‘Humanizing’ Takt Time and Productivity in the Labor-Intensive Manufacturing Systems

The concept of takt time is well known in the typical manufacturing branches like automobile and machine industry from which it originates. In these industries the rule is that once the takt time is calculated for some period, for example for a week, the takt time is then fixed and is not changed during this period. This is certainly right approach because it ensures the stability of the production system. However, it suits well to the manufacturing systems where process automatization is increasingly applied. But for the manufacturing systems that still depends vastly on a labor work, where process automatization is not intensively utilized, the concept of takt time should be differently applied. In these processes, the takt time cannot be held fixed all the time for the period for which it was calculated, but it must be changed even during the same shift. In other words, the takt time as well as the productivity must be “humanized”. So we need to apply the hands-on knowledge when implementing the wellknown concept from typical environment to the specific conditions. How to “humanize” the takt time and productivity in the labor-intensive manufacturing systems is the focus of this paper. The procedure will be explained on the case study from real manufacturing company with labor-intensive work.