The term "lead time" originates from industrial production and describes the period between the receipt of an order and the delivery of the goods to the customer. This period includes all the necessary steps, from planning and production to delivery and any post-processing.

Originally rooted in the production industry, the term has also gained a foothold in other areas over time, particularly in lean management. In the process, the meaning of "lead time" has evolved and become central to the understanding of process flows in companies.

The term "lead time" describes the total time required for an order or task to pass through the entire process chain of a company - in lean management, this process chain is called the "value stream". The value stream includes all activities that are necessary to fulfill a customer order - from the initial inquiry to the final invoice. The value stream can be made up of a variety of activities, such as demand analysis, production planning, actual production and logistics. The more efficiently these steps are interlinked, the shorter the lead time.

In lean management, the reduction of waste ("muda" in Japanese) is a central goal. Waste manifests itself, for example, in superfluous stock, unnecessary waiting times, cumbersome processes or duplication of work. All of these factors lead to the lead time of a process being extended. A long lead time therefore indicates inefficiencies and signals that resources are not being used optimally. For example, orders may have to wait for raw materials due to inefficient planning or long set-up times on machines may extend production time.

A short lead time, on the other hand, is a sign of a low-waste process. Processes in which the lead time has been minimized are designed to fulfil customer orders more quickly. This allows companies to react more flexibly to customer requirements and market changes, as lead times are shorter. Another advantage is that less capital is tied up: Materials, intermediate products and finished goods are channeled through the production process more quickly and therefore tie up less capital. This means that the company's money flows back into the production process more quickly and is available for further investment.

A short lead time is therefore not only an indicator of efficient processes, but also makes a significant contribution to customer satisfaction. When customers receive their orders faster and services are completed on time, satisfaction increases. At the same time, the company benefits from faster order processing and the ability to accept and implement new orders more quickly. A short lead time is therefore a decisive competitive factor in an increasingly dynamic business world.

Leadtime is an ERP system that is specially tailored to the needs of software service providers and other digital service companies. The name "Leadtime" emphasizes the importance of the concept of lead time for the entire system. While many ERP systems are designed to support specific areas of a company, Leadtime focuses on mapping the entire process chain in digital service companies and thus optimizing lead time.

Leadtime is geared towards designing a company's processes in such a way that throughput times are minimized and greater efficiency is achieved as a result. The system ensures that every work step required to fulfil an order can be transparently recorded and optimized. This enables companies to react more quickly to changes and strengthen their competitiveness.

Leadtime ensures that the many task packages that a software service provider has to complete are delivered to the available developers in an endless, delay-free value stream. This makes it possible to use the valuable working time of these specialists almost 100% productively.

Leadtime makes it possible to continuously prioritize the tasks in the backlogs of the various projects in close coordination with the customer so that the features and functions that bring the greatest benefit to the customer are delivered at all times. This happens in the background, without disturbing the concentration of the developers: All that changes is the sequence of tasks assigned to developers to complete.

Leadtime allows digital projects to be standardized as far as possible in order to make the work steps that arise again and again as reusable as possible.

Unprofessionally executed projects are one of the most dangerous causes of waste in digitalization companies. The most serious problems often occur in requirements management at the beginning of the project. The reason for this is that the creation of a precisely formulated and reliable requirements specification is extremely useful, but difficult and time-consuming. Many digital service providers therefore try to shorten this essential step in order to be able to start implementation more quickly. This later leads to misunderstandings, duplication of work and ultimately delays to the project. Leadtime therefore pays particular attention to the beginning of the project. It uses dynamic questionnaires to facilitate the recording of precise requirements and allows complete specifications to be generated from the information collected.

Leadtime views a company as an overall system that should function according to clear processes and, above all, without the involvement of the entrepreneur in day-to-day business. Our aim is to provide founders with a tool that digitally maps their entire organization. The entrepreneur should be able to view their business systemically - from an external perspective - and make continuous improvements using easily accessible key figures.

Leadtime reduces the time and effort required for administrative tasks such as creating invoices, calculating quotations and preparing project contract documents. The system uses print templates that are automatically filled with specific data from the database. As a result, Leadtime ensures accurate and consistent company documents, which is particularly helpful for legal or financial information. This not only increases productivity, but also reduces the risk of errors that can occur during manual document creation.

Leadtime makes it possible to continuously develop the performance of your employees. To this end, weekly one-on-one meetings are held between team leaders and their team members. In these meetings, employee performance is analyzed and discussed using specific key figures from the ERP system. Short and long-term target agreements, such as the number of billable hours per day, play a major role. This supports both the personal development of employees and the overall productivity of the company. The transparent presentation of performance data in Leadtime enables everyone involved to maintain a clear overview of their own performance and that of the team. This fosters an environment of continuous improvement, one of the core principles of lean management.

In summary, the term "lead time" is central to lean management and is closely linked to a company's efficiency and competitiveness. Leadtime ERP offers digital service companies the opportunity to optimize their processes and actively shorten lead time. By integrating automation, standardization and transparent analysis, Leadtime enables more efficient control of business processes and helps to successfully implement the basic idea of lean management - the reduction of waste. With Leadtime, digital service providers can not only increase their efficiency, but also serve their customers better and grow sustainably.