What is Turn Time?

Turn time as indicated on this form is measured by days or weeks, and represents the time by which the customer wants to receive their product. There are two ways of considering when the timeline begins for the turn time.

After Receipt of Materials (ARM)

One way of communicating turn time to your customers is to state that the turn time represents the actual build time (labor) that will go into building the assembly. This means that the time that goes into the initial processing of the order, purchasing material and waiting for their delivery is not taken into consideration in the quoted turn time.

This is the most common way of quoting turn time to customers because there is substantial lack of control when it comes to ordering components, and lead time on components can be unpredictable due to availability and delivery risks.

Tip: Your customers may not be pleased to find that the quote they received did not include these activities and risks, especially if they paid extra for 5 day turn time only to find there is a lead time of 30 weeks on one of the components. We recommend utilizing the Material at Risk and Materials Exception Report to convey this type of critical information.

After Receipt of Order (ARO)

Another way of communicating turn time to your customers is to state that the turn time represents the time as soon as the purchase order is acknowledged to your customer. This means that the time to process the order, order materials and wait for their delivery is also included along with the assembly time.

While this provides a much clearer answer to customers who want to know when they will be receiving shipment of their product, it is more difficult to accurately predict on certain types of orders - especially when there are hard to find components involved. You may also find it difficult to quote an ARO time prior to performing the material costing section of the RFQ because component level delivery dates need to be validated.