The Definition of Takt Time

Question

What is a Takt time?

Answer

Takt time comes from the German word taktzeit meaning ‘cycle time’.

It refers to an estimation of the rate at which goods need to be produced to meet demand. To work out a Takt time you need to know the demand and the available time to produce units to meet that demand.

So for example:

demand = 100 units, available time = 50 hours
         100/50 = 2 units per hour

This gives an average of required production, but it can be used further. Takt time can be used to measure the rate of production flow for all processes and can become a standard measure of production time, like the ticking second hand of a clock. Therefore, all individual processes can be assessed in term of Takt in order to find bottlenecks.

This is very useful for organisations that are trying to use lean production, as it ensures that processes are matched to a demand pull system.

However, to use Takt time properly there needs to be accurate demand forecasting and processes with very little variation in processing time. In our example, if demand increased to 150, then 2 units per hour would not be enough. Because of this, Takt time works best for highly standardised processes with very stable demand.

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