Latency is often used in computer systems along with the concept of throughput. A simple model may assume that throughput equals 1/latency. For instance, if it takes my underwear 2 hours to wash and dry, I could certainly achieve a throughput of 1/2 (1 load per 2 hours or 1/2 load per hour).
Engineers use the concept of pipelining to increase throughput for a given latency. Assume it takes 1 hour to wash and 1 hour to dry. When my underwear starts drying I may start washing my shirts. When the shirts start drying I can start washing my pants. It is still true that the latency of the system is 2 hours (any given item will take 2 hours to traverse the system). However, the throughput is now up to 1 load per hour (every hour produces another finished load of clothes).
The concepts of latency and throughput have a dramatic impact on the design of communications and computing systems.
seeo also rotational delay, whic is another form of latency