Our actions, decisions, thoughts go a long way. Even the tiniest of effort on our part may have a profound effect on the entire system. I say this in the wake of a realization that why it is that we do what we do at my internship in my department. I always thought it had something to do with increased productivity, but well that was more wrong than right. Though increased production will be an outcome in the long run, work measurement is basically intended to bring about a balance in the activities. Work measurement of a process gives out the entire work content of that process in terms of time taken(including allowances for fatigue etc.) for a qualified worker to do that job given he were doing it all alone. Now that might look a bit absurd at the beginning for in an industry never is a process, a one man activity. But then this time content gives the production department a general idea as to how many men are required to do that activity if the cycle time for that process were fixed, while ensuring maximum involvement of every single person involved in the process for that cycle. This is of significant consequence when that process is one of many on an assembly line, for the lack of proper manpower allocation for every single station may result in an imbalance b/w the cycle times of various activities taking place on the line. This in turn will lead to regular stoppages of the line which would then result in a delayed production. Now all that jargon later what I mean to put forth is that, work measurement verifies the demand for manpower made by various departments. So we see that a thing as simple and mundane as time study to measure the work content of a process, can lead to a person securing or not securing a job. Now one job is of no serious consequence to an entire plant but for that particular individual it might as well be the means of providing for a family who have no one else to look up to save him.
Now that is thinking a bit on the extremes but it’s possible nevertheless and though this realization doesn’t change the fact that work measurement is a highly boring job and I wouldn’t do it given other options, it does bring out a certain appreciation for the fact that our actions might have an effect, way far-reaching than we can imagine.
On a side note though I know it all looks very nerdy but then a very nice person whom I’ve known for quite some time now, said to me once that it’s your blog. So does it matter what others think of what you write there? :P :P
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