Work sampling had its origin in industrial engineering; however, its use in construction has increased greatly during the 1970's and 1980's. Research would suggest that most of the innovation in this field is taking place in the United States. The basic methods of Work Sampling have been developed to suit the peculiarities of the construction site as opposed to the production line or factory where it was first used. The objectives of this report are as follows: 1. To review the existing methods of Construction Work Sampling as well as discuss further aspects and problems which should be considered when undertaking a Work Sampling study. 2. To compare Construction Work Sampling with other methods of measuring productivity. 3. To evaluate by means of a case study the ease of applicability of the sampling methods to a South African construction site, and at the same time to identify differences between the description of the methods in theory and their use in practice. 4. To establish by means of a questionnaire the extent to which Construction Work Sampling methods are already in use in South Africa as well as other related information. Information for this report was obtained from journals, manuals, text books, interviews, and the case study and questionnaires mentioned.

Published Article / This paper analyses work sampling and time study as work measurement methods with the view of employing them in an automated labour performance measurement system. These are compared with respect to Hawthorn effect, labour intensiveness, cost, tediousness and knowledge extensiveness. The analysis proves that work sampling is a better option for developing an automated labour performance measurement system that employs computer vision. Web cameras are used to feed real-time images to a central computer via USB extenders. The computer runs a standalone C++ application that uses a random function to establish when measurements are to be taken. The developed video camera footage is converted into a pixel matrix using OpenCV. This matrix is then filtered and analysed, enabling the tracking of a worker. The data generated is stored in text files. After the work sampling period has elapsed, the data is transferred into Microsoft Excel for analysis. Finally a report of the labour utilisation is generated in Microsoft Excel and then send to the analyst for review.

In the construction industry, onsite labour is one of the most variable and costly factors which affect project profits. Due to the variable nature of construction labour and its correlation with profits, construction managers require a comprehensive understanding of the activities of workers onsite. For project success, it is important that workers are spending the majority of their time installing materials which advance the project. This material installation time is known in the construction industry as “direct-work” or “tool time”. Site management should continuously seek to improve the direct-work rate through the life of the project. A review of the literature indicates that no workface assessment method exists in the literature which provides: (1) a detailed description of worker activities, and (2) a continuous productivity improvement process to help management identify productivity inhibitors affecting site labour, to develop a plan to reduce or eliminate these issues, and to measure improvements as a result of these changes. In response to this need, this research has focused on the development of a workface assessment method called activity analysis. Activity analysis is a continuous productivity improvement process which efficiently measures the time expenditure of workers onsite and identifies productivity inhibitors that management must reduce or eliminate to provide workers with more time for direct-work activities. Six case studies were conducted to verify the feasibility of the activity analysis process. Further, cyclical data from two major construction firms was collected and statistically analyzed to validate the hypothesis that activity analysis can improve direct-work rates. It has been concluded that activity analysis, as a continuous productivity improvement process, is both feasible and when continually applied to a construction site, can significantly improve direct-work rates through the life of a project.

In the construction industry, onsite labour is one of the most variable and costly factors which affect project profits. Due to the variable nature of construction labour and its correlation with profits, construction managers require a comprehensive understanding of the activities of workers onsite. For project success, it is important that workers are spending the majority of their time installing materials which advance the project. This material installation time is known in the construction industry as “direct-work” or “tool time”. Site management should continuously seek to improve the direct-work rate through the life of the project. A review of the literature indicates that no workface assessment method exists in the literature which provides: (1) a detailed description of worker activities, and (2) a continuous productivity improvement process to help management identify productivity inhibitors affecting site labour, to develop a plan to reduce or eliminate these issues, and to measure improvements as a result of these changes. In response to this need, this research has focused on the development of a workface assessment method called activity analysis. Activity analysis is a continuous productivity improvement process which efficiently measures the time expenditure of workers onsite and identifies productivity inhibitors that management must reduce or eliminate to provide workers with more time for direct-work activities. Six case studies were conducted to verify the feasibility of the activity analysis process. Further, cyclical data from two major construction firms was collected and statistically analyzed to validate the hypothesis that activity analysis can improve direct-work rates. It has been concluded that activity analysis, as a continuous productivity improvement process, is both feasible and when continually applied to a construction site, can significantly improve direct-work rates through the life of a project.

