When training on standardized work is introduced, takt time is introduced. When we introduce takt time, we introduce the equation. Takt time is the total available time divided by the necessary demand. I have seen some do quizzes to check if the equation is memorized. More and more people are capable of calculating takt time.
But is that the vital part of takt time?
What is important is the management's commitment to the total available time.
What is the total available time? It is the time that is available time to add value to the customer. It is the total working hours minus the breaks and other preparatory activities, such as start-of-shift meetings, exercise, etc. The total available time must be dedicated to production activities. This means that there is a specific start time of production. There is a particular time to break, return, and restart. The shift ends at a specific time. There is clearness and defined time to these points. Implementing takt time means one takt time after the start of a shift or break; one unit is produced in high quality.
The total available time is like game time for sports. Professional soccer will play for 90 minutes. The NBA plays for 48 minutes. International basketball plays for 40 minutes. Different sports will have different amounts of time to play, yet it is clearly defined. And it is strictly controlled. These games have a start time; they will lose or have a substitute if someone is late. Even with sports that do not have game time, they have a start time, which is strictly controlled. Some responded that these are for highly paid professionals only. Not true. My only victory in tennis in middle school was that I arrived on time while my opponent didn’t.😅 Because of the importance of respecting the start time, most sports coaches won't allow those late to play. This same principle applies to manufacturing. Respecting start times is crucial for the smooth operation of the production process.
Some argue that the strict application of start time in manufacturing is based on Japanese culture. This is not true. A cultural anthropologist studied how Japanese culture became time-strict and discovered that about 200 years ago when Japan opened its borders, many foreigners came and complained about Japan's incapability to respect time. They were always late. The research pointed to the reason for the change. The reason was that accurately operating the railway system (public transportation) changed the lifestyle of the Japanese to be time accurate. In today’s media or SNS, you will see posts that Japanese railways are operating with time accuracy due to culture. The research was pointing the opposite. Since the railways operated with time accuracy, society became such. The study pointed out that the lifestyle was late to time in parts of a country with less or no time-accurate railways. The decision by the leaders to operate the railways time-accurately, otherwise it is too costly, impacted the culture. Starting on time or not has nothing to do with culture. This revelation dispels the misconception that the start time in manufacturing is based on Japanese culture, providing a new perspective on the origins of this practice.
Instead of challenging such an internal culture, many in today’s manufacturing industry try to calculate or add additional planned downtimes. Those who calculate might add up to a 20% allowance for late start-ups and early dismissals. Some have added one hour of scheduled downtime per shift. None of these have solved any issues; such decisions are guaranteed to add cost. Interestingly, those who accepted such strange calculations started challenging continuous improvement and cost reduction. You lose your credibility to continuous improvement or cost reduction after justifying strange costs, such as extending the start of the shift.
One of the things that I noticed is that such loose policies on time are sometimes kept because these are the privileges of managers. There was a shift that was acting strange at the start of work. As we went to the Genba, we discovered the manager was enjoying extended smoke breaks. In another place, the last hour of production was always low. We found managers were taking early departure as “report making time.” I'm unsure why they required an hour to make a report containing less than five sentences. What is more, they were supposed to use the hour-by-hour production board. Behind the justifications of unambiguous start and end of working hours, we must be careful that some privileges or bad habits of managers are hidden.
Also, there is some resistance from the workers. But in many cases, they accept such rules. For example, a worker mentioned, “I knew this was a bad habit. I didn’t want to be the whistle-blower.” In reality, factories have badge scanners and other technologies which strictly control workers' time. Therefore, most of them are inside the building. They are just not using the time productively. All they need is a manager to step up and say, “Aren’t we supposed to be working?”
I am not trying to say, “Do not teach the takt time calculation.” In an ideal world, one takt time is excellent. But in reality, multiple takt times exist inside a plant, and having the capability to adjust according to the demand throughout the supply chain is a necessity. But before teaching the equation, the entire management team, including those from different functions such as HR or maintenance, should agree and commit to fixed starting and ending times. We work until the very last second. Without such commitment, takt time is just another manipulated number without meaning.
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