THE DEPENDENCE OF THE COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION OF A WORK-TIME DISTRIBUTION ON THE NUMBER OF ELEMENTS IN THE WORK TASK

Abstract

In research studies of conveyor-based work, the work-task is often chosen on the basis of experimental convenience. This paper, however, shows that the task itself could be an important parameter in such studies. It is shown that if a work-task is split into two smaller tasks, the relative variability of at least one of the sub-groups must be greater than that of the parent group. This is likely to lead to a decrease in the overall performance of the system.