Techniques of scientific management

Keeping tools nearby is not enough if body movement is still useless. Exam tip: treat motion study as detailed movement analysis.

The governing management principle is clarity and consistency in setting performance standards and reward rules. The worker has produced exactly the standard, so the case is neither above-standard nor below-standard. If the wage policy does not specify the equal case, management should clarify or formally define the applicable rate before making a discretionary payment. Therefore, option A is correct. Automatically choosing the low rate may unfairly penalise the worker, while automatically choosing the high rate may grant an unapproved benefit. Option D concerns an unrelated routing issue. A clear policy prevents disputes and ensures that similar workers are treated consistently.

The governing concept is that a scientifically determined target must be efficient, safe, and sustainable, not merely fast for a short period. A lower actual time may appear to justify a higher target, but very high fatigue indicates that the pace may harm health, quality, attendance, or long-term productivity. Management should therefore examine fatigue levels, rest requirements, error rates, and whether the performance can be maintained over normal working periods. Option A is correct. Product colour, bank credit, and customer age do not test the relationship between work time, human capacity, and sustainable output. A target should be revised only after this balance is established.

Process route is method study and variants reduction is simplification. Exam tip: combine multiple technique clues.

Uniform tool height is standardisation and rest pauses are fatigue study. Exam tip: catch combined clues.

Inspector checks final product defects. Exam tip: identify checking role first and cause later.

Machine condition like calibration is linked with repair boss. Exam tip: separate checking and correction.

Quality standards are necessary with quantity incentive. Exam tip: check high output and quality together.

Motion study seeks the best way of performing a task by removing unnecessary movements, while time study fixes the time required for the selected method. If the improved method reduces the best attainable time from 9 minutes to 6 minutes, the earlier time standard may no longer represent the current method. It should therefore be reviewed and, after checking fatigue, normal pace, quality, and allowances, revised if appropriate. Option A is correct. The result does not make fatigue study irrelevant, does not end standardisation, and does not prove that simplification is wrong. Instead, it shows that related techniques must be coordinated.

Implementation documents should be updated after simplification. Exam tip: check follow up action.

To find the standard time per unit, divide the total time by the number of units produced: \(600 \div 50 = 12\) minutes per unit. Hence, 12 minutes is correct. If the time were 10 minutes per unit, 50 units would take only 500 minutes, not the given 600 minutes. Exam tip: in time-study numericals, start with “total time ÷ total units.”

Accepted output excludes units kept on quality hold because they have not yet been approved. Therefore, accepted output = 140 - 8 = 132. Here, 140 is the total output, while 148 incorrectly adds the held units instead of excluding them. Exam tip: in such questions, first separate quality-hold, rejected, or defective units from total production.

Removing process steps is linked with method study. Exam tip: separate speed and method improvement.

The time and cost clerk maintains records of the time spent and the actual cost incurred in production. Therefore, high output alone does not show real productivity when the cost is also high; this record is needed to assess efficiency. A route clerk is concerned with the sequence and route of work, not with cost records. Exam tip: associate the time and cost clerk with recording both time and production cost.

Material route and process flow are matters of method study. Exam tip: separate material movement and body motion.

Functional foremanship needs coordination along with specialisation. Exam tip: remember limitation of multi boss system.

The best method should not only be fast but also safe and quality based. Exam tip: balance efficiency with safety.

Even with proper rest useless movement can create fatigue. Exam tip: check fatigue and motion interaction.

A bottleneck is an issue of the whole process. Exam tip: connect process bottleneck with method study.

Without transparency even a scientific standard may create resistance. Exam tip: see standard setting and communication together.

This shows combined clues of functional foremanship standardisation motion time and fatigue. Exam tip: combine multiple clues.

The route clerk specifies the sequence of operations, while the instruction card clerk provides the written instructions for doing the work. Since both are planning-side roles, an updated route sheet alongside outdated instructions indicates weak coordination between them.

The gang boss prepares the work and ensures that the necessary equipment and tools are ready before operations begin. Since the route and materials are in order but the fixture is not ready, the gang boss's preparation role is the relevant one.

The speed boss focuses on maintaining the prescribed pace of work, while the inspector checks the quality of the output. Rising rejections point to a need for the inspector's quality-checking role alongside the speed boss.

The inspector identifies defects, but the repair boss is responsible for keeping machines and tools in proper working condition. Correcting a machine calibration problem therefore falls under the repair boss's role.