Time Study Help 4

[Cale237]

Hello, I am not sure if this is the correct way to post. However, I need some help thinking through a time study at work. I am trying to create a standard for a work area. There is one machine. An operator loads carts onto a conveyor. The carts enter the machine in groups of 8. After machine is done with the cycle, the parts exit the machine on another conveyor. Then the operator unloads. If there are carts already inside the machine, the 8 carts entering must wait until the next cycle is completed. My main idea would be to track the time it takes the operator to load/unload and the machine/conveyor time, and I would stop the timer whenever the parts are not moving on the conveyor. What would be the best approach with this? I would think that a simulation software would give the best estimate since there is queuing involved on the conveyor, but I do not have that option. Any comments would be helpful. I am likely making this more complicated than it has to be.

Thank you

 

[Turn_of_the_Screw]

Simulation software seems overly complex for this topic. It occurs to me there are only a few actions to time.
[ul]
[li]Loading the Conveyor[/li]
[li]Unloading the Conveyor[/li]
[li]Machine Cycle[/li]
[/ul]

What is the ideal standard work you are trying to develop?

Chris

 

[gerhardl]

I understand your thoughts around this operation.

I suppose this is an already running operation. In this case the old-fashioned time operation study at the workplace would be the best basis. This would take in consideration the actual flow of articles to the operator, queing in and out of the machine as well as manual loading and unloading time.

The study could for instance be done as cases per half hour done at random intervals over a day or week.

If you in stead want to estimate or calculate a total time, you have to find out if there are any extra tasks added to the basic list of manual tasks: loading and unloading. This could be for instance fetching and preplacing og material, cleaning and unplanned minor stops of the machine, clearing or clogging of material out etc, social and added time in any other way, depending on how to calculate.

The optimum would be if the machine could be feeded and operated at once when the previous batch is finished. The question would then be if it is sufficing rest machine operating time (and queing place) to unload and clear and preparefor feeding to be done when the machine is ready.

 

[racookpe1978]

First, simply watch for a few cycles.
Then STOP. And think for a while.
Go back, AND DO IT YOURSELF for three-four cycles to look for wasted motion, excess force, strain, aches, excess movements and unnatural movements.
See (from that experience) what is wasted motion, repeated motion, unnecessarily "heavy" motion that can be assisted by better machines or new machines or simply better positions of jigs, tables, stages, or unloading and loading points.
STOP.
Think again, then test-implement some of the new ideas (from You, AND (most important) from the people doing the work right now.)
TEST AGAINS.
Change something else, or fix the error you created by the latest change.

 

[gerhardl]

The star to you racookpe1978 for the down to earth advice! That's how timestudies always should be done!

 

[mfgenggear]

I agree with racookpe1978, instead of sitting at a work station with stop watch , get the people doing the work involved. and loading and loading times as well as breaks.
machine cycle or fabrication cycle. so load. push button. remove chips, unload, clean parts, measure, and not necessarily in that order.

 

[IRstuff]

One caveat is to get some statistics BEFORE you observe in real time, and when you do, have more than a sample of one. "A watched pot never boils" needs to be contemplated.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[3DDave]

I spent a too-short time with a time-and-motion consultant. They brought him in to show him an empty building and asked how to improve production. After mentioning that he needed at least a set of plans he wandered over to the other facility and found that everyone agreed the welding area was the bottleneck. Pretty easy to spot with all the partially completed work piled up. Why was it not done? Because the machine shop was batching the full production run for each part, because that made the machine shop numbers look so good. Lacking the welded parts made shipping completed vehicles something of a problem and the weld shop was getting the blame.

He brokered a deal. The weld shop would take full blame if there was a production cart with all the required pieces and no welding was happening to those parts. If not - that cart would be sent back to the machine shop to pile up there. Suddenly the machine shop scheduling got revamped, completed weldments were flowing and vehicles were getting completed.

He said the tough part was overcoming the worries that a guy with a pen and a clipboard watching people work can generate. He found that solving their problems first made the rest much easier.