What is cycle time in operations management?

• A. The time between order placement and payment receipt.
• B. The time required to complete a unit or batch through a process from start to finish.
• C. The time to move a batch between work cells.
• D. The time a product spends waiting in a queue.

Answer: (B)

Cycle time is the total time it takes for a unit to go through the production process from when it starts the first operation to when it finishes the last operation. It reflects the pace of the entire workflow and is a direct measure of how long a unit spends in the system from start to finish, including the processing steps and any internal delays between steps. This helps you gauge capacity and schedule work to match demand. It’s different from the administrative time from order to cash, the physical move time between work cells, or the time a unit spends waiting in a queue, which are separate metrics used for other purposes. For example, if a widget enters the first process, spends time in each station, and exits after the last step, that total elapsed duration is the cycle time for producing that widget.