Lead time

Lead time is the period or latency between the start and completion of a process, project, task, etc. It’s an essential metric in different fields as it helps monitor performance, identify delays and bottlenecks, and make estimations for future operations.

In hospitality, lead time (also called booking window) is the time between making a reservation and actually arriving at the property.

In supply chains, lead time is the time required to create the product and deliver it to the customer.

In order management or inventory management, lead time is how much time it takes to deliver goods after the order is received.

In project management, lead time is the amount of time needed to complete a project.