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Work Study is a field of enquiry that initiated from the work of Frederick Taylor in the 1920's and the well known "scientific management", where principles of science were first applied to the work place. "Taylorism" became a derogatory term in management, often referring to practices that focused exclusively on efficiency and viewed the human worker as a mere robot or automatum. Engineering rather than humans was the focus. Henry Ford's early implementation of the assembly line was based on Taylor's principles. However, many well used methods today such as Total Quality Management, benchmarking, and the process industries as a whole have their origins in the work of Taylor. Certainly modified to include also a concern for the human side of the enterprise and human motivation, these contemporary management systems nevetheless have their roots in "Work Study", and the journal of the week still keeps the name as homage! Some of the articles this week, though dated, are selected as they still have high relevance to production management issues affecting Asia today. The other free access journal this week is the International Journal of Clothing Science & Technology, however, the articles in this journal are not reviewed due to its technical , specialist and limited nature. However many articles in that journal are from Asian researchers or focus on Asian industries, so if that is your area, please visit that journal as well. Just as a reminder, you should note the Volume and Issue Number of the articles you are interested in before entering the database, as there is no search facility for the Journals of the Week - only browse facilities issue by issue are provided for the free download. Productivity 2000: Singapore's Initiative to Maintain Competitiveness K J Kiat Work Study; 40: 1 1991;, Discusses Singapore's Productivity Movement which is aimed at increasing productivity in the increasingly competitive 1990s. Explores the Movement's aims in the following areas: work attitude, skills upgrading, labour-management relations, progressive management practices, and effective manpower use. Concludes that increasing productivity can be likened to running a marathon in that it is a long haul effort where a constant pace cannot be maintained, but unlike a marathon, there is no finishing line. Keywords: Competitiveness, Economic growth, Management philosophy, Productivity, Singapore
Productivity: The Mindef Experience Discusses the management philosophy and productivity principles utilized by Singapore's ministry of defence in the light of that country's limited resources and reliance on people for growth and development. States the guiding principles of the Mindef Productivity Movement, how productivity is defined, personnel participation systems, feedback and evaluation, and Work Improvement Team systems, in addition to publicity and promotion of the movement. Keywords: Armed forces, Human resource development, Management philosophy, Productivity, Singapore
Novel ways to deal with seasonal manpower needs Seasonal businesses have different manpower needs at different times of the year and, to remain efficient, must match manpower availability with manpower need. Common approaches are to maintain a stable workforce, allowing idle time/overtime during slow/busy periods; to maintain a basic workforce, augmenting it by temporary workers during busy periods; and to reduce workdays and pay during slow periods. Looks at novel ways in which some businesses are addressing the seasonal manpower problem.
Keywords: Annualized hours, Demand management, Employees, Planning, Seasonal trends
A comparison of MTM and RTM In recent years, high labour costs and the inconsistency of manual asembly have led to the wider acceptance of robotic assembly in product manufacturing. Planning robot assembly tasks requires a method of estimating robotic cycle time. Identifies some of the relationships between robot assembly time and manual assembly time, in order to develop a method of robot assembly time estimation based on manual assembly times. Uses methods time measurement (MTM) and robot time and motion (RTM) as the basis of comparison. Uses two case studies to evaluate the approach.
Keywords: Assembly, Cycle time, Robotics, Work measurement
Total quality management: key concepts Total quality management (TQM) has been suggested as a means of coping with turbulent change. The strong and simple central focus allows an internal war to be waged on complacency that prepares an organisation for strong external competition. However, a desire to introduce and practise TQM is not sufficient for success. Highlights the main features of a TQM programme, and the critical success factors. In particular, stresses the importance of matching words with actions - completely and continually. This is vital since a failing TQM programme cannot be resurrected.
Keywords: Organisational change, Organisational culture, TQM
Global trends in organizational design Organizations are subject to a variety of constantly changing internal and external influences, such as organizational strategy and environmental conditions. Of these, of particular importance are the development of the global marketplace and increasing global competition, and the emergence of a knowledge-based economy that is characterized by a high level of development of communications and information technologies. In response to these factors, new forms of organization structure have emerged: the horizontal organization, the network organization and the virtual corporation. Asks whether such structures are adequate to meet the constant change of the world into which we are moving, and whether they can meet the needs of organizations in varying situations in different economies in disparate countries and with different cultures.
Keywords: Global marketing, Organizational design, Organizational structure, Trends
Caught disaster: using the layered systems model as a diagnostic tool for wayward software projects This paper introduces The Layered Systems Model and describes how it can be applied to assist project managers to be effective at all stages of project design and delivery. Conventional rational problem solving techniques for difficult projects are supplemented with imaginative and relationship-focused approaches. The Layered Systems Model is a management tool for focusing on different levels of functioning in projects, organisations, and teams. The model acts like a series of "filters to perception" to assist managers to assess how well an organisation is functioning at each level. It can be applied to large organisations, departments, and small work groups or in the case of this paper, software project teams. The paper shows how the Layered Systems Model can happily coexist with the Project Management Institute's eight project knowledge areas to form a powerful diagnostic tool for software projects which are not quite "out of control" but are heading in that direction.
Keywords: Project management, Project control, Teamwork, Model
New developments in organizing around core competences The business environment is continually changing and evolving. This evolution necessitates that business concepts must either change or lose their effectiveness. The core competence approach, as proposed by Prahalad and Hamel in 1990, forms the basis of the competence movement, and it has already begun the process of change. The business community does not act uniformly, and a variety of interpretations and methods of implementation have occurred. Some companies use these concepts to acquire new capabilities from other firms. Managers also disagree on where the emphasis should be placed. There are many facets of what may constitute a core competence. There are some indications that the competence approach will eventually evolve into a distributed competence theory, with an emphasis on innovation, flexibility, and developing employees into a reservoir of skills and capabilities.
Keywords: Business development, Core competences, Employees, Managers
Total productivity management Total productivity management is a particular approach to productivity improvement that aims to bring together an organisational culture with a range of tools and techniques operating at a variety of levels to ensure that there is harmony from overall company strategy through product design, process design and onto the production floor. Explains the fundamental concepts from diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses (using a simple points-scoring technique) to implementation in simple, diagrammatic form providing, in effect, a series of checklists.
Keywords: Organizational change, Organisational processes, Productivity, Systems
Continuous improvement improved There is no one performance improvement methodology or technique which is universally applicable. Analyses the various approaches to performance improvement that have been used over the last decade within manufacturing industry. Uses the lessons to identify the key components of an approach to continuous improvement that can be tailored to a particular organisation.
Keywords: Improvement, Agility, Manufacturing, Organizational change As always we have only skimmed the surface of relevant articles this week and only those that are particularly relevant for Asia-Pacific managers. Many other articles are available as well including those focusing on other countries and international perspectives.
See the related earlier reviews in the area of production at the top of the sidebar. See our Google and Alta Vista Searches below and on the left.
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