Since the beginning of humanity, man, through the use of his own initiative and creativity, has sought ways to simplify all the activities he carries out within his productive work, regardless of what his objective is.
At the business level, the concept of Work Simplification is nothing more than the work that is constantly carried out through the use of organized plans, which serve to apply better techniques that facilitate the execution of tasks.
From an administrative point of view, Work Simplification is any method, device or resource that helps to decrease or reduce the amount of effort required to perform a given task and is fundamentally conceived as a permanent task in order to minimize ordinary tasks. typical of any organization.
Among some of the objectives of Simplification of work at the organizational level are the following:
- Minimize the effort required to carry out a certain task, be it mental or physical.Improve organizational functioning, through methods such as the redistribution of functions, the elimination, reduction and combination of phases of an activity or work and the leveling or tabulation of work. Optimization and use of available resources. Improve the flow or sequence of work within all the areas that comprise it. Reduction of the number and cost of administrative operations, by reducing procedures and combining, union or elimination of printed forms. Better use of human resources, by reducing unnecessary travel and time. Staff satisfaction with their work and greater disposition of the same when entrusting them with a job or task. Improves supervision,since the personal initiative of the worker is stimulated. Better attention to the public, by reducing the time dedicated to document processing activities and routine work. Renewal of the employee's interest in his work, resulting from a clearer understanding of the objective of his homework and its relationship to other jobs within the office.
The Simplification of work, despite being an eminently logical and common sense task, must also be supported by administrative techniques that can help understanding and facilitate its application.
To achieve a more effective application, many techniques have been developed that facilitate the work of analysis and studies that are carried out to achieve the simplification of the work, they are applied sequentially and at the discretion of the researcher, which can help to understand or question each of the aspects. evaluated, the most well-known and accepted being the following.
Measurement of work:
Indicates the quantity, volume, and consistency of the work being done.
Having accurate data on workload often means the difference between a realistic and a theoretical solution. Knowing how a certain amount of work output is obtained, the methods used to carry it out can be improved, the task assignment can be readjusted, the workload is generally alleviated and congestion can be eliminated. It also helps to quickly detect problems, indicating where there is unequal responsibility.
Measuring administrative work helps set a schedule, plan, or program that restores or maintains the balance in the business for greater efficiency. It also helps to detect bottlenecks or bottlenecks and to verify personnel requirements.
Work distribution table.
The basic principle of good administration is the maintenance of a good distribution of work, so that all the personal and labor powers of employees are properly used. Whenever there are two or three people working together, the problem of the distribution of functions will arise, so the work distribution graph should be applied.
This table is the tabulation of the work carried out by the employee within a certain group or office. The elaboration of the same is the first step in the work simplification program, it is the indicator of the weak points, as well as those that must be studied carefully, applying the techniques of the program.
This distribution chart shows the work that is carried out in an office, which employees carry out the various activities, as well as the time necessary for their execution. It allows a more efficient redistribution of work.
Time and movement studies:
To carry out an adequate measurement of work, it is necessary to carry out time and movement studies for each of the processes and their component activities, as well as for the independent functions carried out within the area.
The methodology is simple, as its name implies, it is to measure the effective time in which each activity, function and / or process is carried out and to determine, under statistical parameters, the efficiency with which they are being carried out.
It is based on the principles of line balance and the economy of movements, which refer to the distribution of work, the use of the hands and the human body and the design and use of tools in order to make the least effort possible.
Procedures or processes diagram.
The procedure diagrams help analysts to fully understand the current procedures of an agency or office and also serve to search for improvements, as well as allowing the procedures to be discussed more effectively with operating personnel.
Describes a list in sequence of the activities that make up the process under study and in parallel uses five figures distributed in independent columns, which demonstrate the operational, transport, inspection, storage and waiting activities, their interrelation and duration times. of every one of them.
The work distribution chart shows what is being done in an office, as well as the distribution of tasks among employees; while the process diagram shows how work is done in an office?
