Lean Tools, Training, and Systems

Takt Time Calculation

Sometimes misspelled tact time, tack time, or tac time

What is Takt Time

Your planning drumbeat.

How often completed units NEED to come out the end of the pipe as established by customer demand

and perhaps adjusted for Sales & Operations Planning factors,
as explained in the Takt Time training

Takt Time Formula

Takt Time = Work Time Available / Customer Demand

So why is it so often calculated wrong?

At first glance, that formula seems so easy.

But try this experiment...

Ask 5 of your people to calculate takt time for the same process.

In most organizations, you will get at least 3 different answers.

Why?

Units of Measure
Does that formula use daily demand? weekly? monthly?
Work Time Available
Jack deducted time for set-ups and change-overs. Jill deducted time for the daily Stand Up Meeting. Jim didn't realize that this team has a different break schedule than most other teams. The new-hire, John, didn't even deduct lunch.
Demand
Jack just blindly plugged in the number he got from his supervisor. Jim got the math wrong when converting monthly demand, trying to factor in the consideration that this team will be working every other Saturday next month. Jack was the only one who remembered to include multiple sources of demand (like spare parts, service parts, prototypes...)

When and Why to use your

Takt Time Calculator

If you don't yet own it,
download it now:
Takt Time Calculator

Use your Takt Time Calculator (Takt.xlsx)
whenever you need to calculate:

Takt Time
Work Time Available
Pitch

Benefits of this Takt Time Calculator

It correctly handles units of measure
It reminds you to consider all factors that affect Work Time Available
It allows you to (optionally) consider multiple sources of Demand
It calculates Pitch (which experienced lean workers care about more than Takt Time)
You have a written archive to clarify "Where did that number come from?"
With the click of a button, you can instantly add a Takt Time Calculator sheet to ANY Excel document
It comes with training (below)

how

How to use your

Takt Time Calculator

Find and open your template

Find and open your Takt Time Calculator

(Takt.xlsx)

in the same way that you find and open your other 150+ Systems2win templates.

If you don't yet own a license, you can download your free gift now.

Save your working document

following the usual document storage and naming conventions established by your leaders

Open a Blank Sheet

When you're ready to start doing your own real work...

click the button to 'Open a Blank Sheet'

Excel Ribbon bar > Systems2win tab > Open a Blank Sheet

This blank sheet is where you will do your real work

(not on the Sample sheet — which gives you sample data that is extremely helpful for learning how to use your new tool, but is the wrong place to do your real work)

Rename your new sheet.

Tip: You can have as many sheets as you want — for different demand scenarios.

For example, you might have a sheet for Christmas demand and another for July demand.

Or... Insert Sheet

As an alternative to opening a stand-alone document (as instructed above), you also have the option to Insert Sheet into any other Excel workbook.

If English is not your preferred language

Switch to your language, just like every Systems2win Excel template.

Now your team is ready to start doing

Takt Time Calculation

Enter your header data

Usually, the only header data needed might be Title, Author, and Revised Date.

You can optionally unhide the row for user-defined header data, and you can copy that row for unlimited rows of user-defined header data.

In the grey area above the Links header, you might use one or more Link Icons to provide hyperlinks to other documents that use the results of this Takt Time Calculator.

Calculate Work Time Available

Work Time Available

Work Time Available per Day = (Minutes Available per Shift + Overtime - Meals - Breaks - Change Overs - Planned Downtime - Unavailable Time) * Shifts per Day

Work Time Available per Day is calculated
using the values that you enter in the pink double-border fields.

Work Days per week (typical)

Shifts per day (typical)

Hours per shift (typical)

Overtime increases Work Time Available

Meals minutes for lunch or other major meal break

Break Minutes per Shift

Enter minutes for other regular-scheduled breaks.

Change Overs

Enter the number of minutes for beginning & end of shift setup/breakdown,
as well as batch change overs.

Tip: Like every Systems2win template, you can optionally use your Custom Formula Zone
to clarify "How did you come up with THAT number?"

Tip: Whenever you see a red anchor link in any Systems2win template,
that means that you can click it to quickly jump to another place within that workbook.

In this case... click the red anchor link to quickly go to the Custom Formula Zone.

Planned Downtime

Routine daily maintenance. Periodic maintenance. Or any other planned shutdown.

Other Unavailable Time

Typical time per day unavailable to work on THIS value stream —
due to things like other responsibilities, setup, clean up, routine maintenance, meetings...

Enter Demand

Demand per Week

In the pink double-border cell, enter Demand per Week.

How many are needed per week?

If Sales & Operations Planning demand is different from actual customer demand, use S&OP demand.
(In other words, plan to deliver the quantity that your management tells you to deliver.)

If your source data is in some other time measure,

(such as Demand per Month, or Day, or Shift...)

then you will need to convert it into Demand per Week

Optionally click the red anchor link to go to the Custom Formula Zone,
where you can use all the power of Excel
to explain "where did that number come from?"

Demand Unit of Measure

In the pink double-border cell, enter the Demand Unit of Measure.

What is being delivered to the customer?

Examples of the thing being processed.

Demand per Shift

Demand per Shift = (DemandWeek/WorkDaysWk)/ShiftsPerDay

You'll get a lot more out of this training if you have your template open in front of you

See the Help and Sample sheets for examples, learning exercises, pop-up help, Excel tips, and other training aids

Takt Time Calculation

The primary purpose of this Takt Time Calculator is to calculate Takt Time.

Takt Time Formula = Work Time Available / Demand

(both Work Time Available and Demand must be per Week)

Calculate Pitch Pulse

Pitch Pulse

The pace at which work is released,
and moves through the value stream.

Pulse = Takt Time * Pulse Batch Size

Learn more about Pulse

Pulse Batch Size

See online training for Factors To Consider when choosing Pulse Batch Size

Link to and from your Takt Time Calculator

Links to related documents

In the grey area above the Links header, you might use one or more Link Icons to provide hyperlinks to other documents that use the results of this Takt Time Calculator.

In the Links column you might use one or more Link Icons to provide hyperlinks to any source documents or training for any row.

For example:

In the row for Demand, you might link to your source document(s) for your sales forecast and/or your Sales & Operations Plan.

Links from related documents

If you follow our suggestions for Document Storage and Naming Conventions

and you save your Takt Time workbook in the same folder
alongside the many other related documents
for analyzing the same process in different ways for different purposes...

then you can easily use what you know about familiar Microsoft Excel to Link Cells

to auto-populate with your latest Takt Time
whenever it changes in your one central Takt Time Calculator
shared by perhaps several related documents.

Add a Takt Time Calculator to any document

Or you can copy your Takt Time Calculation worksheet to any other Systems2win template using the special Copy Sheet utility.

Takt Time Calculator

with many other useful Lean Tools for process improvement

to empower every team member

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