Computerized work study approach to factory design

Abstract The optimum design of productive plants is considered to be one of the fundamental factors to realize optimum productivity considering quantity of products, required level of quality, and reduction of total production costs. Work study is considered to be one of the basic tools to deal with the problems of less production and idle time. Thus, recording the reasons and number of occurrences of production delays, conducting the technical statistical analysis of these reasons will lead to proposing the solution of these problems. The objective of the presented paper is to apply a computerized work sampling technique to a production line of piston ring casting to increase its productivity by minimizing the material waiting time between production stages, and minimizing the operators idle time.