Setup time vs cycle time

Setup covers loading the program, fixturing, touching off tools, and proving out the first part. It happens once per job (or per op), regardless of quantity. Cycle time, also called run time, is the per-piece time from start to finish of the machining cycle, often with load and unload included in what shops quote as run time.

The difference drives pricing. On a quantity of five, setup can be most of the cost. On a quantity of five thousand, cycle time dominates and shaving seconds matters. Quoting both separately is what makes quantity breaks work, because setup gets divided across more parts as the quantity rises.

In Traveler, each routing op carries a setup time and a run time. Quotes amortize setup across each quantity break automatically, and floor scans capture actual time on each op so the next quote of the part can use real numbers.