PRODUCTION SYSTEMS AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

©1998 Joseph Martinich. All rights reserved. None of these materials can be stored, transmitted or reproduced by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise) without the written permission of Joseph Martinich. These materials may be used by students in classes taught by Professor Martinich at University of Missouri - St. Louis.

Job Design

• The keys to the production system are the workers in the system
• They provide the main competitive advantage
• They embody the technological expertise and innovation
• We won't address issues of recruitment, training, or motivation
• We will focus on
• How to design jobs
• How to support workers and integrate them with facilities, equipment, and tools
• How to organize them to make the production system operate efficiently and promote a satisfied work-force

• Definition: A job is a set of tasks and responsibilities that are to be performed by a worker.
• A job description lists:
• Tasks and responsibilities
• Performance expectations
• General skills needed
• Work conditions (time and place of work)
• Possibly the methods used

• The job content is the set of tasks the worker is supposed to perform, or the set of problem areas for which the worker is responsible.
• For traditional repetitive jobs (e.g., assembly worker) all the required tasks of the job can be clearly listed
• Other jobs (e.g. executive assistant, plant engineer) involve a wide range of tasks, many of which are performed infrequently, and some cannot be described a priori. In these cases we list responsibilities and general problem areas.

• A major consideration in job content design is the degree of task specialization versus task variety

Benefits of Specialization:

• Specialization produces efficiency, up to a point, because a narrow range of tasks performed repeatedly facilitates the development of task specific skills, product knowledge, and a work rhythm.
• Specialization also makes it possible to use lower-skilled workers, and it is easier to train workers with specialized jobs.

Drawbacks:

• If jobs are too narrow and repetitive, workers can become bored, distracted, and demoralized, which results in quality, safety, and productivity problems.
• If workers are trained only for one highly specialized job, there is little flexibility in the use of workers.
• Workers assigned to a single, narrowly designed job are less likely to develop product or process innovations.

• A recent trend in job design is to design jobs to promote job satisfaction, production flexibility, and innovation, while still obtaining the benefits of specialization and repetition.
• The general trend is to organize workers and design jobs in a way that
• Reduces layers of management and pushes decision-making down to the first-line workers
• More fully utilizes the capabilities of workers so their work contributes more value to the production process, rather than treating them as human automatons.

• Three specific approaches have been used (these are not mutually exclusive)
• Job enlargement
• Job enrichment
• Job rotation and cross-training

• Job Enlargement
• "Horizontal" expansion of job tasks
• Worker is assigned more tasks of the same skill level
• Examples:
• Giving a worker at an assembly work-station more assembly tasks
• Having an accountant handle accounts payable as well as accounts receivable.

• Job Enrichment
• "Vertical" expansion of job responsibilities and tasks
• Typically the worker is assigned additional tasks that require substantially different, and often higher-level, skills.
• Examples:
• Having a production worker help design new products or handle customer complaints about quality problems
• Having a production worker do her own job scheduling and quality testing
• Having an accountant prepare budgets and evaluate capital investments, as well as maintaining profit or expense statements.
• Having retail sales associates design product displays or perform purchasing and inventory management functions
• Job enrichment is usually of greatest value when at least some of the added tasks or responsibilities require greater use of the worker's capabilities, such as creativity, pattern recognition, interpersonal communication, or problem-solving.

• Job Rotation and Cross-training
• Job Rotation is an organizational structure whereby workers work in teams and exchange jobs on a periodic basis (as frequently as hourly or possibly daily or weekly).
• Typically the team is responsible for production of an entire product or module, or providing complete service to a customer or customer group.
• Rotation can share the benefits and disadvantages of "good" and "bad" jobs.
• Rotation can create work variety and provide a mix of physically demanding and mentally demanding tasks
• Rotation helps workers understand how their work at one job affects that of other jobs, and promotes process innovation and cooperation.
• Job Rotation requires cross-training of workers, and therefore it is very training intensive.

• Cross-training is the training of workers to perform more than one job competently
• It is inherently a form of job enlargement, and can be a form of job enrichment.
• Cross-training is required for job rotation, but it can be valuable without job rotation because it gives an organization more flexibility in the assignment of workers.
• Example: Corning Inc.'s Blacksburg, VA plant has 200 workers but only one job classification.
• Each worker is trained to perform as many as 15 different jobs.
• There is only one supervisor for every 60 line workers, and one layer of management between the plant supervisor and floor workers.
• At Carrier Corp., machine operators are trained to operate several machines so they can be moved around easily if someone is sick, and they are trained to perform simple maintenance so they can perform many of their own repairs.

