How it works
One week to set up. Results start in week two. From there the measures update continually, and every change is tracked.
Kickoff
A call and a walk-through
The plant describes what it makes and where it believes time is lost. The processes to cover are agreed, along with any areas that are not to be filmed.
Week one
Setup
Cobalt connects to the plant's existing camera infrastructure or installs its own cameras, and connects to plant data such as an MES or ERP where there is one. Production is not interrupted.
Week two
First results
Time use for each covered station, a shift profile and utilization. Cycle times, throughput, flow, the value stream map and a first ranked list of changes follow in the weeks after.
From then on
Continuous measurement and improvement
Four things keep running.
- Core measures
- Cycle times, throughput, flow and time use for every covered station, updated continually.
- Suggested changes
- New changes as the floor changes, each ranked by its estimated value and linked to its video.
- Adoption
- Whether the floor is actually working the new way.
- Impact
- The effect of each change on the core measures, judged against the same baseline.
Questions we hear often
No. The measures are computed from video, with a few minutes of input each week from someone who knows the floor. Where the plant has an MES, an ERP or quality records, Cobalt uses them alongside the video.
Either. Cobalt connects to the plant's existing camera infrastructure or installs its own. Both take under a week.
The plant owns the video and everything derived from it.
No. Measures are reported per station. Cobalt does not identify, score or report on named individuals.
About two weeks from kickoff.
A walk-through at the start, access during setup, and a few minutes each week from a supervisor or lead to answer questions that video cannot.
Whether a weld is sound. Anything that happens off camera. The reason a person did something. For the last of these, Cobalt asks.
A time study samples a few hundred moments over a few days. Cobalt measures every shift at every covered station, and continues after the first report, so the plant can see whether a change held.
Most camera software is sold to large manufacturers with engineering staff to operate it, and is designed for short, repetitive assembly. Cobalt works on long, varied jobs, and a plant does not need an engineering team of its own to get value from it.