1. Introduction<

This Worksheet provides guidance for conducting a job/task analysis and recording data. Job/task data collection form

Where do you start?

• You should always start with an understanding of the job purpose or goals and of the job/task standards. (you'll be amazed how many people go through the motions of a job withou really understanding what they are doing or why.)
• Analysis of an existing job, start by observing people doing hte job or interviewing persons who have done the job to detemine the job steps (method); then for each step identify:
  • Where the task is performed
  • The materials Used
  • The equipment/tools used
  • Safety/health concerns
• Proactive analysis of a job that has not yet been performed, you will need to start with information about possible materials, tools and work environemnt and construct the methods.
• As you will see, there are many factors that can affect how a task is performed and these may vary from one setting to another and over time.

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2. Job/task analysis concepts

1. Purpose:
   1. Describe task with sufficient detail so that others can be instructed or trained to consistently perform that task the same way with the same materials and equipment and under the same conditions without skipping necessary or adding unnecessary steps.
   2. Help persons performing tasks to identify variations that require special attention to achieve task goals.
   3. Assess physical and mental job/task demands that may affect work performance and worker safety and health.
   4. A job analysis is more than just a recipe -- it should also include information about how the ingredients are combined.

2. Jobs/tasks:
   1. Refers to a set of actions or steps that are performed to achieve a specific objectives or goals in a given setting by given people.
   2. Jobs/tasks activities may be performed in various settings or "contexts" for various reasons.
   3. They may be performed as an employee for someone else or for one’s self or may be performed for personal reasons related to activities of daily living, recreation or leisure.
   4. “Task” refers to a group or set of activities performed to complete a specific goal.
   5. “Job” refers to one or more tasks that share common goals. "Job" carries the connotation of something that is done form an employer versus something done for personal reasons.

3. Job/task analysis refers to the process of determing how a job task is performed:
   1. Specific actions or steps required to complete a given task.
   2. Job actors that affect the how a task is performed and its outcome.
   3. Worker or user factors (physical & mental capacities, training) that affect how a task is performed
   4. It may examine:
      1. The time required to complete a task to a given Standards.
      2. Physical and mental stresses on persons doing the task.
      3. Safety concenrns for workers, consumers and others.
         1. Job/task analysis does not necessarily include design recommendations, but it is a prerequisite for design.

   5. Discuss the 1) objectives, 2) important task factors, and 3) important worker/user factors for each of the examples below. How do these considerations vary from one context to another?

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3. Job/task Title & Goals

Job/task title

1. Should be descriptive, e.g., "clean pots and pans" versus versus "do dishes."
2. Should be specific, e.g., "complete vascular anastomoses between donor and host tissue" versus "transplant tissue."

Purpose/objective/goals

1. Should answer the following questions?
   1. Why is this work to be performed?
   2. What are the deliverables or desired outcomes -- paid or unpaid?
   3. How does a superviosr or customer know when the job has been completed satisfactorily?
2. Should indicate how much time is required to complete job/taskAnalyis
   1. Should include the work quantity per hour per worker or number of workers (work team or group)

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4. Job/task Standards

• The quantity of work that can be produced to given standards in a given amount of time by a given number of workers
• measurable
• Categories
  1. manufacturing -- Number of physical parts completed to given standards in a given time.
     • Intall two wheels per minute on cars
     • replace four tires in 30 minutes
  2. Enginnering/Design -- Gather and process information and produce design specifications
     • Design a standing work station for persons ranging form 5%tile female to 95%tile male stature
  3. Management -- Establish work goals, identify workers or other providers, monitor work, safaty envrionmental and financial concerns.
     • Hire and train worker to clean houses, estimate cost per house, verify quality of work,
  4. Service -- completion of tasks that directly satisfy needs of individuals or organizations.
     • Assist customers with setting up internet service for smart phone
     • Answer customer questions about medical billing
     • Provide education: basic math and reading skills for middle school youth.
     • Provide child care: care for middle school youth between 3PM and 5PM
     • Administer vaccination

Ringel R: When Do We Actually Need to Meet in Person? The Harvard Business Review,July 26, 2021

Discuss how you could establish measureable work standards for each of examples below

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5. Materials and Parts (hardware & software)

• Things that become part of the product or a by-product
• Things that people change -- physycial objects, information
• Thhings that are converted to a deliverable
• Hardware, ingredients, information
• Can be other people, e.g., patients, customers, students, etc.

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6. Tools

1. Things that are used by the human to perform the job task, but do not become part of the product
   1. Hardware, software, information, documents, protective equipment
   2. Other People (clinical, service job/task)
2. Equipment/tools & factors that affect worker/user performance
1. Size, shape, mass, density, power, action
2. Location, orientation
3. Organization
   1. spatial relationship between worker/user and job/task
   2. Affects location of equipment and materials
   3. Affects worker's/user's ability to see, reach and use equipment and materials.

