Lead time: what the clock is actually measuring
Lead time is production time — from a vendor holding your order and deposit to the goods being ready to ship. Why it excludes transit, receiving and installation, and what restarts it.
By Idan Mann, founder of NYA
The short answer
Lead time is the production window: the time from the vendor holding your purchase order and deposit to the goods being ready to leave the factory. It does not include transit, receiving, inspection or installation — which is why a "12-week" sofa routinely lands on site closer to sixteen.
Lead time is quoted at the point of sale and misread at every point after it. It is the factory's number, it starts later than clients assume, and it ends earlier than they assume — three ways for the same figure to be honest and still disappoint.
What sits either side of the quoted number
| Stage | Counted in lead time? | What it depends on |
|---|---|---|
| Client approval → PO raised | No | Your office |
| PO sent → vendor acknowledges with deposit | No — but it starts the clock | Deposit clearing, credit terms |
| COM fabric in transit to the factory | No — production waits on it | The mill's own stock and shipping |
| Production | Yes — this is the quoted figure | The factory |
| Transit to your receiver | No | Freight carrier, distance, mode |
| Receiving, inspection, storage | No | Your warehouse |
| Delivery and installation | No | Your schedule and the site |
The clock starts when the vendor has the order and the deposit — and on COM orders, when the fabric arrives. An approval that sits three weeks before the purchase order goes out has already spent three weeks of the client's patience on your admin.
How to quote it to a client
- Quote a date range on site, not the factory's weeks. The client cares about the room, not the plant.
- Put lead times on the proposal, per item, so approval and expectation are set together.
- Re-confirm at acknowledgement. The quoted figure at specification is an estimate; the one on the acknowledgement is the commitment.
- Track the longest item per room — an install date is set by the slowest piece, not the average.
Common questions
- Does lead time include shipping?
- Almost never. Lead time is production; transit is separate and can add days for a domestic parcel or many weeks for containerised freight. Ask the vendor which they quoted before you promise a date.
- What restarts a lead time?
- A change to the specification after the order is placed, a late COM delivery, or a deposit that has not cleared. Each of them stops the factory, and the clock generally resumes from the resolution rather than picking up where it left off.