Tracker

Where Is All Our Production Time Going? — Time Capture Sheet (Operator-Friendly)

A lightweight, operator-friendly time-capture sheet with clear activity codes, classification guidance, an example, and recommended follow-up experiments to reveal true availability and prioritize improvements.

Quick Purpose

This simple time-capture sheet is designed for operators and supervisors to record what actually happens across a shift so leaders can reveal true availability, find the biggest opportunity pockets, and choose experiments that reclaim lost production time.

How this helps

  • Shows where production time is spent (not just machine states).
  • Identifies the biggest losses you can fix quickly.
  • Prevents chasing the wrong priorities caused by surface-level metrics.

What the sheet captures

For each event or continuous activity during the shift capture:

  1. Timestamp (or start & end times)
  2. Activity code (from the list below)
  3. Short description / cause
  4. Duration in minutes (optional if you capture start/end)
  5. Operator, machine / line, shift

Operator-friendly single-line capture (fast)

Use this when you need to be quick. One line per change, e.g.: 09:12 & C3 & 'No material, waiting 18'.

Activity codes & how they map to availability

Use the codes below when filling the sheet. The mapping helps convert raw events to availability categories (Available, Minor Loss, Major Loss, or Non-production).

Code Label Typical Availability Impact Notes / Examples
A Running / Producing Available Normal production of good parts
B Planned maintenance / Planned stoppage Minor Loss Planned cleaning, scheduled PMs
C Unplanned downtime / Breakdown Major Loss Equipment failures, electrical faults
D Setup / Changeover Minor Loss (often high impact) Tooling changeovers, recipe changes
E Quality check / Rework & Inspection Minor Loss / Available (contextual) Inspection, corrective rework (capture cause too)
F Material shortage / Supply delay Major Loss Missing parts, late deliveries
G Waiting for operator / Staffing issue Major Loss Operator on another task, training, missing operator
H Break / Personal time Non-production Scheduled breaks, restroom
I Meeting / Training / Administrative Non-production Safety talks, toolbox meetings
J Housekeeping / Cleaning Minor Loss 5S activities, machine cleaning
K Other / Unclassified To classify Use only when nothing else fits; capture cause

Example row (one event)

Date: 2026-08-01 | Shift: Day | Operator: J. Lee | Machine: Press-2
09:12 | C | Material jam, waiting for feeder | Start 09:12 End 09:30 | Duration 18

Template columns (suggested)

  1. Date
  2. Shift (Day / Swing / Night)
  3. Operator
  4. Machine / Line
  5. Event #
  6. Start time
  7. End time
  8. Duration (minutes)
  9. Activity code (A–K)
  10. Short description / Cause
  11. Was production expected? (yes/no)

How to run a short capture campaign

  • Run capture for 3 consecutive shifts on target line(s).
  • Ask operators to record every change or event (fast single-line entries are fine).
  • Collect sheets or combine entries into a single table each day.
  • Classify each row using the activity codes above.
  • Sum durations by code and map codes to availability categories.

Quick analysis steps in Excel (or Google Sheets)

  1. Paste the collected rows into a table and format as an Excel table.
  2. Create a PivotTable with Activity Code (rows) and Sum of Duration (values).
  3. Map pivoted codes into the availability buckets (Available, Minor Loss, Major Loss, Non-production).
  4. Compute: Shift total minutes (e.g., 480) minus Major Loss minutes = Potential availability to recover.
  5. Identify top 2–3 causes by minutes — these are your priority experiments.

Recommended follow-up experiments (practical, short)

  1. For the top Major Loss (e.g., material shortage): run a 3-shift experiment to ensure feeder parts are staged 30 minutes earlier and measure change.
  2. For frequent changeovers: test a quick SMED (reduce steps or pre-stage tooling) on one product for one shift and measure setup time change.
  3. For repeated small stops (minor losses): run a root cause huddle, capture the specific trigger, and try a simple countermeasure for one shift.
  4. Repeat capture for 3 shifts after each experiment to compare.

Common mistakes (avoid these mal-hungers)

  • Recording only machine state (idle/run) without cause — makes it hard to fix the root cause.
  • Using too-broad categories that hide the real drivers (e.g., lumping 'downtime' together).
  • Relying on estimates rather than timestamps for frequent events — ask for a quick timestamp when a change happens.
  • Collecting data for too short a period — capture at least 3 shifts to see patterns.

Practical tips for operators

  • Keep a clipboard or phone note and enter a line each time something changes.
  • If you can’t capture start/end, capture timestamp and a short note — someone can estimate duration later.
  • Use the code list — single-letter codes are fastest and consistent.

Where this should go next (for leaders / analysts)

After you collect entries, convert them into a pivoted availability summary and present the top 3 loss categories with raw minutes. Use the recommended experiments above, measure results, and run another short capture to validate improvement.

Download / Reuse

Use this sheet as a clipboard form or copy the template into Excel/Sheets. (If you want an interactive data-entry form and automated aggregation, see Capability Enhancement notes below.)

Included: clear activity codes, operator-friendly capture tips, example row, step-by-step analysis instructions, and recommended follow-up experiments to turn observations into action.

Discuss Ask the Librarian

Discussion

Comments and conversation will live here.