A pocket-PC-based platform for agricultural work study measurements

This paper presents a pocket PC (PPC) based platform developed for data entry in work study measurements. Dedicated software written in C-SHARP was developed for a PPC platform to conduct time measurements; it facilitates both direct measurement and multiple observations (work sampling). The working procedure consists of four stages: initialization, data collections (time measurements), descriptive statistics display and data transfer. At initialization, general work study data such as location, station, operations, elements and other relevant information are entered into the system. During data collection the operator taps on a specific element button when the element starts. The system internal clock registers all element durations and starting times. At the end of the data collection stage, the system calculates the descriptive statistics of the measured process and stores all data in an ASCII file. For data transfer, the PPC is synchronized with a personal computer and the file is opened and analyzed with suitable software. The software also enables the entry of non-sequential elements as they occur. The developed system was compared with manual measurements in an experiment conducted in flower greenhouses in Israel. Results indicate that the overall time required for the work studies was reduced by up to 70%, depending on the number of elements that were included in the work study procedure. In addition, the measurement resolution was refined from 8 seconds per element to 3 seconds per element for a single user, and the number of errors was reduced.