1. DOM 511 : - Operations mgt practice
Design of Work Systems

2. Job Design
Job design involves specifying the work activities, methods & environment of an individual or group in an organizational setting.
Objective is to develop job structures that meet the requirements of the organization & its technology & that satisfy the job-holder’s personal & individual requirements.
Job design decisions;
What will be done
Who will do the job
How the job will be done
Where the job will be done
When the job will be done
Why; organizational rationale for the job
How – method of performance & motivation
Ergonomics

3. WORKPLACE Design
Design & Layout of individual workplaces for maximum efficiency & effectiveness
Key design Qns;
Who will use the workplace – different physical characteristics of individuals
How will the work be performed eg equipment, procedures etc
What technology is needed?
What must the employee be able to see or hear?
What environmental & safety issues need to be addressed

4. Job Design
Ergonomics
Ergonomics is defined as the science related to man and his work, embodying the anatomic, physiologic, and mechanical principles affecting the efficient use of human energy.
Eg:
Safe lifting techniques, proper posture, appropriate seating position, and adaptive equipment are examples of ergonomics in the workplace.

5. Trends influencing job design decisions
Quality control as part of the worker’s job – quality at source
Cross-training workers to perform multiskilled jobs, result of downsizing
Employee involvement & team approaches to designing & organizing work ( center of TQM & Kaizen) – Sociotechnical systems
“Informating” ordinary workers through e-mal & the internet, thereby expanding the nature of their work & their ability to do it
Extensive use of temporary workers
Automation of heavy manual work
Organizational commitment to providing meaningful & rewarding jobs for all employees

6. Design of Work Systems
Behavioral Approaches to Job Design eg specialization & job enlargement/enrichment
Physical considerations in job design – work physiology & ergonomics
Methods Analysis
Motions Study
Working conditions

7. Successful Job Design must be:
Job Design Success
Successful Job Design must be:
Carried out by experienced personnel with the necessary training and background
Consistent with the goals of the organization
In written form
Understood and agreed to by both management and employees

8. Specialization in Business: Advantages
For
Management:
1. Simplifies training
2. High productivity
3. Low wage costs
Labor: 1 .
Low education and
skill requirements 2.
Minimum
responsibilities 3.
Little mental effort
needed

9. For Management: Labor: Disadvantages 1. 1. Monotonous work
Difficult to motivate
quality
2. Worker dissatisfaction,
possibly resulting in
absenteeism, high
turnover, disruptive
tactics, poor attention
to quality
Labor:
1. Monotonous work
2. Limited opportunities
for advancement
3. Little control over work
4. Little opportunity for
self-fulfillment

10. Behavioral Approaches to Job Design
Job Enlargement
Giving a worker a larger portion of the total task by horizontal loading
Job Rotation
Workers periodically exchange jobs
Job Enrichment
Increasing responsibility for planning and coordination tasks, by vertical loading

11. Methods Analysis
The need for methods analysis can come from a number of different sources:
Changes in tools and equipment
Changes in product design or new products
Changes in materials or procedures
Other factors (e.g. accidents, quality problems)

12. Motion Study
Motion study is the systematic study of the human motions used to perform an operation.

13. Motion Study Techniques
Motion study principles - guidelines for designing motion-efficient work procedures
Analysis of therbligs - basic elemental motions into which a job can be broken down
Micromotion study - use of motion pictures and slow motion to study motions that otherwise would be too rapid to analyze
Charts

14. Developing Work Methods
Eliminate unnecessary motions
Combine activities
Reduce fatigue
Improve the arrangement of the workplace
Improve the design of tools and equipment

15. Working Conditions

16. Working Conditions (cont’d)
Noise & Vibration
Causes of Accidents
Safety
Work Breaks

17. Purpose is to set time standards for a job Why the standards;
Work Measurement
Purpose is to set time standards for a job
Why the standards;
To schedule work & allocate capacity
To provide an objective basis for motivating the workforce & measuring workers’ performance
To bid for new contracts and to evaluate performance of existing ones
To provide benchmarks for improvement

18. Work Measurement Stopwatch Time Study Standard Elemental Times
Predetermined Time Standards
Work Sampling

19. Compensation Individual Incentive Plans Group Incentive Plans
Knowledge-Based Pay System
Management Compensation

20. Group Incentive Plans Scanlon Plan Kaiser Plan – incentive pay
Encourage reductions in labor costs by sharing gains in cost sharing
Kaiser Plan – incentive pay
Committees suggest ways of reducing costs
Lincoln Plan
Profit sharing, job enlargement, and participative management
Kodak Plan
Wages/bonus related to profits

21. Form of Incentive Plan
Accurate
Easy to apply
Consistent
Easy to understand
Fair

22. virtual workplaces
Common in information-intensive businesses like banks, academic orgns
Teleworkers work in their homes, hotel rooms, airports etc using ICT
Assemble virtual teams of people located in different geo locations

23. virtual workplaces Ads
Best possible team skills & capabilities
Flexible working hours
Firms become more agile & flexible with quicker response time
Reduces transportation costs & pollution
Reduces cost of physical space, parking, conditioning etc

24. virtual workplaces Dis
Team Success is based on each member doing work on time
Lack of human socialization
No physical office, no job status
Children at home don’t understand demands of a virtual office
Privacy & security risks
Difficult to control the workload per team member