Young children begin to draw spontaneously, and their drawings develop in complexity and skill as they become older. Previously, children's drawings have been utilized to assess aspects of emotional and cognitive development. On the other hand, very few studies have used children's drawings as a tool for understanding their language development. The purpose of this study was to examine the potential for using drawing as an assessment tool for language skill. Therefore, this study explored the relationship between pre-kindergarten children's drawing and language development and stability of this relationship over time. This study also examined whether children's English-language status influenced the drawing-language relationship. The study's subjects were 34 children who attended a pre-kindergarten program in a local elementary school located in a Mid-Western university town. These children participated in take-home reading and drawing activities once a week for one school year. Children's drawings that were completed after reading storybooks with their parents served as data documenting their drawing skills. Classroom teachers' observations of the children's language use were recorded on the Work Sampling System's developmental checklists, and this served as data to document their language skills. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that children's drawing skill was a significant predictor to their language skill and explained 10% of the variance in language scores. This finding was consistent at both the beginning and end of the school year. Children's English-language status did not make a statistically significant difference in the predictive relationship of drawing for their language skills. Therefore, this study concluded that children's drawings can be used as a supplementary assessment tool to provide information about children's language skills, regardless of their primary language. However, more than half of the language variance was not identified from this study; this is an area for further investigation.

During the last decades, it has been brought to light that well organized logistics processes have contributed to competitive advantages for companies. Mio AB, a chain store warehouse and the second largest furniture company in Sweden, is operating in the middle of an expansion phase with growing revenue. As a consequence, larger volumes of goods are handled, space utilization become more scarce and the everyday operations within the internal logistics are affected. Therefore, the processes within the warehouse department were measured by performing a frequency study, registering how time was distributed between the different work tasks. In order to fully understand the processes, interviews were held with management and personnel. After analyzing previous research that could help guide to ease the impositions and analyzing the result of the frequency study, wastes were identified and new ways of working were suggested. The result firstly presents how to organize internal logistics operations in chain store warehouses to gain competitive advantage. Secondly, keeping in mind that firefighting stressed situations usually is not sustainable and only eases loads temporarily, long-term sustainability and ethics were addressed. Concluding that in order to optimize internal logistics operations in chain store warehouses and gain a long-term competitive advantage in a sustainable way, are achieved through standardizing work tasks, ensuring commitment of management and personnel and applying systems to serve the people and processes. Lastly it is advised to keep in mind the impact a company have on its surroundings and the importance of engaging in sustainable and ethically friendly operations, in order to achieve long-term competitive logistics.

