Key takeaways
Short answer: Capacity is what a line could produce under perfect conditions, the spec-sheet number. Throughput is what it actually delivers. The gap between them is exactly the OEE loss: downtime, speed loss and quality loss. Most plants buy capacity they already have, because they never closed the throughput gap on the equipment they own first. See also oee for manufacturing.
Capacity is the theoretical ceiling, the output a machine or line would achieve running flat out, with no stoppages, no slowdowns and no scrap. It is usually the equipment nameplate rate, and it is almost never seen in real production.
Throughput is reality: the good output actually produced over real time. It already has every real-world loss baked in, which is why it is the number that ships, bills and pays wages, and the number worth improving.
A line is rated at 1,000 units/hour (capacity). Over a real shift it produces 5,500 good units in eight hours, 688/hour throughput, about 69% of capacity. The missing 31% is not mysterious: 12% is downtime, 13% is running below rated speed, and 6% is scrap.
That is the OEE loss tree, expressed as the capacity-throughput gap. The plant does not need a faster line; it needs to recover the third of its existing line that is hiding in losses.
Availability loss (downtime), Performance loss (slow running and micro-stops) and Quality loss (scrap and rework) together explain the entire gap between capacity and throughput. OEE simply quantifies that gap as a single percentage and breaks it into its three causes.
Before buying a new line, close the throughput gap on the one you have. A plant running at 55% OEE has nearly half its capacity hidden in losses, far cheaper to recover than to build. Capital projects that add capacity while ignoring OEE often just add expensive new equipment that also runs at 55%.
1. Buying capacity before fixing OEE. You pay for capability you already own but cannot access.
2. Confusing nameplate with achievable. Planning against capacity instead of realistic throughput.
3. Reporting throughput without the gap. Nobody sees how much is recoverable.
4. Treating the gap as fixed. Most of it is addressable loss, not a law of physics.
OEE is, in effect, throughput divided by capacity, decomposed into Availability, Performance and Quality. Improving OEE is the same act as closing the capacity-throughput gap, which is why OEE is the cheapest capacity you will ever find.
Fabrico measures the real throughput gap and breaks it into the losses you can recover, so you exhaust hidden capacity before spending on new lines. Book a demo to see your capacity-throughput gap quantified.
No, it also subtracts speed loss and scrap, not only stoppages.
Briefly if the nameplate is conservative, but not sustainably.
Improve OEE first, it is hidden capacity you already own and far cheaper to recover.
Track OEE; the shortfall from 100% is the capacity-throughput gap, split into its causes.
Once you are genuinely near world-class and demand still exceeds output, not while half your line hides in losses.
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