Engineering supervisors have to contribute to productivity engineering in their organizations.
Productivity engineering is a function of industrial engineering.
Industrial engineering is redesign of products and processes for increasing productivity and reducing costs.
Industrial Engineering is System Efficiency Engineering. Its main areas are Machine Effort Industrial Engineering and Human Effort Industrial Engineering.
Online Free Access Handbook of Industrial Engineering - Narayana Rao
Supervisor has to ensure that machines are properly utilized and men are using proper motions and doing the job in less time.
If they do not use proper motion pattern they will take more time. Under work simplification movement
promoted by Mogenson, supervisors got IE training.
Principles of motion economy for human effort industrial engineering. Principles of machine economy for machine effort industrial engineering.
WORK SIMPLIFICATION
Work Simplification is part of industrial engineering whose primary focus is cost reduction through productivity improvement. In more simple terms it is reduction of machine time and operator time to produce a product.
Work Simplification is an organized, commonsense attack upon the way in which work is done now, with a view of doing it better. Work Simplification "stretches the mind" for foremen and operators by introducing and solidifying the concept of what is useful work. It changes habits of thinking about what must be considered waste work. The heart of any Work Simplification program is the recognition by management of the abilities of foreman/supervisor to contribute to the company's methods improvement team, and through them tapping the enthusiasm of everyone at the working level to produce and ship a better product, (or perform a better service) at a lower price, at the right time.
The basic premise of Work Simplification is that once a person really sees how a job is done, asks why it is done that way, and attacks the job with the desire to improve the present method, possibilities for improvement will inevitably occur to him also. In this statement there are three key words: "really sees," "asks why," and "inevitably occur."
History. The term "Work Simplification" was coined by Professor Erwin H. Schell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Allan H. Mogensen, an industrial engineer and a former editor on the staff of Factory,developed the philosophy and put together a procedure that can be implemented by supervisors and other key personnel, and through them brought to the working force. Associated with him in this pioneering work were Lillian Gilbreth, Erwin Schell, David Porter, and Herbert Goodwin. The programs trained both graduates and supervisors. The participants of the Mogensen Work Simplification Conferences have initiated programs in their plants, "bringing the religion of Reducible Waste" to their companies and supervisors.
A fundamental premise of Work Simplification is that any work that does not add value to material, does not plan or calculate, does not give or receive essential information, is reducible waste. There are four types of reducible waste:
(1) Failure to use known faster devices. Mechanization and its ultimate goal, automation, increase productivity by employing faster machines to process materials. Similarly the time reduction of the transportation, the storage and issue activity, and the inspection can also be done using faster equipment. But there are countless opportunities for the supervisor to apply relatively simple faster devices (without buying new machines); and, once his eyes are opened, the search will be extremely rewarding.
For instances, he can examine where, in all handling, can slide-grasp bins, gravity feed chutes, pegboards, and the like be used? Where can a holding hand be relieved by a foot treadle or an air chuck? How can time be saved by using something that is helpful on another job? It is by concentrating the supervisor's attention to the elimination of waste wherever it occurs that management can achieve a substantial total of individual "little" savings which only he has time to bring about, since the full-time methods man will be out "catching bigger fish." Especially on short-run jobs, waste will keep on going unnoticed. The way they were set up in the first place to get them done somehow will be the way they will be done until the supervisor takes the initiative to make what improvements he can. (But this is not to say that numerous large-scale savings may not be accomplished. Company Work Simplification programs have been known to result in individual improvements representing first-year savings of $10,000 and more.)
(2) Inspection to verify for quantity or dimension or a quality characteristic. Every inspection is a costly, constant reminder that sufficient quality has not been built into the product. The inspection, necessary though it may be, adds no value to the product. Can you eliminate separate inspection and still run the process smoothly? Japanese have done it by asking the user to inspect when using.
(3) Transportation, by any means, any distance, in any situation. This can be moving a tote pan from a storage area to a work area; walking from one work area to another; the body movement of an operator to get his hands in position to work; the movement of a hand to grasp or release or manipulate a tool; the travel of part of a conveyor. Whatever the reason for such transportation, it adds no value to the product. Can the supervisor find a way to eliminate transport action?
(4) Delay-storage-idle in any situation for any reason. Examples are the momentary hesitation of a hand in an intricate assembly; an idle hand for lack of something to do; a man waiting for a machine to finish a cut; a machine idle while it is being set up; a piece of material waiting in a tote pan for its turn to be worked on; a major assembly in a stores bin waiting to be scheduled for the final assembly operation; a typist idle while carbon paper is being brought from the storeroom.