<p>Непрестаним развојем индустријске производње долазило се и<br />до потребе да се развију разне технике коју су учинке и ефекте<br />производње посматрали статистички и на основу њих<br />дефинисали ефикасност циклуса. Другим речима, примењивале<br />су се разне технике које су омогућавале предузетницима, или<br />инжењерима да сагледају све параметре које говоре да ли је<br />степен искоришћености свих производних капацитета<br />максималан.<br />Метода тренутних запажања омогућава сагледавање и довођење<br />до неких закључних разматрања који се тичу индустријских<br />циклуса. Ово истраживање је потребно да би се сагледала<br />целокупна проблематика око појава у производним циклусима,<br />њихово нумеричко презентовање као и састављање одређеног<br />модела који даје резултате са одређеном тачношћу, јер би<br />својим сагледавањем проблематике указало на могуће застоје<br />који се јављају у производњи са акцентом на конкретне<br />практичне проблеме.<br />Модификована метода тренутних запажања посматра циклусе<br />где је примаран човек, односно где је примаран мануелни рад &ndash;<br />извршилац у непосредном контакту са предметом рада.<br />Посматрањем појава застоја у тим циклусима, посматрају се<br />разлози застоја уколико их има. Са друге стране, посматрају се<br />врсте застоја, њихова учесталост и могућност предвиђања.<br />Другим речима, теоријско посматрање проблема је једна област<br />док је сагледавање чињеница директно са терена нешто друго.<br />Обе области су преко потребне за ово истраживање. Зато овај<br />рад има за циљ да презентује сву проблематику посматрајући<br />три радне производне организације у Србији, различитих<br />капацитета, које се баве производњом и покушати да<br />идентификује све реалне интерне и екстерне проблеме који се<br />тичу производних циклуса.<br />Ова дисертација ће кроз три организационе јединице већег и<br />мањег производног капацитета, покушати да посматрањем<br />њихових циклуса дође до неких закључних разматрања који се<br />тичу проблематике скраћења производних циклуса уз помоћ<br />модификоване методе тренутних запажања. Истраживањем<br />треба наћи нека технолошка решења, или моделе<br />функционисања како доћи до брже и боље организације<br />производних циклуса.</p> / <p>Neprestanim razvojem industrijske proizvodnje dolazilo se i<br />do potrebe da se razviju razne tehnike koju su učinke i efekte<br />proizvodnje posmatrali statistički i na osnovu njih<br />definisali efikasnost ciklusa. Drugim rečima, primenjivale<br />su se razne tehnike koje su omogućavale preduzetnicima, ili<br />inženjerima da sagledaju sve parametre koje govore da li je<br />stepen iskorišćenosti svih proizvodnih kapaciteta<br />maksimalan.<br />Metoda trenutnih zapažanja omogućava sagledavanje i dovođenje<br />do nekih zaključnih razmatranja koji se tiču industrijskih<br />ciklusa. Ovo istraživanje je potrebno da bi se sagledala<br />celokupna problematika oko pojava u proizvodnim ciklusima,<br />njihovo numeričko prezentovanje kao i sastavljanje određenog<br />modela koji daje rezultate sa određenom tačnošću, jer bi<br />svojim sagledavanjem problematike ukazalo na moguće zastoje<br />koji se javljaju u proizvodnji sa akcentom na konkretne<br />praktične probleme.<br />Modifikovana metoda trenutnih zapažanja posmatra cikluse<br />gde je primaran čovek, odnosno gde je primaran manuelni rad &ndash;<br />izvršilac u neposrednom kontaktu sa predmetom rada.<br />Posmatranjem pojava zastoja u tim ciklusima, posmatraju se<br />razlozi zastoja ukoliko ih ima. Sa druge strane, posmatraju se<br />vrste zastoja, njihova učestalost i mogućnost predviđanja.<br />Drugim rečima, teorijsko posmatranje problema je jedna oblast<br />dok je sagledavanje činjenica direktno sa terena nešto drugo.<br />Obe oblasti su preko potrebne za ovo istraživanje. Zato ovaj<br />rad ima za cilj da prezentuje svu problematiku posmatrajući<br />tri radne proizvodne organizacije u Srbiji, različitih<br />kapaciteta, koje se bave proizvodnjom i pokušati da<br />identifikuje sve realne interne i eksterne probleme koji se<br />tiču proizvodnih ciklusa.<br />Ova disertacija će kroz tri organizacione jedinice većeg i<br />manjeg proizvodnog kapaciteta, pokušati da posmatranjem<br />njihovih ciklusa dođe do nekih zaključnih razmatranja koji se<br />tiču problematike skraćenja proizvodnih ciklusa uz pomoć<br />modifikovane metode trenutnih zapažanja. Istraživanjem<br />treba naći neka tehnološka rešenja, ili modele<br />funkcionisanja kako doći do brže i bolje organizacije<br />proizvodnih ciklusa.</p> / <p>Continuous development of industrial production came to the<br />need to develop various techniques and effects which they<br />observed the effects of production statistics and based on these<br />data define the efficiency of the cycle. In other words, they<br />applied various techniques that have allowed entrepreneurs and&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 12px;">engineers to look at all the numerical parameters that would</span></p><p>indicate whether the degree of utilization of production capacity<br />maximum.<br />Work sampling allows review and bringing some concluding<br />considerations concerning the industrial cycle. This research is<br />needed to understand all issues about the appearance in the<br />production cycle, their numerical presentation and preparation<br />of a mathematical model that gives results with certain<br />accuracy, because the problems highlighted their insight on<br />possible slowdowns that occur in production with a focus on<br />specific practical problems.<br />Modified method of current observations observes cycles where<br />a man is primary focus, i.e. manual work &ndash; worker in direct<br />contact with the object of work. By observing appearances in<br />those cycles, we actually observe reasons of slowdowns if there<br />are any. On the other hand, we observe all types of slowdowns,<br />their frequency and possibilities of predictions where they<br />would appear.<br />In other words, the theoretical observation of the problem is one<br />area while the numerical assessment of the facts directly from<br />the field, something else. Both areas are much needed for this<br />research. Therefore, this paper aims to present all the problems<br />by looking at three manufacturing organizations operating in<br />Serbia, various capacities, which are involved in the production<br />and try to identify all real internal and external issues relating to<br />the production cycle.<br />This thesis will through three organizational units of large and<br />small production capacity, try through observation of their<br />cycles come up with some concluding considerations related to<br />the problems reduced production cycle with the help of<br />modified work sampling. The study should find a technological<br />solution or function models how to get faster and better<br />organization of the production cycle.</p>

The study described the development of a standardized, normed, content-valid machine transcription test which could be used to evaluate the ability of secretarial applicants to type a mailable copy of a business letter from a dictated tape recording. The test was based on a thorough job analysis and was pretested using a pilot study with job incumbents to confirm its feasibility. Normative data were developed from 50 job applicants. Interrater reliability was statistically significant (r = .85, p <..05). The test was adopted for use at the headquarters office of a major oil and gas producing company.

On their journey to improve manufacturing processes by implementing Lean and Agile production principles, many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), world- and industry-wide, lose grip after initial efforts, or even abandon their plans later because of many reasons. To support those and similar SMEs and to make their Lean and Agile visions become reality, this thesis report describes the case of a small traditional German wholesale firm in the initial stage of analysing and improving processes, as well as workshop structures according to contemporary literature and manufacturing improvement theories. The results of this report give the management and decision makers of this or similar organisations an idea and valuable recommendations, of how to gain and maintain the advantages of a lean and agile production. Overall it was found that SMEs such as the analysed organisation, need to vigorously implement changes from an overarching systematic level to the very detail of shop floor activities, while equally considering cultural as well as human, technological, and organisational aspects, to be successful.

