Takt time is the time in which a product needs to be produced in order to satisfy customer demand.
Takt time equals the net operating time (or production time) per period divided by the customer demand per period (or the rate of customer demand).
The Calculation for Takt Time - Example 1:
For example:
The customer wants ten units per week,
The plant operates 40 hours per week
Takt Time = 40/10 = 4 hrs.
Remember that: Takt time is not related to how much time it takes to make the unit. It is related to customer demand.
The Calculation for Takt Time - Example 2:
In the above example, we have considered that the plant operates for 8 hours per day and five days per week (40 hours per week). We have not considered the lunch and other breaks in that example.
Let's assume that the plant has 40 minutes of lunch break and two tea breaks of 10 minutes each. Instead of 8 hours per day, the plan actually operates for 7 hours per day or 35 hours per week.
The customer wants ten units per week,
The plant operates 40 hours per week
Two breaks of 10 minutes and 40 minutes lunch break daily. (5 days a week)
Net operating time per week = 40 hrs – 5x(1 hr)= 35 hrs
Takt Time = 35/10 = 3.5 hrs.
What does it mean?
This means that for the plant to meet customer demand, it should produce one item every 3.5 hours. However, if the customer demand changes, the organization needs to recalculate the Takt Time and see if they can meet the customer demand with the current cycle time.
Benefits of Takt Time
- It helps to balance the process flow.
- The bottlenecks in the process are easily identified.