Method engineering aligns with HR to integrate workers into a process, reduce costs, and optimize reliability. The five stages involve project selection, data acquisition, analysis, development, and implementation. The engineer establishes the optimal man-machine relationship and presents the economic benefit to management.
A discipline that is more aligned with an HR function, methods engineering focuses specifically on integrating workers into a process. The fundamental goal of method engineering is to reduce the associated costs and optimize the reliability of a process through the analysis of the performance of the activities. The role can also be referred to as corporate reengineering as it analyzes and drives improvements to an established working practice. A high-level alternative to the in-depth analysis provided during a method engineering process exists in the form of a time and motion study.
The role of a methods engineer is to establish where people are best utilized in a process to enable them to complete an assigned task as effectively as possible. There are five major stages that are used during a method engineering procedure in order to achieve its objectives more effectively. Steps must be taken to ensure that existing processes are fully reviewed before a new work practice is introduced.
In carrying out an engineering evaluation of methods, the five phases that must be followed are design selection, data acquisition, analysis, development and implementation. Project selection, the first stage of the process, is where a methods engineer will be tasked with improving a process. At this stage, a project is identified that requires an improvement in efficiency or is a new manufacturing process where reliability, accuracy and efficiency are of particular importance.
Stages two and three of a methods engineering process involve collecting and analyzing data from the existing business or production line. This data may include output records, detailed engineering drawings, and market demand or performance records. The data collected during the second phase is analyzed in the third phase to establish the optimal man-machine relationship and production line results. This third phase can also suggest improvements regarding working conditions, production floor layout and material handling.
The development of the key improvements identified during the data analysis exercise is done in phase four. It is in this penultimate stage that the man-machine relationship and the number of operators assigned to a machine – or the number of machines to a single operator – are established and developed into a viable process. Once the final improvements have been established, the economic benefit to the company must be detailed before being presented to management level. At this end point, the methods engineer must be confident that he demonstrates the benefits of the improved process to justify the outlay that will be required from the business to implement the new procedures.
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