Efficiency Formula: Calculate Operator Efficiency and Line Efficiency

The efficiency formula is used for measuring batch production efficiency and workers' production efficiency.

The efficiency is the work output from an operation, divided by work input from the same operation, and expressed as a percentage. The general formula for calculating efficiency is:

 (Work output /work input) X 100

If you consider work input and output in 'minute', the efficiency formula would be like this - the ratio of total standard minutes produced and total minutes spent on the work.

I am working in the apparel manufacturing sector. In a garment manufacturing factory, we calculate line efficiency every day to check and measure their line performance. We use the following formula for calculating efficiency.

Efficiency Formula

Efficiency % = (Total minutes produced X 100)/(Total hours worked X 60)

In the above formula, 60 is multiplied to convert hours into minutes and 100 is multiplied to express in percentage.

In the second formula, instead of calculating minutes, we are considering produced garments as output and production targets for the given hours as an input. The production target is calculated from the garment SAM. The below formula is used for calculating the production target.

Production target per hour (@100 Efficiency) = (60/Operation SAM) 

Also Read: How to calculate hourly production target?

In the garment manufacturing sector, production efficiency data is calculated in many forms. Like, Individual employee efficiency for the day, individual efficiency per hour, line efficiency, and factory efficiency.

In all cases, the efficiency calculation formula remains the same. The total minutes produced and total minutes worked need to be calculated based on where the formula is used.

Calculate individual operator efficiency

Let's find the efficiency of a stitching machine operator.

The machine operator is worked 8 hours and he has produced 400 garments in the given job. The standard time of the job was 30 seconds. Note that to calculate produced minutes you need to know the standard minute of the job (operation).

He has produced minutes (400 X 30)/60 = 200 minutes. He has worked 480 minutes.

So, his efficiency is (200/480)*100 = 41.67 %

Calculate line efficiency

The line efficiency calculation method is explained in an earlier post. 

Read How to calculate line efficiency?

Source: www.accountingtools.com, www.softschools.com