Key Points

• Cycle time is how long it takes to produce an item.
• Calculating cycle time is simple, you can do it with any basic calculator.
• Cycle time can lead to better timeliness as a whole.
• Don’t rely on automation to accurately measure cycle time.

The customer just called again, wondering if the item they ordered will be on time. Will it? Do your company’s processes make it possible to be on time per the customer’s needs? To know that requires understanding how long it takes to produce the product, and that requires knowing your cycle times. 

An Overview: What Is Cycle Time?

Cycle time is the actual time spent working on producing an item or providing a service, measured from the start of the first task to the end of the last task. It includes both value-added time as well as non-value-added time. The key word in the definition is actual, as many companies will use this measurement to describe the expected time spent working on producing the item, and these two times are often not the same. To make things regarding a simple concept even more confusing, people often mistake other time concepts, such as lead time or takt time, for this metric. 

How to Calculate It

The mathematical formula is not difficult to understand. Subtract the time the first task was started from the time at the end of the last task.

Cycle Time for single piece flow item = Finish Time – Start Time

For example, if the first step of building a toaster starts at 8:30 a.m., and the completed toaster is packaged and ready to ship at 11:30 a.m., the result for producing the toaster is three hours. 

It can also be used for specific portions of the total process, having one time for assembly, a separate time for test, and a final one for packaging. 

If dealing with batches of items, instead of one piece flow, simply take the total parts produced and divide that quantity by the production run time to determine the cycle time per part.

Cycle Time = (Finish Time – Start Time) / Units Produced

Say you’re working on understanding the cycle time for painting the toasters from the earlier example. The toasters are painted by an automatic robot arm that paints four toasters at a time in a wave movement. Afterward, the toasters are placed in a heating chamber to quickly dry the paint. 

From the beginning of the painting to the completion of the paint drying in the chamber takes 40 minutes, but the cycle time is not 40 minutes since multiple products were worked simultaneously. 

Divide the total parts produced, four, into the production run time, 40, to arrive at an actual time of 10 minutes per part.

RELATED: LEAD TIME VS. CYCLE TIME

Benefits of Attending to Cycle Time

The formulas are straightforward. The real value is knowing what to do with your cycle time information. 

Improve Timeliness

The primary benefit of understanding this metric of your product or service is to determine if you can provide them promptly that meet your customer’s needs. Takt time and cycle time are often discussed together — and often confused with one another. Takt time is the time that a single product must be produced to meet your customer goals on time. Therefore, for your company to provide on-time delivery, your system must be set up so that your cycle time is less than your takt time.

Set Up Your System in an Ideal Way

Knowing your cycle times allows for the proper setup of your processes. In a manufacturing setting, it allows for the proper setup of the production floor. It is important to understand how many machines, tools, and personnel are needed. If you find out that your cycle time is currently larger than your takt time, you can make modifications to the line. Adding the right personnel, machinery, and additional tools can decrease the cycle time, eventually getting it under your takt time.

Identify Possible System Improvements

It is also used to help identify if there are improvements that can be made to the system. Even if cycle time is less than takt time, changes in the environment may increase the cycle time. Regularly monitoring your cycle times will allow you to identify unexpected cycle time increases due to previously unpredictable changes. Perhaps a shortage of material causes delays, or a machine has unexpected downtime, causing an increase in cycle time. It is key to monitor cycle times to verify that customer demand will be met, as well as to identify possible cost-saving initiatives. In many cases, a process that takes less time may be a less expensive process to manage.

Best Practices

Remember Not to Confuse It With Takt Time

Many professionals make this mistake. Companies have been known to state that their processes have a takt time value; they do not. Takt time is a function of customer demand and available time, and for many products, takt time is in constant flux as customer demand changes. A system does not impact takt time; it impacts cycle time.

Be Wary of Automated Data Collection Systems

Garbage in, garbage out. While some systems are quite accurate, many systems cannot be trusted due to poor collection processes. Go out to where the work is accomplished, and perform a time study to gather reliable actual data. Not only will the times reflect reality, but you are likely to find other issues with your process that need adjustment.

Do Not Think of It As a Constant

Too many professionals get stuck on how long the process should take without realizing that while processes are set up to meet a goal, factors such as supply chain issues, machinery downtime, personnel shortages, etc., will always keep cycle time a variable.

RELATED: TAKT TIME VS. CYCLE TIME

Real-World Uses

So, we’ve talked a fair bit about how this concept works, but where is it applicable? As with many concepts, it has its origins in manufacturing. Companies with large production lines have to make the best of their time, as inefficient processes lead to waste. As such, paying attention to this concept and refining processes leads to higher overall productivity.

However, this concept is useful for just about every industry you can imagine. It allows organizations to see key performance metrics and hone in on what truly matters at the moment. Think of it like working in a call center. You have quotas your workers need to hit, so taking too long on a call can lead to those quotas not being met.

As such, finding out how to refine the processes so customers and employees are satisfied makes sense. However, you’d have to account for this concept when personnel call out, networks go down, and so forth.

Other Tools for Time Management and Analysis

We’ve spent a fair amount of time discussing this concept. However, one thing to keep in mind is that it is just one concept and metric used in the Six Sigma methodology. If you’re looking to make the most of your statistical analysis when creating a control chart, learning how UCLs are utilized might help you hone in on some aspects of production that are out of spec.

Further, you might want to learn which risks to reduce with a data-driven approach. As such, I’d heavily recommend learning about RPN, which is covered in detail in our guide. This is a concept that assigns weights to potential risks, allowing you to address the most severe as needed.

Cycle Time Is Key to Reaching On-time Delivery Goals

Knowing your cycle time allows you to estimate your product delivery time. In turn, checking it against takt time to confirm customer demand can be satisfied in an acceptable amount of time. It is used when setting up the process for on-time delivery. It is also a useful metric when chasing down quality issues and measuring continuous improvement projects. Just remember not to get it confused with all the other different types of time-based metrics.

Remember that business always comes down to keeping your customers happy. Using this measurement to help guarantee on-time delivery is an important key to achieving that goal.