Cycle time is the time taken for one item to go through one cycle of one step of a repeated process activity. It is the time between items falling off the end of the production line. Cycle time has units of minutes per widget, for instance, and is different from lead time. Lead time is the time taken for a product or service to move through a series of operations, i.e. how much time it takes the product or service to go from start to end of a series of process steps down the production line. E.g. Door to door or order to invoice time.
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