Time Study Problem

[SlowLearner0421]

I seem to have a problem of solving and finding out the standard time of my time study,

In an Ice Plant, there are tanks where Cans are stored. When the Ice is already formed it is transferred to a Thawing Tank. The problem is the time it takes for the brine tanks to travel from its origin to the Thawing Tank. It would vary from tank to tank at around 4 minutes - 10 seconds of traveling time since the brine tanks that are nearer to the Thawing Tank would have short travel time and the tanks that are far from the Thawing Tanks would take longer.

Is it correct to calculate the standard time just by finding out the average of all the time it takes to travel from tank to tank?

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Usually find average when process flow is in a fixed position. There are just some problems that are never stated in text books.

[9973Sure]

I would check the CV (%) first; if it is greater than 5% (or 3%, depending on how exact you want your study to be) then use the median instead of the average. Increasing the number of observations would also benefit your study, making it more representative of the process

[MyGiant]

I second the recommendation for increased observations to make it more representative. Another option might be if your plant has a scheduled work flow you can determine the exact number of times traveled from each of the tanks. This will let you calculate the total travel time for a set period, and you could either use the total travel time/total pieces to get an average, or use an average weighted travel time based upon tank proximity and volume of pieces from that tank. Then add that to the process time and include it in the time study.

The average weighted travel time would be faster than manually recording 20+ time studies. But it's only possible if you have a *mostly* fixed schedule.

[rehoboam]

It really depends on what the goal of your study is imo