Work movement analysis method, work movement analysis apparatus, and work movement analysis program

• US 8,059,863 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2007
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Shibuya, Tsutomu, Fujimori, Shigeru, Seshimo, Toshiaki, Ota, Mitsuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): PAPPAS, CLAIRE X
• Application Number:
  US11/706,815
• Publication Number:
  US 20070282479A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,735 Days
• Field of Search: 382/104, 382/103, 382/107, 382/236, 704/278, 348/143, 348/135, 348/155
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/10 together with the recording, indicating or registering of other data, e.g. of signs of identity

Abstract

The work movement analysis method for dividing a moving picture of a worker'"'"'s work movement into a plurality of movement sections in an apparatus having display, storage, and processing units includes in the processing unit the steps of: defining a plurality of movement section classification buttons and providing the buttons to an operator; reproducing the moving picture in the display unit; allocating movement section identification information defined by a specific movement section classification button to a moving picture of a work; storing a position of a moving picture in the storage unit as an end position of a movement section; defining an end position of a previous movement section as a start position of the movement section and a reproduction start position of a moving picture of the work movement as the start position in a case of no end position, and dividing the work movement into the movement sections.

Claims

1. A work movement analysis method for causing a processing unit having a display unit and a storage unit to perform a work movement division processing in order to divide a worker'"'"'s work movement acquired as a moving picture into a plurality of movement sections, the method comprising the processing unit performing steps of:

defining a plurality of movement section classification buttons each of which movement section identification information for identifying a of movement sections is allocated to and providing the movement section classification buttons to an operator, wherein the plural types of movement sections include a preparation movement, a valid movement, and an invalid movement;

reading the acquired moving picture of the worker'"'"'s work movement from the storage unit, the acquired moving picture being taken in advance and stored in the storage unit, and reproducing the acquired moving picture in the display unit;

receiving movement section identification information allocated to a specific movement section classification button selected by the operator;

defining a portion of the moving picture, reproduced before the reception of the movement section identification information and after a previous reception of movement section identification information, as a current movement section and allocating the received movement section identification information to the current movement section;

storing a position in the moving picture reproduced upon the reception of the movement section identification information in the storage unit as an end position of the current movement section; and

storing an end position of a previous movement section stored in the storage unit as a start position of the current movement section.

2. The work movement analysis method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

displaying in the display unit a work movement completion button

configured to divide the worker'"'"'s work movement acquired as the moving picture into work movement elements;

dividing the work movement so that one or more of the movement

sections divided by the movement section classification button are included in one work movement element before the work movement element completion button being selected and after the work movement element completion button being previously selected in a case of the work movement element completion button being selected by the operator, and after a reproduction of the moving picture being started in a case of the work movement element completion button being not previously selected;

generating work movement analysis information where a

movement time for each movement section included in the work movement element is counted, associating the generated work movement analysis information with the work movement element, and displaying the movement element analysis information in a predetermined format.

3. The work movement analysis method according to claim 2 further comprising the steps:

displaying a redivision instruction button in the display unit which the

button is configured to redivide a part of the work movement divided into the movement section and the work movement element; and

defining a movement section start position of a first movement section as a reproduction start position and a movement section end position of a last movement section a reproduction end position, and reproducing the work movement moving picture from the reproduction start position to the reproduction end position out of a movement section included in the selected work movement element, in the work movement analysis information displayed in a predetermined format in the display unit in a case of sequential one or more of the work movement elements and the redivision instruction button being selected;

performing the work movement division processing and dividing a work movement of a part included in the selected work movement element into the movement sections; and

performing the work movement analysis information generation processing, and according to the generated work movement analysis information, updating work movement analysis information corresponding to the selected work movement element out of initial work movement analysis information.

4. The work movement analysis method according to claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

displaying an identification information change instruction button configured to instruct a change of work movement element identification information for identifying the work movement element in the work movement analysis information; and

alternately changing two pieces of work movement element identification information selected in the work movement analysis information in a case of two pieces of work movement element identification information different in the work movement element and the identification information change instruction button being selected in the work movement analysis information displayed in a predetermined format in the display unit.

5. The work movement analysis method according to claim 2 comprising the step of:

moving picture reproduction control information including at least one

of reproduction speed information, reproduction skip designation information, and work rating information configured to control reproducing the moving picture part corresponding to a divided work movement as the work movement element being further associated with each the work movement element in the work movement analysis information; and

the method further comprising the steps, performed by the processing unit, of;

associating and displaying the moving picture reproduction control information with the work movement element in displaying the work movement analysis information in the display unit; and

in a case of the moving picture reproduction control information being selected and a value of moving picture reproduction control information for setting the selected moving picture reproduction control information from a predetermined operation input unit being input in the work movement analysis information displayed in the display unit, setting the value of the input moving picture reproduction control information as a value of the selected moving picture reproduction control information.

