12 Fleet Maintenance | APRIL 2017 out watching everyone all the time. It is systematized spot-checking, where diff erent observers under the same conditions will get the same results. Work sampling is important because: 1. It will help you see the real patterns present so you can attack the problems where they actually occur. 2. It lets you know how much lost time you have to work with. 3. You need a baseline of your shop’s productivity level before making changes. 4. Aft er you change the culture or install some labor productivity improvement, you need to be able to measure the eff ect. Problem Finder Work sampling itself is not a problem solver. It is more of a problem fi nder. If properly planned, it will give very defi nite indications of what is going on and you can decide what should be done. For example, a work sampling study may show that excessive time is spent waiting for materials in the morning. Judicious planning could allow parts room personnel to pull standard jobs the night before when the window is quiet. In the morning, more technicians can immediately get to work. Once problems have been isolated, means can be selected to improve the situation. Work sampling can be used aft er the observations have started. Plus, you can keep reinterpreting the results for diff erent uses. Observations mount up rapidly. If you randomly observe a 20-person department six times a day for two weeks, you’ll have 1,200 observations. Let’s suppose a 1,000-observation work study yields: Activity Observed Number of Observations In this shop, what useful conclusions can maintenance managers come up with knowing that only 32 percent of the time, or 153 minutes, are spent working a day? Initial Steps Before conducting a work sampling study, there are some things that need to be done, including: 1. Defi ne the scope of the study. It is advisable to begin with a general study to see how much time is spent in the general categories. At a later date, you might sharpen the focus and study particular lost time areas, such as parts waiting time. 2. Plan a study that will address the problem at hand and assign people to the study. 3. Review the study with the people in your crews. Th ey may not like the idea, but they should be informed of their responsibility to contribute toward effi ciency. Show them how high effi ciency will improve their jobs and their quality of life. Aft er productivity improvements have been made, perform another work sampling study to determine if changes in procedures, systems, culture, tooling, parts room, supervision, etc., have actually increased the time spent working. Keep In Mind Once initiated, there are six things to keep in mind when conducting a work sampling study: 1. Randomness is the key to an insightful study. 2. Vary observation routes through the maintenance facility to increase randomness and help “surprise” your workers. Occurrence Percent All of the work categories 320 32 Talking 180 18 Travel 150 15 Unable to locate parts, tools 150 15 Waiting 100 10 Idle 100 10 Total 1,000 100 Storage Updates Can Increase Shop Efficiency By David A. Kolman, Editor When a shop has outgrown its facility, but building a new facility isn’t an option, many vehicle maintenance and repair operations turn to storage updates that improve organization and workplace efficiency. Moreover, as facilities expand over the years, additional high-density storage solutions can be incorporated like modular building blocks, including parts cabinets and automated storage. But a simple reconfiguration can have its obstacles, says Tim Vaughan, director of sales, storage and workspace systems, Lista (www.listaintL. com), a manufacturer of workshop and warehouse furnishings. These can include the presence of existing air lines; hydraulic, air and electric lifts; and oil lines, as well as water spigots and electrical connections already in place. “To work around this, professional storage experts – like the sales engineers at Lista – make multiple visits to inspect the layout of the facility and conduct information-gathering sessions that include technician interviews, cataloguing technicians’ personal toolboxes, surveying cubicinch » Mobile technician toolboxes conveniently store tools and parts wherever they may be needed. Photo courtesy of Lista storage capacity of toolboxes and developing a configuration for bays with appropriate cabinet layouts,” he explains. “By incorporating existing features, sales engineers can develop custom configurations to be used to update the facility.” SOLUTIONS Products that are often recommended, Vaughan says, include: • Mobile technician toolboxes – Available in single-, doubleand triple-bank, as well as two-bay configurations, these types of toolboxes provide organized and secure storage of tools and parts wherever it’s needed. • Automated tire carousels – Because storage space is usually at a premium in parts and service departments, a fully motorized tire carousel makes it easier and quicker to store and retrieve various styles of tires. With this piece of equipment, it is no longer necessary for technicians to have to assist each other when it comes to retrieving tires, as only one operator is required to operate it. • Wall storage systems – Storage and productivity can be increased by taking storage floor-to-ceiling with a storage wall system. These systems can be configured with a mix of shelves, cabinets, drawers, roll-out trays, doors, etc., to provide optimum productivity and flexibility. ADDITIONAL BENEFITS “The goal of installing high-density storage is to carry more parts in a smaller building footprint, yet an additional benefit is increased productivity with the same manpower, due to faster parts retrieval time,” Vaughan says. “About 75 to 80 percent of all fast-moving parts can be stored at the parts counter, and retrieval time is cut in half because the cabinets, drawers and compartments can be labeled in a manner making it extremely fast and easy to find parts. “This allows the facility to move more parts with the same number of personnel.” Page 14
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