South East Asia work measurement practices challenges and case study

Abstract

South-East-Asia has been producing wide range of products since decades ago, and hence it is often dubbed as the world’s manufacturing-hub. In terms of operation, physical size and capital investment, there are family-owned businesses and Fortune 100 companies’ biggest off-shore facilities co-existing. As for its workforce portfolio, the majority used to be of the kind that was non-skilled labor intensive. However, there had been workforce capability substantial upgrading, resulting in the niches and specialties development in automation. Nevertheless, the awareness of work measurement impact on productivity performance remained low. The literature shows that studies on work measurement practices in this region are very limited. It is an absolute waste if there have been tremendous improvements deployed in the machinery, systems, and tools, but they do not function to their maximum capacity because their interaction with the labor is not optimized, and if there is poor work measurement to understand the ‘productivity- leak-factor’ in the operation. This paper shares the literature on work measurement-related studies that are carried out in this region. It also discusses data collection and preliminary findings of the impact of work measurement method. It is found that much needs to be done to instill the appropriate awareness and understanding of work measurement.