optimum capacity

Can you provide some guidance on how to determine the optimum capacity for a small manufacturing plant that I own? What kinds of information should I collect in order to determine optimum capacity?

Consider optimum-capacity calculations like stairs with steps, not a steady line going up like an escalator. Most manufacturing lines have optimum levels of production. When I was making Umbroller strollers, the steps for final production were 200 per shift, 600 per shift, 900 per shift, and finally 1800 per shift. Anything in between those numbers of products per shift did not cover our people and machinery costs. At each level on the way up we had to reconfigure the line—more machines, more people, more space. This is what you have to figure out. Component parts tend to be similar, but with single-worker products you can often have a worker run one machine for four hours and another for four hours, or some fractional amounts. The information is more complex to gather when a group is assembling than with single-operator work.

Deaver Brown, Publisher, Simplysoftwarecd.com, Lincoln, MA