Production Rate Calculator
Find output per running hour, and per shift and week if you want.
What this calculator does
Division over running time. Shift and week figures appear only when the user enters their own shift pattern; no shift length is assumed.
Inputs and what they mean
- Units produced
- — number value.
- Hours the process was actually running
- — Running time only. Use the Throughput Calculator if you want output over the whole elapsed period..
- Hours per shift (optional)
- — Optional. Leave at 0 to exclude it from the result. Used only to show output per shift. No shift length is assumed..
- Shifts per week (optional)
- — Optional. Leave at 0 to exclude it from the result. Used only to show output per week..
How to use it
- Enter your own figures — the calculator never fills in a rate, price or benchmark for you.
- Press Calculate to see the result.
- Read the formula, variables, assumptions and source below the result before you rely on it.
Formula
Production rate = Units produced ÷ Running hours
Worked example
Output per running hour
The shift and week figures appear only because a shift length was entered.
Reading the result
The headline figure is the main answer. Any breakdown underneath shows the parts that make it up, so you can check the working and see what changes when you adjust an input.
Limitations and assumptions
Results depend entirely on the figures you enter and are rounded for display. They are for general information and education, not professional advice.
Reference: Massachusetts Institute of Technology — 2.854 Introduction to Manufacturing Systems
Last reviewed:
Common questions
Formula, source and verification
Output per hour of actual running time, with optional projections to a shift and a week using the user's own shift pattern.
The question it answers: How much can this line produce in the period, and how much of that did we actually use?
The formula
Production rate = Units produced ÷ Running hours
- U — Units produced
- (count). Units produced in the running hours.
- h — Running hours
- (h). Hours the process was actually running.
- s — Hours per shift
- (h). Optional. Used only to project output per shift.
- w — Shifts per week
- (count). Optional. Used only to project output per week.
Units: Counts and hours in; units per hour out.
What kind of calculation this is
Deterministic formula. The same inputs always give the same answer. The maths is fixed and does not depend on judgement.
Method
Division over running time. Shift and week figures appear only when the user enters their own shift pattern; no shift length is assumed.
Assumptions built into the result
- Mathematical: Every quantity, time and rate is the figure the user entered, measured over the period they describe.
- Mathematical: Times and counts refer to the same period and the same resource.
Figures this calculator will never guess for you
- No industry benchmark, target utilisation or target availability is supplied or applied.
- No shift length, break allowance, downtime allowance or standard rate is assumed.
- Optional components are excluded from the result when left at zero.
Limitations
- Arithmetic over the figures entered — it cannot tell whether the measurements behind them are right.
- A measured result, an industry benchmark and an organisation's target are three different things; only the entered figures are used.
- A projection to a shift or a week assumes the same rate continues; it is arithmetic, not a forecast.
Source and version
- Standard or reference
- Manufacturing systems — throughput, cycle time, work in process and line balancing — MIT OpenCourseWare (MIT OpenCourseWare 2.854 Introduction to Manufacturing Systems — throughput is output per unit of time, cycle time is run time divided by the units produced, line capacity is set by the slowest station, and balance efficiency compares total work content with the number of stations multiplied by the longest station time.)
- Published source
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology — Fall 2016
- Formula version
- Version 1
- Verification
- Reviewed against the cited source on
- How much weight the source carries
- Academic
- Applies to
- Currency
- The result is a ratio or index, so it does not depend on currency.
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