Lab Equipment & Scientific Instrument Manufacturing worked example

Test Fixture Capacity at 99% test fixture uptime: a worked example

Push test fixture uptime up to 99% and the picture changes. This example computes every intermediate figure at that operating point. Use when planning whether your test fixtures can handle upcoming production volume, deciding if you need additional test stations, or calculating the bottleneck impact of test fixture downtime on shipment dates.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Instruments per test cycle: 1 instruments / cycle (unchanged)
  • Available test cycles per shift: 16 cycles (unchanged)
  • Test fixture uptime: 99 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 90)
  • First-pass test yield: 95 % (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Gross test capacity = instruments per cycle x available cycles per shift) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 15.05 units for effective test capacity (good units), the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 16 units for gross test capacity.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 0.16 units for fixture downtime loss.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 0.79 units for test yield loss.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where test fixture uptime sits at 90% and the headline result is 13.68 units, this scenario comes in 10% above the baseline at 15.05 units.
  • It computes effective good-unit test capacity per shift by multiplying instruments per cycle and available cycles, then derating for fixture uptime and first-pass yield. The value of this scenario is the size of the gap it exposes: that gap, priced out over a year, is the budget you can justify spending to close it.

Results at a glance

  • Effective test capacity (good units): 15.05 units (headline result)
  • Gross test capacity: 16 units
  • Fixture downtime loss: 0.16 units
  • Test yield loss: 0.79 units

Run it with your numbers

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

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.