Businesses often use the term “lead time” to refer to how long it takes them to get a product from the manufacturer to their customers. This is actually only half of the journey a product takes—there’s another, equally important half that happens afterward, in which the customer uses the product and ultimately decides whether or not they like it. By using only half of the picture, businesses may be setting themselves up for failure. In order to truly understand what lead time means, we need to look at both halves of the process.

The first phase is the production cycle of a product: how long does it take for a business to get their product from concept through development, getting it manufactured and then out into their warehouse and ultimately delivered to customers? This can vary widely from company to company and industry to industry. Sometimes manufacturers will have stock already on hand that can be quickly repurposed for a new purpose; other times a company will have to work closely with their suppliers and manufacturers in order for this step to go smoothly. The best way for businesses to figure out what their lead time is during this phase is by creating a timeline of each step in their process and measuring how long those steps take in real life (as opposed to how quickly they think they could go if