Long lead items take a long time to acquire, implement, or create.

Some long lead items are:  training, staffing, procurement of rare or small quantity parts, procurement of complex parts which must be engineered and tested, and bureaucratic processes.

The project plan needs to start the process of getting them at least (Lead Time) before the item is needed.  Pragmatically, starting even earlier than that is good practice.  So is periodic checking that delivery of the long lead item is on schedule.

Alternatively, if the project is to go forward when long lead items are not available, a strategy which is flexible in the face of not having the necessary long lead items must be adopted.  Such strategies include SubstituteFunctionalEquivalents and FakeItConvincingly which is a form of EarlyPrototyping.  --RaySchneider
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See also LogisticDisasters

CategoryPlanning