shortage of a simple metal part made in an early step of the operation. The part was produced on one of four automatic machines, tended by one operator whose duties consisted of loading feedstocks of metal rods, and of unjamming the machines when they needed it.

The index speed of all four machines produced in excess of the parts that were needed for the production schedule. Therefore only one person had been assigned to keep the machine running. Why was there a problem? Well, let’s go look. Direct observation showed that the index speed was as expected, and that sometimes the machines jammed. How many jams and how long did it take to clear a jam? Often enough, and long enough that frequently more than one other machine would also jam, and sit idle while the sole operator cleared the jams.

The net effect was that the bank of machines was not producing as expected, and as a result downstream operations were starved of parts and sat idle. Adding an operator actually increased the standard cost of that part, and reduced the standard and actual cost of the sunglass. More importantly, sunglasses were sold and not backordered.

The opinion may be voiced, just fix the machines so that they don’t jam up. Maybe that is what Luxottica is doing now that they own Ray-Ban rather than Bausch & Lomb.

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Executive Summary

If You Only Read One Work Measurement Section

These topics are covered in great detail in other portions of the work measurement session. They are summarized here in one place to suggest that these are the imperative actions. The imperatives will contribute extensively to your specific objectives, but remember all work measurement projects are not the same.

A. You, and I, and the people in your company want to know what is expected of us and how well we do against expectations. Measure to set expectations, report results, require accountability, communicate.

B. Work measurement is not just for direct labor; it is just as effective in the office, the lab, the maintenance shop, the field, the customer service unit, and the warehouse as it is on a production floor. It can favorably affect costs, in service, in health care, and in government operations.

The elements of work on a production floor usually repeat, often quite rapidly. Work elements in an office, a lab, a maintenance facility, a construction unit may not repeat as frequently but work can still be observed, recorded and analyzed for its effect and improvement.

Work measurement may be of an operator, a machine, a process, a movement, any element of work whose duration is important.

C. Choose primary and secondary purposes of the work measurement you plan. Is it to be a tool to find and quantify cost reduction opportunity? Is it to contribute to a formal system, such as standard costs or product costing? The answer will suggest how to proceed.

D. As part of the process of setting purposes in C above, determine which of your formal management systems will benefit from the objective results of work measurement, such as

• Determine staffing levels as output levels vary.
• Calculate actual capacity the operation can produce.
• Assign and schedule work to people and equipment.
• Identify lost time, waste, non-value added activity.
• Offer pay related to output, such as labor incentives.
• Define the cost for the products and services you offer.
• Balance lines or work groups for optimum performance.
• Analyze variances to find problems.
• Identify and manage constraints, equipment, process, facility.
• Justify equipment and automation acquisition.
• Compare the cost to install and service products in the field, yours and competitors.

E. Decide what the extent of your measurement program will be: widespread or focused; generally descriptive or statistically accurate; for guidance or for pay. Involve unions or other employee representatives as necessary.

F. Choose in-house or consulting people to perform the program. Set goals, actions, deliverables, timetables.

G. During the first visits to the floor, pull out all of the waste movement, activity, wait, unnecessary material handling.

H. What comes first, methods or work measurement? This is a chicken-and-the-egg question which implies a linear relationship. In fact, methods and work measurement are a circular progression; create best results by performing one then the other alternately over time. If you start with methods improvement, quickly you will want to evaluate methods and you will have to time them to compare. Start with measurement, quickly you will identify other methods and will have to choose one. The only bad choice is to fail to start somewhere.

I. individual rates tend to be more accurate but require more work both to develop and to administer. Crew rates can be effective especially if teamwork is required or encouraged.

Please note a major benefit of individual rates. An operator working alone will not wait on another person. When people work as crews or teams, it is not unusual for one person to wait on another. This wait is non-value-added activity, the sworn enemy of productivity.

J. Note that there is no inherently right or wrong work measurement technique; each can have a place where it is superior to others. Some techniques will fit your application, while others will be unlikely to achieve the accuracy and cost objectives. Effective ones include:
• Time study, proven over years to be cost effective in many applications.
• Predetermined times; such as MTM, Master Standard Data, Modapts, Work Factor, the specialty systems for office or warehouses.
• Work sample, random sample, the old term ratio delay. Both time study and sampling are statistical processes. The accuracy of the resulting work measurement is a function of the number of observations.
• Electronic mechanisms to perform time study and sampling; handheld devices, phones, pads; the technology for both hardware and software changes constantly.

K. Work measurement is also well-suited for many short term issues because it is objective; “quick fix” solutions. Apply work measurement for limited scope “quick fixes”, perhaps:
• Arbitrate a disagreement about workload; is a particular position or crew overloaded, or underloaded.
• Explain a workload disagreement that can lead to a new arrangement of duties or at a different time. Workloads are often not at all even over a time frame; from start to end of a shift, during a week, especially the end of a month or quarter.
• Clear up bottlenecks which constrain production.
• Determine the proper crew size for operations. Then, balance workloads so that crew members have, as nearly as possible, the same amount of work.
• Routinely monitor crew workloads, that they are within expectations.
• Identify delay and remove it.

L. Just because there are complicating factors to work measurement, do not stop the effort to measure. Recognize that answers may not be perfectly accurate, but still perform useful service. And you can fine tune the initial mechanism to yield ever better results.

M. Be advised that the results of any measurement can report only part of the story, the final result; it does not report what caused the result.

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Operating practice for labor operations

These labor and operating practices should increase productivity in most operations. unionized or not.

A. Adopt the two pillars of Toyota Production System

stated by Taiichi Ohno, widely credited with making TPS a reality. “The most important objective of the Toyota System has been to increase production efficiency by consistently and thoroughly eliminating waste. This concept and the equally important respect for humanity … are the foundations of the Toyota production system.”

B. Attract, train, and retain good employees. Encourage them to participate

Pay good wages and offer benefits to attract qualified people, cut turnover and subsequent training of replacements. Consider profit sharing or bonus to all employees as the company achieves desired financial performance, output and quality. The classic example is Lincoln Electric, considered the most productive company, from 1930’s into the 1980’s. Today their Guaranteed Continuous Employment Plan continues to provide covered employees with security against layoffs due to lack of work. Their average Profit Sharing Bonus award over the last 10 years has been 40% of an employee’s year to date, base earnings.

Sponsor formal employee participation programs to encourage ideas, contribution, and support. (Not all employees will participate or contribute, but the ones who do will justify the effort.)

C. Recognize, calculate the value of respect for humanity in your organization

Check into what Toyota does, how Lincoln Electric continues to create the innovation, product quality, productivity and global growth that they do.

Bob Emiliani in “The Profits Generator”, Lean Leadership News, 3 September 2013 says,

“I understand it is the “Respect for People” principle that enables continuous improvement, not the other way around. Therefore, the “Respect for People” principle is the profits generator.

I truly understand the importance of profits. So I coach executives to learn, among other things, that the “Respect for People” principle is the profits generator and it must not be ignored. The “Respect for People” principle is what makes material and information flow, which, in turn, is where the money is. It is where the growth is. It is where the enterprise value is.”

There is an actual cost factor manifested, perhaps insignificant compared to the value of motivated employees, and that is the actual cost of turnover of employees who choose to leave their jobs. The company needs to rehire, retrain, go through the learning curve. You can cost that out. The more valuable, skilled employees may be sought by other companies because of their skills. It is difficult to put a precise dollar sign on results of dissatisfied workers, poor performance, poor quality, absenteeism, customer complaints, but it exists.

Please appreciate, and maximize, the value of respect for humanity for your group.”

D. Use workplace methods and measurement to improve and standardize

Perform methods study for tasks, and apply ergonomics to methods and equipment. Standardize methods, but continuously improve.

Employ capable work measurement practitioners, perhaps about one engineer or tech to a hundred production employees. Establish engineered labor rates, at least reasonable expectancies, perhaps incentives.

Announce labor expectations, report results, require accountability. Use a formal improvement program for those who don’t meet expectations; improve not remove.

There are many techniques defined elsewhere, proprietary and not, to establish engineered standards. Choose the one(s) which will be cost effective for your objectives.

E. Apply the work measurement information you develop

1. Build results into standard data, apply the data for consistency, to construct new rates, as part of estimating. Build results into standard costs.

2. Using the newly created rates, balance workloads of integrated crews and assembly lines and establish the proper crew sizes for those units. The balancing operation can rearrange elements of an individual’s activity, removing or adding, so rates may need to be revised, and the process repeated once or more.

3. Is crew size set for minimum headcount or for maximum output? What do you want loaded, the operator or the constraint? These are very important questions, so be sure to answer thoughtfully especially for equipment which is a constraint or bottleneck.

For instance several automatic machines may be staffed with one attendant, who can keep up with routine functions but not with mechanical jams. Use of one operator minimizes the crew size, but if downstream machines are starved for material and their operators are idled, the overall output is constrained; unit labor cost rises, and production drops.

Perhaps a different staffing plan will be most effective, depending on whether today’s objective is high volume or low crew size. In either case, calculate the correct headcount to operate the equipment in use, from labor rates, and schedule the correct number of people to produce required output.

4. Build rates into standard cost.

5. Build rates into the expectations used to create production scheduling.

6. If possible, maintain some amount of “deferrable” work, which need not be done on a timely basis. When a process goes down and a number of people are temporarily out of work, move them to the deferrable work until their operation is back up again. Efficiency on the deferrable work may be relatively low, but it will be better than the zero that otherwise would occur.

7. Be extremely aware of how very high costs can occur, inside the facility or later as a result of facility output. (Think lost batches, personal injury, product recall.) Double down on safeguards to prevent loss now or later.

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Benefits of work measurement

Perhaps the most important management tool

How long does the job take? Arguably, this is the most valuable fact for a business to know. Possess this simple bit of information and your organization can:
• quantify the amount of labor you’ll pay for
• determine staffing levels as output levels vary
• calculate actual capacity the operation can produce
• assign and schedule work to people and equipment
• identify lost time, waste, non-value added activity
• offer pay related to output, labor incentives
• define the cost for the products and services you offer
• balance lines or work groups for optimum performance
• analyze variance to find problems
• identify and manage constraints, equipment, process, facility
• justify equipment and automation acquisition
• meet the Sarbanes Oxley Act for financial understanding of costs
• compare the cost to install and service products in the field, yours and competitors

A. Cost benefits that will accrue, after work measurement activity

Generally when “Productivity” is discussed, we really mean “Labor”, the people side of the manufacturing enterprise. That cost will not usually be the largest, but because labor produces the organization’s services and products, its performance is critical beyond the mere labor cost.

