Operational Excellence: Taktime, CycleTime, and LeadTime

Overview

• Importance of understanding Taktime, CycleTime, and LeadTime in process design
• Relation and differences among the three terms
• Aim to better meet customer demands through understanding these concepts

Taktime

• Definition: Theoretical demand rate of the customer
• Calculation: Available production time / Number of units needed by customer
  • Example: For a 7.5-hour shift, 20 days a month = 540,000 seconds
  • Customer needs 20,000 units -> Taktime = 27 seconds per unit
• Usage: Helps gauge production needs to meet customer demand
• Application: Should aim to run slightly faster than Taktime to account for potential downtime

Cycle Time

• Definition: Actual rate at which operation produces a unit
• Measurement: Time from output of one unit to the next
• Importance:
  • Consistent and predictable cycle time indicates a stable process
  • Allows quick identification of process abnormalities

Lead Time

• Definition: Total time for a unit to move through the operation from start to end
• Measurement: Track a unit through the entire process
• Utility:
  • Indicates customer wait time for made-to-order products
  • Reflects amount of inventory within the process
• Improvement: Value stream mapping can highlight inventory bottlenecks

Scenario Analysis

• Example Company: Produces colored circles on white paper
  • 3-step process: Tracing, Cutting, Adhering
  • Monthly order: 36,000 units
• Taktime Calculation:
  • Available time: 540,000 seconds/month
  • Units needed: 36,000
  • Taktime = 15 seconds per unit
• Cycle Time Measurement:
  • Process measured at 13 seconds, meeting Taktime
  • Individual step cycle times: Tracing (6s), Cutting (13s), Adhering (6s)
  • Cutting slower than others but still meets Taktime

Process Improvement

• Options Identified:
  • Combine first and last steps, leaving cutting alone
  • Add second cutter, reducing cycle time
  • Run two cells with combined steps
  • Run two shifts to increase work time
• Selected Solution:
  • Run two cells with tracing and adhering combined
  • Measure output cycle time: Both cells producing at 13s

Additional Customer Scenario

• New customer adds another 36,000 units/month
• New Taktime:
  • Units needed: 72,000
  • Taktime = 7.5 seconds per unit
• Measured Lead Time: 21 seconds (meets 30-second SLA)
• Outcome: Process adjustments met both customers' demands

Conclusion

• Measured Taktime, CycleTime, and LeadTime for process evaluation
• Encouragement to measure own processes to discover improvements