Managing Customer Lead Time
Chao, Raul O., Gol...
Managing Customer Lead Time
Chao, Raul O.; Goldberg, Rebecca
OM-1660 | Published September 3, 2025 | 4 pages. Technical Note
Collection: Darden School of Business
Product Details
This technical note focuses on managing customer lead time, including presenting a basic definition of throughput time and then working in detail through two examples of how to calculate throughput time. This note forms one module in our collection of introductory operations management topics, and all are appropriate for an advanced undergraduate- or graduate-level introductory course on operations management. The complete list of the materials in this collection is available in the teaching materials included with this technical note.
1. Discuss the relationships between throughput rate, throughput time, cycle time, lead time, and inventory. 2. Present several examples of calculating throughput rate using Little's Law. 3. Explore the differences in perspective between cycle time (process perspective) and throughput time (customer perspective).