In industrial engineering

Industrial engineering

Industrial engineering is a branch of engineering dealing with the optimization of complex processes or systems. It is concerned with the development, improvement, implementation and evaluation of integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials, analysis...

, the standard time is the time required by an average skilled operator, working at
a normal pace, to perform a specified task using a prescribed method. It includes appropriate allowances to allow the person to recover from fatigue and, where necessary, an additional allowance to cover contingent elements which may occur but have not been observed.

Usage of the standard time

Time times for all operations are known.

• Staffing (or workforce planning)
  Workforce planning
  Workforce Planning is a continual process used to align the needs and priorities of the organisation with those of its workforce to ensure it can meet its legislative, regulatory, service and production requirements and organizational objectives...
  
  : the number of workers required cannot accurately be determined unless the time required to process the existing work is known.
• Line balancing (or production leveling)
  Production leveling
  Production leveling, also known as production smoothing or – by its Japanese original term – , is a technique for reducing the muda waste and vital to the development of production efficiency in the Toyota Production System and Lean Manufacturing...
  
  : the correct number of workstations for optimum work flow depends on the processing time, or standard, at each workstation.
• Materials requirement planning (MRP)
  Material requirements planning
  Material requirements planning is a production planning and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes. Most MRP systems are software-based, while it is possible to conduct MRP by hand as well....
  
  : MRP systems cannot operate properly without accurate work standards.
• System simulation
  Systems Simulation
  Systems simulation is a set of techniques for using computers to imitate, or simulate, the operations of various kinds of real-world facilities or processes . The computer is used to generate a numerical model of reality for the purposes of describing complex interaction among components of a system...
  
  : simulation models cannot accurately simulate operation unless times for all operations are known.
• Wage payment
  Wage payment systems
  Wage Payment Systems are the different methods adopted by organizations by which they remunerating labour. There exist several systems of employee wage payment and incentives, which can be classified under the following heads :* Time Rate Systems...
  
  : comparing expected performance with actual performance requires the use of work standards.
• Cost accounting
  Cost accounting
  Cost accounting information is designed for managers. Since managers are taking decisions only for their own organization, there is no need for the information to be comparable to similar information from other organizations...
  
  : work standards are necessary for determining not only the labor component of costs, but also the correct allocation of production costs to specific products.
• Employee evaluation: in order to assess whether individual employees are performing as well as they should, a performance standard is necessary against which to measure the level of performance.

Techniques to establish a standard time

The standard time can be determined using the following techniques:

1. Time study,
2. Predetermined motion time systems,
3. Standard data system,
4. Work sampling
   Work sampling
   Work Sampling is the statistical technique for determining the proportion of time spent by workers in various defined categories of activity...
   
   .

Method of calculation

The Standard Time is the product of three factors:

1. Observed time: The time measured to complete the task.
2. Performance rating factor: The pace the person is working at. 90% is working slower than normal, 110% is working faster than normal, 100% is normal. This factor is calculated by an experienced worker who is trained to observe and determine the rating.
3. Personal, fatigue, and delay (PFD) allowance
   PFD allowance
   PFD allowance is the adjustment done to the normal time to obtain the standard time for the purpose to recover the lost time due to personal needs, fatigue, and unavoidable delays...
   
   .

The standard time can then be calculated by using: