Measuring productivity

Karla · August 2003

Has anyone out there done any time studies in your facilities? My previous employer did do time studies, but it was small car part assembly in cells. My current employer is interested in doing some sort of time studies but this facility processes corn. Way different than manufacturing assembly lines or cells. I realize in most facilities that industrial engineers are able to do time studies with formulas, etc. We don't have those kinds of resources and don't have assembly lines per se.

I do believe we have a rather large issue with unproductive employees but I am at a loss of where to start. I think a job analysis is in order, but how are we going to measure the productivity of employees loading rail cars, etc. Any help or guidance would be appreciated.

Sunny · August 2003

Karla: Time studies are an Industrial Engineering function - and it's very easy to get them wrong and thus skew your costs. I am married to an IE and according to him, any industrial job, including loading trucks, can be studied.

You may want to hire a temporary IE to come in and do the studies - you can check with the nearest professional engineering group or your local manufacturing association as they may know someone who's out of work and would be willing to do the assignment for less that a "consultant" would cost.

Don D · August 2003

I agree with Sunny. Assigning this task to other than an IE is not going to produce the results you need. Anyone can come up with an elaborate chart or spreadsheet that tells you how many 44 foot rail cars with duplex top-mounted filling chutes should be loaded in a sixteen hour time period by alternating crews of 3 individuals each working a nine hour shift loading corn cracked twice to the consistency of sand. But if the analysis is not done by someone trained in the science, chances are 96.6% that they will not be accurate or reliable.

Eliant · August 2003

I agree, this should be done by an IE. If you do not have unemployed IE's, I suggest an intern from the local university.

Good Luck

Pork · August 2003

ELIANT: You are right again. I have done just that and would do it again. We have a feed mill with rail and trucking unloading and loading of our feed trailers for delivery to our farm sites 24 hours a day 5 days a week. We had a similar need and I call the EI department at the largest University in our State, 19 miles away, who put in contact with a senior professor, who talked to his current students and five took the system and project on for grade. It was all very interesting, we got the information and found our guys doing a very good and standard process on both sides of the "cooking process". Have not had a need to do any other positions or those again, nothing has changed.

PORK

Karla · August 2003

Thank you for all the suggestions. I am no IE, and don't even want to attempt to play one at work! I'll be calling local Universities for help!

Karla

Don D · August 2003

Is there an echo in hear or isn't this posted somewhere else?

Measuring productivity

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