Innovative approaches to productivity monitoring: Integrating work sampling and electronic performance monitoring

Electronic performance monitoring (EPM) in workforce productivity lacks quantitative indexes, such as labour rating factors (LRFs). This study introduces an integrated method using smartphones and work sampling (WS) to measure productivity based on LRF. An experiment with 10 welders in a pipe shop demonstrated the method’s effectiveness. This research aims to fill this gap using the design science research (DSR) methodology to introduce an integrated method based on electronic devices (smartphones) and human observation WS to measure productivity based on LRF. To demonstrate and evaluate this method, an experiment was carried out with industrial workers while welding steel pipes in low-carbon alloy using tungsten inert gas (TIG) and flux-cored arc welding (FCAW) methods. The results indicate the feasibility of this integrated method based on the complementarity of the WS and the EPM approach tested. The LRF using WS was determined to be 55.52% while the EPM factor was 57.78%. Also, welders are directly engaged in the welding process 75.55% of the time. Considering a standard productive state average of 50%, EPM results can represent an accuracy of 84%–96% of the LRF. The electronic method based only on the workers’ location has the limitation of not identifying idleness within the production zone (PZ); as a result, some calibration is provided by the WS method. This research contributes a low-cost, accessible approach for continuous productivity improvement. The integrated method allows for both quantitative measurement and qualitative diagnosis of productivity factors, bridging the gap between traditional and modern monitoring techniques.