Using 3600 Seconds At A Time

Productivity is often measured on a per unit per hour basis. To determine profits and costs, a company needs to know the rate of productivity. Even though it’s not an exact science, a good estimation is very useful for business purposes.

If we’re calibrating the output of a machine or a device, we need to simplify the process and find a method for our calculations. Whether we’re measuring pounds per hour, gallons per hour, or any type of production per hour, what we need is a plan.

For example, say we want to calibrate the output of a plastic pelletizer machine. Yes, we’re now in the plastics business. We want to know the poundage of pellets the machine is producing in an hour.

Let’s break it down. Firstly, we will catch or contain our pellets in a bucket. Then we must minus the tare weight of the bucket. Naturally.

But how long do we hold our bucket to catch the pellets?

Here is the blueprint. We catch our pellets in a bucket for 15 seconds. The pounds in the bucket will tell us the production rate per hour.  But how?

There are 60 seconds in a minute. There are 3600 seconds in an hour. If we caught our material during 15 seconds, we would need to multiply that amount times 240 to get our hourly production rate. Why use 240?

Because, 3600 (seconds per hour) divided by 15 (seconds) equals 240. Whatever our quantity will be in 15 seconds, we multiply by 240 to get the hourly production rate. This could apply to virtually anything.

Break is over. Let’s get back to work!