Läpimenoajalla

Läpimenoajalla is a Finnish term used in operations research and production management to refer to throughput time—the total time a unit spends in a process from its entry to its exit. It describes how long a product or service item remains in the system as it moves through processing, waiting, and transfer activities.

The concept is used in lean manufacturing, service design, logistics, and capacity planning to evaluate process performance and system effectiveness. In Finnish texts, it often appears in discussions about timing, workflow management, and performance dashboards, where throughput time is analyzed alongside other metrics such as capacity and reliability.

Calculation and interpretation typically involve summing all durations a unit spends in the process. This includes processing time, any waiting time, transfer times between workstations, and inspection or rework times. Measurements can be reported for a single item, or averaged over a batch or a specified time window, often using timestamps from production control or ERP systems.

Relation to other concepts: throughput time is related to, but distinct from, cycle time and lead time. While cycle time focuses on the time a unit spends at a particular workstation, and lead time emphasizes the total time from order to completion, läpipnemoajalla centers on the time spent within the entire process for throughput analysis. The term is commonly used alongside läpimenoaika, with the latter describing the time magnitude and the former signaling its measurement or application in analyses.

Example: If a product enters a process at 08:00 and exits at 08:25, its throughput time is 25 minutes. Across multiple units, the mean throughput time reflects the average duration units spend in the system, highlighting bottlenecks and capacity constraints.