Cycle Time

Cycle time is the end-to-end delay in a business process. The business processes are the supply chain process and the order-to-delivery process.

Categories of Cycle Time:

There are two types of categories in cycle times: supply chain cycle time and order-to-delivery cycle time. The order-to-delivery cycle time is the time elapsed between the placement of an order by a customer and the delivery of products to the customer. If the items are in stock, then it is equally distributes the cycle time and order management time. If the items are made to order, then it will be the sum of supplier cycle time, manufacturing cycle time, distribution cycle time, and order management time.

The supply chain process cycle time is the time spent by the supply chain to convert the raw materials into final products plus the time needed to reach the products to the customer. It includes supplier cycle time, manufacturing cycle time, distribution cycle time, and the logistics cycle time for transport of raw materials from suppliers to plants and for transport of finished products in and out of intermediate storage points. Cycle time in supply chains is dominated by the interface delays due to the interfaces between suppliers and manufacturing plants; between plants and warehouses; between distributors and retailers; etc. Cycle time compression is an extremely important topic because of time based competition and the correlation of lead time with inventory levels, costs, and customer service levels.

Calculation of Cycle Time:

Cycle time includes operation time and idle time before the new cycle starts. For example, the fabrication consists of six different tasks as follows:

To calculate the cycle time, the number and the nature of workstations need to be defined. If all tasks will be done on a single machine, then the total time required to produce is the sum of all cycle time, and the cycle time is determined to be 6.0 minutes. The processing of tasks in this case is said to be sequential. If each task will be performed on a different machine, then the cycle time will be the longest time, which is 1.5 minutes. In this case, the different tasks are performed in parallel. After computing the cycle time, it is possible to determine the daily production output.

Questions:

• What is meant by Cycle Time?
• How to compute cycle time for a business process?