Time Studies
Proplanner supports live and video-based Observed time measurement as well as the largest selection of Predetermined time standards available in any commercially available application.
Additionally, Proplanner supports over five ergonomics assessment standards which also represents the broadest selection in the market. More importantly, Proplanner also provides extensive integration between Time Study and Ergonomic elements in order to semi-automate and simplify the concurrent evaluation of human motion.
Together with Proplanner’s extensive MUDA (waste) analysis feature, an engineer can define a sequence of human motion that can simultaneously be evaluated with respect to Time, Ergonomics, and LEAN.
While every time measurement method can be evaluated with Proplanner’s extensive MUDA feature, each time measurement method has unique attributes that lends itself to different ergonomics assessments.
The following table shows the current list of ergonomics assessment methods available for each time measurement standard along with if the ergonomics score calculation and reporting are performed internal to Proplanner or if it is exported to a user-definable MSExcel spreadsheet template.
Standardize, Control, and Maintain
Proplanner Activities maintain three concurrent time values (Estimated, Observed, and Calculated) and users can determine the order of priority (accuracy) of these standards for use by reporting or downstream applications such as Line Balancing.
In this way, users can perform time-based evaluations of their processing for an evolving process whereby some of the task times may not have completed Observed or Calculated studies available.
Activities must be checked out by the user (provided permissions allow this) before they can be edited and subsequently checked back in. Any change to the time (or other fields for that matter) of an Activity during check-in results in the automatic creation of a historical record that identifies the user and the time/date of the change.
Users are allowed to also insert comments about the change as well as define an Effectivity Date range for this Activity modification.
Since time is used for Activities within external Line Balancing scenarios, Proplanner allows the engineer to Refresh (update) the time data in a set of selected Line Balancing scenarios in order to keep your studies accurate as Engineering Changes (ECO/MCO) are processed.
Observed Time/Integrated Video Studies
Videos can be imported into the application and then segments of the video can be tagged and associated with Activities in an Operation or Elements in an Activity. This allows for time standards to be rapidly created with traceability, as the video reference is available to the entire organization for task time validation as well as for shop floor work instructions or process improvement benchmarking.
Multiple occurrences of observations are automatically identified and their statistical minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation are computed. These statistics are then used to determine the number of observations required to achieve a desired level of confidence.
Predetermined Motion Time Studies
MTM(UAS/MEK/1), MODAPTS, and MOST(Basic/Maxi) studies can be performed, by directly entering element codes into a spreadsheet interface or through selecting motions from a user-editable template.
Codes can be linked to standard waste classifications and ergonomic impacts in order to simplify and automate the integration of Ergonomics and Lean assessments while performing your Predetermined Time Estimation.
Man-Machine (Gantt) Chart Capabilities
Assign tasks to operators and machines and define the sequence and precedence of tasks to create man-machine charts. Identify idle time and a critical path to improve resource utilization.
Waste Analysis
Simplify process improvement efforts by establishing a standard procedure for identifying and categorizing value- and non-value-added tasks. Compare before and after results using color-coded user-defined waste categories.
What is wrong with the traditional method of using stopwatches on the floor and Excel for creating and maintaining time studies?
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There is a lack of visibility across the organization to the time study data.
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Collaboration is difficult when spreadsheets are stored on engineers' computers or in a file share directory.
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There is no good way to connect the individual elements or time study data in a spreadsheet to the work instruction or process routings.
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It is difficult to integrate videos into spreadsheet studies and too easy to have a collection of videos on the file share disconnected from the study data.
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Once the time standards have been established, there is a difficult process ahead to update time standards in the ERP system.
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The teams completing the time studies are often different from the teams responsible for completing lean events and ergonomic studies. This disconnect results in rework and a lack of clarity on the standard definition of a task.
Assembly Planner's system for creating and maintaining time studies brings advanced capabilities to the engineer completing the study and to the organization for accessing and updating the data over time.
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All time study data is created and stored in the same location in a standard format, eliminating issues with lost spreadsheets or rework.
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Time study data is easily entered through a spreadsheet interface.
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Direct link to the work instruction, line balance, ergonomic study, and labor calculations.
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Predetermined time standards, MTM (MTM-1, MTM-B, MTM-UAS, MTM-MEK), MOST (Basic MOST, MaxiMOST), and MODAPTS standards are supported. Standards can also be customized.
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Standard time systems can be used concurrently to help organizations transition between systems.
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Engineering teams can customize their own templates to reduce data entry time and quickly pre-populate lean and ergonomic studies.
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Video-based observed time studies allow for traceability of the data.
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Classify and color-code time elements based on standard organizational codes and descriptions for value/non-value added analysis.
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Completed time studies can be reviewed and applied to standard time at a later date.
Proplanner provides a single system for engineers to create a plan for manufacturing. We suggest you review these solutions next:
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