Takt Time Calculator

What is Takt Time?

Takt time is the pace a line has to hit to keep up with the customer. Take the net time you can actually produce in a shift and divide it by how many units the customer wants in that shift. The result is the beat: one finished unit should leave the line every takt interval. It is the reference every station balances against on a lean line.

Takt Time Formula

Available Time = (Shift Length - Breaks and Planned Stops)
Takt Time = Available Time (in seconds) / Customer Demand (units)

Keep the time units consistent. Shift length and breaks are usually in minutes, so convert the available time to seconds (multiply by 60) before dividing by demand to get seconds per unit.

Takt Time vs Cycle Time vs Lead Time

These three often get mixed up, but they answer different questions.

• Takt time is set by the customer. It is the required pace, available time divided by demand.
• Cycle time is set by the process. It is how long a station (or the line) actually takes to finish one unit. You want cycle time at or just under takt.
• Lead time is the total time one unit spends in the system, from order or raw material to shipment, including all the waiting in between. It is driven by batch size and work in process, not by pace alone.

Worked Example

Shift length: 480 minutes (8 hours)
Breaks and planned stops: 30 minutes
Available time: 450 minutes = 27,000 seconds
Customer demand: 300 units
Takt Time = 27,000 / 300 = 90 seconds per unit (1.5 minutes per unit)

Now compare against cycle time. If a unit actually takes 80 seconds to complete, cycle time is below the 90 second takt, so the line can meet demand with a 10 second margin per unit. If cycle time were 100 seconds instead, the line runs slower than the beat, falls short of 300 units, and you would need to balance the work, cut downtime, or add capacity.