The Power of TAKT Time--Lean Tools
Most Administrative Directors working in hospital-based laboratories pay attention to turnaround times as the measure of meeting customer (physician) expectations. It's an OK metric as far as dashboards are concerened, but it does nothing about helping you diagnose or solve your problem when it falls below your benchmark.
TAKT time is a much more useful production metric. TAKT time is the "pace of production" required to meet your customers service promise. It is calculated as follows:
Available time in seconds divided by the number of specimens equals your TAKT time. Here is an example:
Assume that you have three hours each morning to meet the service promise to your physicians for posting lab results on the charts of inpatients. Phlebotomy starts drawing at 5:00 AM and all specimens need to be tested, verified, and posted by 8:00 AM for physician rounds. On average your phlebotomy team draws 200 patient specimens during this three hour time frame. Your TAKT time should be calculated as follows:
Three hours equals 10,800 seconds (3 hours x 60 minutes/hour x 60 second/minute)--this becomes your numerator: 10,800 seconds / 200 patient specimens equals 54 seconds. In order to meet your service promise, you must organize and run your laboratory operations so that you are posting specimen-related results every 54 seconds during that 3- hour time period.
The Lean Six Sigma philosophy and tools can help you reach this goal by eliminating non-value added wastes and creating specimen flow throughout your value stream--pre-analytical, analytical and post-analytical.
My next blog article will build on the usefulness of TAKT time (the pace of production) in planning your laboratory resources.
As always, I look forward to your comments and discussions.
