Khronos™ is a tool designed to bring time and motion studies into the current century. We hope that it will bring more value to the art of time and motion and at the same time make it easier.

For any issues arising with this product, whether it is problem related, or a suggested feature please send an email to khronosissues@softwareontime.com.

Common window functionality

Button functionality:

· “OK” – save and close the window

· “Apply” – Save and keep the existing window open.

· “Cancel” – Cancel changes and close the window.

· “Add” – Add a new item displayed in the associated list. If adding items to a list when first creating the item that the list is in will cause an automated save.

· “Edit” – Modify the selected item in the associated list.

· “Delete” – delete the selected item in the associated list and all items associated with the item selected. Example: delete a company would also delete its departments, teams, employees, and all events of the deleted employees.

Drop Down lists also allow the user to speed type in the list to find the item faster if the user already knows the list. After a few character the items text will automatically fill in.

Number fields will allow the user to use the up and down arrows to increment and decrement the value.

Time/Date fields will allow the use of the up and down buttons.

Comments field is limited to 250 characters, about three lines of text.

Main Screen

Figure 1

The main screen is what first appears after double clicking on the Khronos™ icon on the windows desktop. The main screen display current companies, in the Companies scrolled window, that have been created in Khronos™. The menu bar allows access to File, Reports, Configuration, and Help. The buttons “Add”, “Edit”, and “Delete” refer to and act on Companies, see Company in this manual.

File

This contains all actions relating to exporting the events in XML format and exiting Khronos™.

Export

When selecting export to XML a company must first be selected. A “Save Company as XML file” window will appear so the user can select the location of the save and to select the name of the exported file. The .xml extension is required.

Figure 2

Press the “Save” button to save “PineMountainWater.xml” in directory “My Documents”, or press Cancel to exit this screen without saving.

Exit

Selecting “Exit” will exit Khronos™.

Reports

Figure 3

Time and Usage

Agent

Events

Event reports are centered on events; events are timed actions that the person being monitored is doing. The three report types are Events, Event Initializers, and Actions, all described under there own heading.

Event reports has its own filter window that allows the proctor to customize a report for any reason, based on departments, teams, employees, and even events themselves. The proctor can also select whether to report on Time or on Frequency, the number of specific events monitored.

Figure 4

Events

Events Report is based solely on the total events for the filter defined in figure 4.

Event Initializers

Events Initializers Report is based solely on the total Event Initializers for the filter defined in figure 4. If Event Initializers are not being used then these reports will be empty.

Figure 5

Actions

Actions Report is based solely on the total Event Actions for the filter defined in figure 4. If Event Actions are not being used then these reports will be empty.

Figure 6

Employee

Employee Reports will be all about comparing employee results and comparing employee attributes.

Events

Events Report will be similar to the Events report described in Events->Events except that each employee that is selected will be broken down on separate lines.

Event Initializers

Events Initializers Report will be similar to the Events Initializers report described in Events-> Events Initializers except that each employee that is selected will be broken down on separate lines.

Employee Attributes

Employee Attributes Report will describe the employees selected and the employee attributes that are selected.

Configuration

Configuration allows the setup of the dropdown lists in the Employee screen as well as the event screen.

Department

This sets department wide configuration. For a configuration item that would only be needed by an individual team then it might be better to set that item in Configuration/Teams.

Events

Define the type of events available for the selected department.

Actions

Define the available actions assigned to the individual event in the selected Department.

Employee Levels

Define the types of employee levels found in this department.

Event Initializers

Define events that would start an event, such as a phone call, or an email, etc. If nothing is added to this configuration item then the option will not appear in the event window.

Teams

This sets team wide configuration. This is a narrower or fine tuning of the configuration. What is set here will only be available for the individual team.

Events

Define the type of events available for the selected team.

Actions

Define the available actions assigned to the individual event in the selected team.

Employee Levels

Define the types of employee levels found in this team.

Help

Contains the “About” and “Users Guide” options.

About

When selected, a window showing the version of “Khronos™” is displayed; press “OK” to close it.

Users Guide

When selected, this “Users Guide” is displayed.

