A dry-cleaning machine is rated in pounds per load and a cycle takes a fixed number of minutes. Pounds that came over the counter, divided by capacity and rounded up, is loads; loads times cycle length is the hours the machine is tied up. Compare that against the hours the plant is open and you know whether tomorrow's promised-ready pile is a promise you can keep.
320 pounds on a 50-lb machine is 6.4 loads, so 7; at 45 minutes a cycle that is 5.25 machine hours.
The example
Three days at a plant with one 50-lb and one 35-lb machine. Cycle time depends on the solvent and the drying program, so it stays a column.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day / machine | Lbs in | Capacity | Cycle (min) | Loads | Hours |
| 2 | Monday, 50-lb | 320 | 50 | 45 | 7 | 5.25 |
| 3 | Monday, 35-lb | 180 | 35 | 50 | 6 | 5.00 |
| 4 | Saturday, 50-lb | 75 | 50 | 45 | 2 | 1.50 |
The formula
Loads are a number the operator counts; hours are a number the manager schedules:
How it works
Divide, round up, multiply, convert:
B2/C2is pounds over rated capacity. 320 over 50 is 6.4 loads.ROUNDUP(...,0)makes it 7. The last 20 pounds still need a full cycle; you cannot run four-tenths of one.*D2multiplies by cycle minutes. Seven 45-minute cycles is 315 minutes./60converts to hours: 5.25. Add loading and unloading time per cycle if your machine does not have a lot of slack between runs.
If the hours exceed the shift, the pounds have to wait, and the ready-by promise on the tickets is wrong. Run this at noon, not at closing.
Try it: interactive demo
Enter the pounds received, the machine capacity, and the cycle length.
Variations
Loads that fit in the shift
Flip it around: shift hours times 60 over the cycle, rounded down, is the loads you can run — and times capacity is the pounds you can promise.
Underloading waste
The gap between rated capacity times loads and actual pounds is solvent and energy spent on air. Track it as a percentage.
Pitfalls & errors
Rated capacity assumes a normal mix. A load of heavy coats or comforters should be loaded lighter, so give bulky work its own row with a smaller capacity number.
Sorting by cycle type matters more than the arithmetic. Darks and lights, delicates and standards each want their own program — keep one row per program so the round-up happens per program, not on the mixed total.
Do not average pounds across the week and divide once. Rounding up happens every day; five days of 6.4 loads is 35 loads, not 32.
Practice workbook
Frequently asked questions
Where do I get the pounds?
What about the pressing side?
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