The term "takt time" derives from the German word Taktzeit and translates to either "measure," "cycle," or "pulse" time. In lean manufacturing, takt time refers to the amount of time a manufacturer has per unit to produce enough goods to fulfil customer demand.
Especially powerful in electronics manufacturing, where complex assembly lines and tight delivery windows make synchronisation essential, takt time is a crucial tool in ensuring that goods flow through each build station efficiently.
Takt time helps manufacturers balance build stages, eliminate waste, and improve delivery reliability. This leads to more predictable delivery schedules, consistent production output with minimal defects, and better design and production process alignment.
What is takt time in manufacturing?
A common misconception is that takt time relates to the overall build time—in other words, the number of "man hours" put into building a product.
In reality, it relates to the maximum allowable time span required to build a product, from start to finish, to ensure the continual flow of finished products needed to satisfy customer demand, without delays or excess inventory.
Once takt time has been established, the electronics manufacturer needs to physically separate the build into individual stages and resource the production line accordingly. For complex PCBA builds, for example, breaking stages down by takt can reveal inefficiencies and guide design-for-manufacture strategies to help ensure maximum efficiency.
Calculating takt time
Now that you know the basics of takt time, let's explore how to calculate it in more detail.
The basic formula is:
T = product assembly (takt) time required to meet demand
Ta = net time available to work
D = customer demand
To simplify the calculation, takt time = available production time / customer demand
Let's explore this calculation a little further:
- Available production time: Let's assume the electronics manufacturer operates an 8-hour shift, 5 days a week. 8 hours x 60 minutes equates to 480 total minutes, but not all the 480 minutes are "available". Tea and lunch breaks, material preparation in the morning and a clean down at the end of each shift all take away from the "available" time. So, assuming there are 2 x 10-minute tea breaks, 30 minutes for lunch and another 20 minutes in total consumed at the start and end of each day, the "available" production time is in fact 410 minutes.
- Customer demand: This relates to the number of units the customer requires each day. To keep the maths simple, suppose this customer designs and sells a range of electro-mechanical industrial printers and requires their assembly partner to produce 100 of these a day.
- Takt time: If we take our available production time (410 minutes) and divide that by our customer demand (100), the takt time equates to 4.1 minutes or 246 seconds. This means a completed unit must be finished every 246 seconds, or there is a danger the electronics manufacturer will not meet their customer's demand.
So, the takt time calculation for this example would be:
410 minutes (available production time) / 100 (number of required units) = 4.1 minutes or 246 seconds per unit (takt time)
What are the benefits of takt time?
1. Efficiency
Once up and running, takt time is very easy to measure. Electronics manufacturers operating lean production lines will use this tool to remove as much "waste" from the process as possible—i.e., identify and address bottlenecks and prevent excess inventory.
The work content within each build stage should be balanced to ensure the takt time is maintained. If, for any reason, operators finish a stage quicker than planned or struggle to keep up, the engineering teams can then look at ways of rebalancing the production stages.
2. Visibility
One of the main benefits takt time offers is increased visibility for production line operatives and their supervisors. With each stage broken down, the build process becomes more visual and measurable, allowing supervisors to spot deviations that could lead to downtime or missed delivery targets.
For example, if an operator struggles to keep pace, then production output starts to slow or, in the worst case, stops altogether. While this is not a good thing in itself, the immediacy with which a problem is highlighted to the supervisor is a benefit and allows them to react accordingly.
Key considerations
Supply chain readiness
A stable supply chain is essential to prevent material shortages and quality defects that can interrupt takt flow.
Many lean lines operate Kanban replenishment systems to ensure raw materials are immediately available to production. In order to continually "feed" these lines, the electronics manufacturer must have a stable supply chain in place. Any material shortages or quality issues will immediately slow or stop the line completely, so systems and processes must exist away from the production line to minimise the risk.
Component tolerance challenges
Component tolerance can be particularly challenging for electronics manufacturers producing highly complex electro-mechanical products. Often, these products consist of a large number of drawn items which, if not manufactured correctly, or if they sit on the edge of tolerances, may not fit as expected.
It's therefore recommended that separate pre-line inspection areas are created for these kinds of materials so that all incoming materials can be checked against the drawing, prior to them being issued out to the line.
Prototyping and fast DfM feedback loops can further prevent downstream takt disruptions.
Build complexity management
Finally, it won't always make sense to break down the entire product into individual build stages— there could be far too many processes. Take the electro-mechanical industrial printer, for example, that has over 1,000 individual parts that make up one unit. And a large number of these parts are called up within sub-assemblies—like the printed circuit board assembly (PCBA). So, consideration must be given over which build elements are completed on the line and which are carried out "offline"; it's worth reserving takt-driven flows for final integration stages further down the line.
Conclusion
Takt time gives your production line a measurable heartbeat. It's a powerful tool that aligns production with customer demand, improves efficiency and visibility, and enables proactive quality and engineering control at key stages of the lean manufacturing process. Implemeted correctly, takt time can help you achieve your on-time and in-full goals by mitigating surprises and supporting better supply management.
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Editor's note: This post was originally published in September 2016, and updated in September 2025 for relevance and accuracy.
