Are you concerned about how an organization can improve its productivity? An organization must measure its current productivity level before making improvements.
Measurement of work is a strategy for improving productivity. An accurate work measurement reduces project time and cost. Setting performance standards is facilitated through work measurement.
Work measurement involves estimating how long a qualified worker would take to perform a given task at a defined proficiency level.
In work measurement, three key steps are followed:
- Get a better understanding of how the production process works.
- Determine how much time each element takes.
- Specify the standard time when the production process will take place
What is Work Measurement?
A Work Measurement Study is a systematic approach to determining a task’s work content and completion time using industrial engineering techniques.
Work measurement is a way to determine if improvements to a project are genuine. The objectives of work measurement are to determine how long it will take to accomplish a task systematically.
Work measurement uncovers non-standardization in the workplace as well as non-value-adding activities. The following reasons explain why work should be measured:
- For Identifying and eliminating wasted or ineffective time.
- To establish a standard time for measuring performance.
- A realistic expectation is to be used to measure performance.
- Goals and objectives are set to ensure a successful operation.
Why is Work Measurement Important?
The purpose of the work measurement method is to cover all the work to be measured.
Work measurement involves estimating the amount of human effort required to produce a unit of output.
Work measurement refers to measuring the volume of work completed and the time it took to complete it.
List of Five Reasons Why Work Should Be Measured
Clear and actionable performance measures help clarify and focus on goal setting and objectives and ensure they are achieved.
Here are five reasons why you should measure your work:
1. Enables your growth and development:
Measurement and management of employee performance are important since they allow businesses to determine how efficient workers are. The measurement of work by itself will not enable growth. It can, however, be combined with continuous feedback to enable employees to self-assess and improve their skills.
2. Ensure alignment of goals and growth of the company
Employee performance measurement can determine those goals by identifying areas where someone is doing well and could be stretched, and areas where they are not yet strong.
3. Better understand your company’s performance.
Your company’s performance can be predicted by knowing how well you perform through work measurement.
4. Create a fair culture of recognition
Equal treatment of employees is ensured by work measurement. Employees who are good performers and those who are procrastinators are distinguished, which creates a fair recognition culture.
5. Identifying and eliminating wasted or ineffective time.
Work measurement eliminates wasted or ineffective time. Measuring work is concerned with reducing and ultimately removing unproductive time, i.e., a time when no effective work is being done.
What are the Objectives of Work Measurement?
As the name implies, work measurement measures the time a task or series of tasks takes so that ineffective time can be differentiated from effective.
Objectives of work measurement are given below:
- To standardize efficient methods for completing tasks.
- A realistic schedule and workforce requirements can be prepared by estimating the target time for each job.
- Analyzing alternative methods to compare performance times.
- Preparation of a realistic schedule of work.
- Identifying unnecessary activities related to a career to reduce or eliminate them.
- Assist in the organization of labor by comparing the actual performance daily.
- A logical comparison can be made when alternative methods are compared based on their basic times.
- To standardize the efficient process of performing operations.
- Establish supervisory objectives and measure supervisor performance based on those objectives.
- Work measurement is used in determining machine effectiveness.
What are the Techniques of Work Measurement?
Work measurement involves a variety of techniques. Here are 6 lists of work measurement techniques:
1. Time-Directed Method
The direct time method determines the time needed to carry out a unit of work. To determine how long each unit of an operation will take, observation and recording of time are required for each unit of a process.
2. Synthesis Method
Synthesis is a time measurement technique used to build Standard Times using previous time studies. Thus, conducting a new time study is unnecessary, so it is economical.
It provides reliable information about how long it will take to complete different tasks. Since it is based on many past time studies, it is reliable.
3. Analytical Estimating
Analytical estimating is a structured estimation method often used in work measurements, which analyzes a task in terms of its basic components.
It is economical since it uses standard data when calculating each job’s normal time. Also, it helps in planning and scheduling production activities.
4. Predetermined Motion Type System(PMTS)
Predetermined motion time systems measure how quickly humans can perform certain manual tasks in a particular environment.
PMTs are frequently used in labor-oriented industries to determine wage rates, piece rates, and incentive schemes by measuring the time required to complete certain tasks.
5. Sampling or Ratio Delay Methods
The work sampling technique determines the time workers spend in different activity categories.
This technique uses random samples of several employees’ work to determine the overall operation percentage.
6. Historical Data Method
The historical data method is one of the simplest and most inexpensive ways to measure workplace productivity.
The use of the historic data method has become one of the standard tools, serving 3 main purposes:
- The purpose of this study is to determine how past work impacts current work outcomes.
- Modern economic theories can be tested through the use of unique natural experiments.
