Time and Motion Study – Complete Guide

Time and Motion Study Template Dashboard Version

Watch Demo: Time and Motion Study Tracker

What is Time and Motion Study?

Time and Motion Study is a technique and structured effort to identify and track the time efforts put in on the tasks or activities performed by an individual to produce end output to meet customer requirements

Hence this technique helps to identify and evaluate the time utilized on each activity or task which can be further used to analyze non value added activities and manual activities.  Then a transformation consultant can optimize the process to generate efficiencies in the process.

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Time and Motion Study Template Dashboard Version

How Time and Motion Study works?

Time and Motion study is basically a concept of listing down, the steps of producing any transactions/products and recording time for these steps. Then we need to identify the steps which either can be automated or eliminated. Here we need to understand few things before we start digging into this concept:

Time and Motion Study Parameters

  • Transaction: Transaction is an activity which is combination of few steps and it gives the final output to your end user. For Examples:-

– Producing Pizza and delivering it to customer
– Producing Product
– Preparing Tea etc.

  • Lead Time: Lead Time is end to end time for producing any transaction For Examples:-

– Time Taken for Pizza preparation and Delivering it to customer. This time starts when the order is places and ends when this is delivered to customer

  • Cycle Time: When we break steps of producing transaction into different steps and record time for each step is called "Cycle Time"

I have divided the Pizza Order and Delivery process into various steps. This will help you to understand the difference between Cycle Time and Lead Time

Lead Time and Cycle Time Infographic

After getting cycle time for each step, we bifurcate these recorded cycle time further into 2 different categories:

1. Value Added Step & Time: A step which is required to proceed with a transaction is called Value Added Step. So this step cannot be eliminated or automated because this is must to process step and time taken for this step is called Value Added Time

2. Non Value Added Step & Time: A step which is required to proceed with a transaction however this step is an improvement area which we either

– Can merge the step with previous or post step
– Can be automated or eliminated

Hence this is a gonna game changer for making your process efficient and more productive. You can conduct this study with our Premium Template

Benefits of Time and Motion Study

Now you should be able to get some idea of Time and motion study.Here we are going to divide the process into different steps and then we need to record time for each step. Then you should look into the opportunities to improve or eliminate. These opportunities can be:

–  Repetitive Work Cycles. Could be a small cycle or long cycle time

– Various Non Value Added Steps which can be eliminated or automated

– Reduction of Time can be done for some steps

There are various methods, tools, applications available or you can get a freelancer to design some solution for you to automate those steps.

Once you start improving time on small steps and you will actually start looking your processes closely and you will find different ways of doing things.

Then you will end up becoming more efficient and you can look for other opportunities to work on. This is how you can get the most out of your time 

Steps for Time Study

1. Pre Improvement
  • List Down the steps
  • Start Tracking Time for Each Step
  • Once you complete tracking time for each step, categorize them into Value Added or Non Value Added Time
  • Calculate VA Time % (Value Added Time %) = (Total VA Time / Total Time Taken to process the transaction) * 100
  • List Down all Non Value Added steps in your action items tracker with solution and Closure date
  • Start working on those solutions and track them closely until the final closure
2. Post Improvement
  • Repeat the above steps after implementing solution
  • Calculate the VA Time% again
  • Compare the Pre and Post VA Time %

Now you can compare the pre and post improvement VA time % in your process to evaluate the performance improved

Time and Motion Study Template Dashboard Version

Download Free Time and Motion Study Excel Template

Download Free Excel Version
Download Google Sheet Version
Download Pro Version with Dashboard - Excel
Steps to perform Time and Motion Study

1. Download the attachment and unzip to open the file
2. Click on ‘START’ or Ctrl+Shift+A when you start your transaction

Excel Tricks

3. Click on ‘STOP’ or Ctrl+Shft+S when your transaction is complete

Excel Tricks

4. Transaction ID and Remarks are option fields

Excel Tricks

5. To reset the tracker and clear the tracked data, click on Reset button

Excel Tricks

Time and Motion Study Template Dashboard Version

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61 Comments

    1. excelsirji says:

      Thanks for bringing this into our attention. We corrected the link and also sent the tool on your email id.

      Your Excelmate

      Reply

  2. how do i unprotect this sheet?

    Reply
    1. excelsirji says:

      Thanks for your response Pat. You can unprotect the sheet with pwd@123 password.