• Automation and the Human-Machine Interface
• Production systems require the coordination and compatibility of people, machines, technologies, and facilities.
• Automation can replace humans and eliminate jobs in the short term, but in the longer term automation typically leads to greater employment, requiring greater skill (e.g., people to program and maintain equipment).
• A key process and job design issue is to have the correct mix of automation and people.
• Machines should be used for those tasks which it does best, and humans used for those that humans do best. Machines should not be used simply to replace people. In the past this has resulted in unproductive over-automation.
• In the 1980's especially, many companies over-automated, and are now reducing their automation
• Example: The Blacksburg Corning plant was originally highly automated. It was then redesigned to be a "people" system using simpler machines and people in place of robots for many tasks. The plant is now more flexible and productivity increased over 25% in the first three years.

• Keep the system simple: Use automation only where it provides a real benefit
• Machines are best suited for performing:
• Well-structured, repetitive tasks
• Tasks that require considerable force or speed
• Tasks performed in dangerous or uncomfortable conditions
• Tasks that require very intricate but well-defined sensing, such as temperature or humidity control
• Machines are not as well-suited as humans for:
• Recognizing complex patterns
• Synthesizing information and experience
• Reasoning inductively
• Responding and adapting to new situations
• Being innovative and creative
• Communicating with other humans
• For example, humans can learn from a production process and suggest improvements - machines don't

• The major advantages of automation are
• Low operating costs
• Reliability
• Ability to operate at high speed, with great force, or in hazardous environments
• The disadvantages of automation include:
• High initial cost
• Limited flexibility (most machines are designed to perform a small range of functions and are not easily converted to other uses)
• Lack of feedback to improve the process (beyond simple process control feedback)

• Work Environment and Worker Performance
• Two major aspects of the work environment affect worker performance
• Physical Environment
• Human or organizational environment
• Physical Environment (See Book)

• The Organization of Work and Workers
• Classical division of work and hierarchical reporting structure has created many problems
• Lack of task variety, leading to worker dissatisfaction, turnover, absenteeism, quality problems, etc.,
• Slow decision-making and implementation
• Unclear responsibility for product quality
• Lack of product and process innovation
• New Approach
• Autonomous work team (socio-technical systems) approach
• Workers organized as an autonomous team. Typically responsible for producing an entire product or component, or serving a customer or customer group

• Team normally has control over:
• Design of specific jobs
• Hiring of personnel
• Staffing and scheduling of jobs
• Production scheduling
• Quality assurance
• Purchasing and materials management
• Process improvement
• These teams embody the principles of worker empowerment, decentralized decision-making, cross-training, job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment.
• A significant portion of compensation is tied to team performance, including quality and process improvement.

• Benefits of autonomous work teams

1. Job Satisfaction

• Workers perform a wider variety of tasks, utilize a greater range of skills, and have greater responsibility
• They produce and control production over an entire product, component, or customer

2. Product Quality

• Responsibility for good quality rests with the team; poor quality reflects directly on the members of the team
• As a matter of pride, as well as because it is used to determine compensation, the team has an incentive to achieve good quality
• Note that the team must have the authority to take the actions necessary to achieve good quality

• Peer pressure and performance based pay, along with the preceding factors, promote productivity

4. Flexibility and Responsiveness

• Cross-training required for team organization makes it easier for the group to function when a team member is absent
• Decision-making autonomy and distribution of skills among workers make it easier for the team to respond quickly to production changes and emergencies because the entire team can be focused on solving the problem without the need for several levels of authorization.

5. Continuous Improvement

• Compensation may be tied to improvements
• Workers understand the entire product and process (not just a small part), so they can be see how a change in part of the process can affect the entire process.

• Examples: NUMMI, Saturn, Toyota, Boeing, Corning
• Possible obstacles/costs
• Very training-intensive
• Not only must learn multiple job skills, but must learn teamwork and interpersonal skills
• Middle levels of management typically resist this because their function is eliminated
• Some work environments will not support this; workers and management have to be ready to accept it because it requires major change in responsibilities and authority

URL: http://www.umsl.edu/~jmartini/pomnotes/webjobdesign.htm
Page Owner: Joseph Martinich (Joseph.Martinich@umsl.edu)
Last Modified: October 18, 1998