Cycle time bottleneck calculator
Compare serial production stages, account for parallel stations and find every tied capacity constraint.
Use nonnegative values with at most six decimal places and whole unit counts up to 1,000,000,000. Time inputs are converted to seconds, with a maximum of 1,000,000,000 seconds. Ratios are rounded to six decimal places; JSON and CSV preserve the calculated values and assumptions. Processing stays on your device. Enter a JSON array of stages with name, cycleTime and parallelStations. The interactive editor keeps these fields separate. Up to 200,000 characters. Review the settings before running.
Your result
How to use Cycle time bottleneck calculator
- Add the process stages in order and enter cycle time for one station at each stage.
- Enter the number of identical parallel stations and choose the cycle-time unit.
- Compare stage capacities and all tied bottlenecks, then download the full report.
Useful next steps
The slowest effective stage limits the rate
Divide cycle time by parallel station count to find each stage’s effective cycle. The largest effective cycle gives the theoretical line limit. Stages with equal limiting capacity are all marked as bottlenecks.
A capacity bound, not a queue simulation
The calculation assumes identical independent parallel stations. It does not model setup time, breakdowns, shared workers, starvation, blocking or queues. First-unit processing time in the report adds the individual stage cycle times and excludes waiting.