Improving engineering productivity: a time study of an engineer's typical work day

We present the results of a detailed time study performed in 1996, to understand an engineer's typical working day. The study was developed using a design of experiments approach, to identify important factors affecting engineers working on product development projects. This study included extensive debriefings and data analysis to characterize sources of variability. The results provide insight into ways to increase the time spent on the value-added, core design work. In particular, it illustrates that many low-technology solutions can have a noticeable impact on engineering productivity, by reducing the time spent on nonengineering activities. This can also serve to guide corporate improvement efforts, as well as investment decisions. Several of the observations and conclusions are discussed in more detail. An overview of selected approaches that can be used on individual projects to address the issues is provided, along with some examples of their actual use and results.