Business, finance and operations

Cycle time

  • Business, finance and operations

Definition

The time it takes to complete one run of a process from start to finish.

Example

Packing an order that starts at 9:00 and finishes at 9:12 has a cycle time of 12 minutes.

For your role

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Why it matters

Shorter cycle times mean faster delivery and happier customers.

Where it is used

Operations dashboards and process improvement projects.

How to calculate it

Process end time − process start time

Worked example

Packing an order that starts at 9:00 and finishes at 9:12 has a cycle time of 12 minutes.