Actual benefits are likely to include significant contribution to corporate goals:
• Faster throughput of materials from receipt to shipment
• Better (faster) customer service because of lower, standardized processing
• Less warehouse inventory, as material is on hand a shorter time
• Less warehouse space, as less inventory is on hand
• Product costing and pricing will be more objective and standardized
• And of course we anticipate lower labor costs with objective engineered standards.

B. Set expectations, measure and communicate

All of us want to know what is expected of us and how well we do against expectations. Employees want to know also about their group and the company. Work measurement is an objective system to state expectations, to determine how well individuals and small groups produce results. Financial calculations work well for larger groups, but not so for individuals.

In this economy, people are more apprehensive than usual, so expectations and measurement and communication are even more important.

A very effective executive gave out wall plaques that said Results Count. Work measurement can be measured, and results can be quantified and compared.

Whenever work measurement Is established, very commonly it is accompanied by a reporting system if one does not already exist. Such a system will report on production units, on the resources usually labor hours required to produce them, and on delays and the reasons for delays. This visible record will highlight problems and oftentimes a solution as well. Reliable reporting will contribute significantly. A combined system to express expectations and measure performance can be a key part of improvement.
Just because there are complicating factors to work measurement, do not stop the effort to measure. Recognize that answers may not be perfectly accurate, but still perform useful service. And you can fine tune the initial mechanism to yield ever better results.

C. Caveat

Be advised that the results of any measurement can report only part of the story, the final result; it does not report what caused the result. For instance, the much emulated Toyota Production System emphasizes personal development of line workers and supervisors, which is usually accomplished by employee training. In a work measurement summary, training may well appear to be unproductive time but would shortly lead to even higher productivity as learned lessons are put into effect.

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Which measurement technique?

Choose to fit your objectives, budget, timetable. Your purpose will influence the type of measurement you will employ.

A. Choose an approach to fit your objectives, budget, timetable.

There are many circumstances for which work measurement is an attractive strategy. A technique will address different objectives, budgets, and timetables differently.

You may choose from a limited scope of work measurement, or a vast undertaking; set narrow objectives or the establishment of work measurement as the basis for an integrated approach to control. Put forth an initial phase, accomplish it and review costs and benefits, then take the next step.

None of the strategies is inherently useful, by the way. You may have the right reasons but select the wrong methodology and eventually be dissatisfied.

B. Do you want to set incentives or quantify expectations or balance workload?

Your purpose will influence the type of measurement you will want to employ.

Four types of systems generally cover most work measurement.

1. Day work does not involve a difference in pay for different output. Labor standards, or rates, are developed in an organized fashion, but perhaps with less attention to detail than incentives. Typically the supervisor or manager will administer a control method, by which the output of each operator is recorded daily and compared to a norm.

2. Engineered standards is the term for data which have been objectively and rationally collected for the purpose of definition and control of operations. Engineered standards can include labor, equipment and capacity expectations and standard cost information.

3. Reasonable expectancies are an entry level engineered standard, but still with early definition of methods and elimination of delay and interference; followed by work measurement. Often the jobs are less structured and more variable so that close documentation is not cost justified. Typically the supervisor or manager will administer a control method, by which the output of each operator is recorded daily and compared to expectancies.

4. Incentives or piece work are a rigorously engineered standard, systems that offer more pay for more output that meets quality specs. Incentives will usually be carefully developed as regards the one best way, pace rating during observation, and number of observations of several operators. Incentives require a level of administrative support as well, because each operator’s performance must be calculated daily and pay rates administered.

Because incentives determine pay, they are more carefully developed than measured day work, which is more carefully developed than reasonable expectancies.

A difference in opinion about operator workloads or a constraints issue may arise in any of the categories, and is usually addressed by targeted time study of relatively short duration. These are a “quick fix” as opposed to the four longer term programs; see below.

C. What is the appropriate tool; time study, work sample or predetermined times?

First let’s describe them briefly; a much more detailed analysis is offered in the manual.

1. Observation time study

The original idea was to observe work, time how long it took and write it down. Although there are now better equipment and technical nuances, that is still the idea.

The elements of work on a production floor usually repeat, often quite rapidly. Work elements in an office, a lab, a maintenance facility, a construction unit may not repeat as frequently. In both cases the work can be observed and recorded, but not necessarily with the same watch or observation sheet.

In order to observe and quantify work times, a standard stop watch with a sweep hand has been the norm, but digital readouts with big numbers are easier to read and hand held phone or pads, with apps, are available. A video camera can be used, in order to create a permanent record or allow discussion later. Reading the tape takes no less time in the office, and an observer on the floor provides much more flexibility to ask questions or make mid-course correction during the study.

Look at the particular job you will observe and set up an observation sheet beforehand based on the elements in a repetitive cycle. Then start observing, record the elements in a cycle, then repeat as the operator does.

Measurement of a job which repeats frequently is different from one which does not. Individual operators or crews maybe studied.
You will have to keep one eye on the work, one on the observation device, maybe even one on the observation sheet. If an element creates a sound when it happens, use that to help you pick up the work time. Electronic devices help those without three eyes.

Work measurement may be of an operator, a machine, a process, a movement, any element of work whose duration is important. Don’t assume that a mechanism will always take the same amount of time to perform its function; that is not always true.

Fast moving technology may be alleviating the time study burden. We will not go into detail, because the technology may have changed by the time you read this. Great idea, can reduce the engineering time in several ways and improve accuracy, especially for repetitive studies. Set up the study in advance, then keep your eye on the work while you push keys to record times. You will decide whether to have the entire system on your own phone and computer, or whether you want a hosted program for analysis and archiving, on a subscription basis.

2. Work sample, random sample, or the old term ratio delay.

Originally “ratio delay” determined the amount of work, and of delay, through work observation at random times, not continually. Work sample is a more modern phrase, but measures the same way, not continually but randomly.
Work sampling is a most effective way to learn quickly about an unfamiliar situation with several interdependent activities. It can even be used to understand general aspects of repetitive functions where many people perform the same work. And of course it quantifies delay and non-cyclic activity quite well.

Please note that continuous time study is also a work sample; it is just all at once whereas random sampling is spread out over a longer time. There is little difference in philosophy, just in logistics.

In practice, work sampling may be done in person or with video recording. One operation may be observed, or multiple operations and people, allied or dissimilar.

Select random times for the observer to start rounds, in order to see all conditions throughout a time frame, because some work occurs differently at startup, or shift change. Some work occurs during steady state operation and some at changeover. An observer may also stay in the area constantly, finish a round then start another.

The observer must prepare in advance by recording all of the equipment and people to be observed, and all of the categories of activity and non-activity to be recorded.

If the study objective is to quantify “delay”, or “work” in total for a group, then accurate results will be quickly evident. If the objective is to differentiate between different work elements, and different causes for delay during different times of day then the observation sheet will be more complicated and accurate results will take longer (but probably be more useful).

Work sampling of multiple operations more or less continually to learn generally what goes on in a work center is effective and produces rapid results. Record work, delay and interference instances fairly definitively, while asking questions; what and why. See how work is assigned and followed, what other people interrelate. Quantify times and frequencies. Later, zero in on the specific work with time study.

3. Pre-determined times

Predetermined times are proprietary systems that have over long observation developed the amount of time required for basic motions. The Gilbreth’s started the concept with “Therbligs”, 17 basic motions and their times.

As the name implies, pre-determined systems have been developed in advance, and a particular motion is defined to require a certain time. Motions groups have been combined into tasks, to reduce the time to apply the rates, to build up useful values.

Modern proprietary pre-determined systems include MTM, Modapts, MSD. MOST, Work Factor, and adaptations developed by companies.

Practitioners have their preferences, as each vendor will be considered to be superior for one or another application, such as a factory, or office, or warehouse.

Work factor and MTM, Methods-Time Measurement, recognize extremely short motions that occur in highly repetitive motions. These motions don’t take long in the first place, and because of very frequent repetition and muscle memory, operators require even less time than perhaps the book allows. Such “ballistic” motions are not uncommon in repetitive work, and if you will measure them you had better use a detailed system such as MTM.

Modapts, MSD and MOST, accumulate predetermined times into larger groups. For highly repetitive work they may not be as accurate as MTM but for more variable work they can take significantly less time to apply.

Warehouse and distribution centers practitioners have their favorites as well, swearing by particular programs.

In any of these proprietary systems you must deal with one of the sponsoring organizations, and become accredited in application. Please see the web sites for the particular organizations.

Options for work measurement; choose to fit your objectives

An organization has a choice of techniques. This section will discuss options, to relate the objective to the most appropriate techniques. Work measurement assists an organization to improve productivity, but let’s get more specific. “Productivity” is a worthwhile goal, but organizations usually face a more well defined challenge. Just exactly what action does one take, in a particular situation?

1. Work measurement is also well-suited for many short term issues “quick fix” solutions because it is objective.

Apply work measurement for limited scope “quick fixes”, perhaps:
• Arbitrate a disagreement about workload; is a particular position or crew overloaded, or underloaded. Employ a short, objective, focused time study or work sampling; few days or a week.

• Clear up bottlenecks which constrain production. Scope will depend on number of bottlenecks. Identify the bottleneck thru performance records or local knowledge. Observe, use time study, work sampling, man-machine charts to quantify. Manage constraint by rearranging work elements, relieve, change speeds, balance a line, add accumulation conveyor, consider equipment acquisition.

• Determine the proper crew size for operations. Then, balance workloads so that crew members have approximately the same amount of work. Use time study and work sampling to quantify activity; rearrange work elements or flow; consider equipment acquisition.

• Routinely monitor crew workloads, that they are within expectations, perhaps to prepare for union negotiations. Apply work sampling, with a single set of written guidelines, for uniform and consistent results.

• Identify delay in a wide or limited work area by use of work sampling, which was originally called ratio delay because it is so well suited.

2. Options to establish an extensive work measurement system.

In all cases, build a data bank of the information collected, to standardize the rates set and reduce application cost.

• Short cycle jobs, for incentive. Predetermined times, MTM or Work factor

• Longer cycle, for incentive. Predetermined times, Modapts, MOST, MSD. Confirm with work sample.

• Longer cycle, reasonable expectancies. Modapts, MOST, MSD, time study, work sample.

