Sample Size Analysis for a Production Line Study of Time

Setting labor standards is an important topic to operational and strategic planning which requires the time studies establishment. This paper applies the statistical method for the definition of a sample size in order to define a reliable cycle time for a real industrial process. For the case study it is considered a welding process performed by a single operator that does the load and unload of components in 4 different welding machines. In order to perform the time studies, it is necessary to collect continuously data in the production line by measuring the time taken for the operator to perform the task. In order to facilitate the measurements, the task is divided into small elements with visible start and end points, called Measurement Points, in which the measurement process is applied. Afterwards, the statistical method enables to determine the sample size of observations to calculate the reliable cycle time. For the welding process presented, it is stated that the sample size defined through the statistical method is 20. Thus, these time observations of the task are continuously collected in order to obtain a reliable cycle time for this welding process. This time study can be implemented in similar way in other industrial processes.