Omni Engineering & Technology Inc.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince

The rest of the world is getting into position to do far better than us with future economic conditions.

Norman Mailer Contributing Editor
Parade Magazine

OMNI Corporate Announcements

	Headlines
•	OMNI Moves to a New Location!
•	OMNI President Elected Regional Vice President of The IIE

	OMNI Presentations
•	Work Measurement: A Method for Setting Equitable Wage for People with Disabilities
•	Work Measurement: Impacts in the Private Sector
•	Developing Staffing Budgets for Large, Georgraphically Dispersed Workforces
•	Designing the Medical Unit Responding to a Bioterrorist Attack
•	Approach to Measure Complex Work

OMNI Opens New Headquarters

October 2006—After operations spanning three decades at Jones Branch Drive, OMNI Engineering & Technology, Inc. has relocated its operations headquarters across McLean. We can now be found at:

OMNI Engineering & Technology, Inc.
8200 Greensboro Drive, Suite 900
McLean, VA 22102-3306

Please note our new local phone number: 703.462.5471

Toll Free: 1.888.225.6664
Email: info@omni-engineering.com

OMNI President Elected Regional Vice President of the IIE

April 2005—OMNI President, Neal Schmeidler, began serving a two year term as Regional Vice President in the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). Neal is a member of the IIE’s Network Leadership Council and serves as a resource for the development of local chapters and IIE leaders. Neal’s regional responsibility includes professional and university chapters within the District of Columbia and the states of Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Neal was elected to the position by IIE members earlier this spring.

The IIE is the world’s largest professional membership society dedicated solely to the support of the industrial engineering profession and individuals involved with improving quality and productivity.

For more information, visit IIE on the web (www.iienet.org), or contact OMNI directly:

Toll Free: 1.888.225.6664
Email: info@omni-engineering.com

Work Measurement: A Method for Setting Equitable Wage for People with Disabilities

March 2005—Generally, people with disabilities cannot produce at the same level as nondisabled people. Because of differences in productivity, employers may not be as eager to hire disabled people. In addition, one of the challenging tasks for employers of disabled individuals is to set an equitable wage for each disabled employee; however, keeping these people gainfully employed is a worthy national objective. To encourage employment of disabled persons, federal law permits employers to pay less than minimum wage, provided the wage is proportional to the production capacity of the disabled individual. According to provisions of this law, time study is an accepted work measurement technique that can be used to establish equitable pay for disabled employees. This presentation offered further analysis of the study methods and procedures used to measure production capacity of disabled individuals and insight into establishing equitable pay for disabled employees.

Presentation delivered at 8th Annual Applied Ergonomics Conference, Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Send your request for a copy of the paper at the Contact page.

Work Measurement: Impacts in the Private Sector

May 2004—Presenters, working with the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), conducted a Web-based survey about the uses of work measurement. More than 275 public and private sector participants provided input to the survey. Significant findings show that both public and private sector employers are using work measurement tools. In the private sector, executive leadership is revealed as the dominate force behind the use of work measurement, and that work measurement impacts direct and indirect labor in a broad range of industries, and more than 50% of employers report a benefit-to-cost-ratio of 2:1 or better.

Presentation delivered at the IIE Annual Conference 2004, Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Send your request for a copy of the paper at the Contact page.

Developing Staffing Budgets for Large, Geographically Dispersed Workforces

May 2002—Many functions of the federal government have geographically dispersed workforces throughout the United States and other foreign countries. Working environments such as weather conditions, facilities, available technology, and workload vary widely. However, customers expect the same level of service regardless of geographic location or environment. Management must do its best to make sure that staffing, especially a lack of, is never the reason for inconsistent service in any location or condition. This presentation describes an approach to define, measure, and model the amount of staffing required for current and future workload in a variety of situations, such as those described above. The presentation includes a brief discussion of work measurement associated with such efforts and the more complicated steps to develop statistical models suitable for forecasting future needs. Included, is instruction about an approach that yields mathematical models that can be used to quickly assess future staffing needs for thousands of employees working in hundreds of locations.

Presentation delivered at the 2002 Industrial Engineering Solutions Conference.

Send your request for a copy of the paper at the Contact page.

Designing the Medical Unit Responding to a Bioterrorist Attack

May 2002—Optimal sizing of the medical team responding to a bioterrorist attack is extremely important. Emergency planners must design and practice response scenarios that assure rapid and accurate delivery of medicines to vast numbers of victims with a minimal number of responders. Recently, computer simulation models have been used to help designers and planners understand the impact of variation in victim symptoms, human behavior, medical staff proficiency, and facility layout on process throughput. Verifying and validating computer simulation models (with measurement data collected during near, real-world simulation exercises with actors playing the role of victim and staffing the medical unit with the type of personnel who would actually staff the various positions of the medical team) encourages greater confidence in process design, medical team size, and personnel mix recommendations. The presentation offered insight into combining work measurement concepts and bar code technology to economically capture time measurement and other data during bioterrorist medical response field exercises and other situations that require measurement data. When properly designed, bar code technology permits nearly anyone to collect accurate, machine-readable data with minimal training.

Presentation delivered at the 2002 Industrial Engineering Solutions Conference.

President Describes Approach to Measure Complex Work

October 2000—OMNI's President, Neal Schmeidler, described his approach to assess the impact of technology on user time load in complex work environments at two technical conferences. Neal described his innovative method, which concurrently measures the impact of a decision support system on user time load in four dimensions — verbal communication, environmental scanning, hand/arm use, and walking. Data analysis revealed that the prototype system did not improve the performance of a production system as intended, had a major logic flaw, and demanded too much attention and time from the operator. As a result of the study, the system was redesigned and is again undergoing operational test and evaluation.

On the basis of lessons learned during this and similar impact analyses conducted by Neal, he suggests that those investing in technology should include independent, third-party operational testing and evaluation efforts to assess the real impact of systems before making purchase decisions.

First conference: Achieving Excellence in Aerospace, Aviation and Airline Operations sponsored by the Aerospace and Defense Division, a technical division of the Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Second conference: Working 2000, the 4th Annual Conference of the Society for Work Science.

Send your request for a copy of the paper at the Contact page.