      Reply

      1. hi password is not working pls

        Reply
        1. excelsirji says:

          Hi Ruby,

          We have checked again, the sheet is protected with with ‘pwd@123’ password.

          Regards,
          Your Excel Mate

          Reply
          1. Pandit Kamble says:

            Hello, Thank you so much for this T&M tracker, however given password is not working, it says “Invalid password”

  3. can u pls send me this time and motion template to me. its look good and i need it to implement.

    Reply

  4. Can you send me a copy of the template please.

    Reply
  5. Michael Castro says:

    Hi,
    Started using the template and it is really very useful .
    Great job!

    Reply
    1. excelsirji says:

      Thank you for your feedback. Happy reading 🙂

      Reply
  6. Christian says:

    Hi,

    Having an error when stop time. Pls help. Thank you

    Basic runtime error. ‘1’

    Reply
    1. excelsirji says:

      Thank you for sharing this.

      Could you please advise when you are getting this error and the screenshot?

      Please also verify your macro settings because our others are using it very frequently and never shared any challenge.

      Regards
      Your Excel Mate

      Reply
  7. MAnish Kumar says:

    Hey, can you mail me this, I am doing a time and motion study, it would actually help

    Reply

  8. Hello,
    I’ve downloaded the sheet but the password does not work, can I double check it is pwd@123 password.?

    Reply

  9. I cannot seem to get this to work it says ‘compile error, cannot find project or library’. thanks

    Reply
    1. excelsirji says:

      Hi Clare,

      It seem you are trying to open the file in MS Office 2013 or earlier version while the tool is developed to run on 2016 or above versions.

      Considering your requirement, we have now made the tool compatible with MS Office 2007 or above.

      Please try to download the file again and let us know if you still facing any issue.

      Regards
      Your Excel Mate

      Reply

  10. Hi: Love the tracker, jut what I am looking for. I want to add a way to export a report based on the data gathered. I’m having an issue with the password. was it pwd@123 password ? I’ve tried with the word password, with a space between the 3 and password and no space.

    Thanks for you help.
    Dan

    Reply
    1. excelsirji says:

      Hey Dan,

      You can unprotect the sheet with pwd@123 password.

      Regards
      Kapil

      Reply

      2. is this the correct Time-and-Motion study unprotected file?

        Reply
        1. excelsirji says:

          Dear John,

          Yes this is the same spreadsheet. You may use it. Let us know if you still find any challenge

          Regards
          Kapil

          Reply
    1. excelsirji says:

      Thanks Kiran for visiting our website.

      Could you please advise, if you are facing the problem to download the tool from our website?

      Regards
      Kapil

      Reply

      1. I need to open this code For learning purpose but password is not taking pwd@123 it’s saying invalid password could you please advise.

        Reply
        1. excelsirji says:

          Hi Kiran,

          For security of code and solution, we have protected the code with a password which cannot be shared.

          Regards
          ExcelSirJi

          Reply
  12. Donna Miranda says:

    Thanks so much for this file. Really helpful! 🙂

    Reply

  13. Where’s the link to download?

    Reply

  14. I have added a new column ‘G’ to lookup type of transaction ID. However when I click ‘Reset’ button, the formula in column G are erased. What is the password for the VB code so I correct this?

    Reply
  15. Caroline W says:

    Hi. I am trying to use the Time and Motion Tracker but am struggling with the un-protect function for additional columns. I have created 2 additional columns (work type) with drop down lists but it asks me to un-protect for each individual line (even though I’ve un-protected the whole worksheet? Maybe something to do with the macro (as I want the additional fields to be entered before the timer is stopped) – although the problem does occur even after the timer has stopped? Many thanks!

    Reply
    1. excelsirji says:

      Hi Caroline,

      This is because you run the time and motion macro which protects the spreadsheet on each click on Start or End time. This is required so that user cannot manually change the time.
      We will be launching Advanced Time and Motion study with some advanced feature by end of this week. This will help you to achieve your objective. Currently this spreadsheet has limited feature which cannot be modified by the user however you can multiple columns as you need.

      Regards
      Excelsirji

      Reply

      1. Hi excelsirji,
        Have you launched your Advanced Time and Motion study? I am also struggling with the unprotection feature every time I run the time.
        Thank you for your advice in advance.
        Thanks
        Noemi

        Reply

        1. Hi Noemi,

          Yes the tool development has been completed and we are working with the testing team to identify and fix the issues (if any).

