# Production Lead Time

Operations · `Production Lead Time` · verification: source checked

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.

## Specification

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| 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.

## Sources

1. [Cycle Time - How to Calculate It | Lean Enterprise Institute](https://www.lean.org/lexicon-terms/cycle-time/) (accessed 2026-10-25)
2. [lec3_capacity.pdf | Introduction to Operations Management | Sloan School of Management | MIT OpenCourseWare](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/15-760b-introduction-to-operations-management-spring-2004/resources/lec3_capacity/) (accessed 2026-10-25)

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