Cycle time (also known as ‘process cycle time’) is the time from the start to the end of the process STEP.
Use: Cycle time is generally value-added time, but not necessarily. There can be some waste within cycle time which needs to be eliminated, or at least reduced. What the Lean practitioner will do is add up all of the cycle times found on the value stream map and that sum is compared with the sum of the overall lead time. The ratio between the two tells you how efficient you are and most processes are less than 10% efficient. Many processes are even less than 1% efficient. That is not said backwards. Less than 10% of the time most processes are actually adding value.
