In its continual quest to improve productivity, the customer identified an opportunity to combine two job functions. The two production operations in question could not run at the same time, so an operator would have to split his/her time between them. Could one operator run both operations and meet daily production targets? Before making any changes, the case had to be proven to management and the labor union.

IET was enlisted to study the two operations and make a recommendation based on the data. Using continuous time study techniques, IET documented and measured an operator’s work activities on the two operations for an entire shift under normal operating conditions. In addition, IET’s engineer noted the interaction of manual work activities with each machine cycle element to ensure that standard work methods result in maximum operator utilization.

The data demonstrated that one operator working at normal pace could achieve the required daily throughput in less than one shift, thereby leaving enough time to run the second operation for the required duration. IET’s conclusions also revealed the value of automating certain operator functions by quantifying the potential for increasing throughput. The customer used this information to justify combining the two job functions into one.