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Cycle time calculator
Enter one shift: its length, the breaks, the downtime and the units you made. You get the cycle time per unit, units per hour, your real pace once downtime is counted, and how many units the downtime cost you. Two more tools below handle changeover time and stopwatch time studies.
The cycle time formula
Cycle time = net production time ÷ units produced
Net production time is the shift length minus planned breaks minus unplanned downtime. Using the example above: 480 minus 30 minus 45 leaves 405 minutes, which is 24,300 seconds. Divide by 350 units and the cycle time is 69.4 seconds per unit.
Cycle time and units per hour are the same number, upside down
Time divided by units gives seconds per unit. Units divided by time gives units per hour. 69.4 seconds per unit is 51.9 units an hour, and 3,600 divided by either one gives you the other. Mixing the two up is common in published explanations, so check which way round a formula is before you trust it.
Net cycle time hides the downtime
Because downtime comes out of the time base, cycle time tells you how fast the line runs while it runs. Across the whole planned shift the same line managed one unit every 77.1 seconds. That second number is what the customer experiences, and it is the one to hold against demand.
Why a line can beat takt time on paper and still miss the order
Takt time is the pace customer demand sets: available production time divided by the units needed. Suppose the line above has one 450 minute shift of planned time a day, five days a week, and the customer needs 1,800 units a week. Takt time is 450 x 5 x 60 / 1,800 = 75 seconds.
| Measure | Seconds per unit | Against 75 second takt |
|---|---|---|
| Net cycle time | 69.4 | Looks comfortable, 5.6 seconds to spare |
| Pace including downtime | 77.1 | 2.1 seconds too slow, so the week comes up short |
Compare takt against your pace including downtime. Net cycle time says the line keeps up. The downtime that was taken out of it says otherwise. Either cut the downtime or plan capacity on the slower figure.
Cycle time, takt time, lead time and throughput
Four measures that get used interchangeably. They answer different questions.
| Measure | What it answers | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle time | How fast do we make one unit? | Net production time / units made |
| Units per hour (throughput) | How many do we make in an hour? | Units made / net production time, the same number upside down |
| Takt time | How fast do we need to make one? | Available production time / customer demand |
| Production lead time | How long does one unit take to get all the way through? | Time from raw material in to finished product out, waiting included |
| Supplier lead time | How long do we wait for purchased material? | Order placed to goods usable. Drives the reorder point, not the line |
Where cycle time measurements go wrong
Minutes against seconds
Shift figures are usually in minutes and cycle times in seconds. Forget the times 60 and the cycle time comes out 60 times too small, or too big the other way round.
Promising output on net cycle time
Net cycle time leaves downtime out. Quote capacity on the pace including downtime, or the week will come up short.
Averaging the daily cycle times
A short shift should not count as much as a full one. Divide total net time by total units across all shifts instead.
Timing the good cycles only
A time study that skips the cycle where the operator waited for parts hides the problem. Time consecutive cycles and flag the slow ones, do not drop them.
Ignoring changeover
A 40 second machine cycle with a 45 minute changeover every 300 pieces is really a 64 second process once load and unload are counted too.
Chasing a faster machine
If downtime is a tenth of the shift, recovering it usually beats shaving seconds off the cycle. Look at both numbers before spending money.
Putting the number to work
A cycle time earns its keep when you plan with it. Units per shift at your real pace tells you how long a job will take, which is what a due date on a work order should be built from. That part lives in production software, and it is worth being precise about what each side does.
What Fabrica ERP does
- Every work order carries a start date and a due date, so the job length you work out here has somewhere to go.
- The dashboard counts overdue jobs, so a due date that was too optimistic shows up rather than hiding.
- The shop floor terminal shows operators the released and in-production jobs. They start an operation and log completion, and the linked sales order moves to Ready to Ship on its own.
What it does not do
- It does not time operations or record downtime, so it does not measure cycle time for you. That is what this page and the workbook are for.
- It does not calculate takt time or OEE.
- Logging completion cannot be undone from the shop floor terminal. A manager has to reset the work order.
See the shop floor side for yourself
Fabrica ERP is Fuzen’s manufacturing template: 13 modules covering sales, production, inventory and purchasing, with a QuickBooks Online sync. It is a 14 day free trial loaded with sample data, then 999 dollars one time with hosting billed on usage.
Start the 14 day free trialTalk to us about a custom buildCommon questions
How do you calculate cycle time?
Cycle time = net production time / units produced. Net production time is the shift length minus planned breaks minus unplanned downtime. A 480 minute shift with 30 minutes of breaks and 45 minutes of downtime leaves 405 minutes, and 350 units in that time is 405 x 60 / 350 = 69.4 seconds per unit. Keep minutes and seconds apart: mixing them is the most common reason a cycle time comes out 60 times too big.
Does cycle time include downtime?
Not in the usual definition. Net production time takes unplanned downtime out, so cycle time measures how fast the line runs while it is running. That makes it a good number for spotting a slow operation and a bad number for promising output, because downtime still happens. The calculator shows both: cycle time on net time, and the pace across the whole planned shift with downtime counted against you.
What is a good cycle time?
There is no universal good number, because it depends entirely on the product and the process. A cycle time is good when two things are true: your pace including downtime is at or below takt time, the pace customer demand sets, and the timed cycles are consistent. A station that averages 60 seconds but swings between 45 and 110 is harder to plan around than one that runs 66 every time.
What is the formula for total cycle time?
Two different things go by that name. If you mean the work in one product, add the cycle time of every operation it passes through. If you mean the time from raw material to finished product, that is production lead time, sometimes called throughput time or total product cycle time, and it also includes the time the part spends waiting, moving and being inspected between operations. That waiting is usually most of it.
How do I calculate cycle time in Excel?
With shift length in minutes in B2, planned breaks in C2, unplanned downtime in D2 and units produced in E2, use =(B2-C2-D2)*60/E2 for seconds per unit, and =E2/(B2-C2-D2)*60 for units per hour. The workbook further down has both written in as live formulas for 20 shifts, plus a time study tab and a changeover tab.
What is the difference between cycle time and takt time?
Cycle time is how fast you actually make one unit. Takt time is how fast you need to make one to keep up with demand: available production time divided by the units the customer wants. If your pace is slower than takt, you fall behind. Compare takt against your pace including downtime, not against net cycle time, or the line will look faster than it is.
What is the difference between cycle time and lead time?
Cycle time is the time to complete one unit at an operation. Production lead time is the time one unit takes to get all the way through the process, including every wait between operations, so it is almost always far longer than the sum of the cycle times. Supplier lead time, the wait for purchased material, is a third thing again and the one that drives your reorder point.
What is ideal cycle time?
The fastest the process can make one unit under good conditions, usually the machine's rated speed or the best sustained time you have observed. It is used in OEE, where performance is ideal cycle time divided by actual cycle time. An ideal of 60 seconds against an actual 69.4 is a performance of about 86 percent.
Is this the same cycle time software teams measure?
No. In software and project work, cycle time usually means the elapsed time from starting one work item to finishing it. This page is the manufacturing measure: production time per unit made.