Mattress, Bedding & Foam Product Assembly worked example

Line Balance with sum of all station cycle times of 55 min: a worked example in mattress, bedding & foam product assembly

What does the result look like when sum of all station cycle times reaches 55 min? The full calculation is worked below with real intermediate numbers. Use this when evaluating whether your assembly line stations (foam layup, tape edge, inspection, packaging) are evenly loaded, or when planning to add or remove a workstation.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Sum of all station cycle times: 55 min (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 22)
  • Number of workstations: 5 stations (unchanged)
  • Bottleneck station cycle time: 5.5 min (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Line balance efficiency (%) = sum of station times ÷ (number of stations × bottleneck time) × 100) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 1,100 % for rate, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns -1,094 points for gap to target.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 55 count for affected count.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 5 count for total count.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where sum of all station cycle times sits at 22 min and the headline result is 440 %, this scenario comes in 150% above the baseline at 1,100 %.
  • A figure at this level is achievable when sum of all station cycle times is genuinely sustained, not just peaked for a shift. It assumes stations run in sequence with no parallel paths or buffers, so highly buffered or parallel cells will read more balanced in practice than the number suggests.

Results at a glance

  • Rate: 1,100 % (headline result)
  • Gap to target: -1,094 points
  • Affected count: 55 count
  • Total count: 5 count

Run it with your numbers

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

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.