Activity sampling is a work measurement technique used to determine how employees, machines, or processes spend their time. It involves making observations at random intervals over a period, recording the activity being performed at that instant. This data helps analyze utilization rates, staffing needs, workload balance, and identify areas for improvement.
How Activity Sampling Works
Activity sampling avoids continuous observation, making it efficient for observing many workers or processes over extended periods. Instead of constant monitoring, random observations are taken, and the activity in progress at each observation time is recorded. This data is then used to estimate the proportion of time spent on various activities.
Advantages of Activity Sampling
- Cost-effective: Requires less time and resources than continuous observation methods.
- Suitable for diverse operations: Can be applied to a variety of tasks, processes, and work settings.
- Minimizes observer bias: Random sampling reduces the risk of the observer influencing the activities being studied.
- Provides overall perspective: Offers a broader picture of workload and resource allocation than direct time study methods.
- Identifies bottlenecks: Reveals areas of inefficiency or underutilization, leading to targeted improvements.
Example:
Imagine a manufacturing plant wants to assess the utilization of its welding machines. Using activity sampling, an observer takes random observations throughout the day. Each observation records whether the machine is welding, idle, undergoing maintenance, or experiencing a breakdown. After a sufficient number of observations, the data reveals the percentage of time the machine is used for welding, highlighting potential improvements in downtime or maintenance scheduling.
Applications of Activity Sampling
Activity sampling finds applications across various industries and situations:
- Manufacturing: Evaluating machine utilization, identifying bottlenecks, and improving production efficiency.
- Office Environments: Determining the proportion of time spent on different tasks, assessing employee workload, and optimizing workflow.
- Healthcare: Analyzing nurse activities, improving patient care, and optimizing resource allocation.
- Service Industries: Evaluating customer service call handling times, determining employee idle time, and optimizing staffing levels.
The provided reference states that activity sampling, "is a work measurement technique with a number of formats in which observations are made over a period of time of one or several people, machine(s) or process(es). It is ideal to help determine utilisation, staffing levels, balanced work content and to observe activities with a view to improvement." This perfectly summarizes the core function and benefits of activity sampling.
