Capacity planning calculator
Work out how many jobs your machines can actually produce — not the theoretical maximum, but the real number after changeovers, breaks, and downtime eat into the day.
Plan against the real number, not the spec sheet.
decodedops.co.uk · DO-ART-992 · Rev 01Real capacity · to scale
The spec sheet quotes a day that never happens.
Quote from the real day. Over-state capacity and you either lose the work or get buried by it.
decodedops.co.uk · DO-ART-993 · Rev 01Five inputs, one answer you can plan against.
Most decoration businesses guess their capacity or quote the number printed on the machine spec sheet. Neither accounts for changeovers, maintenance, or the gap between theoretical and actual throughput. This calculator builds your capacity figure from the ground up, using your real numbers.
How many machines
Every head, press, or station that does the work.
Hours per day
Production hours, not including breaks.
Days per week
Your working pattern.
Average job time
Setup through completion, per job.
Downtime allowance
Changeovers, cleaning, minor breakdowns.
Your setup
Heat presses, embroidery heads, print stations: anything that does the work.
Hours available for production, not including breaks.
The average time a job occupies a machine, from setup through completion.
Changeovers, cleaning, breaks, minor breakdowns.
Your production capacity
Jobs per day
54
Jobs per week
270
Jobs per month (avg)
1,169
Effective utilised hours/day
27.2h
Solid utilisation with some room for surge capacity.
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Why your real capacity is lower than you think
The spec sheet says your heat press runs 200 transfers an hour. That assumes one operator, one design, no changeovers, no breaks, and no downtime. In practice, changeovers eat into every job, operators need breaks, and presses need cleaning between runs. Enter your own downtime allowance in the calculator above to see what your real throughput looks like.
That matters because quoting is based on capacity. If your quoted capacity is higher than your real capacity, you will either over-quote (and lose work) or under-quote (and be buried).
This calculator gives you the honest number. Use it before you commit to a deadline or price a volume job.
Need to know what your capacity is actually worth?
A Clarity Audit maps your real throughput, finds where capacity is lost to process gaps, and gives you a costed plan to reclaim it.