Paul Wakeford

What this page does

There may be differences in appearances due to system changes over the years but fundamentals remain the same.

This page takes you through:

• Opening Timedex and Getting Started
• Learning the interface
• Doing the study
• How to use other programs during the study

You will finish by saving the study and exiting. The small job (process) file made in JobPad will be used for this example. This means that you will already know how to start and load a file. You will also need to be a registered user of the system so that your name can be placed on the study.

Most people start Timedex and get straight into it - it is pretty simple to use particularly for regular Windows users who can get the hang of things quickly. However for people who can find some of this fairly daunting the whole thing has been set out here in fine, step by step detail so everyone gets a chance to use a decent low cost system without training costs.

Select the Job/Process

The Notes Pages

These allow you to make comprehensive notes about the study you are about to take.

The keyboard pops up automatically. Switch between the two notes pages with the blue coloured "More>" and "<Back" hypertexts.

There are 4 editable fields - they are shown and can be edited in the new TDX analysis program.

• Study Number; enter a number/name for the study. This becomes the file name. There is an upper limit of 255 characters but you should not normally exceed 25 or 30 for easy of reading and identity.
• Description; amide length of text to describe what is being studied.
• Part or Ref No; useful for part numbers in manufacturing.
• Op/Subject; person being studied, or team, or machine.

The check box (ticked by default) adds your study name/number entered makes that name part of the filename. The name is prefixed by "Study - " and suffixed by the date/time of the study. If you don't enter a name you will be advised - you can go ahead with the study with the box unticked and the study will be named with the date and time only. Useful for quick checks where you don't need to have masses of detail.

Again there are 4 editable fields.

• Site; if yours is a multi-site organisation
• Department; speaks for itself
• Section/Cell; a sub division of department
• Equipment Ref; machine number description (or trailer/truck etc) .

Press Next from either widow to get started.

Good practice is to start the study with a zero element. This gives you a chance for a look around, check what elements are in the job file, the surroundings and how the person is working. It is a bit like doing the old stop watch study and writing up the method before you start. You need to get used to the feel of things. You don't have to do this but it is up to you.

Spend a reasonable time - being familiar with the elements and surroundings gives you confidence resulting in accuracy for you or your client. Never rush into a study "blind"; you will make mistakes and select wrong elements. Early wrong selections, particularly where element descriptions are ambiguous (generally the case where there are dozens of elements), are generally perpetuated - result - inaccurate study work.

Top third of the screen is for the observation listing. The title bar shows that you have; Observation Number, Element Number, Time Recorded (in seconds) and description.

The "summary" bar below the listing area is actually the current observation line. Editable areas are

• Element Number (second field along the bar)
• Rating (third field)

Below the current bar are the subsidiary fields:

• Area
• Qty
• Notes

The Numeric keypad is for typing in known element numbers and quantities to the quantity field. The Notes field has to be entered from the general keypad (activated from the bottom bar).

The keypad to the right is the rating pad.

Say the element number you wanted is 11 then type the next 1 and 11 appears along with its short description (here it is MV POSN)

If you wanted perhaps element 118 (the field would behave in the same way and show its short name) as soon as you typed the 8.

If you don't know the element and its number, don't worry about scrabbling through that list of elements or even a flow chart (yes, I have been given one of those in the past!) there is a pop up element list, Just press the small icon to the right of the Help menu on the bottom bar. You can see the main description along with its number.

Select your element (tap it), tap the Use Element button and it is put straight on to the study. Easy as that - do you still want to scrabble around with a list, then enter it onto a listing board with sticky keys?

So you have two methods of getting element onto the study.

Quantities can be entered as you go. If you leave the quantity blank it is calculated as 1 in the analysis so you don't have to keep entering 1s.

A useful technique when you don't know the quantity until after the breakpoint (ie you need to read a counter positioned inconveniently for the normal viewing of the activity) is to use "Back Edit" and enter the quantity after the breakpoint.

One of the great things about this system is you can view large lumps of it in one go, pick out things you want to edit, edit them and return to where you were with the study continuing.

To select the big view, press the small "down" symbol on the top right of the normal screen. You then have a decent view of the a larger part of the study and you can quickly scroll up and down the whole thing - all during the study.

Here we have looked through and selected observation number 94 to look at.

In either normal or big view, tap the right hand icon on the bottom bar and this screen will appear.

As you can see it is showing us Obs 94 and its time. In this view you have the ability to change the element, edit or add notes, change the area or edit or add a quantity.

You cannot edit the time or rating.

Make whatever changes you need - here we will change it to element 4, OLD DATES.

The has been done and the big view display has been updated.

You can see the value of have reasonably readable short descriptions. If they make sense, even over a long study you can plot your way through the data by recognising the shape of the repetitions and special events. If your elements were the usual gobbledygook this would be harder.

Press the little up arrowhead in the top right corner to see normal view.

So, whether it looking back a couple of observations to quickly change a wrong element selection, add a quantity or make a note - all can be done during the study in quiet times - of course.

End the study

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