An investigation of various factors which affect the lead time in spinning mills which produce 14.76 tex (40 Ne) carded yarns linear density is reported. For this study, data were collected from 27 mills producing 14.76 tex carded yarns of linear density. The important parameters which affect the lead time were obtained by principal component analysis of the data. Correlation matrix and multiple regression analysis were carried out taking into account the lead time as the dependent variable and HOK (the number of Operative Hours required to produce 100 kg of yarn), FQI (Fibre Quality Index), YQI (Yarn Quality Index) and spindle production as independent variables. The reliability of the data was checked by Cronbach’s alpha, which indicated 0.839. Other tests such as the Kruskal-Wallis test, Durbin Watson test, KMO (Kaiser – Meyer Olkin) and Bartlett’s test were also done to find out their association. The results show that of all the parameters considered the, lead time exerts maximum influence on spindle production, HOK and the yarn quality index in carded counts. © 2016, Institute of Biopolymers and Chemical Fibres. All rights reserved.