Production capacity calculator

Methodology

Gross machine hours = workstations × shifts per day × hours per shift × working days in the period. Available machine hours removes the planned downtime share you enter, which is where changeovers, planned maintenance, breaks and meetings belong. Theoretical units = gross hours × units per station per hour; practical units uses available hours instead, so the gap between the two is the cost of everything you have already planned to lose. Required machine hours = required units ÷ units per station per hour. Capacity utilisation = required hours ÷ available hours. Stations needed for demand rounds up, because a fraction of a workstation cannot run. Load bands are operational rules of thumb, not a standard: a line planned close to its available hours has no room to recover a lost shift. Excluded: yield loss and rework (use the scrap-rate and first-pass-yield calculators), labour availability, material supply, product mix, learning curves, and any bottleneck that is not the station you modelled. You supply every input: this site holds no factory cost data, capacity figures, yields, cycle times or industry benchmarks, and never estimates them for you. Results are an orientation model for structuring a decision, not an industrial engineering study, a quotation, or safety, engineering or financial advice. Confirm equipment capability, staffing, process capability and cost with your own measurements before relying on them.