India Inc gets faster: Work-in-progress cycle drops to decade low at 14 days

Faster production and smarter tech are helping companies make goods quicker and use their money better

Companies are taking the least time in years to turn raw materials into finished goods, with the work-in-progress (WIP) cycle shrinking to 14.2 days in 2024-25 (FY25), provisional data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) shows.

 

The numbers cover 328 listed non-financial companies for FY25 and all available listed firms for earlier years. The WIP cycle has steadily shortened over the past decade, down from 23.4 days in FY15.

 

The changes have been less pronounced in raw material and finished goods cycles. The raw material cycle tracks the number of days the raw materials take to enter the