How To Reduce Takt Time

How to Reduce Your Takt Time on a Construction Project

In this blog, we’re diving into how to reduce your takt time specifically within construction and how you can use the takt time formula not only to set the pace but to determine if you’re ready to speed things up.

Why the 5-Day Takt Time Is Just the Beginning:

Let’s start with a key insight: your project will almost never stick with a 5-day takt time. This baseline is typically used for a macro-level Takt plan, the early strategic plan created in preconstruction. It’s not for the last planners or even tied to trade partners just yet.

The macro plan gives you the big picture, and once you engage with your trades through pull planning, you’ll transition to a norm-level takt plan. This second phase usually shortens durations and gains buffers and that’s where the real productivity gains begin.

To illustrate: think of macro vs. norm takt planning like dating vs. marriage. Your macro plan is the “fancy courtship”, your promise. The norm plan is the “marriage”, your performance. It should only get better from there.

Optimizing the Norm Takt Plan:

Once you move into norm-level planning, you can start shrinking your takt time. This means going from five to four, then maybe to three, two, or even one-day takt times. A three-day takt time is quite doable in North America and Europe. But this is where things start to get tight. Smaller zone sizes and more frequent transitions mean your team has to be highly coordinated and proficient.

Practitioners like Marco Binninger and his team at Weisenburger Bau are already running two- and even one-day takt times with success. That’s the direction we’re headed too.

The Takt Time Formula:

Here’s the formula that makes this all work:

(Takt Wagons + Takt Zones – 1) × Takt Time = Duration

This determines the throughput time for your phase or train. By simply reducing the size of your zones, you reduce takt time and overall duration.

Key Tips to Reduce Your Takt Time:

If you want smaller takt times, you need two things:

1. More proficient trades.
2. Less variation.

You need a stable, predictable jobsite and a team that works well together. And yes, smaller zones = smaller takt times.

But there’s more…

Kingman’s Formula (A Construction Twist):

Let’s introduce a loose interpretation of Kingman’s Formula, applied to construction. In essence, your end zone cycle time, the total time from start to finish in a zone includes:

• Activity time.
• Variation.
• Productivity loss.
• Buffer.

Here’s the catch: more people doesn’t necessarily speed things up. In fact, adding more untrained workers usually increases variation and decreases productivity, extending the cycle time instead of shortening it.

Instead, lean practices, repetition, and familiarity reduce both variation and productivity loss shortening your effective takt time naturally.

Spotting Patterns:

Here’s a practical tactic: if your team is hitting a 4-day takt time well, and after a few cycles they start reporting that they can go faster, it may be time to shift to a 3-day takt time. But this only works if all trades are ready not just a few. You need consistent speed and spacing across the board.

In Summary:

Here’s how you reduce your takt time on a construction project:

• Increase proficiency.
• Decrease variation.
• Reduce zone sizes.
• Observe performance patterns.
• Use the takt formula to analyze timing.
• Avoid the trap of “more people = faster”.

Most importantly, listen to your trades. In many cases, they’ll be the ones telling you it’s time to pick up the pace.

Key Takeaway:

Reducing takt time in construction isn’t about working faster it’s about working smarter. By increasing trade proficiency, minimizing variation, and optimizing zone sizes, teams can significantly shorten project durations while maintaining flow and quality.