Manufacturing Cycle Time

The time of actual production from the moment a customer order arrives on the plant floor to the completion of all product manufacturing, assembly, and testing.

Businesses use throughput time to measure how long it takes for a company to manufacture a product and get it on its way to the customer. Businesses should delicately balance efficiency and quickness in manufacturing a product and product quality. While an organization will save money if they can minimize their cycle time, the extent of this minimization should be carefully aligned with the strategy of the business and the needs of its customers.There are four components that go into calculating total manufacturing cycle time. They are: process time, inspection time, move time, and queue time. Those four variables have the following relationship that are calculated in the throughput time formula:Manufacturing cycle time = Process time + Inspection time + Move time + Queue time