Line balancing calculator
Line of balance (LOB) efficiency compares the work content of a line with the capacity its stations provide at the pace of the slowest one. Paste the time of each station to find the bottleneck, the idle time it causes and how many stations the takt time really needs.
Result
- Line balance efficiency
- 78.8%
- Bottleneck station
- Station 3 · 52 s
- Line cycle time (slowest station)
- 52 s
- Total work content
- 205 s
- Idle time per cycle
- 55 s
- Balance delay
- 21.2%
- Output per hour at the bottleneck pace
- 69.2
- Minimum stations for the takt time
- 4
- Takt check
Bottleneck 52 s ≤ takt 60 s: demand is met
- Work and idle time by station
- Work timeIdle time
- Station table
Station Work time Idle time Load Station 1 45 s 7 s 87% Station 2 38 s 14 s 73% Station 3 52 s 0 s 100% Station 4 40 s 12 s 77% Station 5 30 s 22 s 58%
How to use this tool
- Enter the cycle time of each station in seconds, one per line.
- Read the efficiency, the bottleneck and the idle time it creates at every other station.
- Enter the takt time to see the minimum number of stations and whether the bottleneck keeps up.
- Move work out of the bottleneck until the bars in the chart are level.
Good to know
- The calculation uses the times exactly as entered; it does not regroup tasks between stations.
Frequently asked questions
How is line balance efficiency calculated?
Efficiency = total work content ÷ (number of stations × line cycle time), where the line cycle time is the slowest station. Five stations of 45, 38, 52, 40 and 30 seconds hold 205 seconds of work but provide 5 × 52 = 260 seconds of capacity per cycle, so efficiency is 78.8% and balance delay is 21.2%.
What is the minimum number of stations?
Divide the total work content by the takt time and round up. With 205 seconds of work and a 60-second takt the theoretical minimum is 3.4, so 4 stations, provided the tasks can be regrouped so that no station exceeds 60 seconds. Precedence constraints often force one or two more.
Why does the bottleneck matter more than the average?
Every unit must pass through the slowest station, so the line can never produce faster than that station allows, no matter how quick the others are. Idle time at the fast stations is pure waste. Rebalancing moves tasks from the bottleneck to stations with slack so the whole line runs at a lower cycle time.
Results are estimates for general information. Double-check anything important with an official source.