Definition
Rate of demand for products from clients: The time available for the shift is divided by the client ' s demand for the class, usually in seconds.
In detail
Takt time is the output pace set by customer demand, equal to available work time in the same period divided by demand. It answers how often one product or one service unit must be completed, and differs from actual measured cycle time. Time and demand must use the same window; transactional work such as order lines can also serve as the unit, but complexity should be distinguished. Adding parallel staff does not change customer takt, only processing capacity and the work time allocatable per person.
Example in practice
An assembly line runs two shifts per day, with available time per shift of 27000 seconds and daily customer demand of 1500 units, so full-day available time is 54000 seconds and takt time is 36 seconds/unit. The supervisor compares cycle times across stations and finds one station needs 40 seconds; improve that station first and verify quality. You cannot divide single-shift time by full-day demand to get 18 seconds.