Article 4. Finding the Correct Office Staffing Level
Finding the Correct Office Staffing Level using the Cost and Schedule method.
First step is ask ourselves the following questions about an office department:
1. What functions does this department perform?
2. What would happen if this department’s functions were no longer performed? Is there any other way of performing this department’s functions and could it be combined with the work of another department?
3. What Products does this office produce? (What are its end products such as contracts maps and other documents?)
4. How many people benefit from the products that this department produces?
( Is this a public service organization, if so how many people does it serve seasonally and annually?)
After determining that the department has good reason for existing we can start our analysis. First we find out who or what department function is responsible for each end product. When doing this we will probably find the more typical situation where the same office personnel perform a number of functions with many end products. We then ask similar questions as above, is this the best method and can any of these processes be eliminated?
The approach is to Time-Study all the processes necessary for the production of each end product. The assumption here is that the time to complete each end product does not vary by more than 5%. If you find the time varying greater than 5% you need to review all of the processes to determine just where the variation is occurring. You my have two different end products or you my have an end product that is indeterminate (an end product with unpredictable variations in time of more than 10%). If this is the case and this particular end product amounts to more than 20% of all office work then I would recommend a totally different approach using a statistical method called an Occurrence-Study conducted by a single analyst over a three month period. The Occurrence-Study requires a trained Industrial Engineer or knowledgeable person using this common well documented approach which can be found in most text books.
After we have established that the end products are not varying by more than 5% we are ready to begin the study. There are at least two ways of conducting the study. The first approach is to have a single analyst spend several months time studying the office processes leading to each end product. The second approach is to bring in enough Time-Study analysts to time study all of the office processes that occur over a two month period. In this approach all office employees are time studied at the same time. I have found that this approach is very intimidating to office personnel and it is better to use the single analyst approach.
Now lets assume that the study has been completed we begin the data analysis phase. First we total the time spent by each class of employee (i.e. secretary, supervisor, photocopier etc.) on each end product. We do this for all end products. Then we document the number of each of the end products produced per month by averaging at least three months of data. Next we adjust the standard 100% rate to a 75% rate (which adds 25% more time). We now arrive at the total adjusted time by class of employee to produce all of the end products per month. When we convert the time in minuets to hours for each class of employee and divide this by the total hours worked per month by office personnel (not including over time) we arrive at the correct staffing level for this office.
A second method which may be used is less disruptive than using the time-study approach is using Work Improvement Teams (WITs). The team documents the best way of doing each function by making a detailed Flow Process Chart showing all of the processes involved. The Flow Process Chart is then used by budget personnel to determine the time for doing the function. This is then used to determine staffing requirements and as an input to the budget.
