Takt Time

To calculate takt time accurately, start by determining the available production time for the period in question. Begin with the total shift duration and subtract all planned non-productive time: scheduled breaks, team meetings, planned maintenance windows, and changeover time. For example, an 8-hour (480-minute) shift with a 30-minute lunch, two 10-minute breaks, and 10 minutes of planned maintenance yields 420 minutes of available production time. Next, determine the customer demand for the same period. If monthly demand is 5,000 units and the factory operates 20 days per month with one shift per day, daily demand is 250 units. Finally, divide: Takt Time = 420 minutes / 250 units = 1.68 minutes per unit (approximately 101 seconds). This tells the production team that they need to complete one unit every 101 seconds to meet demand without overproduction or shortfall. Recalculate takt time whenever demand changes significantly — seasonal fluctuations, new customer contracts, or product launches all warrant an update.

These three time-based metrics are often confused but measure fundamentally different things. Takt time is a demand-driven target — it tells you how fast you *need* to produce. Cycle time is a process measurement — it tells you how fast you *actually* produce, measured as the time between two consecutive units coming off a workstation. Lead time is the total elapsed time from when an order is placed until the finished product is delivered to the customer, encompassing queuing, processing, inspection, and shipping. In a well-balanced production line, cycle time should be at or slightly below takt time. If cycle time exceeds takt time, the line cannot keep up with demand and will fall behind. If cycle time is significantly below takt time, the line has excess capacity that represents wasted investment unless it can be redeployed. Lead time, meanwhile, is the metric customers care about most and is influenced by batch sizes, WIP levels, and the efficiency of non-production activities like order processing and shipping.

Takt time is the foundation for effective production scheduling. Once you know your takt time, you can determine how many workstations, operators, and shifts you need. If a single station's cycle time is 3 minutes but takt time is 1.5 minutes, you need two parallel stations for that operation. For mixed-model production, calculate a weighted takt time based on the product mix. Production scheduling tools like LinePlanner allow you to set takt-time-based targets for each production line and shift, making it immediately visible when a line is ahead of or behind the pace needed to meet delivery commitments. Takt time also drives shift scheduling decisions: if demand temporarily doubles, you can add a second shift rather than trying to run a single shift at twice the pace (which would likely compromise quality). Visual scheduling boards that display real-time progress against takt time give supervisors the information they need to intervene early when a line begins falling behind.