The foreman's role is three-fold:
(1) to be an alert observer, with eyes newly opened to waste;
(2) to be a cooperative assistant to full- time methods men, after being indoctrinated with the elementary principles of the industrial engineer's techniques of charting and analysis; and
(3) to develop improved methods of his own.
The Questioning Attitude. The method of attack is to instill in every supervisor a continuing, hard-headed, insatiably questioning attitude, which examines everything at every possible opportunity. Its fundamental requirement is an open mind that absorbs new knowledge and methods and that approaches an improvement problem without bias towards status-quo. To be effective, however, the questions need not be haphazard. IE has a pattern or a framework.
(1) What can we eliminate? This could be a process, a value-adding or a non-value-adding operation, a delay or storage or idle or inspection. To eliminate is to improve!
(2) What can we combine? The use of known faster devices often provides the answer. If two operations cannot be combined, it may be possible to combine a transportation with an operation.
(3) Should the sequence be changed? Changes in sequence may eliminate or reduce non-value- adding operations, transportations, delays, storages, and inspections. Again, the use of known faster devices will often make this possible.
(4) What can we simplify? The time to start to think about ways to simplify is when the processes and operations have been reduced as much as possible through elimination, combination, and/or change of sequence. In this purposeful channeling the six basic questions of work simplification are used over and over again: What? Why? Where? When'' Who? How?
The Written Record.
Work Simplification emphasizes the analysis of work by means of a written record (process chart) made by the supervisor or industrial engineer. The process referes to the production of a component or a finished product. The process consists of operations. The written record is made by means of simple charting techniques, with each element of work marked with its own symbol. Such charting shows in when material is processed, operation by operation, part by part, to the completed product. Three types of analysis: the Process Analysis, the Man-Machine Analysis, and the Operation Analysis. (1) The Process Analysis is the written record in chronological sequence of all the elements of work in the series of operations in a process to change a subject in any of its physical or chemical characteristics or to assemble it or disassemble it from another object. Note that a since a subject is followed; there are never two or more subjects to this analysis. A process analysis could follow a man as well as a part. When the man walks, it is a "transportation" (he is "transporting" himself). The transportation of parts in a process is made with a container or holder of some kind: or the part is of sufficient size or weight or is so delicate that it is moved part by part. In any case there is always a "pick-up" waste operation. before and a "place" waste operation after a transportation. On a part next operation cannot begin and there is a delay or storage until its container is placed in some particular spot, to wait there until it is needed again. It is a delay or storage until it or its container is picked up. Hence, there are always "places' parts are stored on the shop floor.
Work Simplification's Six Basic Questions
Key Question Idea Kickers Improvement Possibilities
What is done? What is its purpose? Eliminate Does it do what it is supposed to do? why is it done? Should it be done at all? Eliminate Can as good a result be obtained without it? Is it an absolute must?
where is it done? Why is it done there? Combine and/or change
Why should it be done there? sequence Where should it be done? Can it be done easier by changing the location of person or equipment? when is it done?
Why is it done then? Is it done in right sequence? Can all or part of it be done at some other time? Combine and/or sequence change who does it?
Why does this person do it? Is the right person doing it? Is it logical to give it to someone else? Combine and/or sequence change how is it done? Why should it be done this way? Can it be done better with different equipment or different layout? Is there any other way to do it? Simplify waste operation before a delay and a "pick-up" waste operation after a delay. An inspection is almost always made part by part. There is always a "delay" before and a "delay" after an inspection. In many procedures, a value-adding operation is shown on a process analysis by shading in the symbol. This makes the few value-adding operations stand out starkly. There is always a "delay" before and after an operation. Forms are usually provided for convenience in charting.
The foreman is asked to put down all information of the process as he sees it. After he improves the process, his new chart usually shows a dramatic reduction in operations, distance moved, and time. When a foreman observes a work situation and records all the elements in chronological order as they occur, he is impressed by the large amount of work that must be done preparatory to, and after, the small amount of work that adds value to the subject, or gives or receives essential information, or plans or calculates. The small amount of value-adding work stands out as tiny islands in a huge sea of waste. Writing about the wastes as separate elements makes them stand apart from the elements of work that get something done.
(2) The Man-Machine Analysis.
Work Simplification Definitions and Symbols
O Operation: An operation occurs when the subject is changed in any of its physical or chemical characteristics, or is assembled with or disassembled from another object, or is arranged or prepared for another operation, transportation, delay or storage, or inspection. An operation occurs when in- formation is given or received, or when planning or calculating is done.
-> Transportation: A transportation occurs when the subject is moved from one place to an- other.
