Boosting Business Productivity: Strategies for Work Improvement

Posted on Sep 6, 2025 in Other subjects

Understanding Productivity

Factors Affecting Productivity

  • Capital Investment
  • Tools
  • Machines
  • Energy Consumption
  • Maintenance
  • Obsolescence
  • Facility Utilization

Emerging Issues in Productivity

  • Telework
  • Cognitive Productivity
  • Travel
  • Globalization
  • Employee Engagement (Teamwork)
  • Talent Management
  • Work-Life Balance

Key Influencers of Productivity

  1. Technical Factors
  2. Production Factors
  3. Organizational Factors
  4. Personnel Factors
  5. Financial Factors
  6. Management Factors
  7. Government Factors
  8. Location Factors

Productivity Improvement Techniques

  1. Time-Saving Tips
  2. Discipline
  3. Effective Utilization of Space
  4. Effective Utilization of Machinery
  5. Effective Utilization of Human Resources
  6. Effective Utilization of Materials
  7. Proper Planning

Methods, Standards, and Work Design

Fundamentals of Work Improvement

  • Increasing productivity drives industry forward.
  • Worker health and safety are just as important.
  • Methods engineering simplifies work processes.
  • Work design fits the work to the operator.
  • Time study measures work and sets performance standards.

Simplifying Jobs for Higher Productivity

  • Improve productivity by simplifying the job.
  • Simplify the job by:
    • Improving procedures
    • Improving layout
    • Reducing human fatigue
    • Improving use of materials, machines, and human resources
    • Improving the physical workplace

The Eight-Step Work Improvement Process

1. Select the Project

  • New plant and plant expansion
  • New products, new methods
  • Products with high cost or low profit
  • Products unable to meet competition
  • Manufacturing difficulties
  • Bottlenecked operations or exploratory tools

2. Collect and Present Data

  • Production requirements
  • Engineering data
  • Manufacturing and cost data
  • Sketches, photos, and descriptions of the workplace and tools
  • Operations process charts
  • Flow process charts
  • Population sampling

3. Analyze Data

  • Who, what, why, when, and how?
  • Statistical analysis

4. Develop Method(s)

  • Worker-machine process charts
  • Mathematical techniques
  • Simulation
  • Eliminate, combine, simplify, and rearrange tasks
  • Motion economy, manual work, and workplace design
  • Equipment, tools, work environment, and safety considerations

5. Present and Install Methods

  • Decision-making tools
  • Written and oral presentations
  • Overcome resistance to change
  • Sell method(s) to operators, supervisors, and management
  • Put the method to work

6. Develop Job Analysis

  • Job analysis (e.g., Integrated Job Analysis)
  • Job descriptions
  • Accommodation of workers

7. Establish Time Standards

  • Stopwatch time study
  • Work sampling
  • Standard data
  • Formulas
  • Predetermined time systems

8. Follow-up and Verification

  • Determine and verify savings (benefits)
  • Ensure correct installation
  • Maintain motivation for compliance
  • Repeat methods procedure as needed
  • Adjust where necessary

Key Concepts in Work Improvement

Methods Study

Methods study involves improving procedures or the workplace to increase productivity.

Work Design

Work design focuses on human factors, fitting work to the operator.

Work Measurement

Work measurement aims to establish a standard time, often through time study.

Tools for Analyzing Activity Relationships

  • Pareto Charting/Diagramming
  • Gantt Chart
  • Fishbone Diagram
  • Spider Diagram
  • Critical Path
  • Activity Relationship Chart (AEIOU-X)
  • Relationship Diagram
  • Link Diagram
  • From-To Charting
  • Flow Charting
  • Process Charting
  • Basic Motion Types (THERBLIGS)
  • Layout Planning
  • Hand (Motion) Balancing

Understanding the Activity Chart

An activity chart is a graphical representation that shows the sequence of operations and activities that make up a project, planned against a timescale. The chart represents the work that has been done so that it can be easily compared to a former plan that shows how much work should be done. The activity chart manages the criteria of basic work and the time required for both the machine and worker. It can be used to examine potential process developments.

This chart can also be used to illuminate delays or bottlenecks, enabling process improvement efforts to remove non-productive effort and clarify tasks that can be combined. It is a valuable time-saving chart for regulating all your activities. It can be used by an individual or a company to stay updated about daily activities. By utilizing an activity chart template, you can avoid excessive costs.

For example, if columns are shaded with black, it indicates that the worker or machine is performing an activity, and when covered with gray, it refers to investigation.

Motion Study Defined

Motion Study: The “science of eliminating wastefulness resulting from ill-directed and inefficient motions.” — Frank Gilbreth

Method Study Defined by Gilbreth

Method Study: “Systematic recording and critical examination of existing and proposed ways of doing work as a means of developing and applying easier and more effective methods, thereby reducing cost.” — Frank Gilbreth

Method Study as a Technique

Method Study is a technique that includes the standardization of equipment, methods, and working conditions, along with training operators to follow the standard method.