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Is Takt Really Magic?

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Elevate slide asking if Takt planning is really magic
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By: Kevin Rice

Something I asked my self as I started researching Takt and its benefits. Like you; I am newer to Takt planning and thought I would take a concept that intrigued me and start to explore my findings.

Excel Takt calculator: 7 wagons over 1 to 10 zones, charting project duration against the number of zones

Scheduling with Takt allows you to take a project with a linear schedule and implement strategic overlapping. This leads to shorter project duration and more buffer time, but how is this possible?

Today I’d like to dive deeper into Little’s “Takt” Law, also called Dlouhy & Binninger’s Law. This law describes the relationship between inputs in a Takt plan. It goes something like this:

(Takt Wagons + Takt Zones – 1) x Takt Time = Total Duration

(TW + TZ – 1) x TT = TD

I’m sure that most of you are familiar with this idea, but I wanted to dive into the math and really understand how this works, so I turned to one of my best friends, Excel. Yeah, I’m weird like that.

 
Table of 5 Takt wagons: 2, 4 and 8 sequences give total durations of 30, 24 and 24

I started by building a simple matrix that showed a few of the possible Takt plans for a given set of inputs and the actual Takt flow diagram for each one. It looked like this:

Takt schedules of 5 wagons over 2, 4 and 8 zones, finishing in 30, 24 and 24 days
Once I built the matrix I found I had more questions than I did when I started. Questions like:

  • What is the “best” Takt plan for this set of inputs?

  • Why does each trade get 2 extra days when going from 2 sequences to 4 sequences? And why do they get 6 extra days when going to 8 sequences?

  • What about other numbers of sequences?

To answer these questions I turned back to my friend Excel and graphed out what the theoretical lower limit for this set of inputs ranging from 1 and 10 sequences.

 
 
Theoretical low limit table: 5 wagons over 1 to 10 zones, duration falling from 50 to 14
Chart of the theoretical low limit: project duration falls from 50 to 14 as Takt zones rise from 1 to 10
This shows the Law of Diminishing Returns when Takt planning. This graph is great, but it is theoretical and I wanted to see what happens when you take it to the real world. We don’t often work in half day increments and it is common to round these up to the nearest day or week. Adding this real life constraint of rounding each Takt time up to the nearest unit changes things significantly. So back to excel I went and here is what happens.
 
Rounded Takt time table: 5 wagons over 1 to 10 zones, with durations rising again after 5 zones
Chart comparing theoretical low limit and rounded project durations across 1 to 10 Takt zones
 
Crazy stuff right! Rounding changes everything! You can see how important it is to know some of this information up front during the planning phases of your project. Understanding how it affects duration is critically important to formulate the best Takt plan. Notice that the theoretical lower limit intersects with certain numbers of sequences or zones. These Takt plans will be lean and mean, but not always possible, or desired. Sometimes a certain number of sequences or zones is better for a particular project, but it is important to know how this affects the Takt plan relative to possibilities. This way a more informed decision can be made to balance all of the factors involved in completing large scale projects.

Rounding is also where the extra 2 days and 6 days of trade work come from. Rounding each Takt time up accrues over the project. This gives each trade more time on the project and still reduces the overall project duration. It became obvious that the utility of a tool that would model all the different possible Takt plans for any given set of inputs would really help to optimize Takt planning and allow for a more efficient and strategic overall plan.  

 
EXCEL DATA TOOL - CLICK HERE

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
–The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, he’s dedicated to taking construction to new heights. With a wealth of industry experience, he’s crafted the Field Engineer Boot Camp and Superintendent Boot Camp – intensive training programs engineered to cultivate top-tier leaders capable of steering their teams towards success. Jason’s vision? To expand his training initiatives across the nation, empowering construction firms to soar to unprecedented levels of excellence.

On we go!

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