Conveyors worked example

Work Content with manual touch time of 70 sec / unit: a worked example

This scenario runs the work content calculation on the strong side: manual touch time of 70 sec / unit, with every other input held at its documented default. an industrial engineer is timing a workstation and needs total work content before assigning tasks

The inputs for this scenario

  • Manual touch time: 70 sec / unit (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 28)
  • Operator-owned automatic wait: 12 sec / unit (unchanged)
  • Walking and material handling time: 7 sec / unit (unchanged)
  • Inspection and documentation time: 5 sec / unit (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Total work content = manual touch time + automatic wait + walking/material handling + inspection/documentation) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 94 sec / unit for total work content, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 70 sec / unit for manual touch time.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 12 sec / unit for operator-owned automatic wait.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 12 sec / unit for element 3 + 4.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where manual touch time sits at 28 sec / unit and the headline result is 52 sec / unit, this scenario comes in 80.77% above the baseline at 94 sec / unit.
  • Use it at the start of line balancing, before assigning elements to stations or computing the theoretical minimum number of workstations. Treat this as a target state: the delta against the baseline quantifies what the improvement is worth before you commit to chasing it.

Results at a glance

  • Total work content: 94 sec / unit (headline result)
  • Manual touch time: 70 sec / unit
  • Operator-owned automatic wait: 12 sec / unit
  • Element 3 + 4: 12 sec / unit

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Work Content calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.