Cycle Time Analysis Agent – Measure, compare and explain the cycle times of your business processes
Measures cycle times per case, transition and variant, shows the distribution rather than just the average and explains the outliers.
What does the Cycle Time Analysis Agent do?
The Cycle Time Analysis Agent measures how long your processes take – from the first to the last step and between every pair of activities. It compares cycle times across variants, periods and case attributes, finds the segments that cost the most time and explains why some cases take much longer than others. Instead of an average you get the distribution: median, spread and the slowest cases.
Questions the Cycle Time Analysis Agent answers
“What are the average and median cycle times in the order-to-cash process?”
“Which transition contributes most to the total cycle time?”
“How has the cycle time developed since the start of the year – per month?”
“Why do cases from the north plant take longer than those from the south plant?”
How the Cycle Time Analysis Agent works
- 1
Define the cases
The agent clarifies which cases count – completed ones, those started in a period or a single variant – and asks if the question leaves this open.
- 2
Calculate cycle times
It calculates the cycle time per case and per transition between two activities, with mean, median and percentiles.
- 3
Find the time drivers
It breaks the total duration into its segments and shows which transitions and variants account for the largest share.
- 4
Explain the differences
It compares fast and slow cases by their attributes and the context from the Context Hub and names the factors that go along with long cycle times.
KPIs and methods
- Cycle time (lead time)
- Duration from the first to the last event of a case.
- Median and percentiles
- Typical duration and the outliers at the top end – more robust than the average.
- Transition time
- Duration between two consecutive activities.
- Trend
- Development of cycle time over weeks, months or quarters.
A practical example
In order-to-cash, the average cycle time looks fine, yet customers complain. The agent shows the distribution instead of the mean: a small share of orders takes several times the typical duration. It breaks these cases into segments, identifies the transition from order confirmation to delivery as the main driver and shows that it mainly affects orders with special terms.
Matching end-to-end processes
What you get
Cycle time KPIs as a table or chart, a breakdown by transition and variant and the factors that explain long cycle times – as an Excel file or report on request.
What data the agent needs
A perspective with timestamps per activity. One timestamp per event is enough for cycle time; processing times within an activity need start and end timestamps.
Cycle Time Analysis Agent: frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cycle time and processing time?
Cycle time is the total duration of a case from the first to the last step, including all waiting. Processing time covers only the time spent actively working on a step. The difference is idle time – the Waiting Time Analysis Agent examines it in detail.
Why does the agent show the median and not just the average?
Cycle times are almost always skewed: a few very long cases pull the average up. The median shows the typical duration, percentiles show how long the slowest cases are. Together they give an honest picture.
Can the agent compare cycle times of two periods?
Yes. You name the periods or groups – for instance before and after a process change – and the agent puts the KPIs side by side and shows which segments changed.
Part of Minerva 2.0
The Cycle Time Analysis Agent is an agent in Minerva, the AI assistant in Noreja. It uses the same data sources, the same choice of model – local or cloud – and the same access rights: it only reads what you are allowed to see and changes nothing in Noreja.
More agents from the library
Waiting Time Analysis Agent
Finds the time in which nothing happens: idle time between steps, bottlenecks and the reasons why work sits still.
View agentOn-Time Performance Agent
Measures on-time delivery, OTIF and SLA compliance and shows at which step commitments are missed.
View agentWIP Analysis Agent
Counts open cases per process step, shows their age and detects where a backlog is building up.
View agentSee what the Cycle Time Analysis Agent finds in your process data
In a demo we show you what answers the agent delivers on one of your processes – with numbers, reasoning and sources.
Book a demo