Movement Analysis
Discover how to streamline work environments and processes to eliminate any extra effort
What Is It?
When manufacturing and production lines became commonplace after the industrial revolution, detailed movement study started too. The early workstudy pioneers realised that extra movements contributed to process variance, time taken is longer than needed and worker wellbeing and fatigue levels.
Manufacturing businesses have long realised the benefits of movement analysis and ReThink are innovating in applying it to other commercial settings – including shops, warehouses, contact centres and restaurants
ReThink use different methodologies to deep dive into the movements that colleagues have to make in their work. This matters because every time a colleague has to bend awkwardly to reach a receipt from a printer or has to move items to reach the one they want, or take a step back every time a till drawer opens can contribute to colleague fatigue and adds precious seconds to your processes.
Deep dive movement analysis gets to the opportunities from streamlining work environments and processes to eliminate any extra effort – for the benefit of your teams and your bottom line.
How can it help?
- Deep dive analysis helps you identify all the individual movements that are completed too quickly for traditional time and motion workstudy to capture. It gets you to the next layer of detail and opportunities
- The detailed analysis quantifies all extra movements and provides insight in how the savings can be achieved. For example, is it simply making sure a stapler is always to hand when needed, or could angling a printer or screen make an easier movement? Or how can that walk to collect an item be made shorter?
- Movement analysis can be completed from a process map and can quantify the time of revised processes from a sheet of paper before you have to set foot on the shop floor or create a prototype
What we do
ReThink analysts are specially trained and qualified to use a methodology that uses the sum of pre-determined time for each individual movement to create a total process time (Methods-Time Movement (MTM)) and in video analysis that maps how colleagues move and calls out when the movement is awkward, time-consuming and potentially a cause of repetitive strain injury for colleagues.
MTM deep dive movement analysis can be completed from both a video clip of a colleague completing the task and from a process map.
Video movement analysis requires a video clip and a framework is overlaid that changes from green to red as movements become difficult for the colleague.
Featured Case Study
Movement analysis of the stock picking activity to fulfill online orders for a high street retailer identified multiple ways to free up time to process more parcels per hour. This included setting up a workstation so that all packaging materials were within easy reach and using a tape dispenser gun to avoid searching for the end of the sellotape. In addition to micro layout opportunities, the analysis quantified the extra walking time incurred that could be avoided by better use of the available stock space. Changes identified had the potential to increase capacity by 20%.
Review of the assembly of a burger in a quick serve restaurant quantified the extra seconds taken for every burger as a result of equipment and ingredients not being in the right place. Most of the time could be saved with no extra investment, just more consistent placing of toasters, sauces and packaging.
Whitepaper series
Modern workstudy techniques are surfacing new productivity insights. Read our whitepaper to learn how.
DownloadWhat our clients say
Lisa Perez, Screwfix
“The ReThink study has meant we have made the right decisions for planning across the board. Thanks to their insight, we have made savings, but protected the two most important areas of our business – Our People and Our Customers”
Project Manager, Costa
“ReThink tailored their approach to exactly match our business needs. Their work formed a vital part of our project to optimise labour across our Costa stores, and we valued how flexible they were as the project’s scope changed and developed.”
Sandy Nicholson
Operational Development Manager, Vodafone
“I don’t just see ReThink as a supplier. I see them as a business partner who takes the time to understand what we need and build on the original brief. They’re always on hand for help and advice.”
