"I have over 100 machine
operators working on time work. Is there a way to easily get accurate production
standards which I can use to measure their efficiency, give them goals and get them
motivated?" CL -
California "I have over 100 machine
operators working on time work. Is there a way to easily get accurate production
standards which I can use to measure their efficiency, give them goals and get them
motivated?" CL -
California
THE INDUSTRY ADVISOR
GETTING TIME WORKERS MORE MOTIVATED
By Gene Levine - www.genelevine.com
Labor-intense companies cannot thrive when labor costs aren’t known.
That’s why most companies wanting to increase production and reduce costs will
inevitably ask the same questions you just posed. Sadly though, all too often, companies
solve this dilemma incorrectly. They do "easy" rather than right things thereby
botching up morale, costs, production and quality all of which results in their eventual
demise.
An entire answer to your question would take me beyond the space allotted to me. I can however give you enough basics to get your thinking started. Be forewarned that there are no guarantees that your people will become more motivated unless you’re commitment is extremely high to do things right the first time.
In order to manage labor effectively you must first measure. So, one of the first steps in getting production with less effort or expense is developing work measurement standards. When professionally done, these standards provide a basis for comparing actual, expended time, against planned time. This comparison determines a quantitative objective for improved performance, since it compares what was done against what can be done. The technique most often used to set standards via work measurement is time study. Other goal setting techniques take on many forms, are far less formal or effective. One such approach are "Beat Yesterday" books which may help you.
A "Beat Yesterday" book has several columns, one of which lists everyone of your operations. Next to each operation column are other columns where you’ll record the highest daily or hourly production achieved by an operator, that operators name initials or clock number, the date that highest level was achieved and the production achieved.
Each time that a production entry for any operation is beaten, a new entry is made into the book (going from left to right). Looking at this book, you can look at any operation and the last number, on the far right column, will be the highest production you’ve attained to-date. I leave the uses for that number to your imagination except one use and that is to be certain every operator who does that job knows the highest level achieved, who did it and when it was done. The rationale behind keeping this type of book and giving the operators the highest level achieved to date is that it provides some type of goal for the operators to beat. Although not anywhere as meaningful at professionally established time study standards, at least the operators have an idea what is expected of them.
Now, switching to time studies, to my knowledge there is no easy way to accurately take them. Time studies provide a technique that is unequaled for finding methods of greatest economy and for measuring labor accomplishment. The only real goal of time study is to increase production and/or reduce costs. A time study is simply a procedure to determine the time it should take a well-trained, qualified person with average motivation, working at a normal pace, using a specific method, to do a specific task with specific quality. The procedure employs the stopwatch as the measuring device. The concept of time study is often expanded to include the improvement of an operation. Everything you need to know about time study is obviously beyond the space limitations of this paper but is covered in my comprehensive Basic Time Study manual.
The fact is that if you’re after true efficiency, accurate production standards and meaningful goals you will have to commit to time study and go through at least these seven steps.
1. You will need to decide upon the preferred methods and then record (hopefully using video documentation) those methods and explain them to your supervision and employees and get their agreement.
2. You will need to decide upon the required quality, establish it, record it and again, get your supervision and employees to agree upon it.
3. Initially try to study employees who . . .
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