• Standard cost. Observe actual situation; time study, work sample.

• Indirect manpower. Understand where indirect manpower spends time, in order to allocate overhead accurately; apply work sample.

3. Further detail about the attributes of Time Study and Work Sampling

There are several factors to consider in order to select time study or sampling. Often both time study and work sampling should be used, each will be useful for one purpose and less useful for another.

a. Purpose of work measurement

What is the purpose of the measurement? If you want to set an incentive standard for assemblers seated at a workbench, time study (or predetermined times) is the choice. If your objective is to determine an approximate workload of material handlers, maintenance, or inspectors spread across a warehouse, sampling is a good choice.

Work sampling is a most effective way to learn quickly about an unfamiliar situation with several interdependent activities. It can even be used to understand general aspects of repetitive functions where many people perform the same work. And of course it quantifies delay and non-cyclic activity quite well.

Two sections below have a significant effect on the choice of measurement technique as well, practice opportunity and crew size.

b. Objectives and mechanics of observations
1) Time study is continual observation, in order to record all the activity that a person performs over a period of time. The observer will define and time all activity, work, delay, personal, interruptions, problems, whatever, for the person observed. Usually the observation period is over a short period of time, often for 50 cycles, or 100 cycles of operator performance. Observation may be repeated later for other workers.

2) Work sampling is periodic observation repeated over a longer time; a record of what activity occurs at the particular instant of time when the observer is looking at the activity. Usually intermittent times are selected at random, many observations repeated over a time frame, so that the observer does not appear in the area on a predictable pattern or path. Several people can easily be observed during one study, a crew or work group. I like to walk into the work area, and when I am in a position to see all the activity, observe many workers at a glance, then stop to record what I have seen.

c. Statistics

Both time study and sampling are statistical processes. The accuracy of the resulting work measurement is a function of the number of observations, and this book does not explore those statistics, forgive me. Search the web for “time study statistics”, if you need further information.

One factor that generates accuracy rapidly for sampling is crew size; one sample is at a given time, but you will observe all of the people in a crew.

d. Practice opportunity

1. Time study will be more effective to measure workers who repeat the same motions very frequently, with short cycle times. Higher practice opportunity will allow these people to have highly repetitive motions and little variation from the allowed time.

2. Sampling is best for people who have a wider range of work elements and longer cycle times. They may well perform the same actions repetitively, but with less frequency, therefore will have less opportunity to develop highly repetitive motions. In this category are material handlers, shipping and receiving, maintenance both demand and preventive, tenders of automatic machines, inspectors, set up and changeover, cleanup workers, installers, field workers, customer service, any troubleshooting.

e. Crew size

1. A time study can record well what one person does and how long it takes. It is even possible to view two or maybe three at the same time, but it takes skill.

2. Sampling works very well as a measure of a crew or work group, even if spread over a geographic area such as a plant or warehouse floor. If their work is related, so much the better because the observation sheet can record when two more are working together, as well as how the available work is spread out at each observation. An observer may not record the activity of all the crew at the same instant; that is not a problem but be sure to account for all members each cycle.

f. Delay and random occurrence; as necessary elements

The old name of work sampling was “ratio delay”, for it was used effectively to determine the amount of delay in a process, over a period of time. That is still an excellent reason to use sampling, especially if several interrelated people of machines are involved. The downside is that many observations are necessary to accumulate an accurate evaluation for one individual machine, or process, or person.

Time study is usually for a relatively short time, while sampling observations usually take place over a longer period of time. As a result of a longer cycle, sampling has a better statistical chance of seeing very infrequent random elements of work or delay, and may even pick up observations for bench workers who have been time studied.

4. Results standardization through pre-determined times

The US Department of Defense is requiring suppliers in some instances to justify the costs of their products. As a result, pre-determined times are usually the choice to measure the work of building a helicopter, or bomber. Pre-determined times are a good choice for this measurement because they are designed to state times for the same task consistently and repeatably. The pre-determined time companies require certification of practitioners, to maintain a level of proficiency.

Traditionally, pre-determined times are said to be an additive process, and time study a subtractive process. A pre-determined rate is established by defining the work and assigning a time value; the elements can be added up in an office without seeing the process. A time study takes place at the work station, the watch runs, and the rate will be what the watch says, minus whatever the observer deems unnecessary. While this characterization is not flattering to either system, it is essentially true.

In either case, when an organization administers the process fairly and intelligently, good results may be expected. The converse is also true.

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Employee incentive pay

Or, Piece Work, Piece rate, Work Incentive, Incentive Program, Incentive Plan, Pay for Performance.

The purpose of piece rates is to motivate employee performance in return for a monetary reward.

A simple, valid concept which is centuries old. The purpose of this chapter is to explain the benefits and the potential pitfalls.

An incentive system can be anything a company chooses to make it; tailored for any segment of the work force, designed to reward any kind of performance in any way. While incentives are not necessarily for every situation, in some cases they are a superior strategy. This chapter guides you to understand how incentives might apply to your situation

Some believe that incentives or piecework plans will allow a company to pay less than minimum wage. That is not so. Period.

The divisions for this chapter are,
A. Characteristics of incentives or piecework
B. Financial aspects, payback, minimum wage.
C. Where can incentives apply?
D. The special case of construction piece rates
E. Actions to gain many of the benefits of incentives, more simply

A. Characteristics of incentives or piecework

1. Incentives can be effective in any organization.

If you consider incentive pay in a manufacturing setting, that was the original use for incentives and still is as appropriate as ever. But service organizations, and construction firms, and warehouses, and labs and call centers are also prime candidates for incentives. Incentives are quite effective for an individual, a team, or a group.

Incentive plans also include sales incentives and management bonus; the author is not adequately experienced to address these specialties.

2. Why do incentives work to everyone’s benefit?

From my experience, incentives are effective employee motivators because most people go to work for money in the first place, and incentives offer an opportunity for them to increase their pay by their own efforts both physical and mental.

But incentives also benefit a company, who perhaps for the first time will measure labor performance and relate it not only to costs but also to output, and calendar performance, and customer service, and capacity.

Wikipedia has it right when they say “An advantage for the company is that this method of payment helps to guarantee the costs per unit produced, which is useful for planning and forecasting purposes.”

Good company performance will also motivate employees indirectly because people want to feel that their contribution matters.

3. What employee actions are encouraged by incentives?

Incentives often reward output, or units produced. But any criteria may be selected, such as widgets built or installed, or customer satisfaction, or first time quality, or phone calls, or customers served, or tests processed, or concrete block laid, or applications processed, or feet of cable wired, or cubic yards of concrete poured, or service calls made, or cartons shipped, or tests completed.

The key is to create a measurement system to meet the client’s objectives. Usually those objectives are to create a win – win situation, where employees are compensated for actions that benefit employer performance and financial results.

4. Incentives need attention; constant, careful and exceedingly fair

And honest, frank, transparent, timely application, follow-up and judgment.

a. Clear lines of responsibility, prioritized
Define, talk about, write down the specific responsibility and priority that a person has in advance and continually.

b. Measurable performance
An employee should be able to measure his standing, how he is doing. (I know this applies to women and men equally, please allow me to substitute his for his / hers.) This injunction is true for factory or office or field workers; people should and soon will learn how to understand the arithmetic that affects their pay.

c. Ability to affect results
An employee must be able to affect results in order to be held responsible; that statement seems too obvious for inclusion. Watch carefully the measurements applied, and how they are constituted, to understand the ability of an employee to control.

d. Outside the lines
Employees who work with other departments or facilities are
difficult to measure directly. Even if their project work has a
measurable result, was it because of or despite them? Create another unit of measure to incent those persons with multiple, appropriate responsibilities.

e. Accurate recordkeeping
Recordkeeping is another obvious requirement of an objective appraisal. Collect the data carefully.

f. Timing
Make appraisals as an umpire does, be on top of the action and call it fast.

g. Change
Organizations constantly change, so features of their work change as well. Incentives affect pay and company cost, be sure to make the investment to maintain the system so that it is fair and correct.

h. How to start: A cost – benefit study
A first step is to define the performance objectives that are important to your company. Then identify specifically what employee actions will help to accomplish those actions; define motivating factors likely to be effective with your work force, and estimate costs and benefits of specific incentive options.

If the preliminary analysis seems to be favorable, the next step is to determine what criteria to use to measure the work that generates the expected output, what reporting and administrative detail would be needed, and the checks and balances to regulate the plan.

i. To put a plan into action
When management decides that a course of action is promising, quickly form the detail to support an incentive plan, define guidelines, determine the expected individual or crew performance levels, and set up reporting and administrative framework.

B. Financial aspects, payback, minimum wage.

1. A key factor to recognize is that workers on piece rates must still be paid at least the minimum wage, state or Federal; and that all work hours must be considered in the minimum wage calculation.

2. Piece rates may, probably will, require more careful reporting

To insure compliance to wage laws, reporting must record not only the production on which piecework is applied but also timekeeping of all hours, and the arithmetic to assure that the letter of the law is followed.

Piece rates involve bookkeeping and labor law in addition to the expectations themselves. The company lawyer and CPA must play a significant part in any actions.

3. Will incentives pay for themselves?

Let’s look at the basic premise, which is that productivity and output tend to increase with incentives. Is that written in stone somewhere? Not that I know of.

Professionally it is believed that productivity and output tend to increase with incentives. Or, generally speaking, workers will work harder to earn incentive pay. But we also tend to work smarter for more pay, and we will do that before we work harder. Therefore, you had better make all the smart moves before putting up an incentive. Get rid of waste, delay; set the crew size correctly.

The benefits for incentives for your organization will be unique, so consider the organization’s culture, the local community, motivation. If the following factors are present, perhaps incentives would be successful in your situation:

• The work to be done is well defined and consistent; materials are available; tools and equipment are maintained; quality standards are well understood and enforced.
• Scheduling and reporting are reliable; payroll is administered correctly.
• Delay and lost time are quite low.
• Waste has been already been removed from the process.

If these factors are not present, I do not recommend incentives. As a matter of fact, management may be quite dissatisfied with incentives, as employees will make the improvements that have been overlooked, and collect an incentive because of it, by working smarter and not necessarily harder. But, even in this scenario, output will rise. Unit labor costs will stay the same, and overhead absorption will probably improve. So, all in all even a “loose” incentive can result in a good outcome for management.

