Mar 11, 2014 | Posted by Ben Thompson
Hey blog fans, last time we left off with our standardized work sheet acting as a starting point on our road map to stimulate continuous improvement. With this diagram of the workplace and work movement in hand the question was posed how do we translate this to usable data? The hint I left you with last time was that calculating Takt time, and observing and collecting data lead us one step closer to a kaizen victory. But what is Takt time? and how is all this going to help us achieve our kaizen victory? Strap yourself in for some answers, its going to be a smooth, clear, and concise ride for today’s adventures in TPS learning.
Takt time represents customer demand; cycle times must be below this. So, if we know the company has a weekly demand of 1000 pieces and a 40 hour work week our Takt time is … not ready to be calculated yet. We need actual work time that is available, so we subtract an hour a day for lunch and breaks, giving us 35 hours divided by 1000 pieces is 0.035 hours per piece, a simple unit shift to seconds and presto change-o 126 seconds per piece is our Takt time. Every time you guys pop by my blog we get one step closer to a KAIZEN VICTORY!
Next week we will dive into the TPS data analysis sheet and the TPS methodologies of collecting data! Till next week,
Keep
Calm,
Kaizen
On!
