tectime

Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Copyright Tectime Data Systems Limited 2004

Support Tel No : +44(0)1782 799567 Email : [email protected] Web : www.tectime.com
Revision 1- July 2004
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 Page 2

Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling
Contents

Page

Overview 3

System requirements 3

Installation 3

Palms for study work 3

Main Screen 4
Study List 4
Enter Study Name 5
START Study 5
Operator Control Screen 6,10
Add operator 6,11
New Round 10
Study Screen 6
Operator Details 7
Select Operators 7
Select Activities 8
Rating 8
Areas 9
Study Screen 12
Seen Button 12
Unseen Button 12
Remove 12
Study Options
Enable Auto Input Prompt 13
Retain Op Info between rounds 13
Disable Rating 13

Ending a study 14

Study Menu Options 14

Edit Study Details 14
Delete All Studies 14
Reinitialise Memory 14

Areas, definition of 15

Copyright Tectime Data Systems Limited 2004

Support Tel No : +44(0)1782 799567 Email : [email protected] Web : www.tectime.com
Revision 1- July 2004
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 Page 3

Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Overview
Your system will include two applications for the Palm, a Timestudy and a Sampling
program. These applications will allow you to record information for these techniques
and transfer this data to the supportive PC based software for fast and effective
analysis. This guide for the Palm will explain all of the options available and indicate
in which kind of environments these functions may be applicable. Don’t forget if
you’re unsure about our systems contact us using the telephone the email listed
below or via our web site.
System Requirements
Palm Handheld with monochrome screen, resolution of 160 by 160 or colour screen
with a resolution of 160 by 160. Palm Operating system of 4.0 or above. We have
installed and tested this application on higher resolution screen and Palm OS 5
Installation
Your CD installation will take you through a series of steps which will include the
process of installing both the palm and pc based software.

Because of the specialist nature of these techniques and the terminology

employed we expect the end user to understand the basic principals of
industrial engineering or work study. Tectime will be happy to advise you of
training providers and consultants that may assist you in developing your
knowledge of these techniques.

Using Palms for study work

One of the major considerations in using the palm system is runtime. We have bench
marked a number of types. To test this we run the palm with no power saving
features turned on and our main study screen open, showing the clock running in the
top left hand corner. In this we mode we find.
Palm Zire 21 (monochrome) ………….. Approx 12 hours
Palm T2 ………………………………….. Approx 7 hours
Palm M515 ………………………………. Approx 4 hours
The runtime may vary dependant upon the age of the unit and usage, and can only
be a guide.
You can continue a study whilst the unit is being charged, and if you are recording
longer period activities then using the power saving mode, or powering the unit off
will improve runtime. Yes, you may turn off the unit and the study timing process will
update when you switch on and return to the study process. A study may not exceed
24 hours in total. Should this occur the last completed time will be taken as the final
time recording.

If you are not familiar with the Palm hand held device, please spend some time
getting use to the functionality of the unit, use of the pen, selecting menu options and
hot sync etc. This guide will assume that you can operate the basic functions of the
palm. Please refer to the Palm user manual for more details, as these functions may
vary from model to model.

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Support Tel No : +44(0)1782 799567 Email : [email protected] Web : www.tectime.com
Revision 1- July 2004
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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Palm Main Screen

Select the “ALL” option in the top right
hand corner of the screen and select
the Timestudy icon from the menu
shown. If you cannot find the
Timestudy or Sampling icon the
installation may have failed, please
reinstall or contact Tectime.

Once the icon is selected with the pen

the software splash screen will run.

Study List
The list of studies now appear. If a tick
is located to the right of the study
name, then this signifies that the study
has been transferred via the hot sysnc
process.
Options are available by tapping the
title “Compact Timestudy”, these
options are reviewed a little further
down the guide.

To start a new study tap the “new

study” button.

