Cycle Time

Cycle time is how long one item takes to get through a single step or process, measured from when work actually starts on it to when that step is finished. Unlike the customer's total wait, it focuses on the active working time of a particular stage.

It is like timing how long the barista takes to make one coffee, separate from how long the customer stood in the queue. Cycle time matters because it shows where the real work is slow, so you can tell a genuine capacity problem from a simple queue, and target improvements where they count.