1) What is the main job of the operations manager? Why does he/she have to use job design techniques?

2) How does work measurement play into the objectives that the operations manager strives to achieve?

3) How can the operations manager motive employees to produce the highest productivity, quality, service and responsiveness?

4) What is job design? What all decisions need to be made in performing job design?

5) How do trends in the following affect job design: quality control, cross-training, employee involvement in designing work, team approaches, communications, temporary workers, alternative workplaces, virtual spaces, automation, and providing meaningful work.

6) What are the advantages and drawbacks of labor specialization? Provide examples.

7) What is job enrichment? How is a job enlarged horizontally and vertically? Why is job enrichment required in the modern organization?

8) What is the sociotechnical systems approach to job design? What was learned from studies of weaving mills in India and coal mines in England with respect to sociotechnical systems?

9) How can the following be incorporated into job design: task variety, skill variety, feedback, task identify, and task autonomy.

10) What is work physiology? How can it be incorporated into job design?

11) What is ergonomics? How does it affect the worker?

12) What is the task of the methods analyst in an industrial engineering department?

13) What are the following: operations chart, worker-machine chart, simo or simultaneous motion chart, and activity charts?

14) How can various work methods design aids be used to conduct productivity studies?

15) What at various thought-provoking questions to help eliminate waste in a process?

16) What is a process chart? Studying the process chart , can you suggest improvements to it in the same format the chart is drawn?

17) How did F.W. Taylor define a first-class worker? What role did the first-class worker plat in designing work?

18) What is a composite method of designing work? How is the "one best way" determined?

19) What is micromotion analysis? What is a therblig?

20) Why and when is an operations chart created? What can it tell the work designer?

21) What is a worker-machine chart? show a worker-machine chart for you doing a process that involves a machine at work, or for making coffee.

22) What is a gang process chart? What is an activity chart? Can you create one for a real process at work, or a hypothetical one from your imagination.

23) What is the main purpose of work measurement?

24) How has UPS managed to make their processes as efficient as possible? Study the information given in the book, and also research the web to obtain more information on the role of industrial engineers at UPS.

25) Study how work sampling was employed for nursing. What lessons can be learned from that?

26) Compare and contrast work sampling and time study techniques.

27) What are the various types of financial incentive plans that organizations usually deploy to motivate their workers?

28) Explain the basic compensation system, the individual and small-group incentive plans, and the organization-wide plan for financial incentives. Which is better than the other and in what circumstances?

29) Compare and contrast common reward/incentive plans.

30) Read the article on Linking Standards and Incentives at the Gap Distribution Centers. What can be learned from that?