Yamazumi Chart
The most powerful diagram that tells you the story at a glance. Discover the Yamazumi Chart. 🙂
What is the Yamazumi Chart.
In this page, you will understand what is the YAMAZUMI CHART. It is a simple diagram that will tell you where it is fruitful to start with a Kaizen event and have immediate results both for you and the customer.
Moreover, I have selected for you
- Best post from the Internet
- Video
- Exercises in PDF
- Software
and a fantastic Lean Web Tool to have the
Yamazumi Chart always available!
Ready!
Go!
Let’s start with
Yamazumi Example below!

First of all,
here you have an example of Yamazumi Chart for a Product Family and his value stream.
Now,
look at the first red bar that Takt Time.
The Takt Time is the limit you cannot overcome with your processes.
In this case, you have no processes the is over the Takt Time.
- But what if the Takt Time change?
- What is the process that is the bottleneck?
- Where is better to start to improve?
This diagram helps you to answer these questions.
A Yamazumi chart (or Yamazumi board) is a stacked bar chart
that
shows the source of the cycle time in a given process.
The chart is used to graphically represent processes for optimization purposes.

Yamazumi is a Japanese word that literally means to stack up.
Process tasks are individually represented in a stacked bar chart.
These can be categorized as either:
The mean duration time of each task is recorded and displayed within the bar chart.
Each process task is stacked to represent the entire process step.
The axes of the Yamazumi chart are as follow:
-
y-axis represents cycle time.
-
x-axis represents each process step.
Often, a target cycle time (that is the TAKT TIME) will be plotted to aid line balancing activities.
Why is Yamazumi Chart useful?
The Yamazumi chart can be used for both process
- Waste Elimination
- Line Balancing activity
Sometimes it is called TAKT TIME BAR CHART, too.
Process steps can be rearranged or deleted to optimize and balance the target process.
The tool is intended to support Business Process Improvement teams,
that are involved in the Lean Production.
It is also a useful Lean training aid.
Yamazumi charts are used by Lean improvement teams throughout many process-driven organizations.
Here there is the Yamazumi Definition by LEI.
Benefits of using Yamazumi
The Yamazumi board provides a mechanism to rebalance a process when Takt changes quickly.
It allows a visual indication of which operations are:
- Overloaded (beyond takt)
- Underutilized
Moreover,
the Yamazumi chart is a great visual tool to show where are:
- Delays
- Wastage
- Blocks
If you arrived here, it means that you have found our guide interesting.
Why do not you share with friends?

Learning with practice
We created for you a very simple Yamazumi Chart Template.
With this Yamazumi Chart in Excel, you can simulate a process and understand how
this simple diagram works for you.
Here is the Kicker!
We created for you the only Yamazumi Chart on line.
Even if you have not your PC,
you can have access to this online feature to have
your chart immediately calculated.
Finally what the expert says ...
We value your privacy and would never spam you
See Now Lean Manufacturing Video
Follow us: