February 21, 2013 - J

[5:30 I arrive at work]
6:30 ; J arrives
6:40 ; J begins to work! Color me shocked.
6:40-7:40 ; Job 1: 60 pcs of coroplast approx. 24x40
7:45-8:00 ; Job 2: styrene, 6 pcs
8:10-8:25 ; Job 3: ad fab; job interrupted before finished, approx. 80-100 pcs finished.
8:13-8:18 ; computer-based HR stuff
8:19-8:24 ; searching for missing (new) calculator
8:28-8:36 ; fretting about information on pay-stubs
[9:05-9:18 ; break, I am not in area to observe]
9:23-9:50 ; wandering
10:00 ; Job 4: PVC. This job involves runs that last about 15 minutes start to start. J was told to run it on two machines. See below for details.
11:08-11:14 ; sitting and apparently writing rap lyrics, as far as I could tell.
[11:25-11:53 ; lunch, I am not in area to observe]
1:09-1:45 ; wandering
2:13-2:29 ; wandering
2:52-2:55 ; wandering
2:55-2:58 ; eating
3:25ish ; 2nd shift has arrived and J is done running Job 4. Puttering follows.
[3:58 ; I leave work]

Job 4: Details.
Okay, so J was working on what for him has been a classic goof-off job. Normal procedure for him is to run this job at about half the default speed. I run it trouble-free at almost double the default, and since I'm the one who set up the original default, this new speed is really where it ought to stay. The day before, I made 6 Runs on the machine J uses, and did so in an hour and a half, while working other jobs on another machine. J, on the other hand, ran the machine at default speed, thus increasing his run-time length (the better to have more time to devote to his phone, I'm guessing*). Also, while a person who was interested in producing a reasonable amount of product would start one machine, then load the other while the first was running, thus getting the two so that reloading and restarting would alternate, J prefers to reload one, then let it sit while reloading the other, then start them both at the same time, thus guaranteeing himself a period of ten minutes or more in which to goof off. He also has a habit of pausing his machines while he takes breaks or lunch, apparently considering goofing off time to be more important than productivity, even productivity that occurs while he is gone. Anyway, here's the timeline for the work he did:

10:00 ; by management to stop Job 3 and start on Job 4
10:10 ; starts machine M {Run 1}
10:14 ; starts machine Z {Run 2}
10:32 ; starts both machines {Runs 3+4} (actually, M started at 10:31 and Z started at 10:33, but I'm going to split the different when they are this close together)
10:51 ; starts both machines - Z finishes at 11:06, and M finishes at 11:12 {Runs 5+6}
11:22 ; starts both machines {Runs 7+8}
[11:25-11:53 ; lunch, I am not in area to observe]
12:00ish ; both machines finish {Runs 9+10}
12:09 ; starts both machines, machine M finishes at 12:25 {Runs 11+12}
12:30ish ; starts machine Z, then soon pauses it until 12:36, run finished at 12:50 {Run 13}
12:36 ; starts machine M, runs finished at 12:50 {Run 14}
1:48 ; starts both machines, runs finished at 2:05 {Runs 15+16}
2:12 ; starts both machines, runs finished at 2:27 {Runs 17+18}
2:40 ; starts both machines, runs finished at 2:55 {Runs 19+20}
3:03ish ; starts both machines, runs finished at 3:20 {Runs 21+22}

Score: 22 Runs on two machines, or 11 Runs per machine. Time to do so, 4 hours and 35 minutes (subtracting lunch), or about 25 minutes per Run. This is almost twice the time I took when I ran my Runs.


If the terms used seem confusing, you might read this.




* This is a fairly easy guess because he is using his phone a minimum of 50% of the workday**, especially when he has slow jobs like this one.

** estimated