Case throughput
Case throughput is the number of cases completed per unit time (cases per day, per week) — the basic flow metric of a process. Throughput trends reveal whether the process is keeping up with demand; the ratio throughput / arrival rate is the leading indicator for backlog growth.
Throughput is the simplest process metric and the easiest to misread. A throughput of 100 cases/day looks healthy until you discover the arrival rate is 120/day and the backlog is growing by 20/day. Throughput should always be paired with arrival rate (cases entering) and backlog depth (cases waiting). Together they describe the process's actual capacity vs demand. Throughput improvements typically come from removing bottlenecks (Theory of Constraints), reducing rework, or adding capacity at the constrained step — not from generic 'work faster' interventions.
Related terms
- Case duration
Case duration is the elapsed time from a case's start to its completion.
- Process bottleneck
A process bottleneck is the step in a workflow with the lowest throughput — the constraint that limits the entire process's output.
- Flow efficiency
Flow efficiency is the ratio of value-add time to total elapsed time for a case — typically expressed as a percentage.