Timelapse Photography – a Valuable Tool for Management

Ever watch a timelapse video? They’re kind of fun to watch, but they can also be a valuable tool for management. They can help with operations, contract negotiations, marketing and morale. Here are three examples of how we have used them to help management.

1. Operations – do operations at your company always go as planned? If not, then timelapse video could provide a clue to what’s really going on.
   We did a timelapse video of a warehouse in Chicago. Cargo aircraft handle livestock. We were there to document the handling of a pallet of pigs in the warehouse before being loaded on an aircraft.
   Pigs are flown on a pallet with three tiers. Each tier has ten pigs. Pigs are very sensitive to temperature and conditions. Mess up the operation by allowing them to get too hot and you could have 30 dead pigs on your hands. The operation also had other problems. For some unknown reason, they were almost always late and/or in a panic about getting the freight out on time.
   The people had been trained and were properly equipped. The warehouse was fully manned, but cargo just wasn’t going out on time. There was something wrong. Working with management, we set up two Nikon D800s about 20’ high so we could see most of the warehouse floor.
   At first, everything went smoothly. Then as closing time for the freight to make the flight approached, we saw a problem. The Supervisor was supposed to be managing his team to get the freight built so the aircraft could go out on time. That’s not what we saw.
   The Supervisor stopped supervising and started just operating a forklift to build up the freight on a pallet. The pallet would then go to the aircraft for loading. What the Supervisor couldn’t see from his position on the forklift was four or five of his crew just standing around out of sight doing nothing.
   During a debrief, we showed the crew the video. Of course everyone professed their innocence. The Supervisor said his main goal was to get the freight out on time. He had progressed up the ladder because of his forklift skill. Now, when he had a problem (freight not getting out on time), he fell back on his forklift skill rather than supervising his team and making sure everyone was involved. Meanwhile the four or five people that had been standing around said they were waiting for someone to tell them what to do.
   The video was a great lesson learned and turned the operations around. Fortunately, all 30 pigs made it to their destination safely.
2. Contract negotiations – timelapse video can document activities so another business knows what you do.
   We did a timelapse video of dock operations in San Francisco. When freight is shipped on an aircraft, there is a cutoff window for when the freight must arrive at the warehouse. It’s critical to the aircraft that freight be properly weighed and measured. If freight is not properly weighed and measured, then you could end up with an aircraft disaster on takeoff.
   The airline was complaining that the warehouse wasn’t accepting freight long enough. If the cutoff time is too early, then the aircraft may launch with space available. That’s bad for the airline because they only make money on freight flown.

   We did a timelapse video of the dock to demonstrate how freight was being handled. What we found was that many exporters knew the cut off time and they were all trying to have their trucks arrive at the last minute. Once the timelapse video was shown to the carrier, the carrier worked with their exporters to spread out the trucks for more efficient use of the dock.

3. Marketing and morale – timelapse videos are kind of fun plus it allows employees to show their family and friends what they do.
   There’s nothing like a timelapse video to show what goes on in a complicated operation. In Los Angeles we did a 24 hour warehouse and aircraft operation in a timelapse video. We condensed it down to 14 minutes.
   The operation started with trucks delivering freight to the dock. The freight was then brought in and built up on pallets ready to go on the aircraft. When the aircraft arrived (usually in the middle of the night), it took about two hours to download the inbound freight, upload the out bound freight, then launch the aircraft. The inbound freight was then broken down onto pallets and put on trucks. A 24 hour cycle that then started all over again.

   When the timelapse video was shown to the Vice President of Cargo for the carrier, he actually stood up and applauded. Never had he seen the entire operation shown so succinctly. The side benefit was that the employees loved it because now they had a short video they could show family and friends of what they did.

So whether it’s done for operations, contract negotiations, or marketing and morale, time lapse video can really get people’s attention. It can also be a valuable tool for management. Is there somewhere in your operation that might be suitable for a timelapse video?