The 53-second rule...

As 2022 is embarking upon us shortly and as a big percentage of us is working on the New Year's resolutions, I wish for you and I wish the very best Holiday Season for you!

During my 20-years at Toyota and its subsidiaries, we always watched three times very carefully: Cycle Time (CT), Takt Time (TT), and Lead Time (LT).

Cycle Time (CT) is the "actual" time that a task, an item, a segment of an operation, or a process takes to be completed. The supplier can measure and modify the Cycle Time in their own workplace.

Takt Time (TT) is the duration or the rate that the customer expects the product or the service to be completed within. Customers determine what the Takt should be by their requirements.

Lead Time (LT) is the mathematical summation of all Cycle Times from the time that the part/service is started until the customer can be in its receipt.

During my tenure there, our Takt Time was always around 53-seconds meaning that our customers expected us to complete a car and send to the parking lot every 53-seconds on each day and shift that we worked, for the 20 years that I was there, day-in & day-out!

Therefore, every 53-seconds (or every approximately a minute, to round it up) would cost us around $70,000 if wasted, meaning the Cost of meetings, training sessions, equipment downtime, etc. could be easily calculated based on this $70,000/minute guideline!

I want us to consider this 53-second rule in everything we will do in 2022! Let's be mindful of the value of every second of our life or at the very least every 53-second of our life in 2022! Let's think of our life as 53-second chunks of time in the New Year! Let's observe the 53" rule in our businesses! :)

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all!

Hormoz Mogarei, Get Kaizened, Inc.