6. The work movement analysis method according to claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

calculating a variation statistical value representing a variation of the

movement section time count information for each the work movement element identification information of the work movement element configuring a work movement of a process with respect to the work movement analysis information generated in a case of the worker repeating the work movement of the process by a plurality of times;

displaying the calculated variation statistical value side by side for

each the work movement element identification information; and

in a case of a variation tolerance maximum value having been set with

respect to the variation of the element section time count information with respect to a variation statistical value of a work movement where the variation statistical value of the movement section time count information becomes larger than an input variation tolerance maximum value out of the variation statistical value for every the displayed work movement element identification information, performing a display of indicating that “

the variation statistical value is too large”

in the display unit.

7. The work movement analysis method according to claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

accumulating in a plurality of different processes a movement time of

each the work movement element configuring a work movement of each of the different processes and generating movement time stack information for the each process, with respect to a plurality of pieces of the work movement analysis information generated in a case of each worker repeating the work movement of the each process by a plurality of times;

displaying side by side the generated movement time stack information with respect to the plurality of the different processes in the display unit; and

in a case of a movement time target value having been set with respect to the displayed movement time stack information with respect to movement time stack information of a process where the movement time stacked value becomes larger than the movement time target value out of the displayed movement time stack information of the plurality of the different processes, performing a display of indicating in the display unit that “

the movement time stacked value is too large”

.

8. The work movement analysis method according to claim 7 further comprising the steps of:

in a case of displaying the movement time stack information in the

display unit,

generating each graphic object to be dragged depending on a movement

time of each the work movement element configuring the process with respect to each the work movement element configuring the process, and displaying a movement time stacked bar graph configured by accumulating the generated graphic object for each the process as the movement time stack information; and

in a case of one graphic object included in an arbitrary first process being selected and instruction information being input to include the selected graphic object in another second process in the displayed movement time stacked bar graph, again displaying the movement time stacked bar graph as a work movement corresponding to the selected graphic object being deleted from the first process and incorporated in the second process.

9. The work movement analysis method according to claim 2 further comprising the steps of:

displaying shortcut key information in a predetermined format in the

display unit, the shortcut key information being configured to associate instruction information input from a predetermined operation input unit and defined in advance with a key code generated by a key possessed by the operation input unit; and

in a case of one piece of the instruction information being selected and a key code being input to be associated with the instruction information, associating the key code with the selected instruction information in shortcut key information of a predetermined format displayed in the display unit.

20. The work movement analysis method according to claim 1 further comprising steps of:

defining as the movement section classification buttons a preparation button corresponding to the preparation movement section, a valid button corresponding to the valid movement section, and an invalid movement button corresponding to the invalid movement section;

providing the preparation, valid, and invalid buttons to a user; and

further defining as the movement section classification buttons an ignore button in order to classify the worker'"'"'s work movement as a movement to be ignored and providing the ignore button to the user.

21. The work movement analysis method according to claim 1, wherein when the previous movement section has not been defined, a start position of the moving picture is stored as the start position of the current movement.

10. A work movement analysis apparatus for dividing a worker'"'"'s work movement acquired as a moving picture into a plurality of movement sections, the apparatus comprising:

an operator interface having a plurality of classification buttons configured to select one piece of identification information by one click from identification information configured to respectively identify a plurality of kinds of movement sections;

a display unit configured to reproduce the moving picture; and

a storage unit configured to allocate movement section identification information defined by a specific movement section classification button to a moving picture of a work having been reproduced before a selection of the specific movement section classification button and to store a position of a moving picture displayed upon the specific movement section classification button being displayed as an end position of a movement section where the movement section identification information is allocated, in a case of the specific movement section classification button being selected by an operator having inspected the reproduced moving picture,

wherein the apparatus is configured to define an end position of a previous movement section stored in the storage unit as a start position of a current movement section.

11. A work movement analysis program embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium configured to cause a processing unit having a display unit and a storage unit perform a work movement division processing in order to divide a worker'"'"'s work movement acquired as a moving picture into a plurality of movement sections, the program comprising steps of:

defining a plurality of movement section classification buttons each identification information for identifying a of movement sections is allocated to, and providing the movement section classification buttons to an operator, wherein the plural types of movement sections include a preparation movement, a valid movement, and an invalid movement;

reading the acquired moving picture of the worker'"'"'s work movement from the storage unit, the acquired moving picture being taken in advance and stored in the storage unit, and reproducing the acquired moving picture in the display unit;

receiving movement section identification information allocated to a specific movement section classification button selected by the operator;

defining a portion of the moving picture, reproduced before the reception of the movement section identification information and after a previous reception of movement section identification information, as a current movement section and allocating the received movement section identification information to the current movement section;

storing a position in the a moving picture reproduced upon the reception of the movement section identification information in the storage unit as an end position of the current movement section; and

storing an end position of a previous movement section stored in the storage unit as a start position of the current movement section.

