03 · task: sauté onion · sessions s015, s016, s017

Workplace analysis

What an operations team receives after three recorded sessions of the same task. Every finding cites the moment it came from.

median cycle

184 s

fastest

151 s

value-adding

58 %

Fig. 1 — Time split per session and person, lean waste categories, seconds

value-adding necessary non-value-adding waiting motion rework unknown

Bar length is session duration. Categories assigned per segment from primitive and context; “unknown” is shown, not redistributed.

Fig. 2 — Step durations across sessions, seconds

step

03060 s

median

fetch

19.8

cut

46.9

heat

55.1

mix

34.8

plate

25.3

wash

18.0

wait

18.1

Grey span is min–max across three sessions; thick tick is the median; thin tick is the fastest. Waiting varies most.

Fig. 3 — Step order vs. standard operating procedure

SOP

s015

s016

s017

1 fetch

fetch

2 cut

cut

3 heat

heat → re-fetch oil

heat

4 mix

mix

5 plate

plate

wipe ↔ plate

plate

6 wash

wash

Deviations in colour: rework in warm, reorder in grey-blue. Two of three sessions follow the SOP exactly.

Findings

01
Person A waits 31.5 s for the pan to heat in s017 while B holds the handle. Starting the pan before cutting removes most of it.
s017 · A · [72.6, 104.1) s · waiting · open at 01:12.6 →
02
The s016 cycle was 33 s faster because B fetched the pan and oil in the same trip; in s015 and s017 that was two trips.
s016 · B · fetch · 14.2 s vs 23.0 s median · open s017 at 00:24.3 →
03
One rework event: in s015 the oil was fetched twice (10.8 s). No rework in s016 or s017.
s015 · B · [61.0, 71.8) s · rework · clip not in demo
04
All five handovers in s017 completed in under 1.3 s with no drop; the longest, the bowl at 71.4 s, included a verbal cue.
s017 · A → B · [71.4, 72.6) s · handover · open in shared world →