How to grade operators in a factory and Why

Contributed By

Ugendhar Bairy Venkata

Grading of the operators is categorizing or grouping the operators according to the various factors which is essential to do the job. In this article we will be discussing on how to grade operators along with the factors to be considered. So, stay tuned… We are explaining everything with practical examples.

Before moving to our topic, we should discuss, why we grade operators or its purpose. Its very important, because you may need this information to convince the benefits to management and operators.

In this article we have given examples of apparel industry…

Let’s start…

Why should we do Grading of operators

Initially understand the fact that different operation in a factory need different skill level and expertise. And different operators have different skill level, knowledge and experience. And in some cases this will vary drastically or will have large difference. Also please note that highly skilled operators is capable of delivering good output, with quality.

Now, in this situation is it fair to give same salary to all?

And also think about your critical operation. And will you allocate operator without selecting the best operator for it?

And the most import thing, when there are different grade levels, all will try to get higher grade by improving themselves.

This will also helps to allocate your investment in salary wisely…

When to do Grading of Operators

Whenever we recruit operators, we need to give grade him or her and fix grade and salary. IE Team and Production team on combined effort initially grade the operators.

When they increase their skill levels, which will be assessed at some intervals, for upgrading to next grade and salary. This is to assess their skill and salary. Or this shall be reviewed at particular intervals.

Incentive will be paid when they use their skill to peak level performance, they will receive bonus or incentive.

Some people have skill set, but may don’t perform to peak level. But, if incentive scheme is implemented, all grades will contribute their max levels and win win situation for an organization.

Factors to be considered for Grading

The Scientific and systematic approach for grading of workers under different categories, includes the following factors:

1. Number of operations skillful
2. Level of difficulty of operation performed by operator
3. Targets, consistency & quality of output
4. Education, experience and punctuality
5. Good Attitude, efforts & Initiative
6. Physical fitness & cooperation

Broadly the above can be classified as SKILL, EFFORTS, CONSISTENCY OF PERFORMANCE and PHYSICAL FITNESS & PUNCTUALITY.

Now let’s discuss each factors in detail.

Skill factor

The following variants indicate the skill of a worker:

1. Education & Training: The Operator should possess minimum educational requirement rather experience in work to coordinate and understand what the supervisor or trainer says. Should have undergone training to perform the job correctly & effectively.
2. Experience: Should possess minimum experience in their respective areas so that training becomes easy for them & consumes less time to train.
3. Pace and Job knowledge: Pace indicates the rate of operator at which he/she performs the job. Operator should know about their job completely when is assigned to job. It also indicates the no of operations an operator can perform. Each operator should know minimum of 4-5 jobs.
4. Initiative & Judgement: Operator should have a learning attitude & should take initiative to learn more number of operations as and when required and should be ready for job rotation as and when required. Should be able to judge & take corrective action when any fault takes place. Should possess good attitude towards work.

Efforts factor

It can be classified into mental & physical efforts. Efforts should always be proportionate to targets achievable.

Physical Efforts:

It depends on the classification of movements of body parts(s) & the degree of efforts put in. The classification is as follows:

Mental Efforts:

Depends on the degree of concentration on their work & the responsiveness to correct them if anything goes wrong with their work. The responsiveness should be fast, should possess an overall positive attitude.

Difficulty of Operation & its level of difficulty can be better decided by the concept of efforts put in by the operator. The following points indicate the difficulty of operation & its level:

1. The amount of body parts used /moved
2. Foot movements Involved
3. Eye-hand coordination(if any), eg., sleeve attach, cutting , packing etc.( operations which directly reflect on the finished garments) Weight moved or lifted( Big parts/small parts)
4. Handling (manual/automatic), e g., pick up, alignment, asiding, laying, pinning, cutting etc.

Consistency of performance factor

It can be better explained with the help of following factors:

1. Targets achievable with respect to time( productivity)
2. Quality maintained

The Operator should be consistent whatever he/she does ie. , he /she should not fluctuate in terms of target & he should maintain his regular targets within the time frame. At the same time he/she should not compromise with quality.

