European Industrial Engineers?

[giankar]

I'm searching for European Industrial Engineers, I have some questions. Is anybody here?

[ewilliams]

Greetings. I'm in Dearborn, Michigan, where I work as a senior technical specialist in IE and teach part-time at the University of Michigan - Dearborn. I have quite a few European contacts in the field. Could you please refine your question a bit to help me with appropriate referrals? Are you in Europe, United States, or elsewhere? Are you a student, and if so, at which university?

[ElenaM]

Hello,

I'm searching for any kind of documentation regarding Industrial Engineering and how work measurement is performed in Europe.
Lately I have read a book titled "Work Measurement and Methods Improvement" by Laurence S. Aft and noticed that in our country things are done a little bit differently.
Here we still use the stopwatch to perform work studies. Is this method obsolete?
I've read a few things about software programs for PDA's and I am interested in purchasing one but at this moment I can't evaluate their performances and make a decision regarding which one is the best.
Unfortunately I am not a spe......t (yet) but in order to become one I need information.
Can you please help me?

Thank you,
Elena

[jclark]

Greetings Elena! Thank you for posting.

I personally have not done much work measurement in Europe but some of my colleagues have. One such example was in the healthcare / medical device field. There were no accomodations made for cultural differences or anything else; the study was performed exactly how it would have been done in the United States.

Laurence S. Aft is regarded as an expert in the area of Work Measurement (he has a monthly column in the IIE magazine on the topic). I am not familiar with the specific book so I won't comment on this, but I can give you some feedback based on my experiences.

The stopwatch method is NOT obsolete, it is used quite frequently. However, there are some advantages to using Predetermined Time Systems (i.e. MODAPTS, MTM, MOST, etc.) over stopwatch. The biggest advantage is that these systems do not require any subjective rating that is prevalent in the stopwatch method. This makes them generally more acceptable in a unionized environment.

When work is not highly repetitive or cycle times are very long, stopwatch or Work Sampling is typically chosen over PTS.

Regarding the use of PDA's, these can make the job of IE much more efficient. A typical 'shop floor' time study will be recorded with paper and pencil. Leaving the analyst to spend a great deal of time entering the data into a spreadsheet to analyze. With the PDA the data is entered in real time, reducing the lead time of the study. Aside from this, Microsoft Excel can be used to organize data in a pinch.

Hope this helps,
Cheers!

[ElenaM]

[QUOTE=jclark;7628]Greetings Elena! Thank you for posting.

I personally have not done much work measurement in Europe but some of my colleagues have. One such example was in the healthcare / medical device field. There were no accomodations made for cultural differences or anything else; the study was performed exactly how it would have been done in the United States.

Laurence S. Aft is regarded as an expert in the area of Work Measurement (he has a monthly column in the IIE magazine on the topic). I am not familiar with the specific book so I won't comment on this, but I can give you some feedback based on my experiences.

The stopwatch method is NOT obsolete, it is used quite frequently. However, there are some advantages to using Predetermined Time Systems (i.e. MODAPTS, MTM, MOST, etc.) over stopwatch. The biggest advantage is that these systems do not require any subjective rating that is prevalent in the stopwatch method. This makes them generally more acceptable in a unionized environment.

When work is not highly repetitive or cycle times are very long, stopwatch or Work Sampling is typically chosen over PTS.

Regarding the use of PDA's, these can make the job of IE much more efficient. A typical 'shop floor' time study will be recorded with paper and pencil. Leaving the analyst to spend a great deal of time entering the data into a spreadsheet to analyze. With the PDA the data is entered in real time, reducing the lead time of the study. Aside from this, Microsoft Excel can be used to organize data in a pinch.

Hope this helps,
Cheers![/QUOTE]

Thank you very much for all the information. As I told you in my previous post here we perform time studies using mainly the stopwatch but we also know about work sampling and Predetermined Time Systems (MTM). At this point I am curious if the matematical formulae presented in this book are used by all the IEs in arround the world when they perform time studies using the stopwatch. I understand that you are not familiar with this book so I hope that maybe you can recommend me another one. I want to read more about this because the formulas that we use are regulated by the authorities, so when we deal with unions we can't use something else (something that is very different).
I hope I made myself clear enough but if I didn't please let me know.

[Pawan]

Here are some Time-Study app for iOS devices like Ipod and Iphone. Hope this can help you in being efficient..

They are called InMotion Time-Study app and InMotion Pro Time-Study

Check it out

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/in-motion-time-study/id413604672?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inmotion-pro-time-study/id424413509?mt=8

[samathapetrik]

this forum is not dead so keep on postings . no body replies on that post since the year 2008. what the matter is i need the personal guides specially i am dealing with th e standards like the ISO standards,bis standards,din standards,jis standards,iso 9001 etc .i am going to benefit of standards like what specification help in industrial revolution .