Question

Leena has been appointed as the Operations Manager in a small trading company dealing in garments, with growing online sales. The company has recently rented space in a warehouse to store garments and mail out orders. In order to take over the responsibilities of order fulfilment, Leena promotes an associate, Kushagra to the post of Inventory and Order fulfilment Supervisor. Kushagra has been given the task to assess whether it is best to process orders as they come in or let them accumulate and then to process them in batches. He concludes that accumulating and then processing them in batches is the best way of fulfilling orders in order to minimise cost and maximise customer satisfaction.
Through several readings Leena finds that the standard time taken from the placement of order to the delivery of garments for a batch of 100 pieces is 72 hours. This helped her to determine the labour cost. On the basis of the understanding of concepts of scientific management, identify and explain the techniques used by Leena and Kushagra to improve the performance of the employees.

Answer 1

Various techniques used by Leena to improve the performance of her employees:

• Method Study: The objective of method study is to find out one best way of doing the job. To determine the best way, there are several parameters. Right from procurement of raw materials till the final product is delivered to the customer, every activity is part of the method study. Taylor devised the concept of an assembly line by using a method study. The objective is to minimise the cost of production and maximise the quality and satisfaction of the customer.
• Time Study: It determines the standard time taken to perform a well-defined job. The standard time is fixed for the whole of the task by taking several readings. The method of time study will depend upon the volume and frequency of the task, the cycle time of the operation and time measurement costs. The objective of time study is to determine the number of workers to be employed, frame suitable incentive schemes and determine labour costs.