Pitch interval (I_p) can be thought of in two ways: as a unit of time representing the (usually) smallest common pitch shared among a range of products, services, or transactions that are being produced, conveyed, performed, or executed by a given resource(s); and as a count of the number of intervals of a common pitch during a period of time, typically a shift or day.

I_p often serves as the time interval reflected in the typical design of heijunka (leveling), or scheduling boxes or boards in which instruction or withdrawal kanban are loaded within the heijunka sequence (as accommodated by actual demand).

Figure 1 captures the I_p math. This article is specific to products that share the same pitch. A future article will address I_p for products that have different pitches. Figure 3 provides some insight into the heijunka box design and loading in the context of I_p.

Figure 1: Pitch-interval formula tree

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