There is one thing in common between the modern armed forces, athletes, HR departments, and Silicon Valley tech firms – they all use tactics and strategies inspired by Frederick Winslow Taylor, often referred to as the “father of scientific management.”
Taylor’s ideas, like improving work ethics, reducing waste, and creating improved production standards, continue to apply. One of those ideas, one that is critical for improving efficiency on the plant floor, comes in the form of a time study .
Conducting time and motion studies is no ordinary task. It requires careful preparation with a well-thought-out plan. In this post, we will outline the process and share important considerations for getting things right on the first try.
British Standards Institutions (BSI) is the premier body tasked with the creation of engineering and industrial standards of production in the UK. This is how the BSI defines time study:
“Observing, recording, and rating of human work to establish the times required by a qualified worker to perform specified work under stated conditions at a defined rate of working.”
The “work” it refers to involves all activities on the factory floor that contribute to the production process – the use of manual labor or machines, machine operators making decisions on the fly, and similar.
Time studies are best suited for activities that involve a set of predictable and repetitive actions. They are ideal in factory settings, where the production process can be broken down into a series of sequential tasks and operator movements.
In such a context, you measure the amount of time taken for a particular task done by multiple workers to find the standard time (we will show the calculation later in the article). In industrial engineering and manufacturing, standard time is the average time a properly trained worker takes to complete a specified task.
A time study is a work measurement activity, usually conducted by a trained observer, with the aid of basic equipment like a stopwatch and a clipboard to note down the time recordings. In modern factories, observers can use more advanced tools like video cameras, computers, and specialized software.