Industrial engineering formula

Line balancing efficiency formula

How evenly work is spread across stations. Total work content divided by stations × bottleneck station time.

Formula
ηLB=∑tin×tmax×100\eta_{LB} = \dfrac{\sum t_i}{n \times t_{max}} \times 100

Balancing efficiency % = total work content / (number of stations × bottleneck station time) × 100

SymbolMeaningUnit
t_iWork content of station imin
nNumber of stations-
t_maxTime of the slowest (bottleneck) stationmin

When to use it

Use it to compare balancing options and to measure improvement after rebalancing.

Worked example#

Four stations with 0.50, 0.60, 0.40 and 0.50 minutes of work.

  • Total = 2.00 min; bottleneck = 0.60 min
  • Efficiency = 2.00 / (4 × 0.60) × 100 = 83.3%
  • Balance loss = 16.7%: that share of paid time is idle waiting on the bottleneck

Where this formula is explained

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