Company

Company information and associated Departments. Name and Address are required fields. Comments field will only save up to 250 characters, about three lines of text. Please see Common window functionality for a description of the buttons.

Figure 7

Department

The name field is required. Please see Common window functionality for a description of the buttons.

Figure 8

Team

Team name is a required field. Please see Common window functionality for a description of the buttons.

Figure 9

Employee

Name is a required field. Please see Common window functionality for a description of the buttons.

Figure 10

Event

Name is a required field. Event Initiator will only be displayed if they are defined in configuration for this Department or Team and this event is a root event of this employee. Please see Common window functionality for a description of the buttons.

Figure 11

When an event is created the start time is entered into the start time field. The End time field is entered automatically when “OK” is clicked. Each sub event will keep track of its own time with its own counter. Each parent events elapsed time will also include the time of all children events. The number of sub events for a given event is unlimited. Each sub event will keep track of its own “elapsed time”.

Re-Open is used to continue the timing of a previously closed event. When an event has been “Re-Opened” its “Start Time” and “End Time” will not reflect the “Elapsed Time”. “Start Time” will reflect the time the event was first opened, and “End Time” will reflect the last time the event was closed. Elapsed time will always reflect the total time the event was being timed.

When in edit mode any modification of either “Start Time” or “End Time” will cause the elapsed time to be recalculated when the “OK” button is clicked.

Theory of Operation

Steps for configuring a usable Khronos Time and Motion software tool:

Create a company by clicking on the Add button on the main Khronos window.

The company that will have the study done.

Create a Department by clicking on the Add button from the Company window.

The department that will have the study done, if there aren’t any departments then you will need to make one up (Example: fender repair).

Create a team by clicking on the Add button from the Department window.

The team that will have the study done, if there aren’t any teams then you will need to make one up. (Example: first shift)

Create employees by clicking on the Add button from the Team window.

The Employees that are in the time study, If you don’t have any employee than maybe the process that is in the study.

Create events by clicking on the Add button from the Employee window.

But before creating events, they will need to be defined.

Events are the key behind Khronos and the way it works. Khronos also allows sub events within an event or hierarchy of events.

Configuring Khronos for usage starts with determining the types of events that you will want to capture; because time and motion studies can be done within different departments of a company, manufacturing and customer support, for example. A department within a company must be selected before entering the event types into the “Events and Actions” window.

Events are the item that one would like to capture the time information on, such as, setting up a lathe, turning a piece of stock to make a motor housing or even framing a window in house construction.

Since we mentioned building houses previously and everyone knows something about houses let’s build an event list for the construction of a two story 3000 square foot house on cherry lane.

“Build House on Cherry lane”

“Clear land”

“Layout footings”

“Dig footings”

“Frame footings”

“Pour footings”

“Frame house”

“Roofing”

“Siding”

“Rough in wiring”

“Heat and air (HVAC)”

“Hang sheetrock”

“Mud sheetrock”

“Mud ceiling”

“Mud small wall”

“Mud large wall”

“Mud outside corner”

“Mud inside corner”

“Wire in receptacle”

“Wire in light switch”

“Wire in ceiling light”

“Wire House”

“Paint bathroom”

“Paint bedroom”

“Paint living room”

“Paint Kitchen”

“Paint outside of house”

“Paint inside of house”

“Paint House”

“Inspect house”

You will notice that Sheetrock work along with Electrical and painting are in greater detail. I want to capture more detailed information, possibly because all of my houses on cherry lane are not the same size, and knowing how long it takes to do smaller pieces of the work I will then be able to calculate the time require to build a larger or smaller house. You will see where these event types show up when creating an event in the employee window.

Actions are supplemental information for an event, to better capture the data. For painting I might add actions such as “Spray gun”, “4 inch paint brush” or even “ladder”. Adding actions is not required but in certain instance will provide a better picture of the work performed.

There is a comment field on the event window for capturing additional data about a certain event, Such as one of the “wire light switch” events is took an exceptional amount of time; a look at the comment field for that event shows that Harry droped the box of wire nuts and had to retrieve them before continuing the event.