OTRS Process Analysis Software Case Study
Takenaka Corporation | We were surprised to see work analysis that used to take a few days finished within a few hours with OTRS10 process analysis software.
Industry: Construction
Employees: 7,400+
Revenue: 1.3 trillion yen
※1:Current at Jan 2018 ※2:Consolidated (FY 2017)
Foundation: 16 February 1899
Address: 541-0053 4-1-13 Honmachi, Chuo, Osaka
Business Description:
- Construction and civil engineering related contract, design and supervisory work
- Examination, research, surveying, planning, assessment and diagnosis in the area of construction, regional, urban, oceanic and space development, energy supply and environmental improvement
Issue
Naked eye work inspection and data collection on construction sites were inefficient and data collected lacked accuracy
Outcome
Video analysis from various angles have been made possible even in an office environment using OTRS10 process analysis software
Introduction background
Conventional approach of staying at the construction site to check work and to collect data was highly inefficient
Takenaka Corporation’s Mechanized Construction Promotion Group in the West Japan Equipment Center has been promoting the development and introduction of construction robots at construction sites with the aim to streamline construction work. In the development phase, it is vital to analyze and identify the kind of waste that exists in various processes. However, the conventional approach of staying at construction sites to check and analyze the construction work being conducted with the naked eye put too much burden on their group members. In addition, it was unrealistic for one person to check all the work performed by every operator on site which often amounts to some 20 operators in total. As a result, the group collected rough data of work at their construction sites for every five minutes using the work sampling method. However, the data collected through this method was less accurate and lacked in credibility and persuasiveness.
“Working long hours at an outdoor construction site under inclement weather conditions to conduct our process analysis was very stressful. Further to that, after we brought back the data collected from the site, it took us additional long hours to aggregate and analyze the data to create charts. Introducing a viable solution to make our work efficient was a pressing need for us.” – Toyoki Sakurai, the manager of Mechanized Construction Promotion Group
Why OTRS Process Analysis Software was selected
Conducting process analysis in an office environment was made possible thanks to recorded video footage of the construction site work
Given such a situation they were experiencing, their supplier and construction robot development partner suggested them to use OTRS process analysis software.
“Thanks to OTRS, we can now analyze a video footage of the work performed at construction sites in our office. We still have to go to the sites to record the work but once we set a video camera to record the work, we can leave the site and don’t have to inconvenience the workers working at the site either.” – Hiroki Yamazoe, Mechanized Construction Promotion Group
The company is managing construction works at several hundreds of different sites at any given time but there are only three people in the Mechanized Construction Promotion Group working for the development of construction robots. As a result, they were only able to visit limited numbers of sites to conduct work analysis before. But, with OTRS, they can ask other workers on site to set the video and record their work. They only have to collect the recorded video footage from the site at the end of the day, which enabled them to be free from long working hours.
Drastic reduction in time spent on process analysis and easy to conduct multi-axial analysis
In June 2018, an OTRS demonstration was conducted for the company. The company recorded the movements happening inside a construction site elevator and the data was analyzed with OTRS using the video footage recorded at the site. Members of the Mechanized Construction Promotion Group were surprised to see how much time they were able to save using OTRS.
“We saw the work at the site being analyzed within a few hours with OTRS. Our conventional approach would have taken us at least two to three days to perform the same job. Resetting work elements was easy and we didn’t have to start back from the beginning. To be honest, I didn’t expect this much benefit from OTRS.” – Kouhei Nagata, Section Chief of Mechanized Construction Promotion Group
One of the appealing points of OTRS is that it is very easy to create graphs from the analysis results. We can also analyze the work from various angles such as floor level movements, accompanying workers and the type of loaded materials etc.
The company made the decision of introducing OTRS10 process analysis software very quickly as they recognized the software as a tool that enables the streamlining of the group’s construction site work analysis.
Introduction process
Comparison videos and real data brought improvements to the shop floor
The group says the benefits of using OTRS10 go beyond its easy operability. Even though the software is intuitive and easy to operate for anyone, it is natural for users to come across some questions once they start to use the software. When the group had such moments, what they could count on was the support they were able to receive from Broadleaf.
“We appreciated having support provided from them even when we made an enquiry at later hours. Under usual circumstances, technical support provided for software is available only for standard work hours or it takes a long time to receive support after we get connected to their call center. However, we are able to receive direct support from a Broadleaf representative who assisted us from the beginning. It is great that we have smooth communication with Broadleaf and the support we receive is right on the mark.” – Hiroki Yamazoe
Introduction outcome
Presentation documents prepared for the company-wide cross-functional team meeting using OTRS10 process analysis software were positively received
The company holds a regular cross-functional robot development meeting in order to exchange information about devices currently being developed as well as to discuss the effects and results of their newly developed and deployed devices.
When the group presented the analysis data created by OTRS at one of the meetings, it was well received by their colleagues as they were able to reach a new revelation and greater understanding since the data provided in the presentation materials was easy to understand with graphs etc.
“When we made a presentation using the materials we created with OTRS, we were very well received by our colleagues from other departments. I am very pleased that we were able to create easy-to-grasp, persuasive presentation materials in a much shorter amount of time thanks to OTRS.” – Kouhei Nagata
The next step
We want to accelerate our robot development and deployment process by injecting AI and IoT technologies as well
The construction industry is said to face manpower shortage issues in 2025 due to declining birthrate and an aging population. To address this issue, increasing efficiency and reducing man-power with a use of construction robots will become an important topic in the industry. The company wishes to utilize OTRS to expose waste and over-burden in various different processes at their construction sites to help develop and deploy robots with the cutting-edge technologies including AI and IOT to address the challenges the industry faces.
Customer Feedback
We wish to design the best practice approach for our various processes using OTRS10 process analysis software
Our company has already developed robots to help our business and has been using them on our construction sites such as an automatic construction site sweeping robot called To-Gather and a construction material conveyance assistance robot called Crawler-To to reduce the man-power required on our construction sites. We want to verify how much efficiency has been achieved by introducing these robots with OTRS in order to determine the best practice approach for our various processes.
Mr Toyoki Sakurai
Manager, Mechanized Construction Promotion Group, West Japan Equipment Center
Mr Kouhei Nagata
Section Chief, Mechanized Construction Promotion Group, West Japan Equipment Center
Mr Hiroki Yamazoe
Mechanized Construction Promotion Group, West Japan Equipment Center
OTRS is a time and motion analysis software product supported by Shinka Management, with an installation base of 6000 licenses spanning 20 countries. The software is available as PC-based time study software OTRS10 and an IOS app Mobile OTRS.