This means that an allowance of 33⅓ per cent. is given on the standard time or standard production, and this new figure is called "reward time" or "reward production" because it is the point where reward begins.
The following examples will make the matter clearer:
Let us assume that the time in which the job can be done is found by the time study to be 12 hours; this is the base time, and can be reached or even exceeded under favourable circumstances, because in the first place it has already been reached during the time study, and in the second place the worker on the time study was a good average man, so that a first-class man should be able to do the job in quicker time.
Now, suppose the job needs a good deal of handling. In such a case the time will be increased by, say, 25 per cent. in order to obtain the standard time; 25 per cent. of 12 hours is 3 hours, so that the standard time is 12 + 3 = 15 hours. Therefore, if the worker does the job in 15 hours, he has reached 100 per cent. efficiency, which is the point to be aimed at. It should always be attained by every worker who follows the instructions accurately and works diligently, while a good worker should always be able to do it in less time.
The point when reward begins is arrived at by adding 33⅓ per cent. to the standard time—that is, 15 hours with 33⅓ per cent. of 15 hours added; 33⅓ per cent. of 15 is 5, and 15 + 5 = 20 hours. Reward is earned, therefore, when the job is done in anything less than 20 hours.
It will be seen that, while it is quite possible to do the job in 12 hours or even less, yet if the job be done in anything under 20 hours reward is earned.
What amount of reward? Well, suppose the job rate is 36s. This means that the job is given to a worker whose day wage is about 36s. per week. This is 9d. an hour on a 48-hour week. Suppose the work is done in 16½ hours. As the standard time is 15 hours, the job has taken longer than standard time; it is 1½ hours longer than standard. But, as the reward time is 20 hours, it has been done in 3½ hours less than reward time; in other words, 3½ hours have been saved on the job. The worker gets paid for all the time he saves = 3½ hours at 9d. per hour; total reward 2s. 7½d. So that for his 16½ hours' work he gets his day wage of 9d. per hour (= 12s. 4½d.) + a reward of 2s. 7½d. —that is, 15s. in all. In other words, he earns 11d. per hour instead of 9d. per hour.
His efficiency is 91 per cent., but efficiency calculation will be mentioned later.
Let us now examine another case, a small part job. We will assume that the time study shows a production of 40 of these small parts per hour.
We have now shifted from times to quantities. The base quantity is 40 per hour, that number being the greatest number produced by a good average worker in 1 hour under favourable circumstances. The standard quantity will, of course, be less than this, and, as such work would probably be done on an automatic machine with practically no hand work, an allowance of 10 per cent. is made on the base quantity in order to obtain the standard quantity. Ten per cent. of 40 is 4; therefore the standard quantity is 40-4 = 36. This is the quantity the worker ought to produce continuously if he is diligent and attends to the machine properly.