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Confrontation between techniques of time measurement

Fernanda Assef (Department of Production Engineering, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Centro Politécnico – Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Brasil)
Cassius Tadeu Scarpin (Department of Administration, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Jardim Botânico – Jardim das Américas, Curitiba, Brasil)
Maria Teresinha Steiner (Department of Production Engineering and Systems, Pontificia Universidade Católica do Paraná – Prado Velho, Curitiba, Brasil)

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management

ISSN: 1741-038X

Article publication date: 11 April 2018

Issue publication date: 23 May 2018

587

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a precise comparison between a pre-determined time rules and the evaluation performed with the help of a manual chronometer using data from a line assembly in an automotive industry besieged in the state of Paraná, Brazil. Nowadays, it is possible to verify several tools of measurement of task times, some taking less time and causing less wear of the evaluator than others, but not being in accordance with the real conditions of the workers of a certain industry.

Design/methodology/approach

The developed paper has its methodology based on two methods of time analysis, one of them being an adaptation of the MODular Arrangement of Predeterminated Time Standard (MODAPTS) method – called MODAPTS 2. This method is used by the industry in analyzed in this work and the other through the use of simple manual timing, through the digital timer, of the stages developed in a workstation.

Findings

The study shows that for each operation analyzed, thus presenting a situation of minimum waste, it becomes possible to judge which reasons exist for the operator during manual timekeeping not to reach the optimum times generated by the system of pre-determined times and movements (PMTSs) questioned.

Research limitations/implications

This study is conducted on an automotive enterprise in a period of confidentiality, which means that only a single workstation is able to be studied. This means that the comparison obtained between the time measurements methods used, and the evaluation of the MODAPTS is carried out with the best possible movements and gestures, disregarding then that the wastes can still be postulated to the whole assembly line.

Originality/value

With the automation in industry, where assemble tasks are usually developed manually, it is believed possible to discard the option of measuring task times in its classic and manual form, using a timer, yet during this process, there will be variables that may not be considered by pre-determined measurements methodologies. The work developed by this paper presents different variables that are not examined by the methods of PMTS, not frequently seen in the literature, as well as the difference that occurs between the measurement of times with stopwatch and the use of PMTS, which, in its original form, disregards the wastes that the operator has in their movements.

Keywords

Citation

Assef, F., Scarpin, C.T. and Steiner, M.T. (2018), "Confrontation between techniques of time measurement", Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 789-810. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-12-2017-0253

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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