You can use work center efficiency levels to assess productivity at a work center. Work center efficiency levels indicate how well a work center is keeping up with the scheduled production progress at a specified time interval. Work center efficiency is the percentage of production quantities for a job operation that have been completed at a user-defined time interval as measured against the quantity scheduled for completion by that interval. This is the basic equation used to calculate work center efficiency:
Efficiency percentage = ( (100 / scheduled quantity) * completed quantity)
The scheduled quantity in the equation above is a prorated value. It represents the quantity expected to be completed by the current elapsed time as a proportion of the total quantity and total time scheduled for the operation. The efficiency percentage is calculated and re-calculated at a user-defined refresh interval during the course of the operation. For example, suppose an operation is scheduled to complete 10 items in 5 hours, and the refresh interval is 1 hour. 1 hour after the operation is started, 2 items are expected to be completed (10 items / 5 hours = 2). If only 1 item has been completed by the 1-hour interval, the efficiency will be 50% per the efficiency equation above: 50 = ( (100 / 2) * 1). At the next interval, 2 hours after the operation is started, 4 items are scheduled to be completed (10 items / 2 hours = 4). If 3 items were completed during the second hour, then the total completed quantity at the 2-hour interval is 4. The calculated efficiency at the 2-hour interval will then be 100%: 100 = ( (100 / 4) * 4). Then, if only 1 item is completed during the third hour, the efficiency at the 3-hour interval will be 83.3%: 83.3 = ( (100 / 6) * 5). This efficiency value indicates that the work center has completed 83.3% of the work that was scheduled to be completed after 3 hours.
You can use the Job Status form to view the efficiency percentages calculated for a work center at each refresh interval. See Viewing the Status of Jobs for more information. To define the refresh interval for a work center, see Configuring Work Center Status Parameters. Efficiency calculations cannot be performed for worksets.
The Work Center form has a status indicator that tells employees and supervisors at a glance how well a work center is keeping up with the scheduled production progress for the current operation. The status indicator is a colored box that borders the form. This box will be green (high efficiency), yellow (medium efficiency), or red (low efficiency) depending upon the efficiency level calculated at the most recent refresh interval. To define efficiency percentage levels for a work center for high, medium, and low efficiency, see Configuring Work Center Status Parameters. You cannot use the work center status indicator to calculate efficiency levels for worksets. If a work center is using worksets, the status indicator will always be green.
Configuring Work Center Status Parameters