A brief note on takt time

Takt time establishes the pace for manufacturing lines and aims to match production pace with customer demand. The following example illustrates how to calculate takt time:

A bicycle factory assembles a number of frame sizes of its 12-speed mountain bicycles through a series of workstations. The production line operates one shift a day; with breaks and lunches considered, the production line is running 400 minutes per shift. It has a 4-shift week.

Weekly demand for the bicycles is as follows:

Frame size	19”	20”	21”	22”	23”	24”
Weekly demand	225	220	260	420	270	360

What is the necessary takt time?

Steps:
(1) Total weekly demand: (225+220+260+420+270+360) = 1,755
(2) Total weekly work time = (400 minutes per shift x 4 shifts per week x 60 second per minute) = 96,000 seconds
(3) Takt time = 96,000 seconds / 1,755 frames = 54.7 seconds per frame



Reference
On takt time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takt_time