Design for Cycle Time

from the Perspective of Competitive Advantage

by
Edwin B. Dean

From a cost perspective there is a well known saying that time is money. It is, but more. Time is the competitive edge in the marketplace as well. I am almost convinced that I need to add it as the third basic dimension of competitiveness, cost and value being the first two. There is a strong tie to technology forecasting which needs to be investigated as well.

Northey and Southway (1993) provides an excellent introduction to the reduction of cycle time through cycle time management. They describe how both cost reduction and quality improvements, hence competitive improvement, result directly from the use of cycle time as the primary organizational metric. The basic hypothesis is that "as many as 90% of the existing activities [of a business] are nonessential and can be eliminated." Elimination of these activities reduces cost. To eliminate these activities requires a systemic view of the processes of the organization which leads to improved product and process quality with associated reduced internal waste. Cycle time is addressed from the perspectives of management, traditional operating practices, business flow, productivity, the employees, profits, implementation, and future strategies.

Cycle time is one of many metrics tracked by total quality control which require continuing improvement.

Concurrent engineering, quality function deployment, and integrated product deployment are valuable tools for cycle time reduction. If dynamic parametric process models are available, then Taguchi methods, response surface methodology, and multidisciplinary optimization appear to be feasible tools for the analytic optimization of cycle time.

Design for Cycle Time Bibliography

References

Northey, P. and N. Southway (1993). Cycle Time Management: The Fast Track to Time-Based Productivity Improvement, Productivity Press, Portland OR.

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