Industrial Equipment, Machinery & Capital Goods worked example

Engineering Hours per Machine at 18% design review and rework allowance: a worked example

Here is what the math looks like when conditions slip. We hold every other input steady and drop design review and rework allowance to 18%, then walk the calculation through step by step. Estimate engineering hours per machine from engineering deliverables, completion throughput, and design review allowance.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Engineering deliverables or task points: 96 tasks (held at the documented default)
  • Engineering completion throughput: 3.2 tasks / hr (held at the documented default)
  • Design review and rework allowance: 18 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 25)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Base engineering time = engineering deliverables or task points รท engineering completion throughput.
  • Required engineering hours per machine works out to 35.4 hr at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Base engineering time works out to 30 hr at these inputs.
  • Design review and rework allowance works out to 18 % at these inputs.
  • Engineering completion throughput works out to 3.2 pieces / min at these inputs.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where design review and rework allowance sits at 25% and the headline result is 37.5 hr, this scenario comes in 5.6% below the baseline at 35.4 hr.
  • The practical read: the gap between this scenario and the baseline is entirely attributable to design review and rework allowance, so recovering it is worth quantifying in dollars before considering equipment or staffing changes. Throughput and task counts assume work of comparable complexity; a few genuinely novel deliverables can blow the average even if the task count is right.

Results at a glance

  • Required engineering hours per machine: 35.4 hr (headline result)
  • Base engineering time: 30 hr
  • Design review and rework allowance: 18 %
  • Engineering completion throughput: 3.2 pieces / min

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Engineering Hours per Machine calculator, set design review and rework allowance to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.