A Need to Better Manage Daily Breaking of Concrete Samples Uncovers and Resolves Other Workflow & Productivity Issues
A customer using spreadsheet concrete reports with some automation via macros scripts looked to Mezintel’s BreakTest for new ways to:
- Print daily cylinder break schedule
- Automatically populate individual reports with strength data filled-in from daily break forms.
At Mezintel, we know that often times, one or two simple requests from customers can lead to resolving more unapparent issues which in turn increases software benefits. Further listening and discussion with this customer revealed other specific needs as follows:
- Need to replace a manual log book and accordion filing system as a way to schedule tests. This prevents the risk of misplacing test sheets and tedium of perusing through paper.
- Need to inform supervisor or other reviewer in a timely manner about tests broken that day so that tests can be reviewed and signed without a continuous paper trail.
- Need for Admin or Tech to be alerted about corrections that need to be quickly resolved so that test results can be ready for sending out.
- Need to have the break data immediately accessible for statistical evaluation and lab conformance review without having to manually re-enter data for further spreadsheet calculations.
The BreakTest system was designed to address the above customer needs by providing four simple, tightly linked screens, namely:
- Report Form ⇒ where upon entering/editing ‘cast date’ and ‘cylinder age’ automatically adds/edits entries for daily breaks;
- Daily Break Sheet ⇒ which could be printed each morning with content derived from report forms;
- Dashboard ⇒ to alert about compression tests due for cylinders that have aged 7-days, 28-days, etc;
- Stats and CSA Utilities ⇒ for moving average plot of strength data and CSA in-lab evaluation that directly makes use of data entered from the Daily Breaksheet
What started as a need to automatically schedule breaks and have data populate target reports uncovered opportunities for process flow automation with significant pay-off in process quality and productivity — all resolved by BreakTest.
When ‘Date Cast’ or ‘Cylinder Age’ is entered or edited, BreakTest automatically calculates break dates and makes these available on the Daily Break Sheet.
The Daily Break Sheet shows list of cylinders to be broken on a given date. Strength information filled-in here automatically populates respective reports.
The Dashboard updates you on the status of testing in your laboratory. It gives you a summary of your lab’s workload and allows you to open test sheets from each category.