Work Study is the systemeatic examination of the methods of carrying out activities such as to improve the effective use of resources and to set up standards of performance for the activities carried out.
Work Study
Components of Work Study Another definition of Work Study could be: A generic term for those techniques, particularly method study and work measurement, which are used in the examination of human work in all its contexts, and which lead systematically to to the investigation of all the factors which affect the efficiency and economy of the situation being reviewed, in order to effect improvement '.
This has to do with Productivity Improvement, but also improvement of Quality and Safety.
Operations Management - Work Study
Managing people within operations involves actual design decisions about jobs, methods, relationships between jobs and machines and systems of control and communication. Work design involves complex "people"
relationships between operative staff, supervisors and specialists e.g. engineering managers and staff who commission new machines and maintain them. Other specialists may co-ordinate health and safety systems or monitor performance and plan maintenance People are not mere extensions to machines or horsepower to be switched on and off. A worker 's performance may be better than a machine 's capability - yet a machine may outstrip the human being for many tasks. People can be hurt/injured physically by operating environments or trapped socially and psychologically in them/by them. How operational systems are designed and the jobs and performance relationships within them are of great operational, economic and social importance. In this context then work study is a collection of techniques used to examine work - what is done and how it is done - so that there is systematic analysis of all the elements, factors, resources and relationships affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of the work