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Don’t Subtract Breakdowns When Calculating Takt Time — Takt Time vs. Cycle Time vs. Lead Time
Takt time is the target production interval obtained by dividing available working time by customer demand, whereas cycle time is the measured time a process actually takes to make one unit. The calculation rule in the workbook published by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) subtracts from shift time planned operator breaks, meetings, cleanups, etc., but not time for unplanned machine downtime, changeovers or other internal problems. Dividing the 27,600 s of available working time per shift obtained under this rule by the demand per shift of 690 units gives a takt time of 40 s. To cover stopped time as well, the measured cycle time must be shorter than takt…
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The Interface Between Laser Notching Cycle Time and Line Takt Time — The Head-Count Sizing Problem Revealed by DI ENT’s Ohio Supply Contract
DI ENT signed laser notching equipment supply contracts worth a combined KRW 87.3 billion, across two separate orders, with LH Battery Company (an LG Energy Solution–Honda joint venture), for delivery to Honda’s new second battery plant in Ohio, USA, by March 2026. This supply contract is more than an order-win announcement — it surfaces an interface-design problem between the notching process’s cycle time and the line’s takt time. When the processing time of a single notching head is longer than the takt time the line requires, adding parallel heads becomes unavoidable, and as burr-width specifications are tightened, per-head processing time increases, causing the required head count to rise non-linearly. This…
