Production Lead Time

Production lead time is the time required for a product to move through a process or value stream from start to finish. At the plant level it is often called door-to-door time. The same concept can describe a design progressing from start to finish or a product moving from raw materials to the customer.

Source checked1/1 values · 2026-10-25Metric

Specification

2 sources

Kind	metric

Study notes

Production lead time is also called throughput time and total product cycle time.
At plant level the term is often door-to-door time.
The concept applies to plant production, product development, and raw materials through to the customer.
The document states value-creating time is usually less than cycle time, which is less than production lead time.