In recent years, the use of additive manufacturing based on fused filament fabrication has been expanded significantly due to its process simplicity, low production cost, and capability for fabricating polymer components with diverse geometries. Despite these advantages, ensuring the mechanical quality of printed parts remains a critical challenge, as processing parameters directly influence interlayer cohesion, structural integrity, and overall mechanical performance. Among these parameters, printing speed plays a particularly important role; however, previous studies have predominantly examined low to moderate speeds, while the behavior of printed components at very high speeds has received limited attention. The present study experimentally investigates the effects of two substantially different printing speeds, 50 mm/s and a very high speed of 500 mm/s, on the tensile strength, production time, and normalized tensile strength of polylactic acid specimens. Standardized samples were fabricated using a fused filament fabrication printer, tensile tests were conducted to evaluate mechanical behavior, and the fabrication time of each specimen was recorded to calculate time-normalized properties, providing an integrated indicator of mechanical performance relative to production efficiency. The results indicate that increasing the printing speed drastically reduced the production time, achieving approximately 70% time savings. Moreover, tensile strength increased at higher printing speed, which is attributed to improved interlayer bonding quality. In addition, the normalized tensile strength, representing combined mechanical performance and manufacturing efficiency, showed more than a threefold increase at the very high speed. These findings demonstrate that selecting an appropriate printing speed can simultaneously enhance production efficiency and mechanical performance.