Lead Time
What is Lead Time in steel fabrication?
Lead Time is the total time from the initiation of a process to its completion.
In supply chain or project terms, it often means the time from order placement by a customer to delivery of the finished product.
For a steel fabrication job, lead time includes all stages: engineering, material procurement, fabrication, and perhaps shipping. For example, “We have an 8-week lead time for this order” means if the client orders today, they’ll get the product in 8 weeks.
Internally, you can talk about lead times of sub-processes too (manufacturing lead time from start of fabrication to finish, etc.).
Small steel fabrication shops must manage and reduce lead times to be competitive and responsive.
This can involve strategies like stocking common materials to avoid procurement delays, improving scheduling and eliminating downtime between operations, or expediting steps when needed.
Customers care deeply about lead time – it’s a key performance indicator, especially in construction projects where delays can cascade. Thus, fabricators often negotiate lead times and then strive to meet or beat them.
Using a dedicated steel project management tool and implementing buffer management helps ensure promised lead times are realistic.
In short, lead time is a top-level measure of how long customers wait from request to fulfillment, and reducing it (while maintaining quality) is often a strategic goal.
