Activity Analysis is used to understand individual activities that people perform in
order to create the product or service as it flows through the value stream.
Understanding how value is added to products and services is key to improving
productivity as well as reducing cycle and turn-around times.
The Catena system uses video in order to capture and analysis activities. Once
the video has been captured (using a Digital Video camcorder), the Catena
software is used to break the process down and identify improvement
opportunities.
Creating a New Activity Analysis
1. From the Catena Project Panel, select the Analysis tab and click on the
"Activity Analysis" button.
Prior to starting a new Activity Analysis, it is recommended that the video
camera be connected to the computer on which the analysis is being
performed and the video tape or file is queued to the start of the activity. To
connect the video camera, see "Video Playback and Control".
2. Enter the Name of the Activity Analysis and the start time of the process on
the video in the format HHMMSS, where HH is the hour (00-23), MM is the
minute (00-59), and SS is the seconds (00-59).
If performing the analysis using
a File, enter 000000. For video files,
Catena uses the elapsed time from the beginning of the video file to track
times, rather than the date/time code.
3. Enter additional information, such as the name of the Analyst, Video (Tape or
File) Name, and video date.
4. Click "Add Analysis".
5. To perform the analysis, follow the procedure for "Editing an Activity Analysis"
(starting with step 2).
Editing an Activity Analysis
1. From the Catena Project Panel, select the Analysis tab and click on the
"Activity Analysis" button.
2. Select the Activity that you want to analyze by clicking on it in the list box on
the left side of the screen.
3. Optionally, you may associate a point-to-point diagram, work area (work
station) picture, quality/safety picture, and video file with the analysis. Do do
so, click the desired "Link" button, navigate to the desired item, and click OK.
The document you selected will then be linked and you can view it by clicking
the view button below the link button.
Notes:
By default, the Point-To-Point diagrams are found in the project data folder's
\toolkit\point2point folder; the work area image picture in the
\toolkit\photos\workarea; the quality/safety image in the
\toolkit\photos\qualitysafety; and the videos in \toolkit\videos.
When linking a video file from a place other than the \toolkit\videos folder
(such as linking to a file on your hard drive based video camera), you will be
prompted to copy the video file from the current location to the \toolkit\videos
folder. Also, if your video camera configuration is currently set to a miniDV
camera connected via IEEE 1394 or USB, you will be asked if you wish to
automatically change it to file based so that you can play back the linked
video in the analysis screen.
4. Click the “Edit Steps” button located in the lower-right corner of the Edit
Activity Analysis screen.
5. The Activity Analysis screen is divided into 3 major blocks. The first block is
the data entry area. In this block, new steps can be added or existing steps
can be updated. The second block is the Video area. Here video of the
process is displayed. The third block contains a list of all the steps entered
into the system.
6. If you have a video source connected via USB, press the "Start" button to
start streaming USB video. If you have a DV (IEEE-1394/Firewire) or File
based video source, press the play/pause (>>||) button to start video.
If your video is DV or File based, you can control play back using the
controls below the video. In addition, Pressing the ‘*’ next to the New Start
Time and Step End Time fields will populate the field with the current time
value on the video. See Configuring Video Playback and Control
for
additional information. If your camera is connected via USB, only streaming
is possible. Control play back using the buttons on the camera device.
7. To start an analysis, play the video through to the end of the first step. Press
the '*' (DV or File based cameras) or pause your USB streaming camera and
enter the description of the process step, the work code, the step end time.
Also enter additional information as desired (yellow fields are required).
There are six standard codes for activity steps. You can also create
custom codes (see "Creating Custom Codes, below). The standard codes
are:
E - Evaluation time: Reviewing, checking, or evaluating for quality or
compliance with standards.
MH - Material Handling: Time spent moving products, service items, or
supplies from one location to the next.
PW - Pure Waste: Time spent waiting for any reason.
RW - Required Waste: Work performed that does not add value but may
currently be required.
VA - Value Added: To change fit, form or function of product or service for the
first time.
WK - Walk Time: Anytime the person walks from one location to the next
without the product.
You can associate step image or quality/safety images with each step in
an activity analysis by attaching a digital camera image (.bmp, .jpg, .gif). To
do so, click the Set button, navigate to the desired image, select it and click
OK. By default, Step Images are stored in the project data folder's
\toolkit\photos\activitysteps folder and quality/safety images in the
\toolkit\photos\qualitysafety folder. These images will print out on the Standard Work Sheets.
8. Select the “Add Step” button. This will flush the data to the data file and
restart video (DV and File based cameras only).
Catena calculates the number of seconds a step takes by subtracting the
step's end time from the end time of the preceding step. During the analysis,
there may be pieces of the video that you wish to omit from the analysis. In
this case, you can specify the step's start time and end time. Catena will then
use the step's start time (rather than the previous step's end time) to calculate
the number of seconds.
9. Each time the code of the work being done changes in the video, repeat steps
5-6.
10. To update (edit) and existing step,select in the Step List. Notice that the
selected step's data will populate the data entry area. Make your changes
and then click "Update Step" to flush the data to the data file.
11. To insert a step, select the step prior to where you want to make the
insertion and click Update Step. This will give you a blank data entry area.
Enter the information for the step you wish to insert and then click "Add Step".
This will insert the step immediately below the step initially selected.
12. When finished with the analysis, click the "Close" button. You can
click
the "Close" button at anytime and resume your analysis later
Creating Custom Work Codes
You can create your own custom codes. To define a custom code, perform the
following procedure.
1. From the Project Panel, select the Analysis tab and click on the "Activity
Analysis" button.
2. On the Edit Activity Analysis screen, click the “Create Custom Work Codes”
button.
3. Enter the name of the code in the “New Code” field and click the Add button
to create the code. (Codes can be up to 4 characters in length.)
You can also delete custom codes using this screen. Select the code from
the Existing Codes drop down list and click "Delete". Any Activity Analysis
steps that used the code will have the code field replaced with the RW
(Required Waste) standard code.
4. To
use the custom code, select the "Other" type on the Activity Analysis data
entry screen. The custom code will then be available to select in the Code
drop down list box.
If performing the analysis using
a File, enter 000000. For video files,
Catena uses the elapsed time from the beginning of the video file to track
times, rather than the date/time code.
Notes:
If your video is DV or File based, you can control play back using the
controls below the video. In addition, Pressing the ‘*’ next to the New Start
Time and Step End Time fields will populate the field with the current time
value on the video. See Configuring Video Playback and Control
for
additional information. If your camera is connected via USB, only streaming
is possible. Control play back using the buttons on the camera device.
There are six standard codes for activity steps. You can also create
custom codes (see "Creating Custom Codes, below). The standard codes
are: 
You can associate step image or quality/safety images with each step in
an activity analysis by attaching a digital camera image (.bmp, .jpg, .gif). To
do so, click the Set button, navigate to the desired image, select it and click
OK. By default, Step Images are stored in the project data folder's
\toolkit\photos\activitysteps folder and quality/safety images in the
\toolkit\photos\qualitysafety folder. These images will print out on the Standard Work Sheets.
Catena calculates the number of seconds a step takes by subtracting the
step's end time from the end time of the preceding step. During the analysis,
there may be pieces of the video that you wish to omit from the analysis. In
this case, you can specify the step's start time and end time. Catena will then
use the step's start time (rather than the previous step's end time) to calculate
the number of seconds. 
You can also delete custom codes using this screen. Select the code from
the Existing Codes drop down list and click "Delete". Any Activity Analysis
steps that used the code will have the code field replaced with the RW
(Required Waste) standard code.