MOST® Work Measurement Systems

Kjell B. Zandin, Therese M. Schmidt

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367345310
• eBook ISBN: 9781000216462
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book is an essential supplement for MOST (Maynard Operation Sequence Technique) certification training. An excellent resource for practicing professionals and newcomers in the fields of industrial engineering and management, it provides a detailed explanation of each of the three MOST Systems. This edition is updated with relevant examples using today's technology to develop engineered standards. Content includes refreshed charts and guidelines to selecting a MOST System and completing a MOST analysis based on the application rules for BasicMOST, MiniMOST and MaxiMOST. A new informative chapter highlights the use of standards to improve workforce performance and increase productivity. A must for MOST certification for engineers, productivity improvement specialists, staffing, and costing professionals. Certification training can be completed online and worldwide through authorized partners.

1 The Concept of MOST—An Introduction

Work Measurement

Work Measurement, or the analysis of a task to identify a time for the average worker to complete the task, is essential to organizations looking to improve productivity or eliminate waste.

There are many reasons for wanting to know the amount of time a task will take which mainly fall into four categories: (1) to accomplish long-term planning, (2) to manage performance, (3) to establish costs and (4) to determine weekly staffing hours. Suppose an organization wishes to manufacture a new product or rearrange a distribution center or store layout, the planning and budgeting process could be accomplished with increased confidence using an economical, predetermined motion time system (PMTS). Documenting the method and knowing the time it takes to perform a task provides an organization the ability to:

• Plan for staffing associates.
• Determine labor costs based on activity-based standards.
• Identify the type and capacity of any needed equipment.
• Plan for the supply and delivery times of materials.
• Obtain predicted costs of production or service.
• Determine the overall production or service schedule.
• Analyze the feasibility of new products and services.
• Set expectations and follow-up on production or service goals.
• Manage individual or departmental performance.
• Implement a performance-based pay system.

Knowing how much time it takes to perform certain tasks enables a manager and an organization to achieve and maintain a high utilization of staff, material and equipment. This results in an overall efficiency that will make sustainable organizational growth possible.

The original form of work measurement was simply guessing or estimating the time. It is interesting to note that the primitive guessing technique employed thousands of years ago is still in use today in many modern organizations. Today’s version is a more advanced form of the original technique, however, and is known as an educated guess. The educated guess is unscientifically supported by intuition, individual personal experience, the importance of the estimation to be made and the inherent ability or inability of the applicator to make a confident-sounding response. This technique is neither scientific (well-documented or statistically supported) nor accurate (with any degree of confidence or consistency). The sole benefit is that it can be done quickly.

Once products began to be manufactured or work tasks completed, another source of information was available from which future times could be estimated. The historical data concept of work measurement evolved from estimation. Predicting time for future situations came from records of previous work that had been accomplished. Using historical data does one thing very well; it accurately represents what has already happened. To use it to predict what will happen assumes the following two points occur and if these conditions are met, historical data should work well:

1. The conditions and actions under which the process was originally performed are consistently repeated.
2. The actions to be performed will be performed exactly as those on which the historical data is based.

Since using historical data and guessing is clearly not an exact science, Frederick Taylor, one of the intellectual leaders of the efficiency movement, viewed work as something that could be engineered or controlled. Work did not have to be a haphazard repetition of what had gone on before. In fact, workers could be provided with instructions and training as to the best way to perform certain tasks. Tasks were then broken down into elements or short activities that could be arranged and managed to produce more productive and less fatiguing work. Each element was studied to determine which actions were productive and which were unproductive. Keeping only productive elements, a stopwatch was used to determine the time for each. The time recorded was the actual time taken by an individual to perform a certain task under specific conditions. To make such times transferable to other workers and other situations, time for the average skilled worker working under average conditions had to be determined. This was and is still accomplished by performance rating and stopwatch time studies.

The analyst determined the performance rating by observing the pace of the individual being studied compared to a worker working at a level of 100% (or average) skill and effort. If the worker observed was working with more skill and effort than the average worker, a rating of over 100% would be applied to the time from the stopwatch and the time would be increased to represent 100% or average performance. For example, if the stopwatch time is 1.00 minute and the overall performance rating is 115%, the stopwatch time of 1.00 minute is then increased by 15% for an allowed time of 1.15 minutes. Likewise, if the worker observed is not putting forth the effort or skill to be 100%, a rating of less than 100% would be applied to the time recorded from the stopwatch and the time would be decreased to reflect a 100% performance. For example, if the stopwatch time was 1.00 minute and the rating was 95%, then the stopwatch time would be decreased by 5% for an allowed time of 0.95 minutes. The scientific process of engineering a task using the time study method just described has two weak points:

1. The individual analyst must subjectively rate or compare the operator to an estimated 100% (average) performance standard.
2. No matter how sophisticated, expensive or precise the timepiece, a watch simply does not forecast, predict or accurately determine times for future situations; it can only determine the time for what has already occurred based on existing work conditions (methods, layouts, capacities, etc.).

It was discovered by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, engineers and pioneers of time and motion study, that all manual operations are combinations of basic elements. The Gilbreths isolated and identified these elements primarily so that methods could be accurately documented, explained and improved. They reasoned that to reduce the motion content of a task was to reduce the effort and the time to perform the task. The result is higher production and an increased service level.

Followers of Frederick Taylor practiced time study, but followers of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth practiced motion study. Predetermined motion time systems were then developed and joined together the best of both techniques combining time and motion studies.

Predetermined motion time systems utilized time study and micromotion techniques to determine and assign times to specified basi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• In Memory of Kjell B. Zandin
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• Editor
• Chapter 1 The Concept of MOST—An Introduction
• Chapter 2 The MOST Systems Family
• Chapter 3 The BasicMOST System
• Chapter 4 The MiniMOST System
• Chapter 5 The MaxiMOST System
• Chapter 6 Using MOST Standards to Manage Performance
• Appendix A: Theory
• Index
• Subject Categories
• Subject Index