Instead, your actions should be to correct the inefficiencies first, then judge whether incentives are needed at all.

In any event, balance expected improvement against any extra costs you anticipate.

4. Options to gain many of the benefits with somewhat less structure.

Look again at the points in 3. above. Correct any weak elements in the operation. Especially pull out delay, non-value added activity. How are results now, without an incentive? Can you maintain the improvement?

5. If you decide to go ahead with a plan; how should it be structured?

A piece rate agreement is what you make it.
Piece work is nothing more than an agreement, where one party offers what he is willing to pay and another agrees or not.

The typical piece rate in a factory may depend on work measurement but that is not necessarily true elsewhere. There are piece rates for many trades and businesses. These may be time studied, or negotiated, or set near the price that applies locally for the work. In Texas there are piece rates for agricultural workers picking commodities; rates are set by a state commissioner.

So it is certainly practical for you to set piece rates. Set a goal, and pay according to results. But as you set the goals and the reporting mechanisms, but also please see a labor law attorney and your CPA.

In some applications such as apparel piecework plans, the rate paid is essentially all of the labor cost, agreed in advance with employee and buyer, so bookkeeping is simplified and more predictable.

Construction piecework pay tends to involve a unique set of factors, which are covered later. Incentives often reward output, or units produced. But any criteria may be selected, such as widgets built or installed, or customer satisfaction, or first time quality, or phone calls, or tests processed, or block laid, or applications processed, or feet of cable, or cubic yards of concrete poured, or cartons shipped, or tests completed. The key is to create a measurement system to meet business objectives.

6. Units

What is measured, what is paid for, can vary according to the organization and product. Generally speaking, use the normal nomenclature, bill of material, router to select what work or output is to be measured.

Assume an operation where widgets are put together, and gizmos are put together, then widgets and gizmos are combined into assemblies. There would be different payoffs for the operators who make widgets, for those who make gizmos, and for those who produce assemblies. The widget line supervisor could be incented for performance of the assigned operators, as could the gizmo and assemble line supervisors. The department manager could be incented for cost and schedule performance of all products, as well as for quality levels. Maintenance could be incented for low downtime.

7. Work measurement mechanisms to collect information

If you measure the work to set an incentive rate, time study and predetermined times are both acceptable mechanisms to collect the information necessary. Work sampling may supplement either, but will not alone be accurate enough to serve as a foundation.

When pay depends on an incentive system, use more care in setting those rates than for measurement which does not determine pay.

If tasks are short cycle, where an operator has considerable practice opportunity, a predetermined time system will be more accurate. Consider MTM, or Work Factor, Master Standard Data, perhaps MODAPTS.

Not only the measurement system determines the accuracy of data collection; a larger number of observations will be necessary if time study is used than would be necessary for a non-incentive system.

C. Where can incentives or piece rates apply?

Anywhere the work content can be predicted.

Incentives have traditionally been practiced in a factory setting; piece work has often applied to apparel manufacturing. But other labor intensive activity is also well suited for piecework, for instance:

• Construction
• Masonry, block, brick, slabs, beams.
• Dry wall and sheeting installation.
• Piping and plumbing.
• Carpentry. Flooring.
• Energy installation; windmills, solar panels; both commercial and private.
• Electrical, HVAC installation.
• Stucco application, painting.
• Septic tank installation; pumping.
• Roofing.
• Agriculture, plant; cultivate; harvest pick and pack. These rates may be set by the state.
• Appliance installation
• Harvesting trees in consistent conditions such as tree farms. (Terrain and weather and undergrowth are not the same in all farms, obviously. But farms are more standardized than open forests.)
• Hotel housekeepers, maids
• Maintenance with a clear work description such as preventive maintenance.

Piecework is difficult to apply to the activity of repair, trouble shooting, maintenance, and warranty because specific content of the work is much less predictable.

Now, with this summary behind us, we turn attention to the focus of workshop #2, Work Measurement. Its primary purpose is to instruct on the detail, the every day nitty gritty, of establishing and maintaining an objective, fair, transparent work measurement system. The system will form the foundation for Manufacturing Productivity, and in itself will improve output and reduce costs.

Work measurement is itself a process. It is composed of a series of lower level processes targeted toward specific purposes. Work measurement Itself takes the following format.

The manual section will explain the successive levels, all the detail of the work measurement process which is composed of other, targeted, processes.

Each step, all levels, can include history and theory, guidance, forms, checklists, action plans, data summary and calculations which lead to conclusions and recommendations.

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Curriculum

Manufacturing Productivity – Workshop 1 – Work Measurement

1. Work Measurement Basics
2. How To Establish Work Measurement Rates
3. Time Study Instructions And Forms
4. Administration Of Rates
5. The Art Of Work Sampling
6. Other Opportunities For Use Of Work Measurement
7. Other Important Aspects Of Work Measurement
8. The Special Case Of Construction Piece Rates

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Distance Learning

Introduction

Welcome to Appleton Greene and thank you for enrolling on the Manufacturing Productivity corporate training program. You will be learning through our unique facilitation via distance-learning method, which will enable you to practically implement everything that you learn academically. The methods and materials used in your program have been designed and developed to ensure that you derive the maximum benefits and enjoyment possible. We hope that you find the program challenging and fun to do. However, if you have never been a distance-learner before, you may be experiencing some trepidation at the task before you. So we will get you started by giving you some basic information and guidance on how you can make the best use of the modules, how you should manage the materials and what you should be doing as you work through them. This guide is designed to point you in the right direction and help you to become an effective distance-learner. Take a few hours or so to study this guide and your guide to tutorial support for students, while making notes, before you start to study in earnest.

Study environment

You will need to locate a quiet and private place to study, preferably a room where you can easily be isolated from external disturbances or distractions. Make sure the room is well-lit and incorporates a relaxed, pleasant feel. If you can spoil yourself within your study environment, you will have much more of a chance to ensure that you are always in the right frame of mind when you do devote time to study. For example, a nice fire, the ability to play soft soothing background music, soft but effective lighting, perhaps a nice view if possible and a good size desk with a comfortable chair. Make sure that your family know when you are studying and understand your study rules. Your study environment is very important. The ideal situation, if at all possible, is to have a separate study, which can be devoted to you. If this is not possible then you will need to pay a lot more attention to developing and managing your study schedule, because it will affect other people as well as yourself. The better your study environment, the more productive you will be.

Study tools & rules

Try and make sure that your study tools are sufficient and in good working order. You will need to have access to a computer, scanner and printer, with access to the internet. You will need a very comfortable chair, which supports your lower back, and you will need a good filing system. It can be very frustrating if you are spending valuable study time trying to fix study tools that are unreliable, or unsuitable for the task. Make sure that your study tools are up to date. You will also need to consider some study rules. Some of these rules will apply to you and will be intended to help you to be more disciplined about when and how you study. This distance-learning guide will help you and after you have read it you can put some thought into what your study rules should be. You will also need to negotiate some study rules for your family, friends or anyone who lives with you. They too will need to be disciplined in order to ensure that they can support you while you study. It is important to ensure that your family and friends are an integral part of your study team. Having their support and encouragement can prove to be a crucial contribution to your successful completion of the program. Involve them in as much as you can.

Successful distance-learning

Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes or workshops, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. But unlike traditional internal training courses, it is the student’s responsibility, with a distance-learning program, to ensure that they manage their own study contribution. This requires strong self-discipline and self-motivation skills and there must be a clear will to succeed. Those students who are used to managing themselves, are good at managing others and who enjoy working in isolation, are more likely to be good distance-learners. It is also important to be aware of the main reasons why you are studying and of the main objectives that you are hoping to achieve as a result. You will need to remind yourself of these objectives at times when you need to motivate yourself. Never lose sight of your long-term goals and your short-term objectives. There is nobody available here to pamper you, or to look after you, or to spoon-feed you with information, so you will need to find ways to encourage and appreciate yourself while you are studying. Make sure that you chart your study progress, so that you can be sure of your achievements and re-evaluate your goals and objectives regularly.

Self-assessment

Appleton Greene training programs are in all cases post-graduate programs. Consequently, you should already have obtained a business-related degree and be an experienced learner. You should therefore already be aware of your study strengths and weaknesses. For example, which time of the day are you at your most productive? Are you a lark or an owl? What study methods do you respond to the most? Are you a consistent learner? How do you discipline yourself? How do you ensure that you enjoy yourself while studying? It is important to understand yourself as a learner and so some self-assessment early on will be necessary if you are to apply yourself correctly. Perform a SWOT analysis on yourself as a student. List your internal strengths and weaknesses as a student and your external opportunities and threats. This will help you later on when you are creating a study plan. You can then incorporate features within your study plan that can ensure that you are playing to your strengths, while compensating for your weaknesses. You can also ensure that you make the most of your opportunities, while avoiding the potential threats to your success.

Accepting responsibility as a student

Training programs invariably require a significant investment, both in terms of what they cost and in the time that you need to contribute to study and the responsibility for successful completion of training programs rests entirely with the student. This is never more apparent than when a student is learning via distance-learning. Accepting responsibility as a student is an important step towards ensuring that you can successfully complete your training program. It is easy to instantly blame other people or factors when things go wrong. But the fact of the matter is that if a failure is your failure, then you have the power to do something about it, it is entirely in your own hands. If it is always someone else’s failure, then you are powerless to do anything about it. All students study in entirely different ways, this is because we are all individuals and what is right for one student, is not necessarily right for another. In order to succeed, you will have to accept personal responsibility for finding a way to plan, implement and manage a personal study plan that works for you. If you do not succeed, you only have yourself to blame.

Planning

By far the most critical contribution to stress, is the feeling of not being in control. In the absence of planning we tend to be reactive and can stumble from pillar to post in the hope that things will turn out fine in the end. Invariably they don’t! In order to be in control, we need to have firm ideas about how and when we want to do things. We also need to consider as many possible eventualities as we can, so that we are prepared for them when they happen. Prescriptive Change, is far easier to manage and control, than Emergent Change. The same is true with distance-learning. It is much easier and much more enjoyable, if you feel that you are in control and that things are going to plan. Even when things do go wrong, you are prepared for them and can act accordingly without any unnecessary stress. It is important therefore that you do take time to plan your studies properly.

