Day In the Life Of (DILO) methodology

Operational Excellence diagnostic
Easier – Faster - Better
DILO methodology
What is it – Why use it – When use it - Examples

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What is a DILO?
 A DILO is the observation of an individual as he performs his normal, everyday
job, while the observer makes a written record of each and every activity the
worker does. Additionally, the observer records the individual’s quotes,
comments and any other data.
 The two primary types of DILO are:
 the operational DILO, i.e., an individual who conducts operational activities
 a supervisory DILO, i.e., the individual is a manager.

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Why use a DILO, and why not?
 To gain a concrete understanding of the job and the operational issues
encountered as well as that of the work environment and its organisational
culture.
 To identify the types, quantities and causes of non-value-added activities.
 To ‘close the loop’ and give a more concrete meaning to other analysis that is
more conceptual or ‘declarative,’ such as data analysis and interviews.
 To assess supervisory behaviours and effectiveness (for the supervisory DILO).
 It is important to state that a DILO is neither a time study nor a motion study,
nor is it a process observation of the individual (the output is entirely
anonymous). Additionally, it focuses on understanding how the environment,
work conditions and procedures impact the individual’s activities, not on the
individual himself.

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When is a DILO applicable?
 A DILO best applies to jobs that are rather repetitive in their operational tasks,
such as the work of production or maintenance operators, sales administrators,
customer support agents and accountants, as well as their managers.
 It is also relatively applicable to jobs that are partially repetitive, such as the
jobs of sales representatives and field service technicians. The focus is more on
understanding the job than on the quantifying causes of non-value-added
activities.
 It does not apply to highly complex jobs and jobs that are not repetitive, such as
research and development, marketing, legal or high-level management. For
these activities, a functional analysis is a better fit.

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How long does it take, and how many should we do?
 The basic rule is to perform one DILO per one full workday for each individual for
two primary reasons:
1. Though the jobs are quite repetitive, the individual may still perform some different
tasks during a typical workday, depending on how the job is organized; therefore,
the DILO must incorporate an entire workday to gain a thorough overview of the
scope of all of the work activities.
2. When someone is observed, his behaviour, intentionally or not, may differ
somewhat from his usual behaviour, but it typically doesn’t last the full day. As the
day wears on, the person usually begins to relax more. It is difficult to act differently
for an entire day.
 The ‘good’ number of DILOs is balanced between two opposing factors:
1. It is a time-consuming activity, so the observer cannot do too many during one day.
2. Multiple observations are necessary to obtain a completely representative analysis,
especially considering the different variations of the same job, e.g., production
operators on different machines.

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What are the key hurdles in DILOs, and how do I mitigate
them?
 It is difficult to get a good representational analysis because each person observed is different, and every day is different.
 This difficulty can be mitigated slightly by:
 Performing shorter observations, e.g., a half-day as opposed to a full workday, which comprises an additional number of workers, but
overall, still completes the same number of hours of observations.
 Checking that during the observations, the performance of the job was ‘normal.’ If the observed worker is a customer service agent,
for example, that he received an average number of calls, emails or cases to manage during his day and that, on average, they were of
the same type or of a similar complexity.
 Since the objective of performing a DILO is not to be representative, then we should not look for that quality as a primary target. The
observation must be complemented with analysis that includes additional numerical information, such as data analysis, along with
questionnaires and short interviews.
 Individuals might be reluctant or afraid to be observed.
 Of course, it is probably stressful to have someone observing you all day, not knowing exactly what the observation will report.
 This stress can be mitigated by:
 Communicating well in advance with the stakeholders, and, in particular, with his manager as to the goals of the study and what it
is not (not a time study nor a motion study), but an individual evaluation).
 Meet the worker before the observation day to reassure him as to the scope of the analysis and what it will entail.
 During the observation: Be cordial to the person while observing him, respect his pauses, and act according to the goals of the project,
e.g., don’t carry a stopwatch (It is not consistent with the stated objectives; furthermore, Unions or personal representative might
oppose the use of a stopwatch)

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Consult the HR director
 Before you even begin a DILO, is important to work with the HR director to
understand if you incur any risk.
 If risks exist, the best way to deal with them, in general, is to meet with the
union representative and the individual’s personal representative to explain the
definition of a DILO and its goals, but primarily, that it is not about the individual
or his work ethic.
 An argument you can present is also that the DILO is an opportunity for
individuals to raise his concerns (they can be part of the report), and for
management to understand the issues individuals have so they can be resolved.

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Who should perform a DILO?
 DILOs are often performed by a consultant, either external or internal
 If this is the case, even if it is a more junior consultant who performs the bulk of them
(it is a time-consuming activity), it’s recommended that all personnel, up to the team
senior management level, perform at least one.
 A DILO provides many insights as well as the ability to ‘tell a story’ in a client
boardroom presentation, both of which make it worth the investment.
 It may seem awkward that a manager of the very organization that is being
analysed performs the DILO
 However, with good communication, it can be done.
 In addition, as one client stated, “It is a chance for me to gain a full understanding of
the operations I am supposed to drive before it is too late; I want to do one!”

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Example of output – Operational DILO
Key Observations
• No set daily work plan. Waiting for
trouble shooting call and mainly
generating reports.
• Only one trouble shooting repair job
for 11 min during the day. Another
quick fix at air compressor room
during the building survey. The rest
of the Value Added was for purchase
approval and invoice payment
request
• No communication among the team,
no check on where they are, what
they are working on
• No supervision, time budgeting or
recording for daily work
Observation of a maintenance agent
66.7%
3.8%
4.2%
7.8%
45.8%
33.3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
TOTAL Available Passive meetings Purchase
approval
Excess Break
Direct value added Non Direct value added

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Example of output – Operational DILO
Comments
 Coordinator very active and willing to help, but a lot of “going around”
 Lot of NVA or rework: chasing engineer, alerting engineer who already knows, go to
office to check data but data not yet available, giving a hand to operators when line down
but without SOP/guideline and success
 The machine was stuck and even experienced operators cannot fix it while SOPs could
help (checking lubricant, checking rails glue deposit) and prevent to call maintenance
 Conclusion: a lot of time that could be used for updating SOP, coaching, training, do root
cause analysis…
Observed
8%
38%
13%
7%
26%
6% 2%
Perceived
10%
40%
10%
30%
5%
0%5%
Ideal (Supervisor view)
40%
20%
10%
0%
5%
0%
25%
Active supervision
Passive supervision
Operator/other work
General admin
Available
Troubleshoot, NVA, rework

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More
 Optional additional analysis
 The operational DILO analysis may also lead to, or be one of analysis that contributes to, an
estimation of how many non-value-added activities can be reduced, which is generally
performed via a root cause analysis workshop or something similar.
 There is less a notion of value-added activity for the supervisory role DILO, but more a type of
supervision. Therefore, the DILO is used primarily as input to improve the manager’s role, style
and competencies.
 Do benchmarks exist as to what constitutes a good ratio of ‘value-added’ activities for
an operational DILO?
 This would be so nice to have! However, this depends primarily on the type of job and,
specifically, the repetitive nature of the job.
 We have observed jobs that comprise more than 90 percent value-added tasks, but still, some
improvements were possible. But, as a general rule of thumb, it is hard to go above 80 to 85
percent.

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