# Variable Timers **URL:** \ **Category:** Product Suggestions\ **Created:** [February 14, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283 "2020-02-14T14:07:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CH0024](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CH0024](https://community.tulip.co/u/CH0024)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 2:07pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/1 "2020-02-14T14:07:25Z")
In one of our departments we run 3000 sku’s that vary process time per sku. It would be extremely helpful to have a variable timer that could pull in the time routed by sku (based on a lookup) and dynamically update the process timer shown on the step. ---
**Author:** ![mark](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.tulip.co/mark/32/14_2.png) [@mark](https://community.tulip.co/u/mark)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/2 "2020-02-14T14:31:12Z")
Chase, We are definitely seeing a lot of requests for more dynamic & powerful timer features, and I’m starting to scope out our approach. I’d love to better understand your use case and ideal solution. Does this description match what you are imagining: Your app dynamically pulls in a value that represents the target process cycle time. The current process timer widget takes that value as an input, and it countdowns as it currently does. Are there other features related to timers that also would help you better execute your use case? For example we’ve also had requests for timers that count upward, or for visualizations such as bars that fill in. I’m also curious if you have issues/ideas with how pause currently works and is calculated in analytics? Currently bringing up the menu does not pause the application, a user must explicitly hit the pause button once the menu is up. Perhaps it would be more simple if the menu was by default a paused state. ---
**Author:** ![CH0024](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@CH0024](https://community.tulip.co/u/CH0024)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 2:46pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/3 "2020-02-14T14:46:28Z")
Mark, What you explained is exactly what we are looking for. I would like to add on the if the time is exceeded that it continues to show the time past the target time. I have not used the timer much since it does not have this variable feature. I think both of the examples you have listed would be beneficial. As for the pause feature, I think it would be great if a standard button could pause rather than having to hit the menu button. For the use case I am looking at, if the operator needs to pause the timer, they should be entering data into another step as to why they had to pause. ---
**Author:** ![Kirklana](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.tulip.co/kirklana/32/2852_2.png) [@Kirklana](https://community.tulip.co/u/Kirklana)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 2:32am UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/4 "2020-07-30T02:32:16Z")
Any idea when this will be available? We’d like to be able to use the app to build our Lean performance metrics which displays takt time countdown which is obviously different than step cycle time as well as displaying lost time, which is a countup, from pauses or stops. Thanks, Audra ---
**Author:** ![aaronbroussard](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.tulip.co/aaronbroussard/32/3283_2.png) [@aaronbroussard](https://community.tulip.co/u/aaronbroussard)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 1:54pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/5 "2020-07-30T13:54:16Z")
A couple extra points on this feature request for our specific asks: - Ability to “play” & “pause” variable/custom timers - Ability to specify count down vs. count up - Ability to write to the timer variable & set it to a specific time Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.tulip.co/jeff/32/3379_2.png) [@Jeff](https://community.tulip.co/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/6 "2020-07-30T14:02:39Z")
I second this. I would add that having a timer activate a trigger once it counts down could give us a lot more automation abilities. ---
**Author:** ![mglidden](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.tulip.co/mglidden/32/3894_2.png) [@mglidden](https://community.tulip.co/u/mglidden)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/7 "2020-07-30T21:59:40Z")
Hey everyone – thanks for your input here! We definitely see the value in adding timer variable. We’ll circle back and update when we have a plan and timeline to share. ---
**Author:** ![freedman](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/community.tulip.co/freedman/32/107_2.png) [@freedman](https://community.tulip.co/u/freedman)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/8 "2020-08-12T22:30:05Z")
Looks like the Tulip engineering wizards will have a pretty solid solution that addresses this exact request. I thought I would offer a suggestion in the meantime - maybe there is a way to make it work with the tools that are available right now? Here’s an idea but it will only work for takt times that are greater than 30 seconds. Since we have the 30 second timer and the ability to log time stamps, you could pretty easily make a function that checks every 30 seconds to evaluate the difference between the current time and the start of your cycle. This could be displayed and recalculated every 30 seconds. Not perfect, but the great thing is that when you actually complete your cycle you will be able to log the _exact_ time it took relative to the takt time. You could even display it as a chart to sort of gamify the experience for the operator. It’s not perfect… but it will probably work! Sorry to those with takt times under 30 seconds though! We might need to come up with something different or wait for the new feature to handle those in the fast lane (I have some ideas if you are less than 30 seconds, so let me know!). ---
**Author:** ![hed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7bcc69/32.png) [@hed](https://community.tulip.co/u/hed)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://community.tulip.co/t/variable-timers/283/9 "2020-10-09T18:37:11Z")
> [@CH0024](#): > > on Really looking forward to seeing this, it will be really helpful for the operators to be able to compare their progress to the expected process time for that SKU.