Lead time and cycle time are types of flow time metrics. They both measure duration. Using pizza order and delivery as an example, the lead time clock starts ticking when the customer orders the pizza, while the cycle time clock doesn’t start ticking until the cook begins making the pizza. People who order pizza care about lead time. They want their pizza delivered quickly. Internal teams care about cycle time. They try to reduce the wait time in the delivery pipeline to be more efficient. Lean organizations optimize for speed and effectiveness.