Metrics & analysisCycle Time

What is Cycle time?

Cycle time is the time a process actually takes per part — from one part being finished to the next being finished. Compared with the takt time, cycle time shows whether a station can keep up with customer demand.

Cycle time is measured, not estimated: a stopwatch or machine data over a representative number of cycles, including the natural variation. The average often hides the problem — it is the variation and the longest cycles that create queues.

In balancing charts (yamazumi), each station’s cycle time is stacked against the takt line, so over- and underload become visible, and work can be redistributed.

Related concepts

Takt time

Takt time is the rhythm of customer demand: the available production time divided by customer demand in the same period. If 400 parts must be delivered in a shift with 480 available minutes, the takt is 1.2 minutes per part.

Bottleneck

The bottleneck is the process in a chain with the lowest capacity, which thereby limits the throughput of the entire system. An hour lost at the bottleneck is an hour lost for the whole factory — capacity gained everywhere else is an illusion.

Standard work

Standard work is the currently best, agreed way of performing a task — documented so precisely that deviations can be seen, and improvements have a fixed starting point. Without a standard there is no deviation; without deviation, no learning.

From concept to practice

The methods only work when they are anchored in daily routines and leadership behaviour. The operations check shows in 4 minutes where your operations stand — and what the next step is.

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