When it comes to production environments, companies are constantly striving for efficiency in order to produce more, faster, and at a lower cost. One of the key metrics used to measure efficiency is cycle time.

What is Cycle Time?

Cycle time refers to the total time a production team spends on producing a single unit. It serves as a crucial key performance indicator (KPI) that helps companies in scheduling, ordering materials, setting production budgets, and managing inventory. However, cycle time can vary significantly between manufacturers, depending on their specific processes and product types.

Different Types of Cycle Time

To accurately measure cycle time, it is important to understand what factors are included in the calculation. Two common types of cycle time are machine cycle time and effective cycle time. Machine cycle time reflects the time it takes for machines to complete all the operations for a single piece. On the other hand, effective cycle time includes the load and unload time between operations.

Importance of Measuring Cycle Time

Cycle time provides a comprehensive view of a product's journey from raw material to finished good. It encompasses both production and non-production tasks, such as quality inspection and compliance. By measuring cycle time, decision-makers can identify areas for improvement in all aspects of production, allowing for parallel process enhancements. Understanding the critical components of cycle time enables companies to work on multiple improvement projects simultaneously. For instance, by focusing on reducing production time, inspecting for quality defects, and minimizing waiting time, companies can achieve significant reductions in cycle time. The ability to break down and analyze each component allows for more efficient and effective production.

Measuring Efficiency and Identifying Bottlenecks

By measuring cycle time, decision-makers can gain valuable insights into the efficiency of their production processes. It allows them to identify and address bottlenecks, eliminate wasteful steps, and optimize operations to reduce overall lead time. For example, let's say a company has 35 minutes of production time, 15 minutes dedicated to inspection, and 10 minutes of waiting or queue time. By measuring cycle time, the management can embark on three process improvement projects simultaneously. While focusing solely on production time may result in a marginal reduction, addressing these three areas collectively can lead to a significant 25% reduction in cycle time.

An All-Inclusive Metric

Cycle time not only focuses on core production tasks but also considers non-production tasks that are critical to the quality and compliance of finished goods. Tasks such as inspection for quality defects and compliance measures are equally important, and the time spent on their completion is vital to ensure adherence to standards.

Crafting Continuous Improvement Efforts

Measuring cycle time empowers decision-makers to drive continuous improvement efforts across all aspects of production. By having a clear understanding of the critical components that contribute to cycle time, multiple process improvements can be implemented simultaneously, not limited to production alone.

Power of Real-Time Machine Data

To truly comprehend and optimize all elements of cycle time, real-time machine data plays a pivotal role. With advancements in technology, data from production equipment can be collected, analyzed, and visualized in a cloud-based platform. This enables decision-makers to have actionable insights at their fingertips, facilitating immediate implementation of changes to reduce cycle time. By leveraging real-time machine data, companies can make timely and informed decisions, ensuring their operations are continuously optimized for maximum efficiency.

Immediate Impact and Future Preparedness

Measuring cycle time and implementing improvements in real time allows companies to make an immediate impact on their operations. Rather than waiting until an event has passed, decision-makers can proactively address bottlenecks, fine-tune processes, and reduce lead times. This not only improves current production but also prepares the company for future growth and scalability.

How to Calculate Cycle Time

The calculation of cycle time is relatively simple once the measurement's elements are determined. It is computed by dividing the total production time by the number of units produced. The formula for calculating cycle time is as follows:

CT = PT / PU
CT: Cycle time
PT: Net production time
PU: Units produced during net production time

Benefits of Reducing Cycle Time

From reducing cycle time to enhancing brand reputation, these improvements have a significant impact on both the internal and external aspects of a business.

Faster Delivery, Satisfied Customers

One of the primary effects of reducing cycle time in manufacturing is lower lead times and faster delivery. When a company is able to produce and deliver its products in a shorter time frame, it becomes more responsive to customer demand. This, in turn, leads to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customers are more likely to place new and repeat orders with a company that can meet their needs quickly and efficiently.

Enhanced Brand Reputation

By improving service levels and delivering products faster, a company can enhance its brand reputation. Customers perceive such companies as more reliable and capable of fulfilling their demands. Positive word-of-mouth spreads, attracting more potential buyers and creating a virtuous cycle of growth and success. Building a strong brand reputation is essential for long-term business success, and improving service levels is a key component in achieving this.

Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Reducing cycle time not only benefits a company's relationship with its customers but also gives it a significant competitive advantage. There are two ways in which this advantage manifests. Firstly, by reducing lead times, companies become the go-to source for customers in need of quick delivery. By positioning themselves as the preferred choice, they capture a larger market share and establish themselves as a leader in their industry. Secondly, by streamlining processes and reducing cycle time, companies can innovate and introduce new products more quickly than their competitors. This allows them to stay ahead of the curve and become trendsetters in their field. With a constant flow of new offerings entering the market, they are able to attract a broader customer base and remain at the forefront of their industry.

More Efficient Business Processes

Improving service levels by reducing cycle time is not limited to production alone. It fosters a best-practices mentality that permeates throughout all aspects of a company's operations. By focusing on efficiency and continuous improvement, companies can optimize their business processes, leading to increased productivity and cost savings.

How to Reduce Cycle Time?

Reducing cycle time is a key goal for many organizations looking to increase efficiency and improve their bottom line. By minimizing the time it takes to complete a process or produce a product, companies can save on resources, increase productivity, and ultimately deliver goods to the market faster.

Begin a Process Map

One of the first steps in reducing cycle time is to create a process map. This involves visually plotting the workflow of a part or finished good throughout the entire process, and also at individual workstations. By creating a process map, teams can identify any inefficiencies, bottlenecks, waiting time, or other problems that may be "baked in" from legacy procedures or manual data management. This bird's-eye view of the process allows teams to pinpoint areas for improvement and implement necessary changes.

Calculate Existing Cycle Times

To know where you are going, you must first know where you are. Calculating the existing cycle times is crucial in determining the baseline for improvement. Even if the calculation is based on manual data, having a rough cycle time benchmark will provide a starting point for building efficiency. It is important to note that in companies with manual data management, the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) tends to be higher than it actually is. This assumption can hinder efforts to reduce cycle times effectively.

Eliminate Waste

Once the process is mapped and existing cycle times are known, it's time to focus on eliminating waste. Waste can significantly contribute to low cycle times and impact overall efficiency. Some common types of waste that should be addressed include:

    Quality issues where defective goods aren’t caught before completion or must be reworked to meet required standards.
    Excessive manual paperwork, "travelers," or other error-prone documentation that slows down the process.
    Non-value-added work that doesn't contribute to the final product or customer satisfaction.
    Overproduction, which leads to excess inventory and longer cycle times.
    Underproduction, resulting in missed delivery deadlines and dissatisfied customers.
    Inefficient work-in-progress staging, internal material transportation, or machine layout that hampers smooth workflow.

By identifying these waste sources and implementing appropriate changes, organizations can optimize their processes and significantly reduce cycle times.

Deploy Standard Work Documentation

Having addressed the waste sources, it is crucial to keep the process standardized to prevent the reoccurrence of inefficiencies. Standard work documentation provides a set of instructions on how tasks should be performed, ensuring consistency and minimizing variations. This documentation should include details on specific operator order of tasks, motions, communication, and other standards. It is essential that all workers have access to this documentation and that it is used to train new workers. By adhering to standard work procedures, cycle times can be kept low, and unwanted variances can be avoided.

Audit Machine Capacity

For manufacturers dealing with a wide range of finished goods or parts, auditing machine capacity is essential. Complex products may require more time and effort to produce than simpler ones. By evaluating the machine capacity in absolute terms and against product complexity, organizations can determine if they have enough capacity to meet their production schedule. Scheduling must be flexible enough to anticipate scenarios where a large order of complex parts heavily weighs on the machine's capabilities. By optimizing machine capacity against the order position, organizations can maintain efficient cycle times and deliver products on time.

Drawbacks of Manual Tracking to Reduce Cycle Time

Cycle time is a critical metric in manufacturing, serving as a key indicator of efficiency and productivity. It measures the time it takes to complete a process or product from start to finish. To improve cycle time, manufacturers often rely on manual tracking methods to collect and analyze data.

Importance of Benchmarking

To effectively reduce cycle time, it is essential to establish a baseline performance through benchmarking. This allows manufacturers to identify areas for improvement and set realistic goals. Manual tracking tools, such as spreadsheets or paper-based forms, can be useful in the initial stages of benchmarking. They provide a starting point for data collection and analysis.

