How can you use takt time to balance workloads and improve flow in your warehouse?

1 What is takt time?

Takt time is the maximum amount of time you have to complete a process or a task to meet customer demand. It is derived from the German word "takt", which means rhythm or pulse. Takt time tells you how often you need to produce a unit of output to keep up with customer demand. For example, if you have a customer order of 120 items per day, and you work for 8 hours a day, your takt time is 4 minutes per item (8 hours x 60 minutes / 120 items).

2 How to calculate takt time?

To calculate takt time, you need two pieces of information: customer demand and available production time. Customer demand is the number of units that your customers order or expect from you in a given period. Available production time is the amount of time that you have to work on the process or task, excluding breaks, downtime, maintenance, and other interruptions. The formula for takt time is:

Takt time = Available production time / Customer demand

For example, if you have a customer demand of 300 items per week, and you have 40 hours of available production time per week, your takt time is 8 minutes per item (40 hours x 60 minutes / 300 items).

3 How to apply takt time to your warehouse operations?

Takt time can help you balance workloads and improve flow in your warehouse by aligning your processes and tasks with customer demand. To apply takt time to your warehouse operations, you can first identify the processes and tasks involved in fulfilling customer orders, such as receiving, picking, packing, and shipping. Then, calculate the takt time for each process or task based on customer demand and available production time. Compare the takt time with the actual cycle time to determine if you are producing faster or slower than customer demand. Adjust the processes and tasks to match the takt time by eliminating waste, improving efficiency, standardizing work, and optimizing layout. Finally, monitor and control the processes and tasks using visual indicators such as timers, dashboards, andon lights, and color codes to ensure that they are performed within the takt time.

4 What are the benefits of using takt time in your warehouse?

Using takt time in your warehouse can bring you several benefits, such as reducing waste and cost, increasing efficiency and productivity, improving flow and quality, and enhancing customer satisfaction. This is achieved by avoiding overproduction, inventory, and rework; streamlining processes, standardizing work, and optimizing layout; eliminating bottlenecks, delays, and defects; and delivering orders on time, in full, and as expected.

5 What are the challenges of using takt time in your warehouse?

Using takt time in your warehouse can also present some challenges, such as dealing with variability and uncertainty in customer demand due to seasonality, trends, promotions, and other factors. It is necessary to balance the capacity and flexibility of resources like labor, equipment, and space in order to meet customer demand. Additionally, it is important to align the takt time of different processes and tasks that may have different cycle times, dependencies, and constraints. Lastly, implementing and sustaining the takt time culture requires commitment, communication, and collaboration from all stakeholders including management, workers, and customers.