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Performing an Observed Time Study

 

Video Transcript:

 

Completing a time study and ProTime estimation is easy. I'm going to demonstrate how to perform a video-based observe time study from start to finish.

 

ProTime estimation won't play many of the video file types but the preferred format is WMV. So my first step is going to be to convert a video file to the WMV format. There are many video converters available, I'm using a free version of Windows Live Movie Maker. I open up my video file, edit the start and end points if I wish, and save as a WMV in the videos folder of ProTime.

 

The time to convert will vary based on the length of the video. Now that my video file is prepared, I can open a new study in ProTime estimation. I'm going to name the study, I could also enter a description and comments about this study, and then go directly to the observed time tab. Here I can load as many video files for the study as I want.  The advantage of this is that you could observe multiple operators or multiple cycles of the process without having to worry about everything being in one video file.

 

Since I'm not completely familiar with the process and studying I'm going to play the video first and define the task being performed as I watch. Once I'm done with this, I'll worry about capturing times for each task. I can add a task either by entering an ID or a description in the lower table labeled tasks. I'm only entering descriptions now, but I could go back later and edit the default task IDs being assigned. By the way, the order in which tasks are entered in this table doesn't necessarily have to match the order in which the tasks are performed. This can serve simply as a list of all tasks being performed in the process being studied. Part of the reason for this is because some tasks are performed more than once but at different times during the process. This way you only have to define the tasks once and can record multiple observations of them to get the average time of the task no matter when it's performed. Okay, I'll stop the video now for the purpose of this demonstration.

 

Now that my tasks are identified I can begin recording observations. Since the first task begins immediately I'm going to push the record button first, then push play, so that the stopwatch starts when the video does. As each task is completed, I'll double-click on the task row header to record the end time of that task. Notice the details of each option observation appearing in the table above. As with any time study, how you've defined your test will determine when you record your times.

 

She's removing several caps now and I'm gonna record the task when she's done with all of them instead of each one individually. Now she's done with the caps, so I'll record that time. Now there are also some tasks that'll take several observations of. For every fitting top that she removes and for every fitting that she then threads to the housing, I'm recording an individual observation. Notice that I'm going back and forth from tests five and seven over and over. Okay, I'll stop here.

 

Once my observations are completed I can make some changes to the data. I know I missed the endpoint of the first task by a little bit so I'm going to open the breakpoint adjustment window to reset the endpoint. I can play the video in slow motion or drag the time cursor until I find when exactly she finished this task. Once I do, I'll save and my end time for this task as well as the start time for the next will be adjusted. Now I'm going to start a value-added analysis. I can define the time spent on each task classification category, such as waiting, walking, positioning, etc. or I can manually enter the value-added non-value-added, or semi-value at the time of each task.

 

ProTime does allow you to define a task as partially value-added and partially non-value-added if you wish. Now I have a few tasks for which I took multiple observations. I can select any two tasks in my observations list and watch their video clips simultaneously to compare how the task was performed each time. This can be very helpful in lean process improvement or defining best practices. One other tool that I'll mention is the required observations calculator. if you have multiple observations of a task and define a confidence interval you wish to achieve with your study, ProTime will tell you how many observations you should take to achieve that level. So now you have seen how easy it is to perform and enhance a video-based observed time study using ProTime Estimation.

 

There are many more features within this tool, please our website and other videos for more information.

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