Calculator · 3 min

Capacity & bottleneck calculator

Enter the speed and staffing of each step to find which step limits total output.

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Your numbers

Describe your operation

Example values are already filled in so you can see how the tool works. Replace them with measurements from your operation. Results update immediately.

Open the plain-English glossary

Demand rateWork that must be completed during the busiest representative hour.

lines/hr

Example: 520 order lines/hourTarget sustainable utilizationShare of adjusted capacity you plan to use. The unused share is headroom for ordinary variation and recovery.

Example: 85% leaves 15% headroom

For each step

Enter its name, average active-work seconds per line, workers assigned during the modeled hour, and percent of paid time actually available for this task.

Show the math and assumptions

Adjusted maximum lines/hour = workers × 3,600 × available-time percentage ÷ seconds per line.

Percent required = busy-hour demand ÷ adjusted maximum.

After the calculation

Test the answer on a small piece of real work.

Measure today’s result first. Write down what success means, what can go wrong, and how workers will continue if the new method fails.

Plan a small trial Build a go-live test