Also called "Labor Linearity" or Shojinka The manning of a cell or process according to production volume.
Consider the repair line described in thecase studyof Highly Variable Demand. Under normal demand a disassembly, repair and reassembly was completed every two hours – four per shift, twenty per week – using seven people. Increases in demand requiring capacity increases up to 50% – thirty per week – are accommodated by those seven people working additional hours per day or an additional day (Saturday).
Labor Linearity is used to accommodate drastic decreases in demand by manning the process with only four people. Each person does the work in four hours that two people accomplished previously in two hours. The takt timeis simply increased from two hours to four, and straight time weekly production drops to ten. The four employees work additional hours to produce up to fifteen units per week. Production between fifteen and twenty units per week are done by the original seven employees working the process four days per week and doing other tasks one day per week.