The time it takes a company to respond to a customer order is referred to as responsiveness.
Cycle time and velocity are two operational measures of responsiveness. Cycle
time (manufacturing) is the length of time it takes to produce a unit of output from
the time materials are received (starting point of the cycle) until the good is delivered
to finished goods inventory (finishing point of the cycle).7 Thus, cycle time is the time
required to produce a product (time/units produced). Velocity is the number of units
of output that can be produced in a given period of time (units produced/time). Although
cycle time has been defined for the operations process, it is defined in a similar
way for innovation and postsales service processes. For example, how long does it
take to create a new product and introduce it to the market? Or, how long does it take
to resolve a customer complaint (from start to finish)?