Blow Molding & Hollow Plastic Products worked example

Bottle Cycle Time at 8.64% cycle-time allowance: a worked example

This worked example runs the bottle cycle time numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: 8.64% cycle-time allowance instead of the typical 12%. Estimate required production hours for a bottle or hollow container workload using good bottles per hour and allowance for cooling, handling, and minor stops.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Good bottles required: 48,000 bottles (held at the documented default)
  • Good bottle production rate: 3,600 bottles / hr (held at the documented default)
  • Cycle-time allowance: 8.64 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 12)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Base bottle cycle time = good bottles required รท good bottle production rate.
  • Required bottle run time works out to 14.49 hr at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Base bottle cycle time works out to 13.33 hr at these inputs.
  • Cycle-time allowance works out to 8.64 % at these inputs.
  • Good bottle production rate works out to 3,600 bottles / hr at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where cycle-time allowance sits at 12% and the headline result is 14.93 hr, this scenario comes in 3% below the baseline at 14.49 hr.
  • Use it when scheduling a production order, quoting a lead time, or estimating machine hours and labor for a campaign. A result at this level usually justifies acting on the stressed input before touching anything else, because every other figure in the table is downstream of it.

Results at a glance

  • Required bottle run time: 14.49 hr (headline result)
  • Base bottle cycle time: 13.33 hr
  • Cycle-time allowance: 8.64 %
  • Good bottle production rate: 3,600 bottles / hr

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Bottle Cycle Time calculator, set cycle-time allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.