time study on fabricating

[koeskoes]

Hi all,

My company does fabricating (Welding, burn, sawing, Brake, Punch, Roll). I am assigned to make a time study on the time it takes to fabricate different parts so that we can make price estimation of future jobs.

We fabricate almost all kinds of shape of steel (A36)and i have no clue where to start from.

Do I measure the time it take for them to cut, break, punch each piece of material? do measure the time in quantities of 5 pieces? There are many more questions..

I would like to ask for some help on how I should go about doing it.


Thank you

koeskoes

 

[seaduck]

A good time study should include every aspect of the job performed. For instance if I were conductiong a time study in a weld cell I would record as follows:
picked up stinger...25sec
cleaned nozzle......30sec
begin weld..........35sec
end weld............122sec
raised hood.........127sec
and so on. In the above example I would start the stop watch and record the time each time something changed and then go back and compute the amount of time for each item ie. Picked up stinger consumed 25 seconds while cleaning the nozzle used 5 seconds. Doing a time study in this way will also allow you to see the waste that is inherently produced and help you to find ways to eliminate it thereby reducing the overall cost to make the weld. you will need a spreadsheet to take a proper time study also. This is pretty rough but should give a general idea.

 

[PSE]

As seaduck indicates, the time study needs to include everything involved in fabricating the part. Include setup, any fabrication steps, any documentation steps, and post job cleanup. If there are different operators that do the same job, conduct studies on each. Also keep in mind that an operator performing work for a time study is likely to yield a different result than if they were fabricating under "normal" conditions as they are less likely to interrupt their own work or be interrupted by someone else. Where I work, this is generally about a 15% variance so I take my time study results and add 15% to get close to "actual" operational time.

Regards,

 

[seaduck]

I agree with PSE. Welders are famous for either slowing down or speeding up when they know you are there and what you are doing. I have found it helpfull to hideout while performing the studies.