Management

Once you have developed a clear study plan, it is of equal importance to ensure that you manage the implementation of it. Most of us usually enjoy planning, but it is usually during implementation when things go wrong. Targets are not met and we do not understand why. Sometimes we do not even know if targets are being met. It is not enough for us to conclude that the study plan just failed. If it is failing, you will need to understand what you can do about it. Similarly if your study plan is succeeding, it is still important to understand why, so that you can improve upon your success. You therefore need to have guidelines for self-assessment so that you can be consistent with performance improvement throughout the program. If you manage things correctly, then your performance should constantly improve throughout the program.

Study objectives & tasks

The first place to start is developing your program objectives. These should feature your reasons for undertaking the training program in order of priority. Keep them succinct and to the point in order to avoid confusion. Do not just write the first things that come into your head because they are likely to be too similar to each other. Make a list of possible departmental headings, such as: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing and Production. Then brainstorm for ideas by listing as many things that you want to achieve under each heading and later re-arrange these things in order of priority. Finally, select the top item from each department heading and choose these as your program objectives. Try and restrict yourself to five because it will enable you to focus clearly. It is likely that the other things that you listed will be achieved if each of the top objectives are achieved. If this does not prove to be the case, then simply work through the process again.

Study forecast

As a guide, the Appleton Greene Manufacturing Productivity corporate training program should take 12-18 months to complete, depending upon your availability and current commitments. The reason why there is such a variance in time estimates is because every student is an individual, with differing productivity levels and different commitments. These differentiations are then exaggerated by the fact that this is a distance-learning program, which incorporates the practical integration of academic theory as an as a part of the training program. Consequently all of the project studies are real, which means that important decisions and compromises need to be made. You will want to get things right and will need to be patient with your expectations in order to ensure that they are. We would always recommend that you are prudent with your own task and time forecasts, but you still need to develop them and have a clear indication of what are realistic expectations in your case. With reference to your time planning: consider the time that you can realistically dedicate towards study with the program every week; calculate how long it should take you to complete the program, using the guidelines featured here; then break the program down into logical modules and allocate a suitable proportion of time to each of them, these will be your milestones; you can create a time plan by using a spreadsheet on your computer, or a personal organizer such as MS Outlook, you could also use a financial forecasting software; break your time forecasts down into manageable chunks of time, the more specific you can be, the more productive and accurate your time management will be; finally, use formulas where possible to do your time calculations for you, because this will help later on when your forecasts need to change in line with actual performance. With reference to your task planning: refer to your list of tasks that need to be undertaken in order to achieve your program objectives; with reference to your time plan, calculate when each task should be implemented; remember that you are not estimating when your objectives will be achieved, but when you will need to focus upon implementing the corresponding tasks; you also need to ensure that each task is implemented in conjunction with the associated training modules which are relevant; then break each single task down into a list of specific to do’s, say approximately ten to do’s for each task and enter these into your study plan; once again you could use MS Outlook to incorporate both your time and task planning and this could constitute your study plan; you could also use a project management software like MS Project. You should now have a clear and realistic forecast detailing when you can expect to be able to do something about undertaking the tasks to achieve your program objectives.

Performance management

It is one thing to develop your study forecast, it is quite another to monitor your progress. Ultimately it is less important whether you achieve your original study forecast and more important that you update it so that it constantly remains realistic in line with your performance. As you begin to work through the program, you will begin to have more of an idea about your own personal performance and productivity levels as a distance-learner. Once you have completed your first study module, you should re-evaluate your study forecast for both time and tasks, so that they reflect your actual performance level achieved. In order to achieve this you must first time yourself while training by using an alarm clock. Set the alarm for hourly intervals and make a note of how far you have come within that time. You can then make a note of your actual performance on your study plan and then compare your performance against your forecast. Then consider the reasons that have contributed towards your performance level, whether they are positive or negative and make a considered adjustment to your future forecasts as a result. Given time, you should start achieving your forecasts regularly.

With reference to time management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual time taken in your study plan; consider your successes with time-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; consider your failures with time-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future time planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to time planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your time expectations. You need to be consistent with your time management, otherwise you will never complete your studies. This will either be because you are not contributing enough time to your studies, or you will become less efficient with the time that you do allocate to your studies. Remember, if you are not in control of your studies, they can just become yet another cause of stress for you.

With reference to your task management: time yourself while you are studying and make a note of the actual tasks that you have undertaken in your study plan; consider your successes with task-efficiency and the reasons for the success in each case; take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; consider your failures with task-efficiency and the reasons for the failures in each case and take this into consideration when reviewing future task planning; re-evaluate your study forecast in relation to task planning for the remainder of your training program to ensure that you continue to be realistic about your task expectations. You need to be consistent with your task management, otherwise you will never know whether you are achieving your program objectives or not.

Keeping in touch

You will have access to qualified and experienced professors and tutors who are responsible for providing tutorial support for your particular training program. So don’t be shy about letting them know how you are getting on. We keep electronic records of all tutorial support emails so that professors and tutors can review previous correspondence before considering an individual response. It also means that there is a record of all communications between you and your professors and tutors and this helps to avoid any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation. If you have a problem relating to the program, share it with them via email. It is likely that they have come across the same problem before and are usually able to make helpful suggestions and steer you in the right direction. To learn more about when and how to use tutorial support, please refer to the Tutorial Support section of this student information guide. This will help you to ensure that you are making the most of tutorial support that is available to you and will ultimately contribute towards your success and enjoyment with your training program.

Work colleagues and family

You should certainly discuss your program study progress with your colleagues, friends and your family. Appleton Greene training programs are very practical. They require you to seek information from other people, to plan, develop and implement processes with other people and to achieve feedback from other people in relation to viability and productivity. You will therefore have plenty of opportunities to test your ideas and enlist the views of others. People tend to be sympathetic towards distance-learners, so don’t bottle it all up in yourself. Get out there and share it! It is also likely that your family and colleagues are going to benefit from your labors with the program, so they are likely to be much more interested in being involved than you might think. Be bold about delegating work to those who might benefit themselves. This is a great way to achieve understanding and commitment from people who you may later rely upon for process implementation. Share your experiences with your friends and family.

Making it relevant

The key to successful learning is to make it relevant to your own individual circumstances. At all times you should be trying to make bridges between the content of the program and your own situation. Whether you achieve this through quiet reflection or through interactive discussion with your colleagues, client partners or your family, remember that it is the most important and rewarding aspect of translating your studies into real self-improvement. You should be clear about how you want the program to benefit you. This involves setting clear study objectives in relation to the content of the course in terms of understanding, concepts, completing research or reviewing activities and relating the content of the modules to your own situation. Your objectives may understandably change as you work through the program, in which case you should enter the revised objectives on your study plan so that you have a permanent reminder of what you are trying to achieve, when and why.

Distance-learning check-list

Prepare your study environment, your study tools and rules.
Undertake detailed self-assessment in terms of your ability as a learner.
Create a format for your study plan.
Consider your study objectives and tasks.
Create a study forecast.
Assess your study performance.
Re-evaluate your study forecast.
Be consistent when managing your study plan.
Use your Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) for tutorial support.
Make sure you keep in touch with those around you.

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Tutorial Support

Programs

Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. They are implemented over a sustainable period of time and professional support is consistently provided by qualified learning providers and specialist consultants.

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Support available

You will have a designated Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and an Accredited Consultant and we encourage you to communicate with them as much as possible. In all cases tutorial support is provided online because we can then keep a record of all communications to ensure that tutorial support remains consistent. You would also be forwarding your work to the tutorial support unit for evaluation and assessment. You will receive individual feedback on all of the work that you undertake on a one-to-one basis, together with specific recommendations for anything that may need to be changed in order to achieve a pass with merit or a pass with distinction and you then have as many opportunities as you may need to re-submit project studies until they meet with the required standard. Consequently the only reason that you should really fail (CLP) is if you do not do the work. It makes no difference to us whether a student takes 12 months or 18 months to complete the program, what matters is that in all cases the same quality standard will have been achieved.

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Support Process

Please forward all of your future emails to the designated (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit email address that has been provided and please do not duplicate or copy your emails to other AGC email accounts as this will just cause unnecessary administration. Please note that emails are always answered as quickly as possible but you will need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general tutorial support emails during busy periods, because emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. You will also need to allow a period of up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Please therefore kindly allow for this within your time planning. All communications are managed online via email because it enables tutorial service support managers to review other communications which have been received before responding and it ensures that there is a copy of all communications retained on file for future reference. All communications will be stored within your personal (CLP) study file here at Appleton Greene throughout your designated study period. If you need any assistance or clarification at any time, please do not hesitate to contact us by forwarding an email and remember that we are here to help. If you have any questions, please list and number your questions succinctly and you can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each and every query.

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Time Management

It takes approximately 1 Year to complete the Manufacturing Productivity corporate training program, incorporating 12 x 6-hour monthly workshops. Each student will also need to contribute approximately 4 hours per week over 1 Year of their personal time. Students can study from home or work at their own pace and are responsible for managing their own study plan. There are no formal examinations and students are evaluated and assessed based upon their project study submissions, together with the quality of their internal analysis and supporting documents. They can contribute more time towards study when they have the time to do so and can contribute less time when they are busy. All students tend to be in full time employment while studying and the Manufacturing Productivity program is purposely designed to accommodate this, so there is plenty of flexibility in terms of time management. It makes no difference to us at Appleton Greene, whether individuals take 12-18 months to complete this program. What matters is that in all cases the same standard of quality will have been achieved with the standard and bespoke programs that have been developed.

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Distance Learning Guide

The distance learning guide should be your first port of call when starting your training program. It will help you when you are planning how and when to study, how to create the right environment and how to establish the right frame of mind. If you can lay the foundations properly during the planning stage, then it will contribute to your enjoyment and productivity while training later. The guide helps to change your lifestyle in order to accommodate time for study and to cultivate good study habits. It helps you to chart your progress so that you can measure your performance and achieve your goals. It explains the tools that you will need for study and how to make them work. It also explains how to translate academic theory into practical reality. Spend some time now working through your distance learning guide and make sure that you have firm foundations in place so that you can make the most of your distance learning program. There is no requirement for you to attend training workshops or classes at Appleton Greene offices. The entire program is undertaken online, program course manuals and project studies are administered via the Appleton Greene web site and via email, so you are able to study at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office as long as you have a computer and access to the internet.

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How To Study

The how to study guide provides students with a clear understanding of the Appleton Greene facilitation via distance learning training methods and enables students to obtain a clear overview of the training program content. It enables students to understand the step-by-step training methods used by Appleton Greene and how course manuals are integrated with project studies. It explains the research and development that is required and the need to provide evidence and references to support your statements. It also enables students to understand precisely what will be required of them in order to achieve a pass with merit and a pass with distinction for individual project studies and provides useful guidance on how to be innovative and creative when developing your Unique Program Proposition (UPP).