He /she should be consistent quantitatively and qualitatively. She/he should maintain the targets & quality in terms of quantity and quality requirements. Since the production is batch process system, if one operator delays the job, it affects the successive operator’s efficiency or targets because the operator will be idle, waiting for the work to come.

In this case, find out the off standard time of each operator which may be due to no work, waiting for work, machine repair & any other cause. Hence consider the actual hours worked by the operator in a shift.

Eg., Target for 8 hours=200 say. Target for one hour=25 pcs.

But the Operator worked for only 6 hours after deducting off standard time. Therefore, target achievable= 6*25=150 pcs. But the actual achieved =140 pcs. Take the actual achieved for grading purpose.

Now we are moving to the core part of the article…

How to Grade an operator

Now we are ready to grade an operator.

As we discussed above, we have different criteria for each factor. What we do here is allocate some points against each criteria according to the operator and sum up all criteria of a factor to arrive one point each for each factor.

And then we take average of points of each factors, to arrive a final point. Then grading is done according to this final points.

Lets see…

Let us consider a 5 Point Rating Scale here. That means a maximum of 5 points is allocated to each factor.

You should develop your own pointing system in discussing with management and operator representatives.

Skill – How to allocate points

Please refer the table below. Left column contains criteria for skill factor and right column contains maximum points that can be allocated to each criteria.

Now, for example, if you are accessing the ‘Job knowledge & pace’ a particular operator, suppose If the operator knows minimum 4 operations, then award, 2 else 1.

Note: The values and points shown here are examples, for your case you can define your own criteria and points. Consider this as general guidance.

Let’s continue..

Job knowledge includes no. of operations an operator can perform (Minimum of 4-5 operations).

Now, please refer the below table, if an operator earns any of points in left column, award him corresponding point in right column.

Efforts – How to allocate points

Efforts depend on the Job performed & the difficulty of operations. Refer the table below and allocate the points according to the efforts taken by the operator.

One important point here, suppose your operator is able to do different types of operations, how will you allocate points???

Correct! You guessed it right…. Consider most most difficult operation that an operator can do.

Hope you got the point.

If an Operator earns:

Consistency – How to allocate points

Consistency means achieving the targets repeatedly with quality. Here we are comparing the output of operator against the target and points are allocated.

Please refer below table.

Here its better to take average of some shift than taking one shift output for taking a decision.

General – How to allocate points

Here you can consider points such as physical fitness and punctuality towards job and allocate points accordingly.

Please refer the below table.

Note the point, for example an operate have an average punctuality, like some time come on time and some times late, you can award him 1.5 point.

Total points Earned for each factor

Now add all the points under each category & classify according to the no. of points obtained for each worker and designate under Excellent, Very good, Good, Average, Poor and grade them accordingly.

Grading Criteria (How to arrive grade from total points)

Illustration with an example

OPERATION: EDGES OF LAPEL & BODY ATTACH. OPERATOR NAME: ABC

Skill

Efforts

Turn and bend & pick up the suit from the hanger & place it on the machine table. Align the notches & sew. Trim it with the scissor.

Consistency

Quality is good. Target per hour=25 pcs Target for 8 hours=200 pcs

Production for 9 days: 156+163+135+186+183+182+198+188+200=1591 pc

Average production=177 pc/shift.

If we deduct Off standard Time, efficiency will increase and also target will exceed standards, Therefore award 5 Points.

General

Operator earned 5 Points in all four categories.

Take the average of points of all four categories. Since he got 5 points in all categories, average is 5.

Hence designate him/her as Excellent and Grade as A+. (Refer table 9)

In this same way grade every operators in your section and factory.

So, that’s it, you can now discuss with your manager or management about grading operators and its benefits.

And best of luck. We wish all operators shall achieve A+ grade.

Thank you.

Ugendhar Bairy Venkata @bairyvenkata

View Profile