TAHA Engineering Toolsby TAHA Knowledge Lab

Industrial & Manufacturing

Takt Time Calculator

The pace of production needed to meet customer demand.

Inputs

A shift bar with two break periods, and below it the available time divided into eight equal takt-time slots, one per unit demanded.ShiftbreakbreakAvailable time ÷ customer demand12345678takt time
Planned breaks are removed from the shift to give the available time. Dividing it by the customer demand (here 8 units) gives the takt time — the time allowed per unit. Diagram not to scale.

Include meal breaks, tea breaks, meetings and planned cleaning — any time the line is planned not to run.

Result

Takt time
60
Available time per day
420
Required output rate
60units/hour

To meet demand, one unit must be finished every 60 s. Any station whose cycle time is longer than this cannot keep up and will become a bottleneck.

Educational estimate — check the assumptions below.

About this calculator

Takt time is the rhythm of production set by the customer. It is the available working time divided by the number of units the customer needs in that time. Takt time is not how fast you can work (that is cycle time) — it is how fast you need to work. It is the starting point for line balancing and staffing decisions in lean manufacturing.

Formula

Takt time = Available production time ÷ Customer demand

Available time per day = (Shift length − Planned breaks) × Shifts per day

Worked example

One 8-hour shift with 60 minutes of breaks; the customer needs 420 units per day.

  • Available time = (480 − 60) × 1 = 420 min = 25,200 s
  • Takt time = 25,200 ÷ 420 = 60 s per unit
  • Required rate = 420 ÷ 7 h = 60 units per hour

Assumptions and limitations

  • Demand and available time must cover the same period (here, one day).
  • Takt time does not allow for unplanned downtime or scrap. In practice, plan your cycle times somewhat below takt time.
  • Only subtract planned non-working time. Do not subtract breakdowns — they are a loss to be reduced, not part of the plan.

References

  • Lean manufacturing practice (Toyota Production System): takt time = available time ÷ customer demand.