Tag Archives: Takt time

In most business settings, time is measured by hours and days — how long will it take to receive a proposal, mockup sheet or important presentation. But in the manufacturing world, time is measured in product cycles. From sourcing materials to testing to packaging, how long will it take to get one product from conception to full completion?

That is the essence of manufacturing cycle time.

Not to be confused with lead time, cycle time is how long it takes to complete a unit of product, from the beginning of the manufacturing process until the product is ready to ship. In this article we will detail how to calculate cycle times, and the ways you can improve it in your organization.

How to calculate cycle time

The manufacturing cycle time is different for every organization and every product run, and it’s important to constantly check on this variable to ensure productivity benchmarks are being met. The formula to determine cycle time is actually fairly simple:

Total amount of goods produced / Time of production = Cycle time

Once a baseline is determined, manufacturers can try a number of different things to decrease cycle time and increase profitability.

Knocking a few seconds from key areas of your cycle time can have a dramatic impact on productivity.

How to improve cycle time

There are a number of ways that a manufacturer can decrease cycle time, such as:

Streamline production process as a whole

By identifying and eliminating any bottlenecks or inefficiencies during the production process, manufacturers can reduce cycle time by improving the system as a whole.

Take a detailed look at your operations — are there issues associated with the production layout of your floor? Are there certain tasks that could be automated or otherwise simplified? Is there an opportunity for you to implement lean manufacturing principles? Evaluating your operations is a great way to identify inefficiencies in your organization.

The key is to reduce the time required in order to increase overall capacity, all while ensuring that nothing gets missed, as shortcuts can lead to quality control issues and dissatisfied customers.

Improve equipment and systems

Is your equipment up to date? Or are you using outdated machinery and legacy technologies?

The more outdated the equipment a manufacturer works with, the greater opportunity for preventable delays in operation. Take an assessment of physical equipment and the software your businesses utilizes on a daily basis. If you find that your systems are more than five or ten years old, it may be time to set aside profits to update your manufacturing facility.

Invest in employee training

Well-trained employees are more likely to work efficiently, produce high-quality results and create ways to optimize operations.

Develop a culture of employee development and make sure they feel comfortable giving suggestions. Doing so can increase morale — leading to higher retention rates, a growing concern of manufacturers — and improve the quality of operations as a whole. The more high-quality employees a manufacturer has, the more efficient the business will run.

Utilize analytics

Manufacturers should take an even deeper look at operations, utilizing analytics to alert them to any inefficiencies in the process.

On the surface, production could seem to be running smoothly, but perhaps there is an area of production, for example, that is taking 20% longer than expected. Create and gather data points wherever possible, because you never know what inefficiencies may be lurking under a normal-looking production cycle.

At USC Consulting Group, we can help your manufacturing business decrease manufacturing cycle time and increase efficiency and productivity. Contact us to find out more.

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The driving drum beat in the popular rock tune “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac is reminiscent of production’s TAKT time drum beat set by customer demand. When a company’s demand or supply is disrupted, the disorganized supply chain might sound like a band without a beat. Disruptions such as COVID-19 reinforce that disrupting events occur more frequently, tend to last longer, and result in greater loss than most companies assess during traditional risk assessments. Disruptions make abundantly clear the need for accelerated information for rapid responses, resiliency, and optionality in the supply chain.

If recent global disruptions are affecting your company’s typically steady supply chain drum beat, there are strategies that can help you get back on pace. Pairing over 50 years of experience with analytical data from recent research, USC Consulting Group has compiled the below infographic with five tried-and-true techniques for supply chain optimization to mend your operations and improve your processes to be as efficient as possible.

• Enhance transparency by leveraging intelligent data to more effectively forecast shortages.
• Use strategic sourcing by partnering with multiple suppliers to ensure a consistent flow of products.
• Identify opportunities to automate certain work processes, diminishing cycle time and enhancing throughput.
• Coordinate and collaborate with channel partners to enhance communication.
• Maintain a regularly occurring maintenance schedule to reduce the effects of equipment breakdowns on production.

Supply chain optimization is our specialty at USC Consulting Group. We can make sure your operations Don’t Stop and your Silver Springs are humming like a Songbird. You can Go Your Own Way, but then we may not be able to stop making Fleetwood Mac references and all of your Dreams may not come true. Contact us today to ensure that you’re Never Going Back Again to a broken supply chain and instead keep your driving drum beat steady.

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If there’s one certain thing about the food and beverage industry, it’s the fact that nothing is certain – not when it comes to trends, anyway. Take nutrition as a classic example. At one time, low fat was all the rage; now it’s high fat, combined with low carbs. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the all-protein diet from lean meat sources was popular. Today, plant-based protein is on more and more dinner menus.

But there is one constant in the food and beverage business: consumers’ demand for top quality, originality and convenience. Thus, the heat is always on for manufacturers to deliver on Americans’ high expectations.

The best way to come through is to understand what’s on the menu, in terms of food manufacturing challenges facing producers and developing strategies for how to overcome them. Our ebook “Understanding the Challenges Facing Modern Food and Beverage Producers” details some of the potential obstacles producers face and offers suggestions that can help turn sour situations into sweet solutions.

Download our ebook today to learn more about current food manufacturing challenges and discover solutions to key areas including:

Contact us today for help fine-tuning your workflows or improving yield and productivity.

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