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Tutorial Support

Tutorial support for the Appleton Greene Manufacturing Productivity corporate training program is provided online either through the Appleton Greene Client Support Portal (CSP), or via email. All tutorial support requests are facilitated by a designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). They are responsible for deciding which professor or tutor is the most appropriate option relating to the support required and then the tutorial support request is forwarded onto them. Once the professor or tutor has completed the tutorial support request and answered any questions that have been asked, this communication is then returned to the student via email by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM). This enables all tutorial support, between students, professors and tutors, to be facilitated by the designated Program Administration Manager (PAM) efficiently and securely through the email account. You will therefore need to allow a period of up to 20 business days for responses to general support queries and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because all tutorial support requests are answered strictly within the order in which they are received. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Consequently you need to put some thought into the management of your tutorial support procedure in order to ensure that your study plan is feasible and to obtain the maximum possible benefit from tutorial support during your period of study. Please retain copies of your tutorial support emails for future reference. Please ensure that ALL of your tutorial support emails are set out using the format as suggested within your guide to tutorial support. Your tutorial support emails need to be referenced clearly to the specific part of the course manual or project study which you are working on at any given time. You also need to list and number any questions that you would like to ask, up to a maximum of five questions within each tutorial support email. Remember the more specific you can be with your questions the more specific your answers will be too and this will help you to avoid any unnecessary misunderstanding, misinterpretation, or duplication. The guide to tutorial support is intended to help you to understand how and when to use support in order to ensure that you get the most out of your training program. Appleton Greene training programs are designed to enable you to do things for yourself. They provide you with a structure or a framework and we use tutorial support to facilitate students while they practically implement what they learn. In other words, we are enabling students to do things for themselves. The benefits of distance learning via facilitation are considerable and are much more sustainable in the long-term than traditional short-term knowledge sharing programs. Consequently you should learn how and when to use tutorial support so that you can maximize the benefits from your learning experience with Appleton Greene. This guide describes the purpose of each training function and how to use them and how to use tutorial support in relation to each aspect of the training program. It also provides useful tips and guidance with regard to best practice.

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Tutorial Support Tips

Students are often unsure about how and when to use tutorial support with Appleton Greene. This Tip List will help you to understand more about how to achieve the most from using tutorial support. Refer to it regularly to ensure that you are continuing to use the service properly. Tutorial support is critical to the success of your training experience, but it is important to understand when and how to use it in order to maximize the benefit that you receive. It is no coincidence that those students who succeed are those that learn how to be positive, proactive and productive when using tutorial support.

Be positive and friendly with your tutorial support emails

Remember that if you forward an email to the tutorial support unit, you are dealing with real people. “Do unto others as you would expect others to do unto you”. If you are positive, complimentary and generally friendly in your emails, you will generate a similar response in return. This will be more enjoyable, productive and rewarding for you in the long-term.

Think about the impression that you want to create

Every time that you communicate, you create an impression, which can be either positive or negative, so put some thought into the impression that you want to create. Remember that copies of all tutorial support emails are stored electronically and tutors will always refer to prior correspondence before responding to any current emails. Over a period of time, a general opinion will be arrived at in relation to your character, attitude and ability. Try to manage your own frustrations, mood swings and temperament professionally, without involving the tutorial support team. Demonstrating frustration or a lack of patience is a weakness and will be interpreted as such. The good thing about communicating in writing, is that you will have the time to consider your content carefully, you can review it and proof-read it before sending your email to Appleton Greene and this should help you to communicate more professionally, consistently and to avoid any unnecessary knee-jerk reactions to individual situations as and when they may arise. Please also remember that the CLP Tutorial Support Unit will not just be responsible for evaluating and assessing the quality of your work, they will also be responsible for providing recommendations to other learning providers and to client contacts within the Appleton Greene global client network, so do be in control of your own emotions and try to create a good impression.

Remember that quality is preferred to quantity

Please remember that when you send an email to the tutorial support team, you are not using Twitter or Text Messaging. Try not to forward an email every time that you have a thought. This will not prove to be productive either for you or for the tutorial support team. Take time to prepare your communications properly, as if you were writing a professional letter to a business colleague and make a list of queries that you are likely to have and then incorporate them within one email, say once every month, so that the tutorial support team can understand more about context, application and your methodology for study. Get yourself into a consistent routine with your tutorial support requests and use the tutorial support template provided with ALL of your emails. The (CLP) Tutorial Support Unit will not spoon-feed you with information. They need to be able to evaluate and assess your tutorial support requests carefully and professionally.

Be specific about your questions in order to receive specific answers

Try not to write essays by thinking as you are writing tutorial support emails. The tutorial support unit can be unclear about what in fact you are asking, or what you are looking to achieve. Be specific about asking questions that you want answers to. Number your questions. You will then receive specific answers to each and every question. This is the main purpose of tutorial support via email.

Keep a record of your tutorial support emails

It is important that you keep a record of all tutorial support emails that are forwarded to you. You can then refer to them when necessary and it avoids any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.

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Individual training workshops or telephone support

Please be advised that Appleton Greene does not provide separate or individual tutorial support meetings, workshops, or provide telephone support for individual students. Appleton Greene is an equal opportunities learning and service provider and we are therefore understandably bound to treat all students equally. We cannot therefore broker special financial or study arrangements with individual students regardless of the circumstances. All tutorial support is provided online and this enables Appleton Greene to keep a record of all communications between students, professors and tutors on file for future reference, in accordance with our quality management procedure and your terms and conditions of enrolment. All tutorial support is provided online via email because it enables us to have time to consider support content carefully, it ensures that you receive a considered and detailed response to your queries. You can number questions that you would like to ask, which relate to things that you do not understand or where clarification may be required. You can then be sure of receiving specific answers to each individual query. You will also then have a record of these communications and of all tutorial support, which has been provided to you. This makes tutorial support administration more productive by avoiding any unnecessary duplication, misunderstanding, or misinterpretation.

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Tutorial Support Email Format

You should use this tutorial support format if you need to request clarification or assistance while studying with your training program. Please note that ALL of your tutorial support request emails should use the same format. You should therefore set up a standard email template, which you can then use as and when you need to. Emails that are forwarded to Appleton Greene, which do not use the following format, may be rejected and returned to you by the (CLP) Program Administration Manager. A detailed response will then be forwarded to you via email usually within 20 business days of receipt for general support queries and 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies. This does not include weekends or public holidays. Your tutorial support request, together with the corresponding TSU reply, will then be saved and stored within your electronic TSU file at Appleton Greene for future reference.

Subject line of your email

Please insert: Appleton Greene (CLP) Tutorial Support Request: (Your Full Name) (Date), within the subject line of your email.

Main body of your email

Please insert:
1. Appleton Greene Certified Learning Provider (CLP) Tutorial Support Request
2. Your Full Name
3. Date of TS request
4. Preferred email address
5. Backup email address
6. Course manual page name or number (reference)
7. Project study page name or number (reference)

Subject of enquiry
Please insert a maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)
Briefly outline the subject matter of your inquiry, or what your questions relate to.

Question 1

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 3

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 4

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Question 5

Maximum of 50 words (please be succinct)

Please note that a maximum of 5 questions is permitted with each individual tutorial support request email.

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Procedure

* List the questions that you want to ask first, then re-arrange them in order of priority. Make sure that you reference them, where necessary, to the course manuals or project studies.
* Make sure that you are specific about your questions and number them. Try to plan the content within your emails to make sure that it is relevant.
* Make sure that your tutorial support emails are set out correctly, using the Tutorial Support Email Format provided here.
* Save a copy of your email and incorporate the date sent after the subject title. Keep your tutorial support emails within the same file and in date order for easy reference.
* Allow up to 20 business days for a response to general tutorial support emails and up to 30 business days for the evaluation and assessment of project studies, because detailed individual responses will be made in all cases and tutorial support emails are answered strictly within the order in which they are received.
* Emails can and do get lost. So if you have not received a reply within the appropriate time, forward another copy or a reminder to the tutorial support unit to be sure that it has been received but do not forward reminders unless the appropriate time has elapsed.
* When you receive a reply, save it immediately featuring the date of receipt after the subject heading for easy reference. In most cases the tutorial support unit replies to your questions individually, so you will have a record of the questions that you asked as well as the answers offered. With project studies however, separate emails are usually forwarded by the tutorial support unit, so do keep a record of your own original emails as well.
* Remember to be positive and friendly in your emails. You are dealing with real people who will respond to the same things that you respond to.
* Try not to repeat questions that have already been asked in previous emails. If this happens the tutorial support unit will probably just refer you to the appropriate answers that have already been provided within previous emails.
* If you lose your tutorial support email records you can write to Appleton Greene to receive a copy of your tutorial support file, but a separate administration charge may be levied for this service.

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How To Study

Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can help you to plan a task list for getting started so that you can be clear about your direction and your priorities in relation to your training program. It is also a good way to introduce yourself to the tutorial support team.

Introduction

Thank you for enrolling in Appleton Greene’s Manufacturing Productivity series. Its purpose is to benefit not only your company but also you as an individual. Productivity is an interesting and wide-ranging subject, applicable to the circumstances that you find at work on a day-to-day basis. Welcome.

The manufacturing productivity training program is a 12-step process that is presented through Appleton Greene’s distance learning method. This method requires that participants in the various workshops take more responsibility for their learning than in the more traditional training methods. With the distant learning method, you will be doing a combination of group classroom learning, individual and group study and preparation outside of the classroom.

“Productivity” is composed of a number of different subjects, which may be administered by different functions within a larger operation. A workshop may address manufacturing floor applications, or broader, more strategic factors. During this distance learning process the participants may be alone or in groups.

In the distance learning method, a lot of the learning will happen outside of the classroom, on an individual basis. In order to be the most successful you will need to hold yourself accountable. This Distance Learning Guide explains how this method works and what is required on your part to be successful.

You have been assigned an Appleton Greens BOP facilitator. This person is responsible for supporting you and helping you achieve maximum benefits from the BOP. Please see the following Tutorial Support section for further explanation.

This section on How to Study is designed to help you integrate your study time with distance learning and tutorial support to give you suggestions on how to learn the most from the materials presented and the workshop sessions.

