Capacity and Utilization Example:

Consider a station with two identical machines in parallel. Let,

• r_a = rate of arrival to the station = 20 parts / hr.
• r_o = rate of processing of each station (unadjusted capacity) = 12 parts / hr.
• A = availability of each machine = 0.95
• r_e = effective processing rate = r_o x A = 12 * 0.95 = 11.4 parts / hr.

Then the capacity of the station is the long term processing rate of the station, that is of the two machines combined:

Capacity = 2 * r_e = 2 * 11.4 = 22.8 parts / hr.

The utilization of the station is

u = Rate of arrival to station / Station Capacity = 20 / 22.8 = 87.7%