Manpower Requirement Calculation

Manpower requirement calculation is now a vital part of all manufacturing industry in this competitive world. Because it will help to invest your money wisely. In this article we will explain how to calculate manpower required for a manufacturing industry with example.

Please note there are two types of Manpower Direct Labour (DL) and Indirect Labour (IDL). In this article we are only dealing with DL.

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What you will get from this article:

  1. Watch Training Video at the end of this article.
  2. Download Manpower calculation excel templates.
  3. Formula to calculate manpower.
  4. Manpower calculation explained with examples.
  5. An opportunity to use our online manpower calculation tool.
  6. Get in touch with our Manpower calculation experts.
  7. Manpower Availability Factor (MAF)

Download and Practice manpower calculation

The Calculation

Formula for manpower requirement calculation and how to calculate manpower required.

The formula in the picture gives the manpower required per shift for producing n no of products per day. t is the total standard man minutes required for producing one unit. w is the working time of an employee per shift and s is the no of shifts per day. Standard times are arrived using Time and Motion Study technique.

Note: Please note that this formula is only applicable where enforced idle of the operator is not present in the operation. Enforced idle means the operator is forced to be idle due to some other reasons of his working environment. For example, some operators of the balanced assembly line will be idle to some extend, especially the operator at the operation which has the lowest cycle time, waiting for his turn. This is not avoidable because we cannot balance the assembly lines at 100% perfect.

For calculating manpower for balanced assembly line there is another method and click here to know more.

Coming back to our basic manpower calculation…

Also in this calculation it is assumed that every operator is skilled for every operation and they are ready to do all operation whenever needed. In this calculation method its assumed that operators move around workstations to do operations and to avoid the Idle time.

This calculation is applicable where product demand is varying, for constant demand we should set an balanced assembly line.

For varying demand and low volume high mix production, this is the only method to achieve higher manpower efficiency. But requires highly skilled supervision to allocate operators to the process.

And manpower allocated through this method will be the minimum possible than other method, with same cycle time.

Get Trained on Manpower requirement calculation

We will be conducting a live interactive training session on manpower requirement calculation once in a month. Learn about different methods of manpower calculation and become an expert on this topic.

Duration of the training will be 15 to 30 minutes and we will be using google meet platform for training.

This will be a great opportunity to learn manpower calculation from experts and an opportunity to clear doubts.

Don’t miss the opportunity.

If you are interested to attend the next training, click here.

We welcome candidates across the globe to attend this training. All training sessions will be conducted in English. Please ensure you are comfortable with English communication. Training will be for manufacturing industry.

Download Manpower Templates (3 nos)

Download and Practice Manpower Calculation

Choose the suitable Excel template and use it along with this article to understand manpower requirement calculation clearly.

T-001 Manpower calculation using Takt Time Excel template

Manpower Calculation Using Takt Time

Template No: T-001 Free
Download Free
T-002 Standard manpower calculation Excel template

Standard Manpower Calculation Template

Template No: T-002 Free
Download Free
T-003 Balanced assembly line manpower calculation Excel template

Balanced Assembly Line Template

Template No: T-003 Free
Download Free

These templates are useful for takt-time based calculation, standard manpower calculation, and balanced assembly line manpower calculation.

Importance of efficiency in manpower requirement calculation

Its better to consider 85% efficiency in the manpower calculation for getting the practical results. This efficiency is accounted for loses such as power failure, material shortages, speed loses, rework, defects, etc. If efficiency of your operation is better or lower than 85% you can use that value instead of 85%.

📥 Download manpower calculation templates available at the end of this article.

Example of manpower calculation

Situation : A customer wants a product P at the rate of 5000 units per day. This product P have three operations A, B & C, which requires man minutes 5, 8, 6 respectively. The company works for two shifts per day and working time per employee is 420 minutes. Normal efficiency of the operations of the company is 85%.

If you don’t know what is man minutes or man hour, read this article on man hour and come back.

Lets do some calculation…

Calculation:

Demand of P per day (n) = 5000

Man minutes per product (t) = 5 + 8 + 6

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20 thoughts on “Manpower Requirement Calculation”

  1. Dear Friend
    We are automotive parts manufacturing company, having 100+ numbers of cnc machines working under one roof. I am in need of manpower ratio to machine for effective maintenance execution

    1. Hi.. Makarand,

      We can definitely help you in this. First we need to list down the maintenance activities and its time. From that we can arrive the manpower required for maintenance activity.

      lets connect.

      Please call or message on number +91 8089036992.

  2. Hello Mr. Melvin,
    I need your support in the below.
    I have total Cycle times for different projects. Lets say each projects has different products with different cycle times and I would like to know what exactly the manpower required to complete all these projects. Atleast need an estimated manpower requirement

  3. Mr. Melvin
    Could you please give me an idea to calculate ballast tank mud/slurry removal, Surface preparation & paint touch-up
    No of Tanks. :10
    Total area : 3000m2
    Paint touch-up. : 6000m2
    (two times application)
    Duration. : 10 days

  4. Thank you Mr. Melvin for you sent my question supported by using example for man power calculation of preventive maintenance with varying frequency. I hope next time we will meet by another thoughts regarding man power calculation. bye

  5. Hi Mr.Melvin, first I would like to thank you for you send a response for my question on man power calculation for preventive maintenance. I read it and it is help full to me, now let me add another related question on it. That is ” If I want to implement a preventive maintenance in different machineries in any industry in daily, weekly, monthly, quarter and yearly base, how I calculate or estimate the number of man power to perform effectively, for example, some machines are checked and lubricated daily, some are weekly, quarterly yearly according to the criticality of the machine and recommended by the manufacturer.

  6. I need your help to estimate/implement the man hour for machine lubrications and preventing maintenance work in any industry

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