Takt time

Takt time is the maximum time you can spend per unit and still keep up with customer demand. It's not how fast you can go - it's how fast you need to.

The formula

Takt = Available Time per period / Customer Demand per period

Worked example

A packing line runs 8 hours/day with 30 min of planned breaks = 450 minutes available. Customer demand is 300 units/day. Takt = 450/300 = 1.5 minutes per unit. Every station in the line has 90 seconds to do its job.

Why it matters

• Any station with cycle time > takt is a bottleneck - the whole line slows to its pace.
• Any station with cycle time << takt is either over-manned or generating over-production.
• The gap between actual cycle time and takt tells you how much slack (or urgency) each station has.

In MapVS

Set demand rate in the map settings. MapVS computes takt automatically and highlights every stage where CT exceeds takt in red on the canvas.