Time Study assistance

[PD2]

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?

 

[EdStainless]

1. Why do you buy it in small bags? Will no one supply in bulk?
2. If you are using bags why is your hopper so small that you can't load a full batch worth at once?
Draw this out as a chart showing when different events start and stop.
Then you can see where they overlap and how much time is involved.
Your goal is to find the items that are determining the critical path.
And then figure out how to reduce those items by overlapping or modification.

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P.E. Metallurgy, consulting work welcomed

 

[PD2]

The small bags in question are only the portioned out pounds of specific powders as needed for the recipe of the batch. The majority of the bags are the large bags the powder comes packaged in.

And the hopper is the intake portion of the screw conveyor as shown in the attached picture.

 

[FacEngrPE]

Sounds to me like expanding the time study into the upstream supply of the powder might be useful. Conceptually delivery in bulk, meter to a weigh hopper(s), transport to mixing tank.
Transport can be dilute or dense phase conveyor.
Once you identify the long poles in order of impact, you start to have a handle on which things have economics favoring a change.