          We are expecting the new tool in one to two weeks time.

          Thank you for your patience.

          Regards,
          Your Excel Mate

          Reply
  16. Akash Garg says:

    Please email the template. This looks really good.

    Reply

      1. Join the discussion…HI can I have the code for this please so I can make my own and try? Thank you

        Reply

        1. Hello Ruby,

          Please accept our apologies for delay in response.

          As you know that we at ExcelSirJi works hard to help our subscribers and visitors to make full use of the free codes and templates published by our team.

          As part of our objective, you are free to use these templates. However to access the code, you may refer the below link to get unprotected version

          Please visit Time and Motion Tracker v1.0 – Unprotected Version to know more about the unprotected version.

          Regards,
          Your Excel Mate

          Reply
  17. Prajeesh Padmakumar says:

    Hello.. Is there anyway to add a pause function to the sheet? With the field to enter comments about the reason to pause. And when restating the task, the total time should not consider the paused time. Also it will be helpful to have a mean, median mode of the duration of the task. Thanks for your efforts. Very well done.

    Reply

    1. Thanks Prajeesh, we are going to add Pause function in our next version of Time and Motion study. Apart from that, we will add STATS details in our pro version. We will be publishing this soon.

      Reply
  18. Blair Dupre says:

    What is the VBA code password? I would like to change the “reset” command to function only on selected cells instead of the entire worksheet.

    Reply

    1. Hello Blair,

      Thanks for contacting ExcelSirJi team.

      As you know that we at ExcelSirJi work hard to help our subscribers and visitors to make full use of the free codes and templates published by our team.

      As part of our objective, you are free to use these templates. However to access the code, you may refer the below link to get unprotected version

      Please visit Time and Motion Tracker v1.0 – Unprotected Version to know more about the unprotected version.

      Regards,
      Your Excel Mate

      Reply

  19. Hi, Thank you for this. Have been using this for the past year and has helped a lot. Although, I tried to download again however, this time it is asking me to enter password every time I start new. may I please ask for assistance? Thank you.

    Reply

    1. Hi Jamie,

      Seems you already purchased the unprotected one and did not find any challenge.

      Thank you for your feedback. Have a great day

      Regards
      Your Excel Mate

      Reply
      1. Gensha San Jose says:

        hi excelsirji,

        if i purchase the unprotected version..am i able to see the codes??

        Reply
  20. Sunil kumar says:

    Hi,
    Can i have the VBA coding for this file?
    Many thanks
    Sunil kumar

    Reply

    1. Hello Sunil,

      Thanks for contacting ExcelSirJi team.

      As you know that we at ExcelSirJi work hard to help our subscribers and visitors to make full use of the free codes and templates published by our team.

      As part of our objective, you are free to use these templates. However to access the code, you may refer the below link to get unprotected version

      Please visit Time and Motion Tracker v1.0 – Unprotected Version to know more about the unprotected version.

      Regards,
      Your Excel Mate

      Reply
  21. michelle nolan says:

    Hi, ive paid for the unprocted version – when will it be sent to me plase

    Reply

    1. Was trying to share it on your email, it was showing delivery message failed. Hope you received it now on your other email id.

      Reply

  22. I tried making a premium purchase of your time and motion study template but the download button doesn’t work. I tried multiple times using a credit card but nothing -not even an error. Is there another way or could check your website to resolve the issue?

    Reply

    1. Thank you Caret for bringing this into our attention. We fixed the problem at the backend. Could you please recheck and try.

      Regards
      Kapil

      Reply
  23. Sahil Bakhshi says:

    Hi, I tried downloading the pro template for time and motion template. On the payment screen, it says you need to have some previliges to authorize the transanction. I tried doing the transanction with name Sahil Bakshi. I hope the money will not be deducted from my account.

    Reply

    1. Hi Sahil,

      There were some payment issues from Paypal and stripe. We corrected the same. Now you may try your purchase. Rest assured, your money is not deducted.

      Regards
      Kapil

      Reply
  24. Bhujang Bhatkande says:

    I would like to buy the T&M template

    Reply

    1. Please visit our Time and Motion Study Pro Template, from where you may buy the template. Thank you for showing your interest.

      Reply

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