TAKT TIME

Includes calculation method for shared resource as well

as weighted average method, practical usage
examples
 Definition
What is Takt Time?

It is a German Word meaning Rhythm

Simply put it is the rate at which customer is asking for material to be
shipped
OR
Customer asking Rate (the frequency in which the customer requires a
part to be produced)
OR
the rate at which manufacturing processes and systems need to
complete the production in order to meet the customer request
 Importance
Is Takt Time Really Important?

Yes, It is very important for any manufacturing plant to understand

where it stands against customer asking rate. It is the basis for
1. Creating the levelling system – A method to balance out the
fluctuations.
2. The frequency in which we provide the information to the cell for
production. – Setting up the pace for production across value
streams
3. for calculating the target cycle time and manpower requirements.
4. For Line Balancing, and implementation of Standard Work
 Use of Takt Time in Toyota
Toyota started using
this way back in 1953
for establishment of
Standardized work.
This was part of
Jidoka – to separate
Machine work from
operator work
 How to Calculate Takt Time
Formula for Takt time is

𝑁𝑒𝑡 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑

𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑡 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 =
𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑

 Important point to remember

• Net Time available for production Means
― Working hours available for your plant as per no of shifts being run
― Deduct Standard breaks (Tea Breaks and Lunch Break)
• Quantity to be produced means
― Number of products required from all customers produced in that line
or cell
• Period can be day / week/ month (depending upon your usage point) but it
has to be in time available and quantity required i.e. quantity required is for
a day, then time available should also be for a day
• For Macro Planning, month as period is good, whereas for production
leveling, week as period is more suitable
 Example - How to Calculate Takt Time
For Example, Manufacturing plant works for 8.5 hours in both A & B Shift and C
Shift is NOT used. Then
Shift Time = 8.5 Hours X 2 Shifts/Day =17 Hours/ Day
= (17 X 3600)=61200 Seconds/ Day
Break Time = (30 minutes Lunch + 10 X 2 minutes Tea) X 2 Shifts/ Day
= 100 Minutes/ Day = (100 X 60) = 6000 Seconds/ Day
Net Available Time = Shift Time – Break Time
= 61200 – 6000 = 55200 Seconds/ Day
For Example, Customer Requirement is 1000 Pieces / Day

= 𝟓𝟓. 𝟐 𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔Τ𝑷𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆
This means that the customer will require us to produce one part every 55.2
seconds. So all our Effective cycle times should be less than 55.2 Seconds so as to
achieve this. So this leads us to 2 tools
Cycle Time Vs Take Time for all
operations
Cycle Time < Takt time for
60 Each Operation
Seconds

40
20
44 48 23 27
0
Op 1 Op 2 Op 3 Op 4
Cycle Time Takt Time

Takt Time for a operation over a week

60
Takt time varies with
demand for each weekday
Seconds

40

20

0
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6
Takt Time Cycle Time

These Topics will be discussed in detail later on

 Shared Resource
Shared Resource is a resource which is common for multiple value streams. Some
of the common seen examples are heat treatment furnaces, paint booths etc.
These are normally (not always) capital intensive &/or have high capacity.

Cell 1

Turning - 1 Turning - 2 Hobbing Inspection

Heat Shot
Treatment Blasting
(Shared) (Shared)
Cell 2

Turning - 1 Turning - 2 Hobbing Inspection

 Takt Time for a Shared Resource
Takt Time for Shared resource is also calculated using the same formula
𝑁𝑒𝑡 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐴𝑣𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑
𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑡 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 =
𝑄𝑢𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑

 Important point to remember

• Quantity to be produced means
― Number of products required from all customers produced in that line
or cell <All the Products passing through that shared resource to
be considered>
Continuing with my previous example, Lets assume demand for cell 1 is 1000 Pcs/
Day and for Cell 2 it is 1000 Pcs/ Day. So Takt Time would be

= 𝟐𝟕. 𝟔 𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔Τ𝑷𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆
 Manpower Calculation
One of the usage of Takt time is to determine Ideal manpower requirement
calculations that gives us a rough estimate how to balance our line
𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝐶𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑆𝑒𝑐 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠
𝑁𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 =
𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑡 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 (𝑖𝑛 𝑆𝑒𝑐)

