Utilization is the number behind most capacity decisions — whether to add a shift, buy a machine or move a job. It is also the number most often guessed, so the formula matters less than what goes into it.
The utilization formula
Machine utilization = Actual production time ÷ Total available time × 100
- Actual production time — the time the machine was running a job.
- Total available time — every hour it could physically have run: the full calendar day or week, or the plant’s full scheduled hours.
Say which denominator you used when you report it — the same machine can look 40% or 80% utilized depending on that choice alone. Run your numbers in the machine utilization calculator.
A worked example
One machine over one calendar day (illustrative numbers):
Total available time
- Value
- 24 h (1,440 min)
Shifts planned
- Value
- 2 (16 h)
Actual production time
- Value
- 15 h (900 min)
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Total available time | 24 h (1,440 min) |
| Shifts planned | 2 (16 h) |
| Actual production time | 15 h (900 min) |
Utilization = 900 ÷ 1,440 = 62.5%. Against the two planned shifts alone, the same running time would read 93.8% — which is the availability view, not utilization.
Utilization vs availability
Availability asks: did it run when we planned it to? Utilization asks: how much of its total time did it run? A machine can score high on availability and low on utilization if it only runs one shift — the shortfall is in the schedule, not on the floor.
That gap is where hidden capacity sits. ThingConnect reads running time from each machine’s controller, so utilization is measured rather than estimated — see machine utilization tracking.