{"id":"lead-time","model_id":"Production Lead Time","name":"Production Lead Time","summary":"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.","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."],"safety_notes":[],"sources":[{"url":"https://www.lean.org/lexicon-terms/cycle-time/","title":"Cycle Time - How to Calculate It | Lean Enterprise Institute","accessed":"2026-10-25"},{"url":"https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-760b-introduction-to-operations-management-spring-2004/resources/lec3_capacity/","title":"lec3_capacity.pdf | Introduction to Operations Management | Sloan School of Management | MIT OpenCourseWare","accessed":"2026-10-25"}],"verification":{"status":"source_checked","checked_at":"2026-10-25","values":1,"method":"llm_source_check"},"updated_at":"2026-10-25","type":"operational","spec":{"kind":"metric","related":[]},"url":"https://machineschema.com/operational/lead-time","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"}