Construct engineered labour standards for picking, packing and replenishment using time study and predetermined motion time data.
Warehousing & Procurement
Engineered Labour Standards and Labour Management Systems in Warehouses
Build engineered labour standards from time study and predetermined motion data, then configure a labour management system that tracks attainment, guides incentive schemes and controls labour cost per unit.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Warehouses that pay by the hour but manage by guesswork lose track of true capacity long before volume outgrows the building. Engineered labour standards replace that guesswork with a measured standard time for every picking, packing, replenishment and loading task, built from time study or a predetermined motion time system such as MTM or MOST and adjusted with a performance rating and personal, fatigue and delay allowances. This course shows how to construct those standards method by method, load them into a labour management system that interleaves direct and indirect work, and turn the resulting data into scorecards, staffing plans and incentive schemes that reward genuine performance rather than corner-cutting. Delegates work through live time studies, standard-time calculations and labour management system configuration exercises, then practise the governance side: deciding when a standard needs re-timing, auditing for drift, and presenting labour productivity data to operations and finance in a form that supports headcount and cost-to-serve decisions.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Calculate standard time from observed or predetermined data by applying performance rating and personal, fatigue and delay allowances.
Configure a labour management system to capture direct and indirect time and to interleave tasks against the engineered standard.
Design associate and team scorecards that report attainment against standard without encouraging unsafe shortcuts.
Design incentive and gain-sharing schemes that link pay to standard attainment while protecting safety and quality.
Plan the consultation and pilot-zone approach needed to introduce engineered standards without losing workforce trust.
Use labour management system data to plan headcount, flag bottleneck processes and track labour cost per unit.
Who Should Attend
Industrial engineers setting work measurement standards for warehouse and distribution centre operations.
Warehouse operations managers responsible for shift staffing levels and productivity targets.
Continuous improvement specialists introducing engineered standards into an existing site.
HR business partners and reward specialists designing warehouse incentive and gain-sharing schemes.
Labour management system administrators and workforce planning analysts.
Shift supervisors and team leaders who coach associates against engineered standards daily.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Building Engineered Labour Standards from Time Study
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Work Measurement Techniques for Warehouse Tasks
- Break each warehouse process into elemental tasks such as travel, search, pick, scan and place before timing begins.
- Run continuous and snap-back time studies on live picking, packing and replenishment cycles to capture element times.
- Apply predetermined motion time systems, including MTM and MOST, to build standards for tasks that cannot be timed directly.
- Rate observed performance against a defined pace so that standards reflect a normal working rate rather than one operator's speed.
Session 2Calculating and Documenting Standard Time
- Add personal, fatigue and delay allowances to normal time to produce a defensible standard time per unit or per line.
- Express standards as standard minutes per case, pallet or order line so they can be summed across mixed daily volumes.
- Write a standard method sheet that fixes the sequence, layout and equipment assumed by the standard.
- Validate a new standard with an independent time trial before it is released into the labour management system.
02Deploying a Labour Management System
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Labour Management System Architecture and Data Capture
- Map how a labour management system receives engineered standards and task volumes from the warehouse management system.
- Configure direct and indirect time codes so that non-productive activity is captured separately from standard-linked work.
- Set up task interleaving rules that assign the next highest-priority task once an associate clears the current standard.
- Define data capture points, such as scan events and badge timestamps, that feed actual time back into the system.
Session 2Associate Performance Tracking and Scorecards
- Design an individual scorecard that reports attainment against standard alongside quality and safety indicators.
- Build a team-level dashboard that rolls up attainment by shift, zone and process for supervisor review.
- Set a coaching cadence that turns scorecard outliers into structured one-to-one conversations rather than penalties.
- Build data-quality checks that catch missing scans, mis-coded tasks and other causes of false attainment figures.
03Incentives, Consultation and Change Management
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Designing Pay-for-Performance and Gain-Sharing Schemes
- Set incentive tiers that reward attainment above standard without pressuring associates into unsafe working methods.
- Build a team-based gain-sharing scheme that ties part of the bonus pool to quality and safety outcomes, not just speed.
- Model the cost and payback of a proposed incentive scheme before it is presented to finance for sign-off.
- Prepare the consultation pack needed to discuss a new incentive or standard with a union or works council.
Session 2Introducing Standards Without Losing Workforce Trust
- Plan a pilot-zone rollout that tests a new standard on one process before it is extended site-wide.
- Brief shift leads and associates on how a standard was built so the figure is seen as measured, not imposed.
- Identify early resistance signals, such as rising absence or grievance rates, and respond before trust breaks down.
- Train shift leads to coach against the standard using the method sheet rather than the clock alone.
04Maintaining Standards and Using Labour Data for Planning
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Standard Maintenance and Audit
- Set triggers for re-timing a standard, including layout change, new SKU mix and new equipment or automation.
- Run a periodic audit programme that compares a sample of live times against the standard method sheet.
- Use control charts to detect drift between actual and standard time before it shows up as a cost variance.
- Keep a version-controlled library of standards and method sheets so every change is traceable to a reason and a date.
Session 2Labour Data for Capacity Planning and Cost Control
- Convert labour management system output into a headcount plan for a forecast volume by process and shift.
- Identify the process with the least spare capacity so it becomes the focus of the next improvement project.
- Link labour cost per unit from the labour management system to the wider cost-to-serve calculation for finance.
- Benchmark productivity across shifts and sites using standard attainment rather than raw units-per-hour alone.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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