De flesta tillverkande företag och organisationer drivs i syfte att skapa avkastning på kapital. Vinsten skapas på två sätt. Dels genom differensen intäkt och utgift för en enskild produkt, dels genom antalet produkter man säljer under en viss tidsperiod. När efterfrågan ökar kan den mötas genom att öka produktionen men då kan stora investeringar behöva göras på maskiner, produktionslinor, personal och lokaler vilket riskerar att minska differensen intäkt och utgift för en produkt. Istället för att investera i nytt kan en organisation titta på de processer som finns idag och effektivisera dem för att på så sätt kunna öka mängden sålda produkter utan att riskera minskning av vinst per produkt. Kabe, i Tenhult, tillverkar idag två typer av husbilar, dels halvintegrerade som byggs som ett hus på ett flak, dels helintegrerade där ett helt fordon byggs ovanpå ett tomt chassi. Den stora skillnaden i arbetsmängd som krävs för montering har lett till att Kabe valt att separera dessa två typer på var sin monteringslina i husbilsfabriken. För att få plats med detta flyttades elementtillverkningen, alltså tak, väggar och golv, upp till en annan byggnad och arbetet började sedan med att försöka balansera monteringslinorna. Kabe växer på sin marknad och förväntas öka sin försäljning de kommande åren men elementtillverkningen, som nu befinner sig i elementfabriken istället, har hamnat på efterkälken när det kommer till kapacitetsbedömning vilket har lett till att Kabe inte vet i dagsläget om elementfabriken kommer kunna hänga med när produktionstakten ökar. För att få en siffra på den potentiella kapaciteten i elementfabriken genomförs en frekvensstudie där olika icke värdeadderande aktiviteter identifieras. Dessa ska så småningom kunna elimineras eller, i fallet att de är nödvändiga men icke värdeadderande, minskas. En 5 varför-analys genomförs med synpunkter från operatörer och ledare för att identifiera grundorsakerna bakom de olika aktiviteterna och åtgärdsförslag presenteras för att peka i rätt riktning på vad som kan behöva åtgärdas för att plocka fram denna ”dolda” kapacitet. Resultatet av frekvensstudien visar på att elementfabriken utnyttjas till ungefär 50 % i dagsläget vilket ger en potentiell kapacitet på nästa det dubbla mot nu. Bakomliggande orsaker till detta beror främst på fräsen, obalans mellan stationer i serie, planeringsproblem med operatörer och stationer på grund av den ständigt förändrade efterfrågan hos kunden på monteringslinorna samt att företaget skjutit till mer resurser och ändrat om utan att dokumentera och planera effekterna detta får på verksamheten i det långa loppet men det finns möjliga lösningar på allt. / Most manufacturing companies are run with the purpose of making money. The profit can be created in two ways. On one hand through the difference between the earnings and the expense and on the other hand through the number of products that are sold within a certain time period. As demand increases a company can ramp up their production but this can come at a loss of the need to do big investments through machines, production lines, personnel and buildings which increases the risk of lowering the profit per product. Kabe, in Tenhult, is today producing two different kinds of RVs, on the one hand semi- integrated which are basically a house of the back of a truck and on the other hand fully integrated where you build a vehicle on top of an empty chassis. The big difference in the amount of work needed in assembling has led to Kabe deciding to separate the two different kinds of RVs in their own assembly lines in the RV factory. To be able to fit these lines in the building the manufacturing of certain big components, that is roofs, walls and floors, have been moved to a separate building and the work then commenced in trying to balance the assembly lines. Kabe is growing in their field and is expected to have an increase in sales in the coming years but the manufacturing of big components, which is now located in the component factory, has fallen behind when it comes to capacity evaluation leading to Kabe not knowing if the component factory is going to be able to keep up when the production speed is increased. To get a number on the potential capacity in the component factory a work sampling study is performed where different non-value adding activities are identified. These are eventually supposed to be eliminated or, in the case of them being necessary but non-value adding activities, reduced. A 5 Whys-analysis is performed with input from operators and leaders to be able to identify the root causes of the different activities and different suggestions of action are then presented as a guide towards the right direction to be able to uncover this “hidden” capacity. The result of the work sampling study suggests that the component factory is utilized to about 50 % at the moment which gives it a potential capacity of almost double of today’s capacity. Underlying causes for this primarily depend on the milling machine, imbalance between different serial stations, problems with operator planning due to the everchanging demand from the customer on the assembly lines as well as that the company has put in more resources and done changes without documenting or planning the effects that this will have on the company in the long run but there are possible solutions to all of this.