Productivity Improvement: Employing Modern Productivity Enhancement Methods

Course Contents, Concepts and Issues

Job Design and Productivity Improvement

• Job Design: An Introduction
• Mechanistic Job Design
• Biological Job Design
• Perceptual Job Design
• Motivational Job Design

Organisational Control Systems: Towards Productivity Improvement

• Modern Control Systems
• Management Information System
• Computerised Information Systems
• Information Speed
• Information Retrieval
• Management Accounting System
• The Import- Conversion –Export Process
• The Import Process
• The Conversion Process
• The Export Process
• Operational Control System
• Service Operation
• Process Scheduling
• Loading
• Sequencing
• Detailed Scheduling
• Inventory Control
• Cost Control
• Quality Control
• Controlling Utilisation of Organisational Resources
• Co-Ordaining As a Control Mechanism
• Mutual Adjustment
• Direct Supervision
• Standardisation of Work Process
• Standardisation of Input-Skills, Knowledge and Attitudes
• Standardisation of Output
• Organisational Structure as a Control Function
• Communication Dissemination
• Decision Making Involvement
• The ‘In’ Inventory
• The ‘Out’ Inventory
• The ‘JIT’ Inventory System
• The KANBAN System
• The Relationship between Quality and Productivity Improvement
• Establishing Quality Objectives
• Stating Precise Objective
• Setting Productivity Objectives in Relation to Other Organisational Objectives
• Relating Objectives to Specific Actions
• Pinpointing Expected Results
• Specifying When Goals Are Expected To Be Achieved
• Distinguishing Between Strategic, Tactical and Operational Objectives
• Establishing a ‘Quality-Throughput Accounting Balance’
• Continuous Improvement Programme
• Just-In-Time (JIT) Compared With Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
• JIT vs. MRP: Component & Material Sourcing Strategy
• The Quality Benefits of JIT vs. MRP
• The Quality Issues Involved In JIT and MRP
• Kaizen or Continuous Improvement
• Quality as a Benchmark for Productivity Improvement
• Focus on the Advocacy of:
•  Philip B. Crosby,
•  W. Edwards Deming,
•  Joseph M. Juran,
•  Shigeo Shingo,
•  Armand V. Eeigenbaum
• Internal and External Environmental Analysis
• Productivity and Strategic Operational Review (SOR)
• Incremental Productivity Improvement
• Communication for Productivity Improvement
• Researches and Development for Productivity Improvement

Understanding the Human Factor, Its Ergonomic Symbiosis and Productivity Improvement

• The Job in Content and Context
• The Individual in an Organisational Context
• The Worker as an Internal Customer
• The Organizational Context
• The Nature of the Task,
• Workload and Productivity Implications,
• The Working Environment,
• The Design of Displays and Controls, And –
• The Role of Procedures
• Competence and Productivity;
• Workforce Skills: Deskilling or Reskilling and Productivity Implications;
• Personality Factors and Productivity;
• Attitude and Productivity Implications;
• Aptitude as Trainability: A Productive Enhancer;
• Nurturing Productivity Enhancers of:
• Skills;
• Attitude;
• Disposition -
• The Organisational Context of:
• Work Patterns;
• The Embedded Culture;
• Available Resources;
• Communications Systems and Patterns;
• Predominant Leadership Styles;
• Employing Productivity Risk Analysis towards Productivity Improvement
• The Symbiotic Relationship between Ergonomics and Productivity Improvement: Exploring the Productivity Benefits of Ergonomic Job Design