Overwhelming Burden of Manual Data Management

As the improvement process kicks into gear, the reliance on manual data management becomes increasingly burdensome. Collecting, analyzing, and recording data by hand is time-consuming and prone to human error. From simple number transposition to missing data and bias, these errors can have a significant impact on the accuracy of the cycle time analysis.

Frequency Problem

Another challenge posed by manual tracking is the inability to maintain the required frequency of data collection and analysis. As the volume of data increases, it becomes impractical to manually manage and process it on a regular basis. This lack of timely feedback prevents manufacturers from making real-time adjustments and slows down the overall improvement process.

Losing Valuable Insights

The accumulation of manual data management tasks also leads to a loss of valuable insights. Managers are unable to gain a comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to cycle time, hindering their ability to implement effective strategies for improvement. On the other hand, operators are burdened with excessive paperwork and forms, which can divert their focus from actual production tasks and contribute to higher cycle times.

Error-Prone Nature of Manual Tracking

Manual tracking is inherently prone to errors due to the reliance on human input. Even minor mistakes can have significant repercussions for cycle time improvement efforts. Manufacturing processes are complex, involving multiple variables, and any inaccuracies in the data can lead to incorrect conclusions and misguided decision-making.

Long-Term Inefficiency

Continuing with manual tracking methods for an extended period only exacerbates the drawbacks mentioned above. The inefficiencies and limitations of manual tracking become more pronounced over time, hindering progress and stifling innovation. To achieve sustained improvements in cycle time, manufacturers must embrace more efficient and automated data tracking systems.

Automating Data Collection to Reduce Cycle Times

By streamlining processes and minimizing downtime, manufacturers can unlock capacity, improve efficiency, and drive overall productivity. One effective solution that has emerged is the implementation of a production monitoring platform, such as the Nirmalya platform. Nirmalya platform serves as a powerful data-driven analytics engine that seamlessly connects to equipment across the factory floor. Its primary function is to collect and analyze data in real-time to monitor and report on various factors affecting cycle time. By harnessing real-time data from the source, the need for manual recording is eliminated, and tracking cycle time becomes automated.

Actionable Insights for Continuous Improvement

Nirmalya platform goes beyond collecting and monitoring data, as it also generates actionable insights to drive continuous improvement efforts. By analyzing the collected data, manufacturers can identify areas of waste and address them promptly. With assets and machine components connected at the point of production, the platform can even detect quality issues before they occur, enabling manufacturers to take proactive measures to prevent them.

Uncovering Trends and Identifying Areas for Improvement

One of the significant advantages of using Nirmalya platform is its ability to uncover trends based on actual cycle times. These trends can be instrumental in identifying areas where further changes can be made to streamline processes. From WIP staging to machine layout and transportation bottlenecks, the platform offers valuable insights that aid manufacturers in making informed decisions to optimize their operations.

Achieving a Digital "Paperless" Production Environment

Using Nirmalya platform allows manufacturers to move towards a more accurate and efficient "paperless" production environment. By implementing the improvements recommended by the platform, robust and configurable workflows can be established. This means that standard work processes can be digitalized and easily accessible to anyone who needs them, significantly improving overall productivity and quality.

Unlocking Capacity and Improving Efficiency

If you are looking to unlock capacity and improve efficiency in your manufacturing operation, the Nirmalya platform can be a game-changer. By automating data collection and harnessing real-time analytics, manufacturers can optimize cycle times, minimize downtime, and enhance overall productivity. The platform's actionable insights and ability to uncover trends ensure that continuous improvement remains a top priority.

In a production environment, measuring cycle time is vital to determine the efficiency of a given process, operator, machine, or job run. By understanding the various components and types of cycle time, companies can identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to reduce cycle time. Real-time machine data analysis further enhances the ability to make immediate and impactful changes. By consistently monitoring and enhancing cycle time, businesses can optimize production processes, increase productivity, and ultimately achieve greater profitability.

If you are interested in implementing the Nirmalya platform and experiencing the benefits it offers, don't hesitate to reach out to our team. Contact with us, and we will provide you with valuable insights into the impact a production monitoring platform can have on your operations. Let us help you reduce cycle time, unlock capacity, and improve efficiency in your manufacturing process.