Configure-to-Order & Product Configuration worked example

Engineering-to-Order Workload at 22% clarification and approval allowance: a worked example

This worked example runs the engineering-to-order workload numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: 22% clarification and approval allowance instead of the typical 30%. Estimate engineering review hours for custom or nonstandard configure-to-order requests.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Custom configuration requests to engineer: 58 requests (held at the documented default)
  • Engineering review pace: 3.4 requests / hr (held at the documented default)
  • Clarification and approval allowance: 22 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 30)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Base engineering-to-order workload = custom configuration requests รท engineering review pace.
  • estimated engineering-to-order workload works out to 20.81 hr at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • base engineering-to-order workload works out to 17.06 hr at these inputs.
  • engineering clarification and approval allowance works out to 22 % at these inputs.
  • engineering review pace works out to 3.4 requests / hr at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where clarification and approval allowance sits at 30% and the headline result is 22.18 hr, this scenario comes in 6.15% below the baseline at 20.81 hr.
  • Use it for capacity planning, lead-time quoting, or deciding whether to add ETO engineering headcount. 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

  • estimated engineering-to-order workload: 20.81 hr (headline result)
  • base engineering-to-order workload: 17.06 hr
  • engineering clarification and approval allowance: 22 %
  • engineering review pace: 3.4 requests / hr

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Engineering-to-Order Workload calculator, set clarification and approval allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.