Operations / Lean
Cycle Time vs Lead Time
Lead time is how long the customer waits from order to delivery; cycle time is a contested word meaning either the pace of the line or the time one unit spends in it.
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
Lead time is comparatively agreed, order-to-delivery elapsed (customer lead time), or order-release-to-completion (manufacturing lead time).
In the Metric Library
- The full fork, both definitions worked all the way through
- The trap that makes the number lie, on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: Lean/TPS convention · Kanban flow metrics · Little's Law · APICS/ASCM (manufacturing lead time)