The different aspects of study are to prepare for:

Pre-Workshop Session

It is important that each person be well versed on the subject matter and objectives of the workshop before the workshop. This will require each participant to have an understanding of the Mission, Objectives, Strategies, Tasks, and Introduction for each workshop. This will require that each participant spend time becoming familiar with this course material prior to the workshop.

During Workshop Sessions

During each workshop you will be presented with course manual material and accompanying exercises to help reinforce the content from the course manual. This material is designed to complement what you study prior to the workshop.

Post-Workshop

Homework, and it will be application of what you have learned to the day-to-day tasks you face. Apply what you have learned, to solidify the learning process. This is the time where you will need to contact your Appleton Greene BOP facilitator if need be.

Planning your study environment

Your study conditions are of great importance and will have a direct effect on how much you enjoy your training program. Consider how much space you will have, whether it is comfortable and private and whether you are likely to be disturbed. The study tools and facilities at your disposal are also important to the success of your distance-learning experience. Your tutorial support unit can help with useful tips and guidance, regardless of your starting position. It is important to get this right before you start working on your training program.

Planning your program objectives

It is important that you have a clear list of study objectives, in order of priority, before you start working on your training program. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance here to ensure that your study objectives have been afforded due consideration and priority.

Planning how and when to study

Distance-learners are freed from the necessity of attending regular classes, since they can study in their own way, at their own pace and for their own purposes. This approach is designed to let you study efficiently away from the traditional classroom environment. It is important however, that you plan how and when to study, so that you are making the most of your natural attributes, strengths and opportunities. Your tutorial support unit can offer assistance and useful tips to ensure that you are playing to your strengths.

Planning your study tasks

You should have a clear understanding of the study tasks that you should be undertaking and the priority associated with each task. These tasks should also be integrated with your program objectives. The distance learning guide and the guide to tutorial support for students should help you here, but if you need any clarification or assistance, please contact your tutorial support unit.

Planning your time

You will need to allocate specific times during your calendar when you intend to study if you are to have a realistic chance of completing your program on time. You are responsible for planning and managing your own study time, so it is important that you are successful with this. Your tutorial support unit can help you with this if your time plan is not working.

Keeping in touch

Consistency is the key here. If you communicate too frequently in short bursts, or too infrequently with no pattern, then your management ability with your studies will be questioned, both by you and by your tutorial support unit. It is obvious when a student is in control and when one is not and this will depend how able you are at sticking with your study plan. Inconsistency invariably leads to in-completion.

Charting your progress

Your tutorial support team can help you to chart your own study progress. Refer to your distance learning guide for further details.

Making it work

To succeed, all that you will need to do is apply yourself to undertaking your training program and interpreting it correctly. Success or failure lies in your hands and your hands alone, so be sure that you have a strategy for making it work. Your Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and Accredited Consultant can guide you through the process of program planning, development and implementation.

Reading methods

Interpretation is often unique to the individual but it can be improved and even quantified by implementing consistent interpretation methods. Interpretation can be affected by outside interference such as family members, TV, or the Internet, or simply by other thoughts which are demanding priority in our minds. One thing that can improve our productivity is using recognized reading methods. This helps us to focus and to be more structured when reading information for reasons of importance, rather than relaxation.

Speed reading

When reading through course manuals for the first time, subconsciously set your reading speed to be just fast enough that you cannot dwell on individual words or tables. With practice, you should be able to read an A4 sheet of paper in one minute. You will not achieve much in the way of a detailed understanding, but your brain will retain a useful overview. This overview will be important later on and will enable you to keep individual issues in perspective with a more generic picture because speed reading appeals to the memory part of the brain. Do not worry about what you do or do not remember at this stage.

Content reading

Once you have speed read everything, you can then start work in earnest. You now need to read a particular section of your course manual thoroughly, by making detailed notes while you read. This process is called Content Reading and it will help to consolidate your understanding and interpretation of the information that has been provided.

Making structured notes on the course manuals

When you are content reading, you should be making detailed notes, which are both structured and informative. Make these notes in a MS Word document on your computer, because you can then amend and update these as and when you deem it to be necessary. List your notes under three headings: 1. Interpretation – 2. Questions – 3. Tasks. The purpose of the 1st section is to clarify your interpretation by writing it down. The purpose of the 2nd section is to list any questions that the issue raises for you. The purpose of the 3rd section is to list any tasks that you should undertake as a result. Anyone who has graduated with a business-related degree should already be familiar with this process.

Organizing structured notes separately

You should then transfer your notes to a separate study notebook, preferably one that enables easy referencing, such as a MS Word Document, a MS Excel Spreadsheet, a MS Access Database, or a personal organizer on your cell phone. Transferring your notes allows you to have the opportunity of cross-checking and verifying them, which assists considerably with understanding and interpretation. You will also find that the better you are at doing this, the more chance you will have of ensuring that you achieve your study objectives.

Question your understanding

Do challenge your understanding. Explain things to yourself in your own words by writing things down.

Clarifying your understanding

If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your understanding.

Question your interpretation

Do challenge your interpretation. Qualify your interpretation by writing it down.

Clarifying your interpretation

If you are at all unsure, forward an email to your tutorial support unit and they will help to clarify your interpretation.

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Qualification Requirements

The student will need to successfully complete the project study and all of the exercises relating to the Manufacturing Productivity corporate training program, achieving a pass with merit or distinction in each case, in order to qualify as an Accredited Manufacturing Productivity Specialist (APTS). All monthly workshops need to be tried and tested within your company. These project studies can be completed in your own time and at your own pace and in the comfort of your own home or office. There are no formal examinations, assessment is based upon the successful completion of the project studies. They are called project studies because, unlike case studies, these projects are not theoretical, they incorporate real program processes that need to be properly researched and developed. The project studies assist us in measuring your understanding and interpretation of the training program and enable us to assess qualification merits. All of the project studies are based entirely upon the content within the training program and they enable you to integrate what you have learnt into your corporate training practice.

Manufacturing Productivity – Grading Contribution

Project Study – Grading Contribution

Customer Service – 10%
E-business – 05%
Finance – 10%
Globalization – 10%
Human Resources – 10%
Information Technology – 10%
Legal – 05%
Management – 10%
Marketing – 10%
Production – 10%
Education – 05%
Logistics – 05%
TOTAL GRADING – 100%

Qualification grades

A mark of 90% = Pass with Distinction.
A mark of 75% = Pass with Merit.
A mark of less than 75% = Fail.
If you fail to achieve a mark of 75% with a project study, you will receive detailed feedback from the Certified Learning Provider (CLP) and/or Accredited Consultant, together with a list of tasks which you will need to complete, in order to ensure that your project study meets with the minimum quality standard that is required by Appleton Greene. You can then re-submit your project study for further evaluation and assessment. Indeed you can re-submit as many drafts of your project studies as you need to, until such a time as they eventually meet with the required standard by Appleton Greene, so you need not worry about this, it is all part of the learning process.

When marking project studies, Appleton Greene is looking for sufficient evidence of the following:

Pass with merit

A satisfactory level of program understanding
A satisfactory level of program interpretation
A satisfactory level of project study content presentation
A satisfactory level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
A satisfactory level of the practical integration of academic theory

Pass with distinction

An exceptional level of program understanding
An exceptional level of program interpretation
An exceptional level of project study content presentation
An exceptional level of Unique Program Proposition (UPP) quality
An exceptional level of the practical integration of academic theory

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Preliminary Analysis

Welcome to the second workshop for Manufacturing Productivity. We appreciate that you have found the time to fit this learning experience into your schedule, and that the company thinks well enough of your talents and capabilities to include you in the participants.

Manufacturing Productivity is a one-year leadership program with monthly workshops that will focus on specific subjects each month. This month, the subject is Work Measurement. The curriculum covers the complete spectrum of work measurement, the management, structure of a system, detailed guidance in the techniques and procedures, the specific activities and practices which are necessary to accomplish accurate and effective work measurement. Examples of effective uses to increase productivity with the use of work measurement are supplied

The first significant use of the technique of work measurement did not occur until the mid 1880s, when Frederick Taylor used time study, for bricklayers, on his way to the later development of Scientific Management. Other people became interested in this aspect of productivity, most significantly Frank and his wife Lillian Gilbreth. Frank, much older than Lillian, produced extremely noteworthy results on the subject of work measurement before 1920, while Lillian was busy being mother to a dozen children. She outlived her husband by many years and extended the knowledge and practice of work measurement in her own right. These three individuals are considered to be the patron saints of those who practice work measurement today.

Today, a multitude of practices could be grouped under Taylor’s term Scientific Management, but that term is not commonly used. And the practice of work measurement is merely one of this multitude of techniques that is used to address particular portions of the broader term productivity.

Productivity is defined as output divided by input, and is neither input not output is always easy to quantify. But in terms of this workshop, and this course, productivity is defined to include all inputs and all outputs. When your organization reduces any input, or adds to any output, then the objective to increase productivity has been achieved.

So work measurement is one of the tools used to increase manufacturing productivity, and it is the subject of this workshop number 2. Formal work measurement will in itself add productivity, because it starts with improvement to the work place, to work methods, and to knowledge available to the line worker and to management.

For further reading, possible but not required, The Principles of Scientific Management by Frederick Winslow Taylor in 1913 is available on Amazon. You will find it is pretty modern, including the widely quoted four principles of management, with the substitution of “worker” for “workman”, in today’s more inclusive workplace.

1. The development of a true science.
2. The scientific selection of the worker.
3. The scientific education and development of the worker.
4. Intimate and friendly cooperation between the management and the workers.

Further investigation of work measurement

On the internet you will find videos often with the headings “fastest worker” or “skillful worker”. If you watch you will be impressed by the dexterity on display. Learning curve theory says that there is continual improvement, as a function of repetition; when volume doubles then the time required is reduced by a more or less consistent factor. Learning curves were first developed in the aerospace industry and had initially to do with the learning of the entire organization; improvement seems to be continual but the individual rate varies and arithmetic is not precise, for spacecraft nor humans.

Usually the “amazing” activity on display in internet videos is of quite short cycles The resulting practice opportunity for short cycles smooths out hand motions and reduces the time required quickly. But when you see the videos you will notice quite a bit of wasted activity as well, for instance one hand may be busy while the other hand is idle.

