Calculator inputs
Use the stacked page layout below. The input groups switch to three columns on large screens, two on smaller screens, and one on mobile.
Example data table
| Card | Started | Completed | Blocked Hours | Business Hours | Active Hours | Cycle Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landing page QA | 2026-03-02 09:00 | 2026-03-03 16:00 | 1.00 | 15.00 | 14.00 | 1.75 |
| Payment fix | 2026-03-02 11:00 | 2026-03-04 15:00 | 2.50 | 20.00 | 17.50 | 2.19 |
| Analytics update | 2026-03-03 10:00 | 2026-03-05 12:00 | 0.00 | 18.00 | 18.00 | 2.25 |
| Design signoff | 2026-03-04 09:30 | 2026-03-07 11:30 | 3.00 | 18.00 | 15.00 | 1.88 |
Formula used
Business Hours per Card = Sum of overlap between each card’s start-to-finish interval and the daily working window.
Active Cycle Hours = Business Hours − Blocked Hours
Cycle Time in Days = Active Cycle Hours ÷ Work Hours per Day
Average Cycle Time = Sum of all card cycle days ÷ Number of completed cards
Median Cycle Time = Middle value of the sorted cycle-day list
Percentile Cycle Time = Selected percentile from the sorted cycle-day list
SLA Hit Rate = (Cards with cycle time ≤ SLA target ÷ Completed cards) × 100
Flow Efficiency = Active Hours ÷ (Active Hours + Blocked Hours) × 100
Throughput per Week = Completed cards ÷ Elapsed working weeks across the data span
How to use this calculator
- Set the daily working window, working days per week, percentile, and SLA target.
- Choose whether weekends should be excluded from the timing logic.
- Enter one completed card per box with its start and completion timestamps.
- Add blocked hours only when a card spent part of its working time waiting.
- Submit the form to display the summary, item table, and Plotly chart above the form.
- Use the CSV and PDF buttons to export the calculated summary and card-level results.
FAQs
1. What does kanban cycle time measure?
It measures how long a work item takes after active work begins until it is completed. Teams use it to evaluate delivery speed, spot delays, and improve flow predictability without mixing backlog waiting time into the metric.
2. Why would I exclude weekends?
Exclude weekends when your team normally does not work on Saturdays or Sundays. That makes the result reflect actual delivery capacity instead of inflating cycle time with nonworking days that never had available effort.
3. Why enter blocked hours separately?
Blocked hours isolate waiting caused by approvals, dependencies, outages, or handoffs. Subtracting them gives a clearer view of active effort and lets you compare raw elapsed time against a cleaner flow-efficiency measure.
4. Should I trust average or median more?
Median is often safer when a few very slow cards distort the average. Average is still useful for total trend tracking, but median better reflects a typical item in many real workflow distributions.
5. What does the selected percentile tell me?
A percentile shows the cycle time that a chosen share of cards finished within. For example, an 85th percentile means 85 percent of completed cards were done at or below that number of days.
6. How is the SLA hit rate used?
The SLA hit rate shows how often your completed cards met the service target you entered. It is a simple way to compare daily work against internal promises, customer commitments, or class-of-service expectations.
7. Can I use partial-day timestamps?
Yes. The calculator accepts date and time values, so half-days, short same-day tasks, and multiday items are supported. The business-hour calculation uses the work window you choose for every entered card.
8. Why show throughput with cycle time?
Cycle time shows how long one item takes, while throughput shows how many items finish in a period. Looking at both together gives a stronger picture of flow, capacity, and planning reliability.