Hold time

Hold time is the allowed or actual elapsed time that material, product, equipment, or work-in-process waits between defined process steps or conditions. In manufacturing, it is commonly used to control how long an item may remain in a specified state before the next operation, inspection, test, storage action, or disposition is required.

Hold time may be defined in a routing, batch record, traveler, work instruction, quality plan, or MES workflow. It can apply to conditions such as time between mixing and filling, time between cleaning and equipment use, time before inspection, or maximum time that parts may remain staged before processing. The limit may depend on product characteristics, environmental controls, process stability, or quality requirements.

Hold time should not be confused with cycle time, which measures how long an operation takes to perform, or queue time, which generally describes waiting time in a production flow. Hold time usually has a controlled boundary or documented expectation, and exceeding it may trigger review, retesting, rework, or other defined quality actions.