Time and Motion Studies of Manual Harvesting Methods for Oil Palm Fruit Bunches: A Malaysian Case Study

Abstract

In optimizing the yield of oil palm fruit bunches collection, the mechanization of the collection process is very important. However, before the analysis of the cost benefits of any mechanization development can be utilized, this study has to be carried out. Time and Motion Studies (TMS) is used to identify and measure the efficiency of the oil palm fruit bunches’ manual harvesting technique. The Direct Time Study Technique has been selected to determine and record the time taken by the harvester to harvest the oil palm fruit bunches, where the tool used in this technique is a stopwatch, alongside the Time Study Observation Sheet. Meanwhile, to examine the motions used by the harvester in the harvesting process, the Therblig’s Motion Principle is applied to identify effective and non- effective motions. A field work study has been conducted by monitoring two harvesters and all the real time data is recorded in the time study observation sheet and analyzed to get a value of Normal Time (NT) and also Standard Time (ST) for each work element involved in the manual harvesting process of palm oil. There are seven work elements that have been identified to have been used by the harvester to complete the process, the first element  is searching for the mature palm oil tree (NT= 40.73 seconds), the second element  is adjusting the Aluminium Pole and Knife (APK) cutter (NT= 23.36 seconds), the third element is cutting the oil palm’s frond (NT= 51.30 seconds), the fourth element is cutting  the mature oil palm’s bunches (NT= 60.26 seconds), the fifth element is collecting the oil palm’s frond that  has been cut (NT= 21.69 seconds), the sixth element is putting the oil palm’s bunches that have been cut  into the wheel barrow (NT= 34.25 seconds) and the seventh element  is collecting the loose oil palm fruits or called fruitlets (NT= 77.49 seconds). The study also categorized a few non-effective work elements carried out during the manual harvesting process. The elements are: searching for the oil palm trees that have mature oil palm bunches, adjusting the APK cutter and also collecting the loose oil palm fruitlets off the ground.