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FORUMS Manufacturing Long Takt Time Products Topic Title: Long Takt Time Products Topic Summary: Clocks and SWCS reference tools Created On: 08/10/2012 11:45 PM Linear : Threading Send to a Friend Search Topic Keyword Topic Tools View similar topics Print this topic. 08/13/2012 09:42 AM E_Jones Eric Jones We produce products which have takt times of 6 months. SWCS are lengthy. The value of the SWCS, as a schedule and waste identifier, loses value without a point of reference for the time associated with each step. Does anyone use Takt time clocks for programs with takt times greater than six months? If so,where's the best place to purchase these clocks? If not, what do you use/ have you seen used? Thanks Reply : Quote 08/13/2012 03:12 PM Boeing_Lean Ken Hunt You have takt times of 6 months? Are you sure you're not talking about Lead time? It would be good to know what you are producing. I'd venture to guess that you have parts/components that make your final product. That is where you should be using SWCS's. If you try to use a SWCS on a 6 month product you could paper the walls of your entire facility. :-) Reply : Quote 08/13/2012 03:12 PM 181752 Jeff Hajek Eric, I have heard of some long takt times, but never anything like 6 months. That would mean that you are only selling two of something per year, and I suspect that changes in the process/product design would make a SWCS moot over that period. Standardization is still important, but I don't see a lot of value in creating a SWCS for something you will use only twice in a year. I would think some sort of project management software would be more useful. As far as the takt time clock, I would think simple. Just a whiteboard that you update daily (i.e. days to go and the process step you should be on) would give you the information you need. Update it against your project schedule, and post where you are (+/-) against the dates. Good Luck Jeff Hajek Velaction Continuous Improvement Reply : Quote 08/15/2012 04:43 AM pc2 P. Cartagena Activities that I've seen with long takt times are generally large one-off projects or at least highly customized small lot builds rather than repetitive production processes, things like architectural construction, ships, military systems, computer networks, etc. In these cases the takt time "clock" is usually a calendar. In project management the equivalent of a standard work combination sheet is a Gantt chart. They're basically used the same way (or should be, anyway). Is your work repetitive production of interchangeable units? Why isn't there a point of reference for the time associated with each step? pc2 Reply : Quote 08/16/2012 10:30 AM E_Jones Eric Jones Yes, we have 6-month takt times. We build two parts per year on some product lines. We do have various procedures that go into fabrication of parts, such as Lay-up, Curing, Machining, Assembly, Inspection, Pack/Ship. We break up the SWCS by operator and operation. The SWCS are helpful, but without a great point of reference for the times (i.e. a takt time clock), they lose some of their benefits. Thanks for the reply Reply : Quote 08/16/2012 10:30 AM E_Jones Eric Jones Thanks for the reply. Our products are highly customizable; however, we do standard wherever possible to help identify opportunity/waste and understand where the variation lies. Yes, some tasks are repetitive. We also use the calendar, but unfortunately the calendar does not correlate back to Takt Time 10,068... Gant charts are helpful at the higher level, but we want to dive deeper than the typical gant chart allows. There is no point f reference for the time associated with each step because We do not have a Takt time clock which counts up to 6months worth of minutes. The SWCS has the minutes for each step, but when the operator gets to step 325 and it indicates that he she be there at 10,124 minutes, there is no clock which reads 10,124 to reference. Thanks, Reply : Quote 08/16/2012 10:30 AM 3744 Ronald Turkett Most of us have experience with short or small Takt times in repetitive manufacturing. The longest time I have worked with is three shifts for large tractor manufacturing. A friend called and reminded me of my recommendations to always watch many cycles of a process before beginning any work. He continued that he was now a consultant in ship building and the time to complete the ship was 36 months. The approach then had to be to break up the shipbuilding process into its elements before making process improvements. Ron Turkett Reply : Quote 08/17/2012 11:07 AM 49857 William McDade Hi Ron Totally agree Interested to understand how your friend approached the ship building process due to the product being so large and complex! How did he identify the level of elements to measure, analyse and improve! I work in the AR&O industry and take the same approach. thanks Bill Reply : Quote 08/20/2012 12:26 PM 3744 Ronald Turkett Bill He took a look at the overall project schedule and broke it down into sections. The elements for each section were analyzed to develop the processess for shortest cycle times. That is a over simplied concept. Ron Reply : Quote FORUMS : Manufacturing : Long Takt Time Products Topic Tools

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