Customer lead time is the time form customer order placement to receipt of goods. It is the sum of product development/design lead time, order processing lead time, manufacturing lead time, and shipping distribution time.
The goal should always be to reduce customer lead time first, since this can affect sales directly. In turn, reducing customer lead time may require shortening the manufacturing lead time, but it also often involves reducing administrative lead time.
Manufacturing synthesis requires significant reduction of customer lead-times. This depends on the historical approach to lead time and the amount of product customization.
Short customer lead times make it possible to plan and control priorities; thus, reducing customer lead times will create lower inventories quicken customer response, improve employee satisfaction, improve quality and reduce manufacturing costs.
Customer lead time
