Where does the line rate come from?

From your own counts: total units off the bottleneck divided by run time over a few weeks. A nameplate rate overstates capacity by every slow cycle and small stop the line really has.

Should I schedule overtime or add a shift?

Compare production hours needed with your scheduled hours: the difference is the overtime needed at current uptime. Shifts needed shows the whole shifts that cover demand, so price that overtime against another crew.

How do changeovers affect daily capacity?

They lower uptime. OEE counts changeover time as a planned stop, so a day with more changeovers than your records average will run below this estimate. Use uptime from days with a similar changeover count.

What uptime do I enter if each shift runs differently?

Add run time across all shifts and divide by their total planned production time. Averaging the shift percentages gives the same answer only when every shift is the same length.

Conveyors calculator

Daily Capacity Calculator

Check whether the shifts you run make a day's demand, and how many production hours or shifts it takes if not. You need line rate, planned production time per shift, shifts, measured uptime, yield and daily demand.

What this calculator does

Good units a line makes per production day from line rate, shifts, uptime and yield, against daily demand.

Formula used

Gross daily capacity = line rate × planned production time per shift × shifts per day
Good daily capacity = gross × uptime % ÷ 100 × first-pass yield % ÷ 100
Production hours needed = daily demand ÷ (line rate × uptime % ÷ 100 × yield % ÷ 100)
Shifts needed = CEILING(daily demand ÷ (line rate × planned time per shift × uptime % ÷ 100 × yield % ÷ 100))
Uptime needed = daily demand ÷ (gross × yield % ÷ 100) × 100

Inputs explained

Line Rate: Bottleneck units per running hour: total count ÷ run time.
Planned Production Time per Shift: Shift hours from start to end, minus breaks and meals.
Shifts per Day: Shifts the line runs on a production day.
Uptime: Run time ÷ planned production time from downtime logs, changeovers included.
First-Pass Yield: Units good the first time ÷ total count, from inspection records.
Daily Demand: Good units per day that orders or the schedule require.

How to use the result

Best suited to checking a customer's daily release against line capacity, deciding between overtime and another shift.
One line rate for the day; a mixed schedule needs a weighted rate or a run per product. Assumes the bottleneck is never starved or blocked beyond what the uptime record already shows.

Current U.S. benchmarks

The U.S. has 21,668 machinery manufacturing establishments employing about 1,086,146 workers (Census County Business Patterns, 2023).

Common questions

Where does the line rate come from? From your own counts: total units off the bottleneck divided by run time over a few weeks. A nameplate rate overstates capacity by every slow cycle and small stop the line really has.
Should I schedule overtime or add a shift? Compare production hours needed with your scheduled hours: the difference is the overtime needed at current uptime. Shifts needed shows the whole shifts that cover demand, so price that overtime against another crew.
How do changeovers affect daily capacity? They lower uptime. OEE counts changeover time as a planned stop, so a day with more changeovers than your records average will run below this estimate. Use uptime from days with a similar changeover count.
What uptime do I enter if each shift runs differently? Add run time across all shifts and divide by their total planned production time. Averaging the shift percentages gives the same answer only when every shift is the same length.

Last reviewed 2026-10-01.