One good lesson however is that many manual motions can be observed which are augmented by a relatively simple mechanical assist, or gravity, or leverage, or momentum. Learn that lesson and find that manual activity in your own operations may well be assisted by use of one or more of these mechanisms.

Don’t let your safety people see the videos by the way, they will be appalled. It is also questionable whether the people performing these activities can maintain such a pace rate over a normal day. Often in the videos another person will in some way “feed” product to the star. The camera may miss that operator, but payroll won’t.

Pace rating, or levelling, is the one factor in work measurement that is subjective. There is a much longer section in the manual that deals with pace rating. The manual names six individual components that make up the “pace” with which an operator performs. Those components are effort, skill, methods, practice opportunity, motivation, and quality.

Pace rating, because it is subjective, has long been the feature of work measurement most difficult to teach. In training films the typical subjects were dealing cards and walking. Not very sophisticated you will agree. One current video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fj6hnct4E8, now at least has added two sewing clips. But these are at least partially machine controlled, and the work to be done is not clearly captured by the camera. At least the dealing and walking are well done.

So what is the best way to pace rate? The six factor method, while subjective, does recognize components of levelling that actually contribute to pace. To improve consistency in your operations, seek a consensus among the practitioners in your operations, try to maintain a general agreement on what should be a “normal” rate, that which an average trained operator, working with good speed and effort, can produce quality product all day.

Bibliography

The 2022 list of reference data is in pretty sorry state. Time Study on Wikipedia lists publication titles, mostly modern. Some works even have the name Gilbreth or Taylor on their titles, but the list does not include the seminal works by those authors themselves. Pretty sad. The following may then be your best hope for classic titles, and many of these books are long out of print. See your friendly librarian.

It is reported that many university Industrial Engineering curricula do not include the teaching of time study itself.

The Industrial Engineering Handbook is the classic reference for all industrial engineering topics. It is revised periodically and is at the 5th edition presently. The Third Edition has an extensive, benchmark, series of articles about work measurement and predetermined time systems. H. B. Maynard Editor in Chief, McGraw Hill, 1971. Library of Congress catalog card number 77-128017.

Motion and Time Study, sixth edition; Ralph Barnes, John Wiley and Sons, 1968.

Time and Motion Study and Formulas for Wage Incentives; S. M. Lowry, H. B. Maynard, G. J. Stegmerten, McGraw Hill, 1940

Work Design, Gerald Nadler, Richard D. Irwin Inc., 1963

Methods-Time Measurement, H. B. Maynard, G. J. Stegmerten, McGraw Hill, 1948

Work-Factor Time Standards, Joseph Quick, James Duncan, James Malcom Jr., McGraw Hill, 1962

A View of the Incentive Context

Aubrey C. Daniels, Ph.D., is founder and CEO of management consulting firm Aubrey Daniels & Associates (ADA). He made these comments in
http://www.entrepreneur.com/humanresources/employeemanagementcolumnistdavidjavitch/article54952.htmlon September 02, 2002. He says, “To get the most out of any incentive plan, I would advise the following:
a. Let the performers track their performance daily. The payout can be monthly, but feedback should be available daily.

b. Separate incentive pay from regular pay. I would advise issuing separate checks and giving them out on different days.

c. Consider non-cash incentives. These are not confused with ordinary pay and actually have advantages over cash. For further details, you may want to read about this in my book Performance Management: Improving Quality Productivity Through Positive Reinforcement, which is available at www.aubreydaniels.com.

d. Individual incentives are more effective than group incentives. You may add an incentive for group accomplishments, but the plan should differentiate between individual contributions and accomplishments.

e. Make sure that your day-to-day management is positive. No matter how much money you put into rewards, you’ll waste both money and time if you use negative reinforcement as your management style. There’s no substitute for daily contact with employees–asking how they’re doing, asking if you can help with any problems and, most importantly, recognizing even small improvements.

f. Systematically evaluate the effectiveness of your plan on performance, cost and employee satisfaction.”

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Course Manuals 1-12

Course Manual 1: Work Measurement Basics

1.1: Work Measurement Is An Objective Basis For Productivity

Work measurement has a large number of moving parts. This workshop will be presented in such a manner as to explain relationships clearly.

This manual describes characteristics of an effective work measurement program and provides the elements necessary to train observers to implement and maintain the program.

Work measurement at its best is composed of present-day actions, conducted within a long-term plan. But, as we occasionally emphasize, one size does not fit all when it comes to productivity.

Within the objectives, conditions and culture of a particular manufacturing enterprise, some work measurement actions will be more well suited and effective than others. Many of the actions presented here are targeted toward improving a particular or even unique problem. So, learn and practice the options, then pick and choose, prioritize, address what is most important and profitable within your modern production management.

A comprehensive group of work measurement actions are presented in this workshop. Some are stand-alone actions, and many, while they do not directly depend on another action, work well in combination.

Work measurement, Workshop #2, will study individual activities that contribute to productivity as it is today. Each section and all levels within it can include history and theory, guidance, forms, checklists, action plans, data summary and calculations. Put these into effect in order to reach conclusions, make recommendations and create accurate production rates or standards.

Course exercises are at the close of sections, to offer a hands-on opportunity to observe what actually happens in production in your own operation, and to practice a skill firsthand.

Solid advice to those who will practice work measurement is passed on. The most successful advocates of manufacturing productivity will recommend that you “open every door, climb on every roof. See the source document.” Do this, carry a stopwatch and a tape measure, know how to spell “assume” and you will be all right.

An Outline Of A Plan To Establish Work Measurement

This workshop is intended to provide information to enable the client to put a work measurement plan into effect. The Introduction to this workshop provides information to resolve the first two of the following steps, and the Manual explains the last four; the middle three will depend on the client situation.

Management’s Portion

• Define the mission, define target group for measurement
• Select the most effective work measurement techniques

Specific actions will depend on the plan chosen and local circumstances

• Outline approach and timetable
• Identify resources
• Communicate

Practitioner’s Portion

• Initiate study, develop rates, issue rates.
• Manage measurement data base, maintain data and program integrity. Apply work measurement for productivity purposes.
• Establish reporting and administrative procedures for results
• Build work measurement values into management procedures

Mission statement for this workshop # 2

Establish formal work measurement as a basis for multiple management controls, and as an objective process to promote productivity and to define, measure and control manufacturing actions and results.

Provide accurate measurements and sound management decisions, by setting production rates on today’s methods from which waste, or non-value-added activity, has been removed, (workshop #3) with today’s equipment, specs, technology and product mix, and with application of methods and workplace improvement and ergonomics.

Why is work measurement important enough to make it the second workshop, within Manufacturing Productivity? Rather than take anything for granted, let’s explain.

• Production labor rates may be current or set years ago or only estimated in the first place. But regardless of their accuracy or validity, labor rates are used to set expectations for labor activity, measure actual performance, perhaps even determine pay scales. Rates are routinely used to calculate Key Performance Indicators and other measures above.
• Practitioners will apply many techniques to improve the workplace and methods, so work measurement will, in itself, reduce manufacturing cost compared to non-engineered rates, past performance results, rates which use earlier equipment and methods, or estimates.
• How long does the job take? This is arguably one of the most important questions for management to ask. Work measurement will first of all establish a “rate”. A rate is the quantity an average trained operator working with good skill and effort can produce, routinely, all day long.
• Advise the operator of the rate when it is developed, and explain what output is expected. Monitor actual versus expected output regularly. Pay may be linked to output, or not, as management prefers.
• Apply the rate to predict how many direct operators are needed, how many pieces per day can be manufactured for shipment, what materials will be needed in a period of time, what capacity a facility has. And oh yes, what the labor cost will be, to manufacture the product. Is that profitable? Monitor actual versus expected costs.
• Use work measurement and direct observation to resolve constraints and bottlenecks, balance bottlenecks, justify automation and technology, define space needs for plant layout, identify non-value-added activity.
• Repetitive tasks in non-direct jobs may be measured, too. Elements of materials handling, some maintenance activity, labs, and product sampling activity are repetitive even if cycles may be longer.

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1.2: How To Determine The Correct Work Measurement System For Your Organization

One size does not fit all; what might be the measurement plan that fits best for you? And, once you have chosen the type of plan, how do you go about collecting the data to establish rates?

This section of the course manual addresses in summary the wide variety of options relating to work measurement.

Topics:
A. The preferred option, formal work measurement.
B. Work measurement plans in modern usage
C. To develop work measurement, several systems may be employed.
D. To collect formal work measurement information
E. Your measurement plan may be tailored to achieve a certain objective
F. A watch, or an electronic device? Same purpose, different tools.
G. Tools that can be involved in piece rate administration
H. Reporting
I. A possible plan

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A. The Preferred Option, Formal Work Measurement

Let’s start by stating the preferred option, which is a formal work measurement approach, developed through engineered standards. This choice will first remove non-value-added activity, and improve methods, the workplace, ergonomics and reporting. This alone will increase output and may satisfy your objectives. A further potential benefit of incentives is employee motivation to reach even more output per factory hour.

However, work measurement is not always smooth and effective. Multiple factors can affect work measurement plans, so that companies with different circumstances will travel a different route to choose an appropriate plan. The following sections include discussion of the various interrelated topics.

Read the sections please, consider the questions and anticipate the potential impact your current practices, resources, and corporate culture might have to ease or complicate the mechanical aspects of work measurement. Outline for your situation how current operating factors would affect a measurement plan, scope, implementation, actions, benefits.

A broad discussion is found in the Introduction tab, and the following section provides the essentials.

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B. Work Measurement Plans In Modern Usage

This may be applied formally or not, for different pay purposes. These categories may apply:

1. Day work does not involve a difference in pay for different output. An implicit or written statement relates that a certain rate will be paid when a production standard, or quota is met. Past performance is often the basis for determining a rate.

2. Reasonable expectancies (RE) are more structured than day work, perhaps with observation and methods improvement but likewise do not involve a difference in pay for different output.

3. Labor incentives, or piece rates, relate pay to output. An operator is expected to perform at a given rate, called a base rate. When the operator produces a larger quantity than the given rate, and incentive is paid.

Administration for each of the measurement plans may vary, with more formal admin likely yielding larger benefit. Incentives determine employee pay and require a well-organized procedure. Incentive rates also require compliance with labor laws.

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C. To Develop Work Measurement Plans, Several Systems May Be Employed

One or more of the following mechanisms may be used as a basis for work measurement data. Listed in order of increasing attention to value-added activity, workplace layout, ergonomics and methods, exa