- It is important to use modern economic theories to refine the understanding of historical events.
This technique is advantageous because it is easy to understand, easier to estimate, and easier to implement.
How do you measure your work? Steps Involved in Work Measurement
Work measurement involves analyzing the size of a task, its method of performance, and production efficiency.
- Decompose the job into its components.
- Measure the elapsed time on the various elements using either time studies, synthesis, analytical estimation, or other methods.
- To set up elemental time values, take the observed time and convert it into normal time using the rating factor.
- Evaluate the amount of relaxation, physical and mental exhaustion involved in carrying out each element.
- Count the time allotted for relaxation when arriving at the work content for each element.
- Identify the number of times each element occurs in the job, multiply each element’s work content by its frequency (i.e., how often it appears in the position), and add all the times together.
- Contingency allowances should be added if necessary to arrive at the standard time to complete the work.
Measurement of work helps estimate labor costs. Moreover, it provides information on the estimation of tenders, the assessment of delivery schedules, and the fixing of selling prices.
What Are the 4 Methods of Measurement?
There are four basic methods of work measurement, which are broadly classified into four types, and each of them is employed based on the type of work, the degree of accuracy, and the available resources.
1. Time Study Method
This technique requires direct observation and measurement of the time required by an employee to accomplish each component of a task with the help of a stopwatch or computerized devices. It fits best in repetitive and short-cycle tasks.
2. Work Sampling Method
Work sampling is used to measure productivity randomly over a certain period of time. It does not involve continuous timing but approximates the way time is allocated among various activities, which include productive activity, idle time, or delay.
3. Preset Motion Time Systems (PMTS)
It is an approach that applies predetermined data and allocates time values to fundamental human motions (such as reach, grasp, and move). It is also applied most often in manufacturing and assembly-line manufacturing processes where accuracy and standardisation is essential.
4. Analytical Estimation Technique
Analytical estimation divides a task into smaller units and approaches the time estimate relying on experience and/or past data, or standard time values. It can be applied when the tasks involved are not repetitive or in situations where the business cannot be measured directly.
What Measurement Appertains to Work?
Time, output, and measurement based on effort are the measures used to measure efficiency, productivity, and performance.
Time-Based Measurement
It is the most popular approach and is based on the length of time one requires to finish a job. The working hours and duration of work are measured by the use of time tracking software, stopwatches, and timesheets.
Output-Based Measurement
This is used in measuring work by the amount of output in the form of units of completed work, tasks completed, or services provided over a set period of time.
Effort-Based Measurement
Effort-based measurement measures the amount of physical or mental effort to perform a task. This is usually taken into consideration when making fatigue and rest, and recovery allowances.
Modern organizations commonly implement digital time tracking and productivity tools to integrate time and output measurements into real-time data regarding work performance.
What are the 7 types of measurement?
Work and productivity management measurement can be divided into 7 types that have specific purposes:
- Time Measurement: Determines the time taken to accomplish something or an activity.
- Cost Measurement: Assesses the cost of labor, material, and operational costs of work.
- Productivity Measurement: Divides the input (time, labor, resources) and output to ascertain efficiency.
- Performance Measurement: Evaluates the performance of employees or groups in terms of pre-established standards or objectives.
- Quality Measurement: Specializes in precision, mistakes, and standard conformity.
- Capacity Measurement: Decides the maximum amount of work that can be done within a certain amount of time or resource.
- Utilization Measurement: Measures the degree to which available time and other resources are being utilized such as idle time and non-productive time.
Benefits of Work Measurement
Organizations determine whether work programs, investments, and acquisitions achieve their objectives in work measurement.
A good work measurement system has the following benefits.
- A better understanding of work measurements enables better control over work methods and processes.
- Evaluate the suitableness of the workforce assigned to an organization.
- A good management system reduces labor costs, increases productivity, and improves performance appraisal, planning, and scheduling.
- Work measurement enables the development of realistic work schedules through an accurate assessment of human work compared to plant capacity for production and maintenance planning.
- Detailed instructions are provided on how to prepare estimated selling prices and delivery schedules for tenders.
- The effectiveness of work planning can be determined.
- Prevents backlogs of work.
- Streamline work processes.
- Simplifies workforce planning through an analysis of actual and standard time. The cost and labor requirements of the future can be estimated. The purpose of this is to provide a framework for estimating and controlling labor costs.
Final Words
For an organization to be effective at planning its productivity, measuring work is very important.
Work measurement is beneficial for schools, employers, and other professionals. The approach discussed above on Work measurement techniques, steps, objectives, and benefits can help you set goals in the right direction.
👉Bonus Article: Productivity planning becomes effective when you follow these steps
