Dental, Orthodontic & Prosthetics Manufacturing worked example

Polishing Labor at 7.2% setup and touch-up allowance: a worked example

This worked example runs the polishing labor numbers for a tougher week than the baseline: 7.2% setup and touch-up allowance instead of the typical 10%. Estimate technician hours for finishing and polishing crowns, dentures, night guards, retainers, prosthetic sockets, or milled and printed appliances.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Appliances or surfaces to polish: 120 appliances (held at the documented default)
  • Polishing throughput: 12 appliances / hr (held at the documented default)
  • Setup and touch-up allowance: 7.2 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 10)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Base polishing hours = appliances or surfaces to polish รท polishing throughput.
  • Required polishing labor hours works out to 10.72 hr at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Base polishing hours works out to 10 hr at these inputs.
  • Setup and touch-up allowance works out to 7.2 % at these inputs.
  • Polishing throughput works out to 12 pieces / min at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where setup and touch-up allowance sits at 10% and the headline result is 11 hr, this scenario comes in 2.55% below the baseline at 10.72 hr.
  • Use it to staff the finishing bench, plan same-day turnaround, or cost the polishing labor in a case quote. 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 polishing labor hours: 10.72 hr (headline result)
  • Base polishing hours: 10 hr
  • Setup and touch-up allowance: 7.2 %
  • Polishing throughput: 12 pieces / min

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Polishing Labor calculator, set setup and touch-up allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.