Lead Time for Dummies

Lead time is a term that you might come across when we talk about planning and organizing things. Imagine you have a birthday party coming up in a few weeks and you want to send out invitations to your friends. Now, if you wait until the last minute to prepare and send those invitations, chances are your friends might not get them in time and won't be able to come to your party. So, to make sure everyone gets the invitation and can come to your awesome celebration, you need to plan ahead and give enough time for the invitations to reach them. This time that you need to plan and prepare in advance is called lead time. Another way to think about lead time is like when you're playing a game and you have to strategize. Let's say you're playing a video game where you have to defeat a big boss at the end. If you just rush into the game without any plan or preparation, the chances of winning might be very low. But if you take your time, gather resources, and level up your character, you increase your chances of success. The time it takes for you to strategize and prepare yourself before taking on the boss is similar to lead time. So, in summary, lead time means giving yourself enough time to plan, prepare, and get things ready before you do something. It's like planning your birthday party in advance to make sure your friends can come or taking the time to strategize before facing a tough challenge in a game.