WORK MEASUREMENT
Work measurement
Determines how long it should take to do a job.
Standard time
The length of time it should take a qualified worker using appropriate process and tools to complete a specific job, allowing time for personal fatigue and unavoidable delays.
The third component in work system design, work measurement, is a way of determining how long it should take to do a job. Work measurement techniques are used to set a standard time for a specific job. The standard time is the time it should take a qualified operator, working at a sustainable pace and using the appropriate tools and process, to do the job. The standard time is the sustainable time it takes to do either a whole job or a portion or element of a job. In our restaurant example, the time needed to take the customer's order and communicate that information to the kitchen staff can be calculated as the standard time.
Why should a company set the standard time for a job? Companies use standard times for costing, evaluating, and planning.
Costing
When costing a product, a company includes labor in the total cost estimate. Instead of timing the labor to build single units, companies typically use a standard labor cost. To do this, they multiply the standard labor time by a given hourly labor cost to determine ...
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