Flowcharts:
Undoubtedly, they arose as a consequence of the diagram of procedures or processes, their difference lies in the fact that the list of activities that make up the process is not carried out, but rather that they are described directly within the figures that have been designed to illustrate it.
For its elaboration there are around fifteen figures, which in turn serve as the basis for their design, however it is common to find different figures created by the researcher, depending on the degree of complexity of the processes or the creativity you want introduce into them.
The figures are interrelated by means of lines, which help to outline and visualize the relationship of dependency between the component activities of the process in general and those responsible for carrying them out.
Graph of the physical distribution of the office and distribution in plant:
The physical distribution chart of the office aims to optimize the work circle, distributing the positions appropriately for each of the activities that must be carried out, using the best possible combination, adapting the furniture and equipment within the available space in the most efficient way. rational, to achieve the objectives of the office avoiding waste of time.
For its part, the distribution in the plant is the organization of the physical space in which the resources that will be used to manufacture a good or service are located and which also consists of determining the location of the work sites of the machinery, equipment and materials in general, taking into account the possible increase in the level of demand and installed capacity.
Both techniques pursue the same objectives, the fundamental difference is that the physical distribution of the office is based on administrative jobs, while the plant distribution is based on machinery and equipment and materials.
Stroke diagram:
The route diagram is a basic technique to carry out the physical distribution of the office and / or distribution in the plant, it is based on the search for the facilitation of the work flow through the reduction of unnecessary transport activities and the analysis of the transfer of personnel, materials, products and stationery in general within the integral areas of the organization.
Developing the route diagram helps to visualize why there are idle times and bottlenecks that do not allow processes to flow efficiently within the offices, production plant or company in general.
Gantt chart:
It is a method of planning and programming, it is also called a bar graph and its purpose is to control the simultaneous execution of various activities that are carried out in coordination. It consists of a double-entry matrix that takes the duration time in the columns and the lines identifying activities.
For each activity, a bar is marked that begins in the column corresponding to its start date and ends in the column corresponding to the date scheduled for its completion, so that the length of the line represents its duration.
It establishes the order of the execution of the activities and the relationship of dependency that exists between each one of them, also allows the review and control between what is executed and what is planned.
Cpm graph:
CPM is an effective, critical path method for planning, scheduling, and controlling all kinds of projects. Its basic structure consists of a diagram or network of arrows that graphically, logically and sequentially represent the development of the activities or tasks that make up the project, with a view to saving time, efficiently using available resources, and previously indicating bottlenecks.
Its purpose is to determine the earliest possible time in which all activities that reach a given event can be completed, the longest amount of time of all activities that converge in an event, is calculated from left to right and in progressive adding to the initial time the time of the subsequent activity.
It also determines the maximum time or last acceptable date in which an event can be carried out without delaying the total project, it represents the shortest amount of time an event lasts, it is calculated from right to left in a regressive way, subtracting the times of each activity.
Plot pert:
PERT is a technique used for the planning, programming and control of production processes provided with quantitative factors. As the CPM is based on the study of the critical trajectory, on the graph of arrows that represent the work that must be carried out to achieve an objective, distinguishing itself from other techniques by the degree and use of statistics.
It is oriented towards evaluating the progress of a project, reveals its main real or potential problems, provides precise information on its status, predicts the likelihood of achieving the objectives and determines the shortest time in which it can be carried out.
Like the CPM, it studies times to carry out the analysis, which are divided into normal time, which is the time it would take to perform the task or activity when there are normal working conditions; Optimistic time is the one that would be used to carry out an activity under the assumption that more favorable conditions arise, without difficulties or complications; Pessimistic time is the one that will be needed to carry out the activity if difficulties, complications or unforeseen delays arise; and estimated or expected time, which is the one obtained from the probability resulting from the statistical interrelation of the normal, optimistic and pessimistic times.
