Manufacturing costs and Degree of Occupancy Based on the Principle of Characteristic Parts

In making capacity estimates and cost calculations in the manufacturing industry, many products and production systems are often involved, making the data in their totality difficult to grasp. Introducing the concept of the characteristic part, which is a fabricated part seen as representative of all parts produced in terms of demand, setup time, cycle time, average batch size and total number of batches involved, makes the calculations required much more manageable and much less time-consuming. The article takes up how the characteristic part is defined and how it can be used in calculating production capacity, system utilization and manufacturing costs.