Performance Evaluation of a Production Firm Using System Cycle Time Approach

Cycle time has become one of the most critical indicators in competitive manufacturing environments,  because it helps management focus on the two key factors in today’s marketplace – fully satisfying customer needs and conducting operations as cost efficiently as possible. In this era of build-to specifications, measuring cycle time and reducing non value-adding costs have become important managerial focal points. This study used the cycle time as a performance measure for a selected firm. The manufacturing process was described using a flowchart and a baseline for the critical activities which affect the cycle time for a batch production was established. After that, the activities were evaluated against the target to show current status. Factors which affect the times of these activities were also considered. The results show that on the average 30% of the manufacturing process did not meet with the time set for them and that each step in the process has a 45% chance of meeting its target time. This will reduce the average cycle time for a shift from 521 to 435 minutes, which is a 16.51% reduction. This work investigated the performance of manufacturing firm using cycle time approach. Keywords: Performance, cycle time, batch