Hello.
I have been tasked to do a time study on a process of filling a liquifier mixer tank with the goal of timeing the current method of conveying it (screw conveyor) and seeing if an alternative method (vacuum conveyor) of conveying would speed it up a bit.
I have already observed and timed the processes and here is what I found.
When using the screw conveyor, the bags of powder are required to be dumped in an intake conveyor and this process doesn't just occur at once, but at various points throughout the system.
First, a pallet (batch) arrives with little bags and an already cut bag of powder and these are dumped simultaneously with the staging of the rest of the bags onto stainless steel stands.
Then, these bags are cut and stripped, and when enough to fill the hopper are as such, they are dumped by an employee while another finishes the cutting and stripping.
They then wait for the cookers to be ready and transfer the previously made batch from the tank. Then the t-strainer on the outfeed line is checked while the tank is filled with the prescribed amount of water.
The conveyor is then activated and when the hopper is empty enough, the employees dump the rest of the bags into the hopper and it is conveyed, all the while the powder is mixed in with the water. The process repeats itself, sometimes before the conveying is done.
From my understanding, the vacuum method would eliminate the need to dump the bags at all. But, as that process occurs simultaneously with the other processes, all of my previous recordings were of the amount of time it took for both these to occur simultaneously.
So, my question is this; how can I account for the bag dumping sections separately while also measuring the rest of the processes?
I have been tasked to do a time study on a process of filling a liquifier mixer tank with the goal of timeing the current method of conveying it (screw conveyor) and seeing if an alternative method (vacuum conveyor) of conveying would speed it up a bit.
I have already observed and timed the processes and here is what I found.
When using the screw conveyor, the bags of powder are required to be dumped in an intake conveyor and this process doesn't just occur at once, but at various points throughout the system.
First, a pallet (batch) arrives with little bags and an already cut bag of powder and these are dumped simultaneously with the staging of the rest of the bags onto stainless steel stands.
Then, these bags are cut and stripped, and when enough to fill the hopper are as such, they are dumped by an employee while another finishes the cutting and stripping.
They then wait for the cookers to be ready and transfer the previously made batch from the tank. Then the t-strainer on the outfeed line is checked while the tank is filled with the prescribed amount of water.
The conveyor is then activated and when the hopper is empty enough, the employees dump the rest of the bags into the hopper and it is conveyed, all the while the powder is mixed in with the water. The process repeats itself, sometimes before the conveying is done.
From my understanding, the vacuum method would eliminate the need to dump the bags at all. But, as that process occurs simultaneously with the other processes, all of my previous recordings were of the amount of time it took for both these to occur simultaneously.
So, my question is this; how can I account for the bag dumping sections separately while also measuring the rest of the processes?
