What is Lead Time and How to Reduce it Permanently?

In this article, you will learn what is lead time and how to improve your operations making a time study of your business operations according to lean manufacturing, lean six sigma, and process excellence.

Lead Time Meaning

The time between the initiation and completion of a production process. Total time required to manufacture an item, including order preparation time, queue time, setup time, run time, move time, inspection time, and put-away time.

Lead time is defined as the amount of time required from the beginning of the process until its finished.

Companies are looking always to reduce their lead time to improve productivity, increasing output, and revenue.

Longer lead times increase the company costs affecting adversely the manufacturing processes and expected profits.

In fact, the lead time

• determines how long it takes to complete a process from beginning to end.
• is the time it takes to create a product and deliver it to a consumer.
• is affected directly by the Lean manufacturing wastes as a lack of raw materials, transportation interruption, labor shortages, etc.
• can be reduced with the implementation of automated stock replenishment and just-in-time (JIT) strategies.

For make-to-order products, it is the time taken from the release of an order to production and shipment.

For make-to-stock products, it is the time taken from the release of an order to production and receipt into finished goods inventory.

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REFERENCES: What is lead time.

httpss://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_Six_Sigma

httpss://www.greycampus.com/blog/quality-management/a-brief-introduction-to-lean-and-six-sigma-and-lean-six-sigma