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7. Environmental Factors

1. General environment, inside, outside, etc.
2. Specific location, e.g., shop, office, laboratory, clinic, park, motor vehicle, etc.
3. How materials and equipment are arranged with respect to the worker/user
4. Physical environmental factors can interfere with the gathering of necessary information and exerting necessary control actions. Air quality can interfere with mental and physical capacities.
   • Lighting
   • Visability
   • Movement/vibration
   • Heat/cold
   • Oders
   • Air quality
5. Pyscho/social factors can interfere with the the worker/users ability to process information and make objective decisions.
   • Co-workers
   • Supervisors
   • Customers
   • Family

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8. Workspace Layout

1. Affects posture, movement patterns, ability to see, be seen, hear, be heard
2. Type of work space, e.g., desk work, laboratory bench or hood, medical clinic, hospital ward, motor vehcile, construction site, park trail, boat deck, etc.
3. Placement of work objects and workers, e.g., along assembly line, next to patient, on ground, in chair, in bed, on bench, on assembly line, etc.
4. Workplace layout: Scale drawing -- 2D or 3D; sketches, maps, satellite images, physical models
5. Ford, no verbal or blueprint man, insisted on having scale models of machine tools, conveyors, windows, pillars, and floor space, so that these could be moved around to test ideas about production, … Thomas P. Hughes (2004) https://books.google.com/books?id=-Hn_o1F5uL0C

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(a)	(b)
(c)	(d)

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8. People hwo perform or may perform the job/task

The discussion of human factors after the task factors does not mean that human factors are less important that task factors. Identification of task factors and corresponding task demands will facilitate the idenfificaiton of relevant human factors, e.g., Hand strength verusus age or gender.

• Selected factors associated individuals' ability to complete various task, e.g.,
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Size
  • Strength
  • Walking speed
  • Vision
  • Hearing
  • Smell/taste
  • Physical and mental impairments
  • Education
  • Training
  • Culture/values
  • Fatigue
  • Injuries & illnesses
• Do not generalize on the basis of age or gender. Just because there age and gender are associated with strength does not mean that all old people are weaker than all young people or all females are weaker than all males.
• Normal Performance -- should be based on all or most possible workers/users -- not averages,
• Working at 100% means working at a level achievable by 100% of all qualified workers or consumers

  Examples:

  Normal walking speed

  Age	female	male
  20	1.39±0.15	1.41±0.18
  30	1.45±0.09	1.42±0.13
  40	1.46±0.16	1.39±0.16
  50	1.39±0.23	1.40±0.15
  60	1.35±0.20	1.30±0.21
  70	1.33±0.20	1.27±0.21

  Data based on 230 healthy volunteers. Gait was timed over a 7.62 m expanse of floor. Actual and height normalized speed were determined (1 m/s = 3.281 ft/s)

  Bohannon, Richard W. "Comfortable and maximum walking speed of adults aged 20—79 years: reference values and determinants." Age and ageing 26.1 (1997): 15-19.

  1. How much time would you allocate for all of the above to walk an average of 50m to enter or exit an auditorium?
  2. How much time would you allocated for 70 year old plus males and females to walk an average of 20m to or from their seats from the front of an airplane?
  3. How would use use these data to determine how much advance boarding time is required for persons in the 70+ age group to board an airplane?

• Reach

  What would you use for the normal reach distance (with no bending or twisting) for grasping a pencil from the surface of a bench:
  1. 75cm above floor level?
  2. 100cm above floor level?

How would would the following considerations and factors affect noraml performance:

• People working for an employer?
• People working for themselves?
• Consumers?
• Eduction?
• Recreation?

Job/task demands versus worker/user Capacities

People often utilize compensatory behaviors to cope with hig or excessive job/task demands, e.g.,

• Shortening steps on a slippery surface
• Changing driver seat postiion with fatigue
• Switching load, e.g., suitcase, from one hand to next with fatigue
• Hand, shoulder and back pain from handling materials over the couse of workshift. Localized fatigue
• Slowing down with fatigue
• Limping to reduce pain from a strained muscle or ligament

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10. Work Methods

• A list of the steps or worker/user actions necessary for achieving the job/task goals
• Big steps, e.g., load machine, enter data.
  • Often can be decomposed into smaller
  • Top down
  • "Hierarchical Task Aanalsyis" or "HTA"
• Small steps
  • e.g., move, grasp perceive, or decide,
    • "Therbligs" Gilbreth Methods Analysis
    • Brick laying, scaffolds, materials organization
  • steps can be aggregated into large steps as needed -- botoom up Studies have shown that "move to get," "grasp," "move to put," and "put/positon" account for most of the actions required to complet most assembly type work.
    Aberg, U., 1963. Frequency of occurrence of basic MTM motions. Journal of the MTM Association, 8, pp.23-28.

Therbligs

Reach Grasp Preposition Move Use Assemble Disassemble Release Search

Select Position Hold Inspect Plan Unavoidable delay Avoidable delay Rest to overcome fatigue Look, listen, or feel

Standard Methods

• An agreed on method for performing a given task the same way under the same conditions.
• Helps insure that job/task goals are achieved
• Helps insure that the workers/users do not skip important steps
• Helps insure that workers/users do not do things that they should not do
• Facilitates training and retraining
• Provides a "benchmark" for finding a "better method"
• Helps workers identify abnormalities that require additional attention
• Often required for safety & health reasons
  • OSHA SOPs
  • U of M EHS SOPs

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