Paul Wakeford

A bit of history to the project

• Timedex is the quickest and cheapest way to to get accurate data from the workplace to analysis.
• It is a work measurement system running on the Pocket PC, Windows 2002/3 and Mobile platforms.
• The data is open and can be either worked in the TDX Analysis program or it can be exported in one single step to an Excel/Access/123 readable format. The choice is yours.

It's free!

OK - you need a Pocket PC, about a hundred pounds for a reconditioned machine? You couldn't get proper stopwatch for that! Even new, a handheld can come in at less than £200.

So, what does it do?

Take a look at a few of these features in Timedex:

Frequently Asked Questions

Really Fast

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Timedex is fast, really very fast. It copes with high repeat breakpoint situations such as:

• Retail checkout studies
• Engineering press cycles
• Retail checkouts
• Assembly sequences in manufacturing

You can get every single, individual breakpoint - you don't need to miss any - it is just down to your powers of concentration and stamina.

With its modern touch screen there are no bouncy or sticky keys to mess up your input.

• Less errors gives more accuracy.
• Less editing back at base means a better study to edit ratio.

Edit During the Study

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OK, it is a wrong element. Tap the Element "drop down" (above) and make your selection and tap OK - that is it...

Oh, and while you are here you can:

• Make a note - useful to be able to go back to make a note while you have it in your mind.
• Change an area
• Add a quantity (useful if you don't know a quantity until after a breakpoint)

This can save minutes every day, hours every week. Just think...

Pop-up process file

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Right, next element comes up, you are fresh to this job and you scrabble through that little list at the bottom of the board - "Ah! Found it - Oops, breakpoint gone! Never mind, bang it in anyway"...

So, you either miss the data (the odd one or two don't matter anyway - do they?) or you have a wrong breakpoint and that really, really isn't great for accuracy.

In Timedex it is easier:

• Tap the Process list icon on the button bar
• Up pops the list (right)
• Choose your element
• Tap "Use Element"
• And there it is (below), you don't even have to type it

Couple of points

• You can only see 11 lines so you may have to tap down a couple of times - you'll get used to it.
• And make sure that your project manager designs the job file logically so you don't have something like "Shrinkwrap" between "Travel to battery bay" and "Raise forks".
• Good job building practice stratifies elements in logical groups - the example above should not happen - but does.

Add visible notes

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You can place a note quickly - visually.

• Pop up the keyboard
• Type in the note
• Close the keyboard.

No time now? Pop back later in the study when you have a few seconds, .

Don't forget you can also make notes in Pocket Word and Pocket Notes but - a note made in Timedex is associated with the observation number - that is neat.

Modern Connectivity

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No serial leads here. USB is the "hard wire" connection - that is modern and OK and you have to use it to install the programs but for file transfer, use Bluetooth if you can. It is fast and only needs general proximity to work. If you have a static situation you could use WiFi to connect to your network from any point on the site if your server has a wireless network. The choices are yours, not the hardware supplier's.

Edit before download

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You have finished the study and you are waiting to get onto the only PC to edit.Go ahead and get some (or all of it) done on the PPC.

• Open up the big view (see below)
• Scan through to see if there are any obvious things wrong
• If anything needs to be attended to, tap the observation
• Tap the back edit button
• Do the edit - Press OK

Obviously there could be large blocks needing updating (possibly impractical in the Big View. You'll have to do those on the base machine.

Pleasant mixed case output

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Screen and hard copy output in Timedex are set in mixed case:

• It is a visually more pleasant viewing experience
• UPPER CASE is a convention from early technology from the 70s and 80s.
• In mixed case you get in more characters to the line.
• Upper case is best restricted to codes and abbreviations
• Today's convention is that upper case is for shouting (or being rude) in e-mails

Note that in Timedex, the Code/abbreviation column is displayed in uppercase for the reasons given above - a variable spaced abbreviation is just wrong. Additionally, you will see that the element numbers pad left to three zeros. Again this is for visual appearance on the hand held. Visual appearance is important; poor design does not help in viewing and accuracy.

Crash resistant (nearly)

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Lets be clear Timedex does crash. It runs on a PC and, PCs crash from time to time. Also, even though the program running it is fairly simple, unforeseen/untested circumstances will conspire to lead to a freeze of the program. Experience suggests that you may get a crash once in a month of solid study work (perhaps 120 hours of study time) - maybe more but, it is still rare. Luckily it is easy to sort out. Here is the procedure:

• Temporally suspend the study - you have no choice
• Reboot the handheld PPC
• Restart Timedex
• If there is a "Timedex has detected an ... etc" message, ignore it
• Restart the study
• Conclude the restarted study normally
• If you are doing a series of studies, note the study numbers

Back in the office pull in the first study to the analysis, then invoke the "splice" function that will prompt you to find the 2nd part of the truncated study - it then joins the two together. The join being a new observation of 2 minutes to cover the time lost in the study due to the reboot.

• So, you should not lose more than 2 minutes on the study...
• and no more than a minute or two on analysis splicing the 2 parts

There are horror stories regarding problems that used to occur where several pieces of the older type of study equipment would freeze during a week involving returns and replacements. Must have been very frustrating. One assumes that this is now in the past?

A "big" view of the data

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This is useful for scanning through your work to see if anything looks strange.

If your project manager has set out the element abbreviations well (see the ones on the right for a good example) it is easy to see the repetitive flow of the study.

If anything needs altering, tap the back edit button and put it right.

A couple of minutes editing here may save a long queue wait at the PC.

Random data addition

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You don't have to enter data in strict order - you can for instance put in the rating before the element number - you are not tied and you won't get any unpleasant messages about something being wrong.

Use Pocket Excel & Word

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The PPC can multitask. So, you can use other programs to enter additional notes, perhaps use Excel to enter quantities of something (pallets, quantities red, white and blue? What about a voice note - quick and easy and can help you to remember something like the observation number when a particular message was heard on a voice pick - for instance. In investigative study work, these facilities are invaluable.

The Study is Visible

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• Above all, the study in all its parts is visible and accessible during the actual study
• Previous observations do not disappear directly out of view with the next breakpoint
• You can back edit any observation at any time. All you cannot do is change the time and the rating.