Work measurement expert, innovator dies

Kjell Zandin changed industry with MOST® system

From staff reports

Kjell Zandin, creator of the MOST® work measurement system, died May 3 in his native country Sweden.

Zandin was an owner and director of H.B. Maynard and Co., which is now a part of Accenture, for more than 20 years, and he had more than 35 years of industrial engineering consulting experience. In addition to his work developing MOST, he was the editor of the fifth edition of Maynard’s Industrial Engineering Handbook, published in 2001, which his longtime Maynard colleague and friend Denis Meinert considers Zandin’s crowning career achievement.

“He has had a true impact on the world and those 35,000-plus MOST users and the millions who have been impacted by the use of MOST,” said Meinert.

Zandin became an IIE fellow in 2001 and was the first recipient of IIE’s Technical Innovation in Industrial Engineering Award in 1986. Zandin also received the Royal Charter Award of the Institution of Production Engineers in Great Britain.

“[Zandin] dramatically transformed the IE profession and made a significant contribution to it with the development of MOST, a predetermined motion-time system,” said Bopaya Bidanda, Ernest Roth Professor and chairman of the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Bidanda, who collaborated with Zandin on research projects, added that Zandin was always glad to mentor students and faculty. “He routinely presented guest lectures at the University of Pittsburgh and was always available to provide guidance and counsel to student projects.”

Meinert added, “Kjell was a persistent, smart, kind, gentle and meticulous giant of a person who cared very deeply for his family. He was a great friend.”