QUANTITY CONTROL

Chapter 12
 The search for improved method
• About 150 yeard ago, when Charles
Babbage made the first systematic survey
of manufacturing plants in England and
Europe, trying to find one capable ohf
manufacturing the automatic computer he
had designed, he found many
improvements in use.
• The search for better production methods
probably originated with man's earliest
inventions of the level, wheel, and inclined
plane.
• Taylor developed by research,
standardization, control and cooperation.
• Frank B. Gilbreth and Lilian M. Gilreth goes
the credit for the origin of motion study
through emphasis upon nature of
improvements .
• Among their contributions were the use of
micromotion photographyin preparing
process charts and identification of 17 basic
elements of motion, dubbed therbligs. The
Gilbreths counted time in Winks:1/2000
minutes.
• As presented by the Methods Eng'g Council
the basic elements are broken into 3 groups,
and within each group careful classifications
are made of each possible variation.
1. Useful elements which usually accomplish work,
although not always in the most effective way:
Reach
Move Action: Study to uncover
Grasp possible improvements in
Position performance using the laws of
Disengage motion economy and
Release corollaries
Examine , Do
Action: eliminate first 5 by
better workplace layout.
Reduce plan by supervisory
preplanning, go-no-go
gages, and workplace
layout.
 Methods improvement practices
• The major responsibility for methods
improvement rests with the industrial
engineering department.
• Work simplification- used to designate the
cooperative project
Right-and-Left-Hand Chart - when this chart is
carried further and all parts of the body are
charted in greater detail, it is called
"simomotion"chart. Used in micromotion study,
perhaps with line patterns of the motions
involved, such charts become exceedingly
complex.
Principles of Motion Economy
5 Areas of improvement:
1. Rules affecting the human body:
a. Use both hands for productive work.
b. Both hands should move simultaneously in
opposite and symmetrical directions, beggining
and ending their motions at the same time.
c. Smooth continuous curved motions of the
hands and arms should be developed.
d. The work should be arranged to allow rhtmic
and automatic performance.
e. Within the limits o the operation, move the
shortest distance possible and use the
lowest practical motion class.
f. Use the body and momentum to the best
mechanical advantage.
2. Rules affecting the workplace:
a. It should be designed so that the motion
path of the hands and arms is kept within
normal work area.
b. Work requiring use of the eyes should be
maintained w/in the field of normal vision.
c. Tools and materials are best locatef at fixed
work stations.
d. The height of the workplace should
preferably be designed to allow working from
either a standing or sitting position.
e. The work area should be confined to
minimize walking.
f . Good working conditions at workplace lead
to good work performance.
3. Rules affecting tools and equipment:
a. Tools and equipment should be prepositioned
to facilitate pickup or grasp.
b.use foot pedals & fixtures to relieve the hands
for other useful work.
c. Provide ejectors to remove finished work.
d. Locate machine controls for ease of
operation
e. Apply special-purpose tools and combined
tools.
f. Consider the use of machine to perform the
operation
4. Rules affecting material Handling:
a. Design the work for easy grasp.
b. Arrange the gravity-feed hoppers,
separators, counters, bins, & conveyors to
deliver the material close to the point of use.
c. Preposition & identify materials and parts
for the next operation.
d. Make use of drop delivery in releasing
finushed work.
e. Transfer all heavy lifting to mechanical
ddevices.
5. Rules concerning time conservation:
a. Question all hesitations or tempoary ceasing
of motion of worker of machine.
b. The motion pattern that requires the fewest
steps or elements usually gives shortest
time.
c. Work should be performed while machine is
running, and the machine should be running
while work is performed.
d. Two or more parts should be processed at
the same time.
Methods Improvement in the office.
Office motion study-make use of the same
analysis techniques.
Work-distribution charts- for analysis of task
Duty lists & multicolumn flow-process charts -
for following the interlocked actions of
several office workers simultaneously.
Physical motions, including walking.
Suggestion Systems
- employees may offer ideas to save time,
effort, cost, or inhury for prizes or money
rewards.
• Industrial-relations dept. promote suggestion
plans to improve employee morale.
• The Labor-Management Committee(LCM), a
type of suggestion system operated with
employee participation, developed as a part of
the World War II drive to increase production.
• Patent Protection- given to employees whose
ideas are good.
Considerations that should appeare on the
balance sheet of a proposed methods-study
project are:
1. The capital required to produce result:
buildings, machines, equipment.