Methods, Standards and Work Design B. W. Niebel and A. Freivalds 11th ed.,  McGraw-Hill, 2003 ISBN 0-07-246824-6 • Why This Book Was Written • Organization of the Text and Course Material • Supplementary Material • Online Help • How This Book Differs From Others

Why This Book Was Written

The objectives of the 11th edition have remained the same as for the 10th - to provide a practical, up-to-date college textbook describing engineering methods to measure, analyze, and design manual work. The importance of ergonomics and work design as part of methods engineering is emphasized, not only to increase productivity but also to improve worker health and safety and, thus, company bottom-line costs. Far too often industrial engineers have focused solely on increasing productivity through methods changes and job simplification, resulting in overly repetitive jobs for the operators and increased incidence rates of musculoskeletal injuries. Any cost reductions obtained are more than offset by the increased medical and Workers Compensation costs, especially considering today’s ever-escalating health care costs.

Also, with the continual decline of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. and an increase in the importance of the service sector, a chapter on the cognitive aspects of work, information processing, and the human-computer interface have been included. Additional examples and case studies showing applications with the service industry have been provided. Some topics of lesser importance or those that have been supplanted by technological changes have been reduced in scope. However, the eleventh edition still provides a continued reliance on work sampling, time study, facilities layout and various flow process charts for students entering the industrial engineering profession and to serves as a practical, up-to-date source of reference material for the practicing engineer and manager.
 

Organization of the Text and Course Material

The eleventh edition was laid out to provide roughly one chapter of material per week of a semester-long introductory course. Although there is a total of 18 chapters, Chapter 1 is short and introductory, much of Chapter 7 on cognitive work design may be covered in other human factors courses, and Chapter 15 on standards for indirect and expense work may not need to be covered in an introductory course, leaving only 15 chapters to be covered in the semester.

A typical semester plan, chapter by chapter, might be as follows:
 

Chapter	Lectures	Coverage:
1	1	Quick introduction on the importance of productivity and work design, with a bit of historical perspective
2	3	A few tools from each area (Pareto analysis, job analysis/worksite guide, flow process charts, worker-machine charts) with some quantitative analysis on worker-machine interactions. Line balancing may be covered in other courses.
3	3	Operation analysis with an example for each step.
4	4	Full, but can gloss over basic muscle physiology and energy expenditure.
5	4	Full.
6	4	Basics on illumination, noise, temperature and, perhaps, two other topics as desired. Safety and OSHA may be covered in another course.
7	3	Coverage depends on instructor's interests.
8	3	Three tools: value engineering, cost-benefit analysis, cross-over charts, job analysis and evaluation, and interaction with workers. Other tools may be covered in other classes.
9	2-3	Basics of time study.
10	1	One form of rating
11	2	First half of the allowances that are well established.
12	1-2	Coverage of standard data and formulas depends on instructor's interests
13	3	Only one predetermined time system in depth.
14	2	Work sampling.
15	1	Coverage of indirect and expense labor standards depends on instructor's interest.
16	2	Overview and costing.
17	3	Daywork and standard hour plan.
18	3	Learning curves, motivation, and people skills.

The recommended plan covers 44-46 lectures. Some instructors may wish to spend more time on any given chapter, for which additional material is supplied, e.g., work design (Chapters 4-7), and less time on traditional work measurement (Chapters 8-16) or vice versa. The text allows for this flexibility.

Supplementary material

The eleventh edition of this text continues to focus on the ubiquitous use of personal computers as well as the Internet to establish standards, conceptualize possibilities, evaluate costs, and disseminate information. A website, hosted by the publisher at http://www.mhhe.com/niebel-freivalds, furthers that objective by providing the educator with extensive on-line resources. The site includes an updated instructor's manual with electronic copies of necessary forms, additional practice problems, case studies, and suggested laboratory exercises. DesignTools version 3.0, a ready-to-use software program for time study, work sampling, standard data, costing, etc., appears both on this site as well as the publisher's site. A special new feature is the addition of QuikTS, a time study data collection program. The program is downloaded via hot synch to a Palm device (m105 or higher) and used to collect time study data. The data is then uploaded directly to the time study form on DesignTools for easy and accurate calculation of standard time.

On-line Help

This Web site provides on-line background material, including electronic versions of forms, practice exams, solutions, downloadable revisions to the software, and up-to-date information on any errors found or corrections needed in this new edition. Suggestions received from individuals at the universities, colleges, technical institutes, industries, and labor organizations that regularly use this text have helped materially in the preparation of this eleventh edition. Further suggestions are still welcome, especially if any errors are noticed. Please simply respond to the OOPS!button on the Web site or by e-mail: axf@psu.edu. As with any Web site, this one will also be continually evolving.

How This Book Differs From Others

Most textbooks on the market deal strictly either with the traditional elements of motion and time study or with human factors and ergonomics. Few textbooks integrate both topics into one book, or for that matter, one course. In this day and age, the industrial engineer needs to consider both productivity issues and their effects on the health and safety of the worker simultaneously. Few of the books on the market are formatted for use in the classroom setting. This text includes additional questions, problems, and sample laboratory exercises to assist the educator. Finally, no text provides the extensive amount of online student and instructor resources, electronic forms, current information, and changes as this edition does.