Lab Equipment & Scientific Instrument Manufacturing worked example

Test Fixture Capacity at 65% test fixture uptime: a worked example

Suppose test fixture uptime falls to 65%. This page works the full calculation at that level so you can see exactly which result moves and by how much. Calculate the effective throughput capacity of your test fixtures or test stations for a given shift or period. Accounts for instruments tested per cycle, available test cycles, fixture uptime (excluding maintenance and repair), and first-pass test yield. Gives you the real number of good, tested instruments per shift rather than the theoretical maximum.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Instruments per test cycle: 1 instruments / cycle (held at the documented default)
  • Available test cycles per shift: 16 cycles (held at the documented default)
  • Test fixture uptime: 65 % (the input this scenario stresses; the baseline uses 90)
  • First-pass test yield: 95 % (held at the documented default)

Working through the calculation

  • The calculation starts from the formula this tool documents: Gross test capacity = instruments per cycle x available cycles per shift.
  • Effective test capacity (good units) works out to 9.88 units at these inputs, and this is the headline figure for the scenario.
  • Gross test capacity works out to 16 units at these inputs.
  • Fixture downtime loss works out to 5.6 units at these inputs.
  • Test yield loss works out to 0.52 units at these inputs.

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 27.78% below the baseline at 9.88 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. When the numbers land here, the stressed input is the lever to work; the walkthrough above shows exactly how much each output recovers as it climbs back toward the baseline.

Results at a glance

  • Effective test capacity (good units): 9.88 units (headline result)
  • Gross test capacity: 16 units
  • Fixture downtime loss: 5.6 units
  • Test yield loss: 0.52 units

Run it with your numbers

  • To rerun this with your own numbers, open the live Test Fixture Capacity calculator, set test fixture uptime to your actual value, and adjust the remaining inputs to match your operation.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.