Lead time
Total time between the customer's order and delivery — includes waiting, production and transport, and should not be confused with a sales lead.
Also known as: lead time · what is lead time · delivery time · delivery deadline · logistics lead time
Try CRPRO free for 7 daysLead time is the total time between the customer's order and delivery. Despite the similar name, it has no relation to a lead in the sales sense: here "lead" means "ahead of time," not "contact."
What is included
Lead time is the sum of everything, including what nobody tracks:
- Order processing time — from confirmation until it enters the queue.
- Wait time — the order sitting idle, waiting for something. Usually the biggest share and the least measured.
- Production or picking time.
- Transport time.
Lead time and cycle time are not the same thing
- Lead time counts from the customer's point of view: from order to delivery.
- Cycle time counts from the operation's point of view: only the time actually being worked.
The gap between the two is exactly the wait time — and that is where almost all the deadline reduction is possible, without needing to produce faster.
The most expensive mistake: promising the average
If the average lead time is 5 days, half of orders arrive after that. Promising 5 days means disappointing half your customers. The deadline you communicate should come from the 90th percentile, not the average — the same reasoning that applies to support SLAs.
In WhatsApp support, a poorly communicated lead time is what generates the next wave of messages: a badly set deadline turns into "hey, did my order ship?" three days later.
Frequently asked questions
What is lead time?
It is the total time between the customer's order and delivery, including wait, processing, production and transport.
Is lead time related to a sales lead?
Not at all. They are homonyms: in lead time, "lead" means ahead of time; in sales, it means an interested contact.
What is the difference between lead time and cycle time?
Lead time is the time seen by the customer, from order to delivery. Cycle time is only the period the operation was actually working on the order. The gap between the two is wait time.
How do I reduce lead time?
By attacking the wait before production. In most operations the order spends more time sitting in a queue than being processed — and cutting the queue is usually cheaper than adding capacity.
Related pages
Related glossary terms
Lead
A contact who has shown some interest in what the business sells and left a way to be reached — not yet qualified by profile or buying moment.
Support SLA
An agreed deadline for replying to or resolving a support request, used as an operational target and measured against each conversation's real time.
Humanized support
A support approach that treats the customer by their own context — history, name and real problem — instead of applying an identical script to everyone.
Sales cycle
The time between the first contact and the outcome of a deal — won or lost — used to size cash flow and calibrate how much a follow-up should insist.