Case Study - Method Study - Cast Iron Housing Loading and Unloading 2014

Industrial Engineering ONLINE Course - Main Page

Read the explanation of the following concepts in IISE terminology.

METHOD. (1) The procedure or sequence of motions by workers and/or machines used to accomplish a given operation or work task. (2) The sequence of operations and/or processes used to produce a given product or accomplish a given job. (3) A specific combination of layout and working conditions; materials, equipment, and tools; and motion patterns involved in accomplishing a given operation or task.

METHODS ANALYSIS. That part of methods engineering normally involving an examination and analysis of an operation or a work cycle broken down into its constituent parts for the purpose of improvement, elimination of unnecessary steps, and/or establishing and recording in detail a proposed method of performance.

METHODS ENGINEERING. That aspect of industrial engineering concerned with the analysis and design of work methods and systems, including technological selection of operations or processes, specification of equipment type and location, design of manual and worker-machine tasks. May include the design of controls to insure proper levels of output, inventory, quality, and cost. (See WORK DESIGN, MOTION ANALYSIS, MOTION ECONOMY, METHODS ANALYSIS.)

METHODS STUDY. A systematic examination of existing methods with the purpose of developing new or improved methods, tooling, or procedures.
https://www.iise.org/Details.aspx?id=2592


I would like to emphasize the equipment or machine first in explanation of method. In engineering systems, machine and equipment have to come first.

METHOD.  The procedure or sequence of motions by machines and workers  used to accomplish a given operation in a process with a specific combination of equipment, tools, accessories and  materials in a designed work place layout and working conditions. 

In motion and time study, the focus is on motions of the operators. In industrial engineering,  MACHINE WORK STUDY  needs to be another subject that focuses on motions made by machines or the activity done by machines.


In the case study given, a material handling equipment, hydraulic lifter is removed from the method because it is taking more time and operators can load the part conveniently with no additional fatigue in less time.

WORK MEASUREMENT APPROACH FOR PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT IN A HEAVY MACHINE SHOP 

Ishwar Bhiradi and B.K.Singh
5th International & 26th All India Manufacturing Technology, Design and Research Conference (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th–14th, 2014,
IIT Guwahati, Assam, India
http://www.iitg.ac.in/aimtdr2014/PROCEEDINGS/papers/570.pdf

Download the case study and go through it.

Figure 4 gives the elements in the original method.

Part: Differential Housing
Material: Cast iron Gr 25
Operation: SIDE FACE DRILLING OPERATION
Machine: 475.01(BFW-1)

Elements and Break Points

a. Pickup casting from input conveyor, place it on Hydraulic lifter.
Breakpoint: Improper tackling
b. Increase hydraulic pressure, Hydraulic lifter  lifts the component and places it on fixture
Breakpoint: Hydraulic. Oil not available.

Table 1 gives the time for each element and total operation time 6.78 minutes

In the revised procedure, the operator was asked to directly pickup and the put the casting in fixture. The hydraulic lifter mechanism was removed.
This practice is initially monitored for process
disturbances, manual fatigue conditions and quality
parameters. No changes are observed after change in
machine setup. Figure 5 gives the elements of the revised method and Table 2 gives elemental times.


The operation time got reduced to 4.16 min.

Please give your comments.