Takt Time Planning for Construction of Exterior Cladding

This paper presents the concept and steps taken, as well as a case study on production scheduling, to implement the use of Takt time. It starts with an overview of traditional construction scheduling and contrasts that with the use of production scheduling using Takt time. It then presents a process for Takt time scheduling and illustrates its application by means of a case study. Takt time was used to drive installation of the exterior cladding system on a healthcare facility in Sacramento, California. Thanks to the use of a production schedule with a four-day Takt, the traditional construction schedule of 11 months for partial completion of the exteriors was reduced to 5.5 months. This case study illustrates the successful development and application of Takt time, challenges, benefits, and lessons learned.