Chapter 10: Human Resources, Job Design, and Work Measurement Flashcards
Human Resource Human Resource Strategy
Strategy
The objective of a human resource strategy is to manage labour and design jobs so people are effectively and efficiently utilized
Human Resource Strategy: Two expectation
- People should be effectively utilized within the constraints of other operations management decisions
- People should have a reasonable quality of work life in an atmosphere of mutual commitment and trust
Constraints on Human Resource Strategy
look at slide 10 for better explanation
- Product Strategy
- Schedules
- Location strategy
- process strategy
- individual differences
- layout strategy
Labour Planning : Employment Stability Policies
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- Follow demand exactly
2. Hold Employment Constant
Labour Planning : Follow demand exactly
- Matches direct labour costs to production
- Incurs costs in hiring and termination, unemployment insurance, and premium wages
- Labour is treated as a variable cost
Labour Planning : Hold employment constant
- Maintains trained workforce
- Minimizes hiring, termination, and unemployment costs
- Employees may be underutilized during slack periods
- Labour is treated as a fixed cost
Job Design
Specifying the tasks that constitute a job for an individual or a group
- Job specialization
- Job expansion
- Psychological components
- Self-directed teams
- Motivation and incentive systems
Job Expansion
- Adding more variety to jobs
- Intended to reduce boredom associated with labour specialization
- Job enlargement
- Job rotation- Job enrichment
- Employee empowerment
- Job enrichment
- Job enlargement
Core Job Characteristics
Jobs should include the following characteristics
- Skill variety
- Job identity
- Job significance
- Autonomy
- Feedback
Self-Directed Teams
–Group of empowered individuals working together to reach a common goal
–May be organized for long-term or short-term objectives
Effective because:
-Provide employee empowerment
-Ensure core job characteristics
-Meet individual psychological needs
Self-Directed Teams: To maximize effectiveness, managers should
- Ensure those who have legitimate contributions are on the team
- Provide management support
- Ensure the necessary training
- Endorse clear objectives and goals
- Financial and non-financial rewards
- Supervisors must release control
Limitations of Job Expansion
- Higher capital cost
- Individuals may prefer simple jobs
- Higher wages rates for greater skills
- Smaller labour pool
- Higher training costs
Ergonomics and the Work Environment
- Ergonomics is the study of the interface between man and machine
- Often called human factors - Operator input to machines
- Feedback to operators
- The work environment
- Illumination
- Noise
- Temperature
- Humidity
Methods Analysis
Focuses on how task is performed
Methods Analysis is used to analyze
- Movement of individuals or material
- Flow diagrams and process charts - Activities of human and machine and crew activity
- Activity charts - Body movement
- Operations charts
The Visual Workplace
- Use low-cost visual devices to share information quickly and accurately
- Displays and graphs replace printouts and paperwork
- Able to provide timely information in a dynamic environment
- System should focus on improvement
Labour Standards
- -Effective manpower planning is dependent on a knowledge of the labour required
- -Labour standards are the amount of time required to perform a job or part of a job
- -Accurate labour standards help determine labour requirements, costs, and fair work
- -Started early in the 20th century
- -Important to both manufacturing and service organizations
- -Necessary for determining staffing requirements
- -Important to labour incentive systems
Meaningful Standards Help Determine
- Labour content of items produced
- Staffing needs
- Cost and time estimates
- Crew size and work balance
- Expected production
- Basis of wage incentive plans
- Efficiency of employees
Labour Standards: May be set in four ways:
- Historical experience
- Time studies
- Predetermined time standards
- Work sampling
Historical Experience
- How the task was performed last time
- Easy and inexpensive
- Data available from production records or time cards
- Data is not objective and may be inaccurate
- Not recommended
Time Studies
- Involves timing a sample of a worker’s performance and using it to set a standard
- Requires trained and experienced observers
- Cannot be set before the work is performed
Time Studies: Steps
- Define the task to be studied
- Divide the task into precise elements
- Decide how many times to measure the task
- Time and record element times and rating of performance
- Compute average observed time
- Determine performance rating and normal time
- Add the normal times for each element to develop the total normal time for the task
- Compute the standard time
Rest Allowances
- Personal Time Allowance
- Delay Allowance
- Fatigue Allowance
Personal Time Allowance
4% – 7% of total time for use of restroom, water fountain, etc.