For Our example on slide 7,

44 + 48 + 23 + 27 142
𝑁𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 = = = 𝟐. 𝟓𝟕 𝟑 𝑶𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔
55.2 55.2
It clearly indicates that we are using one manpower extra than required so giving a
estimate to balance it to 3 in first go and then maybe taking next steps to bring
down the content (142 sec) by eliminating waste and thus further taking the
manpower required from 2.57 to 2
But how can you calculate a meaningful Takt time in a job shop
environment, where labour content and machine cycle times vary widely?
 Manpower Calculation in job shop
Job shop is characterized by a high mix low volume environment where number of
part numbers are very high but volume for each part is low. So to calculate
manpower we use a more practical approach of weighted average method. You
must have heard about this many a times but would be wondering detail steps to
do that. Here is the step by step method
𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐶𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑆𝑒𝑐 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠
𝑁𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 =
𝑇𝑎𝑘𝑡 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 (𝑖𝑛 𝑆𝑒𝑐)

Lets understand using Our example. In normal method where there is low variety
and high volume, we calculated manpower to be 2.57  3 𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠.

Takt No of
Prod %age Total Qty Op 1 Op 2 Op 3 Op 4 Total CT
Time operators
Prod A 100% 1000 44 48 23 27 142 55.2 2.57
Manpower Calculation in job shop (Contd)
For a variation in quantity and Cycle time (for products processed through same
Cell 1)

For a weighted average Cycle time, we need to do have 2 informations

1. Product Mix Ratio (A:B:C:D) which in our case is shown in column %age in
above table
2. Cycle Time of each operations for each of the product.
Manpower Calculation in job shop (Contd)
For Weighted Average, Multiply Cycle time of each operation of a product with
corresponding %age of volume (quantity) for that product. For example, multiply
35% (volume %age for Prod A) to Cycle time of operation 1 (44 Sec) will give 15.4.
Likewise for all other operations for product A. Now follow this for all products B,
C, D and then Sum it up to get weighted average cycle time

109.55
𝑁𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 = = 𝟏. 𝟗𝟖 𝟐 𝑶𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒔
55.2
So if we would have done by just following the prod A which is having maximum
production requirement, we would have wasted 1 manpower
 Capacity Evaluation
It is always essential to check for a shared resource capacity along with takt time
and operator requirements. Here is scenario 1, the product mix is of 1000 pieces/
day, cycle time of various operations of prod B, C & D is beyond takt time but
capacity utilisation is <100% for all the operations. This is due to product mix.
 Capacity Evaluation (Contd)
In Scenario 2, volume of the product mix is same i.e. 1000 Pcs/ day but their %age
contribution changed. Cycle Time is also same as scenario 1 and for some
operations it is more than takt time. But in this scenario, capacity utilisation is
more than 100%. It means we will not be able to meet customer requirements.
 Do anyone really uses Takt time
Is Takt time only calculation to check if we are having capacity or for identification
of bottlenecks only? OR we really use it day in day out for some other purpose?
Yes, it is definitely used for
1) capacity calculations and bottleneck identification but it is also used for
monitoring purpose.
2) In shop floor, Andon board is used to give real time Plan Vs actual (where plan
can be takt time) as per the model/ part number in production.
3) All conveyors can be set to rotate at takt time and by setting the boundary for
work zone, it can also be use to track if production is as per takt time or
delayed.
4) Another usage can be in kanban by means of “pitch” where kanban is supplied
at every pitch and length of queue is measured.
 Summary
First and foremost fundamentals are important. Application of Takt time does not
make sense if setup and process times are unpredictable and unrepeatable.
If you schedule a job expecting a 15-minute setup and it takes an hour instead,
trying to calculate useful Takt times will be a quixotic endeavour. The same thing
applies if your process is unstable, or if employees spend inordinate amounts of
time searching for tools and materials, or when equipment is unreliable.
Fundamental tools such as setup reduction (SMED), total production maintenance
(TPM), and 5S (workspace organization) are prerequisites to successfully applying
takt time.