6 Steps to Understanding Your Current State Production Cycle
As a refresher, Customer TAKT time is the available amount of production time (in seconds) divided by the number of patient specimens tested during that time. Click on this link to read more about this topic. The Power of TAKT
Planned Cycle Time (or Planned Production Time), by convention, is 80% of your calculated TAKT time--it provides a little wiggle room when production deviates from the expected.
This is all well, fine, and good, but most lab managers do not know what their current production cycle time is. By following the six steps below, you can ascertain your current state production cycle time. If you find out your current production cycle time is greater than your Customer TAKT time (a.k.a, your customer service promise), you should use the lean tool set or an on-going Lean transformation to eliminate wastes, create better flow, and shorten your production cycle time.
Here are the six steps to determine your current state production cycle time:
Step 1: Log the time that your morning phlebotomy run starts each day for 31 consecutive days.
Step 2: Log the number of patients drawn and the total number of specimens received for the same 31 consecutive days.
Step 3: Log the time that the last specimen from the morning run is resulted and verified to the floors for the same 31 consecutive days.
Step 4: Calculate the average, minimum, and maximum number of patient draws and total number of specimens per day.
Step 5: Subtract the time in Step 3 from the time recorded in Step 1 each day and convert into seconds-your production cycle duration for that day. Calculate the average, minimum, and maximum number of seconds for the 31-day period.
Step 6: Divide the average production cycle (in seconds) by the average, minimum and maximum number of specimens for the month to understand your current state production cycle times. Compare and contrast these to your Customer TAKT time and your Planned Production Cycle Time (80% of TAKT). Take action to eliminate waste if you are not meeting your service promise. An Excel form has been developed for your use-click the following link to download it: Production Cycle Time
My thanks to Marsha Cooper, Vice President at Alverno Clinical Laboratories, for forcing me to think through this concept and making it a useful metric to measure, take action, and monitor. Share your comments and thoughts about this blog below.
Best regards,
Sue Stegall
