An Experiment in Takt Time Planning Applied to Non-Repetitive Work

Takt time planning has been used in construction, but was limited to highly repetitive projects such as highways, pipelines, high-rise buildings, and single family homes. This paper reports on an experiment in takt time planning applied to non-repetitive work, at the Sutter Health Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Sacramento, CA. Takt time planning is based on location breakdown structures with the objective to make work flow continuously. Expected benefits include reduction in project duration and associated costs, increased transparency and predictability of work flow, increased ability to define and deliver work packages of information and materials when needed, and improved design of operations. All of these benefits were confirmed in the experiment. This paper describes experiments in takt time planning, evaluates the findings, and recommends further improvements in the takt time planning process for future experiments.