This App enables easy and effective time and motion studies on the Iphone. Time and motion studies have been pioneered as part of the scientific management movement (Frederick Winslow Taylor, Frank and Lilian Gilbreth) and are still heavily applied by consulting firms today. This particular app was designed by Christian Terwiesch, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, as part of a larger research project to improve primary care. By carefully observing doctors and how they spend their time with patients, it is possible to identify improvement opportunities.
Example applications:
- Observe a doctor and keep track how much time the doctor is doing various tasks (examining the patient, taking medical records, prescribing meds, waiting for tests, etc)
- Observe a soccer team and analyze ball possession (i.e., observe which player has the ball for how long)
- Observe yourself over the course of the day and find out what you spend the most time on
The app works as follows:
- You first create a template which defines the various tasks / activities that you want to measure
- You then start the app and simply click on the activity that you are currently performing
- The amount of time spent on each task as well as the number of times a task is performed is reported at the end of the observation
- Summary results as well as detailed time sheet are exported to excel via a simple email