What is Takt Time?

Takt Time:

The leveling of the production quantity means that one product should be manufactured in a
given number of minutes and seconds. This time is called the “takt time." This is based on the
average quantity required by the customer.

Takt time is calculated using the following information:

• time available for manufacturing for the same period of time
• customer requirements for a period of time

For example, an assembly area must make 2,500 units of product A and 17,500 units of product
B in a month. The area work is scheduled for two eight hour shifts, and has a morning break of
10 minutes, lunch break of 20 minutes, and afternoon break of 10 minutes.

The first step in calculating takt time is to establish customer requirements for a single shift. The
customer requires a total of 20,000 units for the month. If there are 20 work days in the month,
the customer requirement per shift is 20,000 units ÷ 20 days ÷ 2 shifts = 500 units per shift. The
second step is to determine the time (usually in seconds) per shift available for manufacturing
products. The shift is scheduled for 8 hours or 480 minutes. We will subtract 20 minutes for
breaks and 20 minutes for lunch. The time available is 480 minutes - 20 minutes (breaks) - 20
minutes (lunch) = 440 minutes or 26,400 seconds. Once customer requirements and time
available have been figured out for one shift, then we calculate takt time.

Using the takt time to determine production quantities makes it easy to organize the equipment,
labor-hours, and other factors necessary for effective production. If only one type of item is
manufactured, level production is possible by leveling only the quantity. If multiple types
are manufactured, however, the leveling of the types is necessary to avoid the waste that leads to
lowered efficiency.

The leveling of the types means that the required production quantity ratio for all types is
manufactured in a series. For example, if the production quantity ratio for products A, B and C is
2:1:1, respectively, and different types will be produced consecutively in the sequence A, A, B,
C, A, A, B, C ... and so on.

Production carried out in this fashion makes it possible to pull parts from a preceding process
without causing any fluctuation in quantity and types. The preceding process also need not have
additional stock, labor-hours and equipment.