12. The work movement analysis program according to claim 11 configured to cause the processing unit to perform a work movement analysis information generation processing, the program further comprising the steps of:

displaying in the display unit a work movement completion

button configured to divide a worker'"'"'s work movement acquired as the moving picture into work movement elements;

dividing the work movement so that one or more of the movement

sections divided by the movement section classification button are included in one work movement element in a case of the movement section classification button being selected before the selection of the work movement element completion button and after a previous selection of the work movement element completion button in a case of the work movement element completion button being selected by the operator, and in another case of the movement section classification button being selected after a start of a reproduction of the moving picture in a case of the work movement element completion button being not previously selected;

generating work movement analysis information where a

movement time for each movement section included in the work movement element is counted, associating the generated work movement analysis information with the work movement element, and displaying the generated movement element analysis information in a predetermined format.

13. The work movement analysis program according to claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

displaying a redivision instruction button configured to redivide a part

of the work movement divided into the movement section and the work movement element in the display unit; and

in a case of one or more of the work movement elements and the redivision instruction button being selected in the work movement analysis information displayed in a predetermined format in the display unit,

defining a movement section start position of a first movement section as a reproduction start position and a movement section end position of a last movement section a reproduction end position, and reproducing the work movement moving picture from the reproduction start position to the reproduction end position out of a movement section included in the selected work movement elements;

performing the work movement division processing and dividing a work movement of a part included in the selected work movement elements; and

performing the work movement analysis information generation processing, and according to the generated work movement analysis information, updating work movement analysis information corresponding to the selected work movement elements out of initial work movement analysis information.

14. The work movement analysis program according to claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

displaying an identification information change instruction button configured to instruct a change of work movement element identification information for identifying the work movement element in the work movement analysis information; and

alternately changing two pieces of work movement element identification information selected in the work movement analysis information, in a case of the two pieces of the work movement element identification information different in the work movement element and the identification information change instruction button being selected in the work movement analysis information displayed in a predetermined format in the display unit.

15. The work movement analysis program according to claim 12 further comprising the step of:

moving picture reproduction control information including at least one

of reproduction speed information, reproduction skip designation information, and work rating information configured to control reproducing the moving picture part corresponding to a divided work movement as the work movement element being further associated with each the work movement element in the work movement analysis information; and

the program being configured to cause the processing unit further perform the steps of;

associating and displaying the moving picture reproduction control information with the work movement element in displaying the work movement analysis information in the display unit; and

in a case of the moving picture reproduction control information being selected and a value of moving picture reproduction control information for setting the selected moving picture reproduction control information from a predetermined operation input unit being input in the work movement analysis information displayed in the display unit, setting the value of the input moving picture reproduction control information as a value of the selected moving picture reproduction control information.

16. The work movement analysis program according to claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

calculating a variation statistical value representing a variation of the

movement section time count information for every the work movement element identification information of a work movement of a process with respect to the work movement analysis information generated in a case of the worker repeating the work movement of the process by a plurality of times;

displaying the calculated variation statistical value side by side for

every the work movement element identification information; and

in a case of a variation tolerance maximum value having been set with

respect to the variation of the element section time count information with respect to a variation statistical value of a work movement where the variation statistical value of the movement section time count information becomes larger than an input variation tolerance maximum value out of the variation statistical value for every the displayed work movement element identification information, performing a display of indicating that “

the variation statistical value is too large”

in the display unit.

17. The work movement analysis program according to claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

accumulating in a plurality of different processes a movement time of

each the work movement element configuring a work movement of each

of the different processes and generating for the each process movement time

stack information for the each process, with respect to a plurality of pieces of

the work movement analysis information generated in a case of each worker repeating the work movement of the each process by a plurality of times;

displaying side by side the generated movement time stack information with respect to the plurality of the different processes in the display unit; and

in a case of a movement time target value having been set with respect to the displayed movement time stack information with respect to movement time stack information of a process where the movement time stacked value becomes larger than the movement time target value out of the displayed movement time stack information of the plurality of the different processes, performing a display of indicating in the display unit that “

the movement time stacked value is too large”

.

18. The work movement analysis program according to claim 17 further comprising the steps of:

in a case of displaying the movement time stack information in

the display unit,

generating each graphic object to be dragged depending on a

movement time of the work movement element configuring each the process with respect to each the work movement element configuring each the process, and displaying a movement time stacked bar graph configured by accumulating the generated graphic object for each the process as the movement time stack information; and

in a case of one graphic object included in an arbitrary first process being selected and instruction information being input to include the selected graphic object in another second process in the displayed movement time stacked bar graph, again displaying the movement time stacked bar graph as a work movement corresponding to the selected graphic object being deleted from the first process and incorporated in the second process.

19. The work movement analysis program according to claim 12 further comprising the steps of:

displaying shortcut key information in a predetermined format in the

display unit, the shortcut key information being configured to associate instruction information input from a predetermined operation input unit and defined in advance with a key code generated by a key possessed by the operation input unit; and

in a case of one piece of the instruction information being selected and a key code being input to be associated with the instruction information, associating the key code with the selected instruction in shortcut key information of a predetermined format displayed in the display unit.