The time required to produce a part or complete a process, determined from real measurements. 

Cycle time - related terms involving time:

Processing time 

The time actually spent working on a product (design or production) and the time in which an order is actually processed. Processing time is usually only a small part of production lead time. 

Effective machine cycle time 

Machine cycle time plus loading and unloading time, plus the result of changeover time divided by the number of items between changeovers. For example, if a machine has a cycle time of 20 seconds, plus a combined load and unload time of 30 seconds, and a changeover time of 30 seconds divided by a minimum batch size of 30, the effective machine cycle time is 20+30+(30/30) or 1 = 51 seconds. 

Machine cycle time 

The time it takes a machine to complete all its operations for one item. 

Non-value-added time 

The time spent on activities that from the customer's perspective have a cost but do not add value. Examples of such activities are warehousing, inspection and repair work. 

Operator cycle time 

The time it takes an operator at a station to complete all his tasks before repeating them again, measured during direct observation. 

Order lead time 

Production lead time plus the time further along in the process to get the product to the customer, including delays
due to processing and taking orders into production, and delays due to customer orders exceeding production capacity. In other words, the time a customer must wait until he has the product in his hands.

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Order-to-cash time

The time that elapses between receipt of an order and when the producer receives payment from the customer. This may be shorter or longer than the order lead time, depending on whether a producer produces to order or delivers from stock, what the payment terms are, etcetera. 

Production lead time (also called throughput time )
The time it takes a product to go through an entire process or value stream from start to finish. At the factory level, this is often referred to as throughput time. This concept can also apply to the amount of time it takes to develop a product from start to finish, or the amount of time it takes for a product to get from raw material all the way to the customer. 

Value time 

The time that those work elements take that actually transform the product the customer is willing to pay for. Usually the value-creating time is shorter than the cycle time, which in turn is shorter than the production lead time.