19.10 Burstein Lyall Limited has an operating cycle for the year ended 31 December 2012 of 78.4 days. The comparative figure for the year ended 31 December 2011 was 75.3 days. The industry average operating cycle at 31 December 2012 was 66.4 days.

Required: briefly describe the significance of a company’s operating cycle, and comment on the operating cycle statistics given above.