MOST (Maynard Operation Sequence Technique) is a language that was developed by HB Maynard and is copyrighted by the HB Maynard Company. MOST is currently supported via the Accenture company which owns the HB Maynard group.
MOST was designed based upon Maynard's experience with developing the MTM-1 predetermined time system. The base time unit for MOST is the TMU. One TMU is equivalent to 0.036 seconds.
MOST codes consist of a letter followed by a number. The letter indicates the type of activity being performed (typically a movement of a body appendage) and the number indicates the time associated with that movement. A complete manual on the MOST language for work can be purchased from the HB Maynard website.
A default set of Basic-MOST templates is included with Assembly Planner, as is an MS Excel lookup file that can be easily modified by any user. To use MOST, select BMOST from the pull-down menu.
The MOST parser supports basic one-handed motions (use the LEFT hand-code column), or two-handed motions. In addition, the parser supports segmented code multiplication or internal exclusion. Examples of these formatting options are shown below.
The internal column displays the task number which is internal to the element where this value is entered. The time for the task in the internal column is compared to the time of the given task and the task with the higher time determines the effective time.
MOST Element Types
MOST has four element types:
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DM: Allows you to type in an ABG code in the ABG code column. Click calculate and the code will get parsed and the time should show up in the Unit TMU and Total time column.
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SO and PT: Allows you to directly edit a process time value. Simply enter a quantity of MOD's in the Left Code field, or enter a time value followed by a dash and the time unit.
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*: The asterisk symbol (*) allows you to type in text in both the Title and the ABG code columns. Essentially, this makes the element into a comment. Anything in the code field will be ignored.
Multiplication of codes can be accomplished by using the Frequency column for applying the multiplication to the entire element line, or by simply prefixing a string of MOST codes contained within parenthesis by an integer factor. Similarly, codes can be ignored by the parser by enclosing them within angle brackets.
In the following example, the second element line has a code segment (A1 B0 G1) that is repeated 3 times. As such the total time for the element becomes 130 TMU's. On the first element line of this example, you can see how the code B6 is ignored from the parser < >.
In addition to the main interface above, Proplanner allows for MOST codes to be directly entered, using pre-existing and user-edited code tables as a reference.
To use the tool, right-click in the lower Element spreadsheet, and select Insert MOST Codes. You will see the user-definable MOST Table of codes (example at top of this page).
In each drop-down in the form, you can manually select (,),<,> to surround a code. If this is done, you will need to set the FREQ column. The value in the FREQ column should be contained in parentheses and should match the number of code groups surrounded by parentheses.
In the selected cell of the example below, the first (2) corresponds to a frequency of 2 for the A3 element.
There are pre-existing tables, but you can import a custom table as well. To do this, create a .xls file called BMOST-UserCodes.xls. The format must follow what is shown below (alphabetical codes across the top row, and numerical values along the side).
You can also enter the given FREQ for a code in the FREQ row that matches with the given code column. By doing this the parentheses will automatically go around the code once you click out of the cell. Once you do this FREQ column to the far right will be populated for the code that has been updated.
If you click the ignore checkbox the angle brackets will automatically go around the code or you could put a 0 in the FREQ row that matches the given code column. For example, typing a 2 in the FREQ row sets the parenthesis and FREQ column automatically. The example is shown below.
