Takt time is the pulse beat of customer demand.
Use: In the war on waste, the team needs to understand the customer demand rate. Think of a metronome (the ticking, swinging tool used by musicians to maintain constant timing). The metronome can be adjusted to different beats per minute. Takt Time is similar to the metronome. The team can adjust the takt time if it knows the average consumption rate of customer demand. If the rate of making a product is slightly faster than the takt time, there is very little built up inventory; hence minimal waste. If however, the team ignores takt time, they are in danger of not having enough capacity to keep up with demand or too much capacity will be produce stacked up inventory. If there is inventory, there has to be a place to put it. There is a cost associated with that space. If there is inventory, it also has to be moved. There is a cost associated with that movement as well, and so on.
