Time and motion study
/What is a Time and Motion Study?
A time and motion study is the analysis of the exact motions required by a person to complete a task, as well as the time required to do so. Once this information has been collected, the analyst devises a more efficient approach by stripping away certain actions and replacing others. Time and motion studies are most commonly applied to highly repetitive tasks, in order to achieve higher levels of labor productivity. These studies are especially necessary in situations where a business is trying to drive down its costs to become the low-cost, high-volume producer in an industry. This approach is not cost-effective for tasks that are not repeated on a regular basis, since the offsetting efficiency improvements do not pay for the cost of the study.
How to Conduct a Time and Motion Study
The first step in performing a time and motion study is to break down a task into a set of work elements, in order to gain a deeper understanding of how the task functions. Then establish the actual time required to complete each of the work elements, which is an average of the time required over several cycles of each work element. Then determine if an allowance must be added to the average time requirement for breaks and shift changeovers; if so, add the allowance to the average calculated time to arrive at the standard time for each work element.
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Advantages of a Time and Motion Study
There are several advantages to conducting a time and motion study. First, it can result in efficiencies in how work is conducted, which can lower the cost of the associated process. Second, the efficiency improvements resulting from such a study can compress the amount of time required to complete a process, which in turn might shorten the delivery time of goods or services to customers. Further, this detailed analysis may spark ideas for how to alter the process, perhaps using best practices from best-in-class processes elsewhere. All of these actions can lead to a more standardized process, which enhances the quality and reliability of its output.