Industry 4.0

Takt Time: Optimize your production by keeping pace with customer demand

A ticket from
Hugo Pelletier
3/7/2023
Robotic arms work on an industrial part.

Contents

In an increasingly competitive industrial world, effective management of task time or "Taakt Time" has become essential to optimize processes, improve efficiency and reduce costs. By better understanding this concept and its importance, manufacturers can greatly improve their production efficiency and overall competitiveness.

What is Takt Time? 

The term “Takt” comes from German, meaning rhythm or cadence. THE Takt Time appeared in the automobile industry to help companies achieve smoother and more efficient production. This concept quickly spread to other industrial sectors and is today an integral part of lean management.

Simply put, Takt Time is the ideal pace production needed to meet the demands of clients without generating overproduction or waste. It also serves as a reference for balancing workloads between positions and operations within a production line.

How to calculate Takt Time?

Calculating Takt Time is essential to optimize your production process. The formula for determining the Takt Time is as follows:

Takt Time = Available time / Customer request
  • THE available time is the total number of operational hours minus breaks and other interruptions.
  • There a client request represents the number of units you must produce to meet customer needs during a given period (e.g. week, month).

Let's take a concrete example: a manufacturing company operates 8 hours per day (480 minutes), with two breaks of 15 minutes each. Customer demand is 120 pieces per day.

Takt Time = (480 - 30) / 120 = 450 / 120 = 3.75 minutes

In this example, the Takt Time is 3.75 minutes. This means that to meet customer demand, the company must produce a part every 3.75 minutes.

How important is Takt Time in production?

Takt Time plays a crucial role in optimizing the industrial production. It makes it possible to establish a pace of work which guarantees the satisfaction of the requests of the clients without causing overproduction or waste.

Good monitoring of Takt Time also ensures a balanced distribution of workloads between positions and operations. By respecting this cadence, problems such as delays, errors and unnecessary inventory are avoided.

Using Takt Time to Improve Efficiency

Takt Time can be used to improve the efficiency of production by adjusting the process and identifying bottlenecks. Here are some concrete examples of application of Takt Time in different industrial sectors:

  • Automotive : Takt Time allows car manufacturers to balance their assembly lines and increase their productivity.
  • Logistics : Logistics companies can use Takt Time to optimize warehousing, storage and distribution operations.
  • Food industry : By following Takt Time, food companies can better plan their production and guarantee the freshness of products.

How to reduce production costs?

Takt Time can help reduce production costs and minimize unnecessary inventory by identifying inefficiencies and adjusting process to optimize the use of resources. Here are some practical tips for implementing Takt Time in your company:

  • Calculate the Takt Time based on your available time and some a client request.
  • Analyze your production process to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
  • Adjust your process to respect the determined Takt Time.
  • Train your teams in the principles of lean management and encourage them to work according to the rhythm of Takt Time.
  • Regularly measure the performance of your production and adjust your Takt Time according to fluctuations in demand.

By implementing these steps, you will be able to take full advantage of the potential of Takt Time to optimize your industrial production.

In short, Takt Time is a powerful tool for improving the efficiency of production, reduce the costs and meet the expectations of clients. By understanding its importance, correctly calculating this measure and integrating it into your process, you will be able to achieve your goals performance and industrial optimization.

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