Takt Time

Takt time is the rate at which a product must be completed to meet customer demand — total available production time divided by demanded units. It sets the heartbeat a line should run to, so production is paced to demand rather than over- or under-producing.

If a line has 480 productive minutes and demand is 240 units, takt time is two minutes — one unit must finish every two minutes. Comparing actual cycle time to takt reveals whether a process can keep up or is a bottleneck, and guides line balancing and staffing. It is the reference rhythm that makes lean pull systems and flow work.

Related terms

Lean Manufacturing · Kanban · Theory of Constraints (TOC)

Where this applies

Reducing changeover time with SMED · Commissioning a new production line · Running a value stream mapping exercise · Implementing a kanban pull system