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The purpose of this paper is to address and solve operational problems of an automotive industry in reaching production target by adopting Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST) as lean and productivity improvement strategies.

In the undertaken case of auto-car rear window assembly line, a recurring production shortfall in fulfilling the daily demand is seemingly due to inappropriate work method. Initial observation of the operations led to suspect certain lapses in initiatives to adopt the time standards, to reduce or eliminate non-value added motions, to design suitable aisle and to assign tasks among workstations in a balanced manner. Subsequently an attempt is made to pinpoint the causes of poor performance and the bottlenecks through process flow analysis and time study by applying MOST. The elemental tasks are closely examined for possible reduction of workstation times by choosing efficient work methods with ergonomic features. Thus appropriate hand tools, jigs and fixture with nominal investment are prescribed to incorporate in the assembly works. The operational changes as steered by the MOST application have enhanced the workflow with a shorter cycle time which led to a substantial increase in productivity.

The productivity of the assembly line is increased by more than 29 percent from the earlier capacity through the MOST application which is deemed to meet the current level of demand.

The adopted framework for recognizing the effectiveness of MOST to expose and rectify the flaws in work methods without much investment is expected to be beneficial for a manufacturer in securing the competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to present a procedure to implement time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) using Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST). In this paper three research questions are addressed: How can MOST be used to frame time equations? How can MOST be used for the improvement of productivity? How can TDABC cost information be used?

Case study research was performed at a manufacturing industry. Data have been collected for overhead distribution. The overhead cost was distributed on activity. Time equations are framed using MOST. Cost of activity is assigned to the product using time equations.

The proposed system simplifies the process of implementation of TDABC using MOST. This system not only determines the cost but also identifies the area where cost is consumed. It also identifies opportunity for productivity improvement.

The case study was conducted in a manufacturing industry. The proposed methodology is suitable for manufacturing industry where standard work procedure is adapted.

The study explains the implementation of TDABC using MOST using a case study and results are meticulously discussed from a management point of view for appropriate decision making.

Besides the articles published so far dealing with the implementation of TDABC, no research was found on the implementation of TDABC using MOST.

The development of labour standards for the single truss tomato production system is examined. Both time study and predetermined time systems, such as the Element Times for Agriculture (ETA) tables and the Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST) tables, are used to determine labour standards for the operations of pruning and harvesting in a single truss tomato production system. The hypothesis is that a predetermined time system could be used to establish greenhouse labour standards, and thus replace the tedious and costly process of direct time study. Such a work measurement system would enable the setting of job standards quickly and accurately. Standardised work models will facilitate cost control of labour operations, and provide data for evaluation of labour costs within future greenhouse system designs. The data indicate that, although the pre‐determined time values varied from measured time study by around 6 per cent to over 23 per cent for pruning, the variation for harvesting ranged approximately from 3 per cent to 7 per cent. The combined results suggest that predetermined time systems can be used effectively to establish greenhouse labour standards for short cycle tasks without the loss of significant accuracy when using an absolute scale.

SAID Sir Harold Wilson when he was Prime Minister, “One man's wage increase is another worker on the dole.” It seems as if that axiom has been forgotten. Members of this Labour Government which, it must be admitted, has striven manfully and successfully to bring inflation down, are now speaking with hopeless fatalism of any army of workless likely to reach over three million in a heartbreaking short space of time.

METHOD STUDY, as the name implies, is that part of Work Study which makes a careful and critical examination of the methods currently employed either in factory or office. It is not concerned with standards of performance or schemes for payment by result. Instead, it aims at cutting out movements or efforts which are not necessary and, in general, improving the methods in use. It uses charts and diagrams; cameras to record still or moving pictures; models and measuring instruments. Uninterrupted attention is concentrated on the study in hand for whatever time it requires.

Proposes a pragmatic approach to product costing. The approach involves two stages, namely the preparatory stage and the production stage. In the preparatory stage, standard routings are first extracted from existing products. A generic activity hierarchy is established according to the analysis of standard routings, where cost drivers for each activity are identified and summarized by appropriate Cost‐related Design Features (CDFs). Then the Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST) is employed to analyze each operation of standard routings to determine the associated standard time. Historical cost data are analyzed to induce the relationships between the CDFs and standard time, namely Time‐Estimating Relationships (TERs). By allocating plant‐wide overhead costs to standard routings, the unit price of standard time is established to indicate Cost‐Estimating Relationships (CERs). A library of material costs is also summarized from existing products. In the production stage, CDFs are first induced from the schematic of a new design. Then a “dummy process plan” for this design can be inferred and used to retrieve the associated TERs to determine its time estimate. Once a standard time has been estimated, CERs can be applied to compile the total product cost by adding the estimated material costs. A case study conducted in an electronics enterprise is also reported.

It will take some time before the value of the recent Production Exhibition held in London can be fully assessed, but there is little doubt that this new departure in exhibitions has left its mark.

THAT was an extraordinary statement by an anonymous “government computer specialist” that was reported in The Guardian recently. He was referring to the threat of strike action by the 1,500 members of ASTMS employed by ICL on users' maintenance work.

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

TO all our readers we can wish a happy and prosperous New Year with greater confidence than usual that the coming months will translate the familiar hope into reality. The reason for that optimism is National Productivity Year. There is growing evidence that the public understands and appreciates its central theme. Naturally the official Guildhall opening attracted wide publicity. Since then it has been reinforced through the addresses given by prominent personalities at meetings up and down the country; meetings which will continue and build up a favourable climate in industry.