Exam 12: Human Resources, Job Design, and Work Measurement

A Methods and Measurements Analyst needs to develop a time standard for a certain task. The task involves use of ruler, square, and portable electric saw to mark and cut the "notch" in a rafter (a standard carpentry task of home construction). In a preliminary study, he observed one of his workers perform this task five times. The observations were made in an air-conditioned, well-lighted training facility, at ground level, with all tools and equipment clean and readily available. Observation: 1 2 3 4 5 Task time (seconds): 82 74 80 83 76 a. What is the actual average time for this task? b. What is the normal time for this task if the employee worked at a 20% faster pace than is typical for adequately trained workers? c. What is standard time for this task if allowances are 8% constant and 6% variable? d. If the analyst then thought more carefully about his experiment, and decided that the variable allowances needed to be increased to match the real (outside, unair-conditioned) work environment, and that the proper variable allowance was not 6% but 12%, what is the revised standard time?

"Designed to show economy of motion by pointing out waste motion and idle time" describes

Most unions do not accept the use of predetermined time standards.

Psychological factors have little relevance in the design of assembly line jobs since they involve physical products and production technology.

In a large aerospace company, it has been discovered that some insulators have been damaged. A methods specialist is sent out to follow the insulators through the production and storage processes and to try to find out where in the process they are damaged. The specialist should use

Provide examples of non-monetary incentives.

What kind of work circumstances call for the use of work sampling instead of stopwatch study?

How is the statistical tool of adequate sample sizing used in work measurement?

List Hackman and Oldham's five desirable characteristics of job design.

A time study of a certain service task found an average time of 15 minutes, with a standard sample large enough that we are 95% confident that standard time is within 5% of its true value?

An advantage of work sampling is that it completely breaks down work elements.

Job expansion can lead to increased labor cost because of the extra workers hired in the expansion.

A technique for estimating the proportion of time a worker spends on various activities is

__________ divide(s) manual work into small basic elements that have established and widely accepted times.

Management and labor share the labor cost reductions in which of these compensation schemes?

Four of the components of job design are

What is the required sample size to be 95% confident that the observed average time is within 2% of the actual value if the process has a standard deviation of 1 minute and mean of 50 minutes?

What is quality of work life? What is its relation to a firm's human resource strategy?

A modern "stopwatch" study can be conducted using a special-purpose PDA, one which can digitally capture events, times, and other variables for later analysis on a spreadsheet.

Explain how job expansion can lead to higher pay rates.