Operations

Management
Topic – Job Design and Work Systems

Course Instructor:
Mansoor Qureshi
 Work System Design
• The importance of work design is underscored by an
organization’s dependence on human efforts (i.e., work) to
accomplish its goals.

• Designing a work system is part of developing an operations

strategy

• The work system includes:

– Job design
– Work measurements
– Worker compensation
 Job Design
– What is the job’s description?
– What is the purpose of the job? (Why?)
– Where is the job done?
– Who does the job?
• What background, training, or skills are required to do
the job?
– When is the job done?
– How is the job done?
 Job Design Success

Successful Job Design must be:

• Carried out by experienced personnel with
the necessary training and background

• Consistent with the goals of the

organization

• In written form

• Understood and agreed to by both

management and employees
 Additional Job Design Factors
• Technical feasibility:
– Whether the job is within physical & mental
capabilities of the workforce

• Economic feasibility:
– Whether the cost of performing the job is less than
the value it adds

• Behavioral feasibility:
– Whether the job is intrinsically satisfying
 Specialization

• The term specialization describes jobs that

have a very narrow scope. Examples range
from assembly lines to medical specialties.
College professors often specialize in teaching
certain courses, some auto mechanics
specialize in transmission repair, and some
bakers specialize in birthday cakes. The main
rationale for specialization is the ability to
concentrate one’s efforts and thereby become
proficient at that type of work.
 Specialization of Labor
Management’s View

Advantages: Disadvantages:
• Readily available • High absenteeism
labor • High turnover rates
• Minimal training • High scrap rates
required • High number of
• Reasonable wages employee grievances
costs filed
• High productivity
 Specialization of Labor
Employee’s View

Advantages: Disadvantages:
• Minimal credentials • Boredom
required • Little growth
opportunity
• Minimal
• Little control over
responsibilities
work
• Minimal mental • Little room for
effort needed initiative
• Reasonable wages • Little intrinsic
satisfaction
 Behavioral Approaches to Job design
Job enlargement means giving a worker a larger portion of the total task. This
constitutes horizontal loading the additional work is on the same level of skill
and responsibility as the original job. The goal is to make the job more
interesting by increasing the variety of skills required and by providing the
worker with a more recognizable contribution to the overall output. For
example, a production worker’s job might be expanded so that he or she is
responsible for a sequence of activities instead of only one activity.

Job enrichment involves an increase in the level of responsibility for planning

and coordination tasks. It is sometimes referred to as vertical loading. An
example of this is to have stock clerks in supermarkets handle reordering of
goods, thus increasing their responsibilities. The job enrichment approach
focuses on the motivating potential of worker satisfaction.

Job rotation means having workers periodically exchange jobs. A firm can use
this approach to avoid having one or a few employees stuck in monotonous jobs.
It works best when workers can be transferred to more interesting jobs; there is
little advantage in having workers exchange one boring job for another. Job
rotation allows workers to broaden their learning experience and enables them
to fill in for others in the event of sickness or absenteeism.
 Teams
• Benefits of teams
– Higher quality
– Higher productivity
– Greater worker satisfaction

• Self-directed teams
– Groups of empowered to make certain
changes in their work process
 Job Design with Work Teams

• Problem-solving teams:
– Small groups, trained in problem-solving techniques. Used
to identify, analyze, & propose solutions to workplace
problems
• Special-purpose task forces:
– Highly-focused, short-term teams with a focused agenda
(often cross-functional)
• Self-directed or self-managed teams:
– Team members work through consensus to plan, manage, &
control their assigned work flow
 Alternative Workplaces
• Alternative workplaces are made possible by
technologies like email, e-networks, cell phones, & video
conferencing. Current situation:

– More than 30 million employees work in alternative workspaces

– A survey at IBM reveals that 87% of alternative workplace employees

believe their effectiveness has increased significantly

– Sun Microsystems gives many of its designers the option to work at

home

– GE sales people work from home and hotel offices

 Methods Analysis
• A detailed step-by-step analysis of how a given job is
performed
• Can distinguish between value-added & non-value-
added steps
• Analysis can revise the procedure to improve
productivity or quality
• After improvement, must revise the new standard
operating procedure
• Follow-up to insure that changes actually improve the
operation
 Methods Analysis

• Analyzing how a job gets done

• Begins with overall analysis
• Moves to specific details

The need for methods analysis can come from a number of

different sources:

• Changes in tools and equipment

• Changes in product design or new products
• Changes in materials or procedures
• Other factors (e.g. accidents, quality problems)
Analyst’s Recommendations: A. Maize reviews the workplace layout and the present flow
chart (below), and recommends reversing the solder sequence from #6-#1, which is less
problematic for the right handed operator. He schedules a follow up to insure that the
new method has fixed the quality problem.
 Analyzing the Job
• Flow process chart
– Chart used to examine the overall sequence
of an operation by focusing on movements
of the operator or flow of materials

• Worker-machine chart
– Chart used to determine portions of a work
cycle during which an operator and
equipment are busy or idle
 ent

on
on
FLOW PROCESS CHART ANALYST PAGE

ecti

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Job Requisition of petty cash

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D. Kolb 1 of 2

Dela
I n sp

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Op e

Mo
Details of Method
Requisition made by department head
Put in “pick-up” basket
To accounting department
Account and signature verified
Amount approved by treasurer
Amount counted by cashier
Amount recorded by bookkeeper
Petty cash sealed in envelope
Petty cash carried to department
Petty cash checked against requisition
Receipt signed
Petty cash stored in safety box
 Motion Study
Motion study is the systematic study of the
human motions used to perform an operation.
Work Measurement
• Standard time
• Stopwatch time study
• Historical times
• Predetermined data
• Work Sampling
 Working Conditions
Temperature & Ventilation
Humidity

Illumination Color

Noise & Vibration Work Breaks

Safety Causes of Accidents

 Ergonomics
Ergonomics is the Incorporation of
human factors in the design of the
workplace. The International
Ergonomics Association organizes
ergonomics into three domains:

physical (e.g., repetitive

movements, layout, health, and
safety);
cognitive (mental workload,
decision making, human–computer
interaction, and work stress);

and organizational (e.g.,

communication, teamwork, work
design, and telework).
 Worker Compensation Systems
• Compensation is the third part of work system design
• Time-based plans (day pay) versus output-based systems
(incentive pay)
• Group incentive plans: profit sharing & gain sharing
– Plans put part of a worker’s salary at risk
– Does the compensation system undermine teamwork?
– Does plan prevent free-riders not doing their fair share?
– Does the incentive plan encourage workers to support the long-
term health of the organization?