Automating the process of method- time-measurement Gualtiero Fantoni and Salam Qaddoori Al-Zubaidi Civil and Industrial Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy Elena Coli Information Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy, and Daniele Mazzei Computer Science, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy Abstract Purpose – This work reports on a developing method time measurement system for measuring manufacturing and assembly processes automatically. This automatic system enables the production engineers and management to detect, process, and display concise and accurate information about the operations in real time. Design/methodology/approach – This system is based on Internet of things technology and RFID-antenna. This methodology consists of seven main steps and one final optimization step. Mainly, the operator is equipped by RFID reader, and the work station tools and devices are provided by RFID tags. Responding the RFID tags to the reader will refer to the certain operations, the difference time between start and end of the operations will be collected immediately and calculated by the microprocessor of the system. Findings – This automatic system is promising, considering the accurate time measurements and recommendations that obtained from the case study which includes measuring manual assembly operations to be followed in order to overcome the limitations which are not only technical but also managerial, legal and organizational. Research limitations/implications – The acquired data about timing and duration of individual operations are anonymized to guarantee the compliance with respect to the privacy laws (GDPR and Italian work’s laws). Originality/value – This work presents a unique system to measure the time instead of traditional methods in the factories environment and satisfies the requirements to study the recommendations in order to overcome the challenges. Keywords Method time measurement, Internet of things, Operation management, Time study, Work study Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction Nowadays, Industry 4.0 paradigms are increasingly applied in manufacturing environments due to their impact on the efficiency, productivity and quality of the performance of companies. Improving the performance and increasing the efficiency by gathering and analyzing data, simulation and communications require technologies and methods that allow the communication between processes, machines, tools and employees in integrated networks. Several techniques 4.0 have been used in recent years, such as Industrial Internet of Things, Cyber-Physical Systems, big data and simulation, in different scopes of work (Nagy et al., 2018). Hence, Industry 4.0 aspects like the Industrial Internet of things (IoT) are changing companies’ way of working. The digitalization and communication technologies are not just two of the most fast-growing disciplines but also play a crucial role in the fundamental changes in the global manufacturing systems Automating the process of MTM This work was supported by the project Sprint 4.0 [N. KA-2017-1-IT02-KA203–036960]. The authors also would like to acknowledge and thank Giovanni Pianigiani for his valuable participation in the case study. Particular thanks go to Antonio Pitasi and the Zerynth team for the hardware implementation and the firmware they wrote. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1741-0401.htm Received 22 October 2019 Revised 7 May 2020 Accepted 26 September 2020 International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management © Emerald Publishing Limited 1741-0401 DOI 10.1108/IJPPM-08-2019-0404