Throughput

Throughput is the rate at which the shop produces finished product. Essentially, it measures how much output is completed per unit time. It is often measured in tons of steel fabricated per week or number of assemblies completed per day.

Maximizing throughput (while maintaining quality) is a key goal: higher throughput means the shop is turning raw materials into shipped product faster, which generally improves revenue and reduces the cost per unit.

However, throughput is limited by bottlenecks and other factors (downtime, quality problems). In the Theory of Constraints perspective, increasing throughput (by elevating the bottleneck or eliminating idle time) directly improves profitability.

For small steel fabrication shops, monitoring throughput can highlight inefficiencies (for example, if throughput drops, it could indicate machine maintenance issues or labor shortages).

It’s important to distinguish throughput from just working fast. Throughput is about effective output, so any rework or scrap means true throughput is lower than the busy hours might suggest.