D Delay-Storage-Idle: A delay occurs when the subject is prevented by any condition from having the next operation performed on it, or the next planned operation does not re- quire immediate performance. A storage occurs when the subject is kept and protected against unauthorized removal. Idle is the delay of a man or a machine; that is, when the subject remains in one place awaiting further action.
□ Inspection: An inspection occurs when the subject is verified for quality or quantity, or checked in any of its specified physical or chemical characteristics; that is, when the subject is checked or verified, but not changed. it has been determined that an operation in a process must be performed (after we have asked, "Why must it be done at all?") the Man- Machine Analysis comes into play.
Motion Economy (Human Effort Economy). After all major wastes under prevailing conditions have been eliminated, the supervisor is ready to study the operator in detail. He will want to be sure that the operator is using his hands properly and that all his actions are performed with a minimum of fatigue and waste motion. To achieve this objective, he must apply the principles of motion economy. Work Simplification programs drill the supervisor in the basics of motion economy. Motion economy is the last technique to employ, since it is obvious that it will be difficult to get a worker to cooperate by changing his habitual way of doing something if he himself sees all sorts of glaring opportunities for making substantial improvements in planning, handling, and flow of work. His attitude will understandably be, "Why pick on me?" Moreover, the supervisor would be red-faced if he went to a lot of trouble to improve an individual operation only to have it eliminated when purposeful thought is applied to the process as a whole! Management Opportunities. Once top management and manufacturing management are themselves convinced of the profit potentials of Work Simplification, their biggest opportunity for implementing the philosophy is through those in direct charge of the work—the foremen, the first-line supervisors. But the inspiration and gospel must be carried to these people. The new (to them) concepts about waste work and useful work, and the techniques of methods improvement must be taught to them. They do not come by themselves. (It should be emphasized that the philosophy, techniques, and applications of Work Simplification are as effective in office work, sales, engineering, or any other activity as they are in manufacturing.) The foreman who has been properly motivated and who has been given the chance to master the techniques will begin to produce money-saving, profit-increasing ideas almost immediately. He will have the means for a two- pronged attack: First, since he is in daily con- tact with the way work is being done, he can apply the purposeful thought and methods of analysis to specific departmental operations, and thus directly and in a very practical way complement the professional methods people whose full-time job it is to make improvements. Second, the foreman who is properly inspired will also carry the spark to the people working for him, and will draw out their suggestions for improvements. Then, if management supports the foremanship program with a system of rewarding rank-and-file employees for suggestions, it will, so to speak, get "compound interest'* on its investment.
Work Simplification was successfully applied by hundreds of leading companies, such as Dow Chemical Company, Republic Steel Corporation; Sears, Roebuck Company, and Prudential Life Insurance Company, to name but a few, showing its applicable to any type of manufacturing (chemical—sled1 and non-manufacturing (retailing—insurance The potential of Work Simplification is ideated by the fact that companies such as General Electric now send a task force with its ctc movable office to a production area and include the general foreman and first-line foremen in the staff assigned to improve production methods and operations in that area. The full potential has been reached in several companies, but notably so in the Lincoln Electric Company, Cleveland, Ohio, where all personnel are methods-conscious and have achieved such economy of production that an average bonus of $5,000 approximately has been paid to each of 1,300 employees for a number of years, through such feats as reducing the direct hours of labor to product a ton of 3/16 welding rod from 75 hours to 2.2 hours, or 97%.
W. Clements Zinck Information Reference Almost every company with a successful Work Simplification is willing and eager to share its experience and program with others.
"Work Simplification," by Robert N. Lehrer, (Prentice-Hall, 1957), covers the field in a general manner and describes several business and government programs.
"Dynamic Work Simplification," by W. Clements Zinck, Reinhold, New York, 1962, covers the application of Work Simplification to the foreman on his production job and indicates how top management can develop the necessary climate for a successful program.
Case histories of Work Simplification and articles on phases of it appear frequently in magazines such as Supervision, Mill and Factory, and Factory.
References: Gilbreth Principles of Motion Economy; Method Improvement; Motion Study; Operation Analysis; Process Analysis; Suggestion Systems.
Leadership for Productivity Management
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVAx9djnaKA
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Industrial Engineering, Productivity and Quality
F.W. Taylor: Industrial Engineers to Guard Against Deterioration of Quality Due to Increase in Output.
One of the dangers to be guarded against, when the pay of the man or woman is made in any way to depend on the quantity of the work done, is that in the effort to increase the quantity the quality is apt to deteriorate.
It is necessary ... to take definite steps to insure against any falling off in quality before moving in any way towards an increase in quantity.
https://nraoiekc.blogspot.com/2013/08/illustrations-of-success-of-scientific_9321.html
Ud. 3.5.2022
Pub 19.4.2022
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