Work System Design - Lecture 23 - Two-Handed Process Charts

Nov 1, 2026

Uploaded by ahduag

Lecture-23 on Work System Design introduces two-handed process charts as a method-study tool for analyzing operator activity. It reviews earlier method study topics such as outline and operation process charts, plus flow process charts used to evaluate movements, transport, inspections, delays, and layout effects. The lecture narrows the analysis to the worker’s hands, identifying idle time versus simultaneous use, and supports work division between hands. It explains the chart’s definition and where it applies to hand motion and static coordination.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Two-Handed Process Charts

Review of Earlier Method Study Topics

From Process Charts to Operator-Level Analysis

Definition and Purpose of Two-Handed Process Charts

Work System Design Dr. Inderdeep Singh Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Indian Institute of Technology – Roorkee Lecture-23 Two-Handed Process Charts Namaskar friends, welcome to session 23 in our course on work system design and currently we are in the 5th week of our discussion and the topic that we are discussing currently is the method study. Just to have a brief review for 2-3 minutes what we have discussed till now. We have discussed the basic concept of work study and our main focus in the week \#2 and week \#3 was on productivity, that why do we need to improve the productivity. Or why do we need to study productivity, what are the various causes for low productivity, what are the various productivity measurement techniques, what are the productivity improvement tools and techniques, work content determination, then we have also covered certain numerical problems or practical application of the concept of productivity. Then we have seen the basic concept of work study. That why work study needs to be done, what is the work content. What are the reasons for excess work content? How we can eliminate those reasons. So all that was covered in the discussion during work content determination. So in the 4th week we started our discussion slightly related to method study and this is the 5th week and in 5th week today we are going to start session number \#3 of week number \#5 . That is 23rd session in the course and today our target is two-handed process charts. So in method study what we have covered. So we have broadly covered 2 topics, first one is introduction to the concept of work study and then the concept of productivity and in concept of productivity we have seen that there are tools and techniques which can help us to improve the productivity. And when we have to study the work being done, there are 2 major focus areas, now what are these areas, first one is that we need to identify methods which can help us to improve the current method of doing the job and we need to establish a standard time for doing the job using the standard method or the improved or the best method of doing the job or the work. So broadly we have seen that there are 2 words that normally are associated with work system design. The first one is the method study, the second one is the work measurement and currently our focus is method study, within method study if you remember we have already covered the basic definitions of method study. We have already covered the outline process chart or the operation process chart. We have seen that it gives us a bird’s eye view of the operations being done. What are the various process charts symbols we already know? Then in the previous session we have covered the flow process chart and the examples of the flow process charts. So we have seen that flow process chart is slightly more detailed as compared to the outline process chart. We use mostly all symbols of process chart that is operation, inspection, delay, storage and transportation all these symbols we use in case offlow process chart. Whereas majorly in outline process chart or operation process chart we use 2 types of symbols that is operation and inspection. So we have seen 2 types of charts and which type of problems can be solved using these 2 types of charts we have already seen. In flow process chart we have seen that if you change the layout of the organization we can certainly save lot of time in the completion of the operation or we can reduce the material handling. We can reduce the effort of the worker who is performing the task by slightly changing the layout of the plant or the premises or the factory. So this is the background that we have already covered. Now today our focus is two-handed process chart. So now we are coming down. We are bringing our discussion to the level of the worker that what the worker is doing. So if you remember in operation process chart we had overall broad

FAQs

What is the main focus of Lecture-23 in method study?

The lecture focuses on two-handed process charts, explaining how they analyze what the operator’s two hands are doing during work.

How do two-handed process charts differ from outline and flow process charts?

Outline/operation process charts give a higher-level view of operations and inspections, while flow process charts add more detail including transport and delays. Two-handed process charts further zoom in to the operator’s hands and their motion or idle states.

In what situations are two-handed process charts useful?

They are useful when the analysis needs to show how the operator’s two hands move or stay static relative to each other, supporting decisions about dividing work between both hands.

Nov 1, 2026

Uploaded by ahduag