Build a Standardized Work Combination Table
Watch one operator work a machine cell — and the chart that captures it draw itself, line by line, on the same clock.
One chart, three kinds of time
Every job is really three clocks running at once: the operator’s hand work, the machine running on its own, and the walking in between. A Standardized Work Combination Table is the one document that puts all three on a single timeline — elements down the side, seconds across the top.
Hand time — what the operator actually does
The dark bars are manual time: loading a part, clamping, gauging. It’s the work that needs a person, drawn left-to-right in the second the operator starts it.
Machine time runs while the operator leaves
The red bars are auto time — the machine cutting on its own. The key move: it starts when the operator finishes loading and keeps running after they’ve walked away. That parallel red bar is the whole reason a SWCT exists.
Walking is work too
The green squiggles are walking — the operator stepping to the next machine. Cheap to ignore, easy to accumulate. On a SWCT it’s a first-class line, dropping diagonally from one element to the next.
And does it all fit under takt?
The red line on the right is takt. The operator’s hand + walk has to fit under it. Anything left over is wait (amber) — idle time before the next cycle. Over the line, and the operator can’t keep pace. That fit-check is what the chart is for.
Watch the whole cycle build
One operator, four machines. As they load each machine, walk to the next, and the machines run on their own, the SWCT fills in lockstep. Let it run — or switch to Manual and step through moment by moment.
The chart is a fit-check against takt
The operator’s work is fixed at 43s of hand + walk. Move the takt line and the whole story changes: slack to spare, a tight fit, or a cycle that no longer fits at all.
That’s a SWCT.
Hand, machine, and walk on one timeline against takt — the chart that shows whether a cycle fits, and where the operator is free while the machines run.
Build your own SWCT →Frequently asked
- What is a standardized work combination table?
- A standardized work combination table (SWCT) is a standard-work document that plots one operator’s cycle on a single timeline: manual (hand) time, machine (auto) time, and walking, for each work element, against takt time. It reveals whether the operator’s work fits under takt and where they are free while a machine runs on its own.
- What are the three types of time on a SWCT?
- Manual time (the operator’s hand work — loading, clamping, gauging), machine or auto time (the machine running on its own after it’s loaded), and walking time (moving between machines). The SWCT is the one chart that shows all three combined on the same clock, which is where the “combination” in the name comes from.
- What’s the difference between a SWCT and a Yamazumi chart?
- A Yamazumi stacks each station’s work into a single bar to compare total workload across stations against takt — it’s about balancing the line. A SWCT lays one operator’s cycle out along a time axis to show how manual, machine, and walk time interleave, especially where machine auto-time runs in parallel with the operator. Yamazumi is for balancing; SWCT is for combining human and machine work within one cycle.
- How do you read a standardized work combination table?
- Read left to right in time. The operator’s continuous path is the hand bars plus the walk lines stepping down through the elements; that total is the operator’s cycle time, which must sit under the takt line on the right. The red machine bars branch off each load and run in parallel — where a red bar extends past the operator, the operator is free. Any gap between the end of the cycle and takt is wait (idle) time.
- When do you use a SWCT?
- Whenever one operator tends machines or runs a multi-step cycle with meaningful machine or auto time — a machining cell, an injection-molding line, any load-and-walk process. It’s the standard-work sheet that proves the cycle fits under takt and exposes machine interference (the operator waiting on a machine) and idle time you can put to work.
Related
Founder of Kaizumi, an AI-powered Lean training platform. More about Matthew →
Updated July 1, 2026 · Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by Matthew Savas for accuracy.