Copyright Tectime Data Systems Limited 2004

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Enter Study Name

Enter the study name up to 20
characters long. The study
automatically carries the date and start
time with the study.
This is the study name transferred
back to the PC.

START Study
Pressing the start button will record the
first time in the study. That is the
beginning of the first observation that
you are recording. The time will be
recorded in hours, minutes and
seconds. The system uses a
cumulative time mechanism. Therefore
the recording of the next time will be
the end of the first observation and the
start of the next observation.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Study Screen
The initial study screen appears. This
will be your operators control screen
and below you will see how this
develops.

On starting the study this will have no

operators listed.

NB As a point of interest, you can of

course study not just operators but
also machines. All you need to do is
define an operator code in the PC
software as a machine. See PC
software user guide on defining
operator names.

Add Button
Tapping the “Add” button allows you to
add an operator to the control list.
On the first entry of information this will
automatically set this as the start of the
first round.
So to start recording operators you
press the add button.

New Round
Tapping the “new round” button will
record the next round start point and
the time. This will also reset main
operator control sheet (see below).

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Study Screen
Operator Details
On pressing the “Add” button, the main
operator input screen will appear.
When in basic recording mode, that is
none of the Auto Input Options are
switched on, you will see this screen
for input.

Study Screen
Select Operators
Tapping the “Optr” section of the
screen will list the defined operators, if
no operators have been transferred
from the PC software, then an input
screen will appear so that you may
define the operator code. This code
may be two characters, alpha numeric.
If you have a list available then select
the relevant operator.

The software will then return to the

main operator input screen.

This screen can be set to appear

automatically via the “In Study
Options” see below.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Select Activities
Tapping the “Act” section of the screen
will list the defined activities, if no
activities have been transferred from
the PC software, then an input screen
will appear so that you may define the
element code. This code may be up to
five characters, alpha numeric.
If you have a list available then select
the relevant element.

The software will then return to the

main operator input screen.

This screen can be set to appear

automatically via the “In Study
Options” see below.

Select Rating
Tapping the “Rate” section will show
the rating scale tap on the required
value.

The software will then return to the

main operator input screen.

This screen can be set to appear

automatically via the “In Study
Options” see below.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Area
Tapping on the “Area” will give you a
list of available areas or the option to
input the area code, which is two
characters numeric.

Note that “Area” always has a default

code of 1, which in this example has
not been defined with a specific name.
The concept of Areas are explained in
the Software, guide to operation and at
the end of this guide.

Unless specific options are set,

changing the Area code will apply to
all subsequent recordings.

Notes
Within the study recording process you
may record information within the note
section to a maximum of 20 chars. This
will be a text note e.g. dropped tools or
a quantity e.g. 4 items picked.

This information will be displayed in

the extension screen of the PC
software, and shown against the
specific observation recorded. Should
the note be used as a quantity counter
against an element e.g. how many
documents waiting to be processed.
The PC software will total these
quantities for you.

When you have completed the

recording for the operator, tapping the
“Seen” button will add this operator to
the operator control list and the
software will return back to the list
screen.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling
Operator List
The operator control list now shows
the update operator information, and
places a “tick” to indicate that this
operator has been seen.

Repeat the “Add” process until all of

the operators or machines have been
recorded.

Operator List
When all of the operators have been
recorded, all should show a tick
against them.

You may review any of the information

for any of the operators by tapping on
the specific operator, this will expand
to show all of the details for that
operator.

To complete the recording process for

this round, wait for your next round
start time and press the
“New Round” button.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

New Round
On pressing the “New Round” button
the internal time will be recorded as
the next “snap shot point” for the study.

This will reset the “ticks” but retain the

list of operators seen on the last round.

Tapping one of the operators will

expand to the Study screen ready for
you to input the details on the new
round.

NB. You can retain some or all of the

information from the previous round for
the operators by turning on the retain
options within the “In Study Options”
function (see below).
This may reduce the amount of
information that needs to be re-keyed
during the recording process.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Reviewing Operator Information

Tapping on any of the sections will
allow you to update the selected
information.

Once again you may then use the

“Seen” button to update or add this
information to the Operator Control
List.

NB. If an operator on the study

cannot be located, but is still part of
the study. Then this operator should
be coded as “not found” as they are
considered to be still contributing to
the work content of the study.

Use the “Seen” button to complete the

entry for this operator.

Use the “Unseen” button if you wish to

ignore this operator for this round, but
retain name on the Operator Control
List for subsequent rounds.
Useful if the operator is temporarily not
contributing to the work content of the
study.

Use the “remove” button if you wish to

remove this operator from the study.
Useful if an operator completely leaves
the study, e.g. Part time staff and will
make no further contribution to the
work content of the study.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

“IN” Study Options

Tap on the access menu icon on the
device.

Select Options
Enable Auto Input Prompt
When activated by tapping the check
box you may select any of the four
options, this screen shows Rating and
Notes to be prompted. The impact of
this would be, as the next operator
observation is started the device will
prompt you with the ratings list input
screen without having to tap on that
selection. On completion of that entry
the screen would switch to the notes
screen for inputting a note.

Retain Op Info between rounds

Enabling these options means that any
information that is checked e.g.
“Activity” will be retained from the
previous round and displayed on the
following round.

NB If the Auto Prompt option is also

set to “on” this will take priority in
screen handling. i.e. if “Activity” is
checked on in both sections the
Activity List will be displayed first thus
overwriting anything that is retained.

Disable Rating
Prevents access to ratings in study.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

Ending a study
To end a study we have first to end the
last round that you are recording by
pressing the New Round button.

DO NOT enter any further information.

Tap on the access menu icon on the

device.

Select finish from the menu.

Finish will terminate the running clock
within the application.

Study Menu Options

Edit Study Details

Allows you to rename the study and
also remove the check box for
synchronisation with the palm. Any
studies available are transferred
automatically when hot sync is
activated. Once transferred the study
will remain on the device until cleared
but will not be resent to the PC unless
this option is unchecked.
Delete All Studies
This will remove all studies from the
PDA’s memory permanently. Ensure
all studies have been hot synced
before using this option.
Reinitialise Memory
Will remove all information from the
device i.e. studies, elements, operators
etc.

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Compact Work Measurement Software

Guide to operation: Palm Sampling

AREAS, Definition of. 3. Clerical

Areas is a concept which is a Studying an individual within a call

shortened term for what we call TASK centre, you could use areas to indicate
AREAS. In simple terms Areas will physical areas in the workplace; once
give you the ability to break down the again the ability to define areas in this
study into sections. Listed below are way means that a summary identifying
some examples of how one might the work content for each physical
apply Areas. area and even by operators is easily
achievable
1. Manufacturing
So in simple terms if you want to break
If you have setup the study to observe a study into sections then Areas may
a production line you will have be the way to approach this.
determined a series of operators and
elements of work. You will then study Providing you are consistent in your
these operators and elements being approach to Areas over a number of
applied on the production line. You Studies, you will have the ability to
may see various types of products summarise a number of studies
moving down the line. You could use together and of course to breakdown
the Area to define the type of product these studies by area.
moving through the production line.
The extended version of the PC based
By doing this, not only can get you the software can utilise this function even
summary of all work content on the further with specific graphical analysis
production line but also a summary for and statistics based on areas.
each product that has moved through
the line during the study.

2. Warehousing

Within a warehouse, various aisles

may have different types of product to
pick. You could use the area to define
the different type of aisle, thus giving
you the ability to summarise by aisle.
Another example may be to use Area
to define the different types of vehicles
being loaded, thus giving a summary
of the whole study or by area (type of
vehicle).

Copyright Tectime Data Systems Limited 2004

Support Tel No : +44(0)1782 799567 Email : [email protected] Web : www.tectime.com
Revision 1- July 2004
All registered trademarks are acknowledged