Throughput

How it is used

Used in project specifications, line planning and performance reports. You increase, improve or limit throughput; the slowest station is the bottleneck that limits the whole line. It is closely linked to cycle time and uptime.

Example sentences

1. Adding a second robot doubled the throughput of the packing station.

2. The labeler is the bottleneck; it limits throughput to 50 boxes a minute.

Common collocations

• increase throughput
• parts per hour
• line throughput
• bottleneck
• throughput target

Related terms

• cycle timeThe time a machine, robot or station needs to complete one full cycle of its task, for example from picking one part to being ready to pick the next.
• production lineA series of machines, stations and workers arranged in order, where a product moves from one step to the next until it is finished.
• downtimeThe time a machine or line is not producing because of a breakdown, maintenance, a product changeover or missing material.
• conveyorA machine that moves products or materials from one place to another on a moving belt, chain or rollers, along a line or between stations.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• throughput · Software Engineering
• throughput · Cloud Computing & DevOps
• throughput · Networking & Telecommunications
• throughput · Industrial Engineering & Manufacturing
• throughput · Chemical Engineering
• throughput · Oil, Gas & Mining

More terms: Industrial Automation and Production

• automation
• robot cell
• fixture
• SCADA
• fieldbus
• commissioning
• Industry 4.0