Cycle time is the time required to complete one cycle of an operation within an overall production process. Understanding cycle times is an important part of line balancing : if cycle time for every operation in the complete process can be reduced to equal takt time, products can be made in one-piece flow.
One-piece flow refers to a process in which products proceed, one item at a time, through the various production operations without interruptions or waiting time. Ideally the process should include the order-taking and dispatch stages as well as production.
