Takt time: what it is and how to calculate it

Have you ever been fatigued too fast while practicing physical activity? Or have you ever realized that you could make just a little more effort?

At this point, you realize that you need to adjust the cadence of your activity, and I am here to tell you that this is exactly what Takt Time does within Lean Manufacturing!

A process does not have to be too fast, nor can it be too slow, it needs to walk at the right speed! And that's exactly what I'm going to show you in this article.

You will learn what is Takt Time, how to calculate this time and see a practical application of how this concept is important in delivering what your customer wants. Let's start?

What is Takt Time?

Takt is a German word referring to the stick that conductors use to mark the speed, cadence, and timing of the musicians in an orchestra.

In Lean Manufacturing, Takt Time is the market demand rate, that is, the pace of the market. In this way, the pace of production must be established so that there is neither excess production nor lack, establishing a continuous flow.

To control Takt Time it is possible to manipulate the Available Production Time, by performing overtime production or creating new shifts.

How to calculate Takt Time?

Using the definition, we can calculate takt time using the following formula:

That is, we take the liquid operational time we have to produce, the demand that the customer needs in that period, and we can find out how many minutes, hours or seconds should be spent preparing each product.

I will illustrate this to facilitate your understanding:

As you can see, a 9-hour shift has 540 minutes. However, to calculate the time that actual production is taking place, it is necessary to remove the stops that occur during the process.

In this way, from the 540 minutes of a shift, only in 456 minutes the production is happening, because there are the lunch break, two coffee stops and cleaning time.

Assuming a monthly need of 9600 units, in order to calculate the takt time you need to know how many units need to go out per day, based on the fact that your turn is daily.

Dividing 9600 by 30, you get a required daily production of 480 units. Now that we know how many minutes actually generate output per day, and how many units per day are needed to meet customer demand, we can easily calculate Takt Time:

Note that 0.95 min/un. is more complicated to understand, but multiplying it by 60, you get how many seconds it takes for a piece to be produced. That is, if every 57 seconds a piece does not come out, its production will delay, generating customer dissatisfaction.

It's time for you to start your training in one of the most valued methodologies on the market!

With our Green Belt training in Lean Six Sigma, you will develop fundamental skills and knowledge for your professional growth!

Our teaching methodology has content such as videos, exercises, complementary readings and personal assistance, so you can take the next step towards Green Belt professional recognition in Lean Six Sigma.

Don't waste time and reach the next level in your professional career!

Takt Time, Lead Time, and Cycle Time

It is quite common for some people to confuse these Lean concepts since they all relate to times that are part of the production process. To clarify the difference between them, we can see the following graph:

Let's start with Cycle Time. As the name itself says, Cycle Time is the time that a product or batch of products is finalized in a process step or in a process of value flow.

The cycle time must be determined by observation and includes, in addition to the operating time, waiting time, preparation, loading or unloading of materials, etc.

Takt Time, as we have seen, is what defines the cadence of the entire process, setting the pace of production necessary for the demands to be met.

Already the Lead Time is the time it takes for a product or service to go through all process steps or value flow, from start to finish.

In general, Lead Time is the time elapsed since the customer makes a request for a product or service until the product is received by the customer or the service is finalized.

Practical Application of Takt Time

To fix once for all the concept of Takt Time in your mind, let's make a practical application of this concept and see its importance within the Lean:

The Voitto Manufacturing SA works with two production shifts, each one has 8 hours and 12 minutes. During each shift, employees make two 10-minute intervals, and one of the equipments always has a setup with a production stop of 32 minutes. The two shifts currently produce 65 units of finished product. The commercial department passed a demand of 790 units with a term of 5 days until the shipment.

• What will be the Takt Time needed to meet the demand of 790 units within 5 days?
• Will the production rate be higher or lower than the current one?

To calculate the Takt Time required, simply do the counts as shown above. Turning all the times to seconds, adding up the two shifts, subtracting the interval and stopping times of the equipment and multiplying by 5, due to the deadline being 5 days, we obtain that the net operating time is 264,000 seconds.

From there, just make the following calculation:

We answered the first question, right? This is the Takt Time required for the requested demand to be met. But is the production rate higher or lower than the current one?

To find out the answer to this question, we just need to figure out the pace of the process before the request is made. So, just get the 130 units manufactured daily in the process since there are two shifts and each produces 65 units, multiply it by 5 days and do the math:

As you can see, in order to produce 790 units in 5 days, you need to increase the pace of the process, as the takt time was 406.15 sec / one and now you need to move to 334.17 sec / one.

Did you understand this Lean metric?

Takt Time is possibly the most important metric in the Lean Manufacturing since it commands the entire production process by telling us how much should be produced in order to deliver the contractor what he wants within the stipulated deadline.

This is extremely important because Lean Manufacturing has as one of the main objectives to reduce the Lead Time of processes, and this is only possible if you know the pace you need to deliver your product, allowing you to attack improvement opportunities in processes that are with Takt Time lower than expected.

We prepared a special and free gift for you! Download our Lean Manufacturing from A to Z ebook now, and learn all about this powerful tool focused on reducing waste.

With this ebook you will learn what types of waste exist, what are the Lean metrics, what are the improvement tools, how to adopt Lean Manufacturing in your company and much more!

Did you like it? Click down below!