Grading Line & Hours, Days & Crew
Grades apples
Enter your lot size, the line's rated capacity in kg/h, working hours and crew to get the hours and days needed, throughput per worker and labour hours — and match the line to peak arrivals.
Plan your grading line
Next: schedule ~2.5 days (20 h) on the line; budget 80 labour-hours and stage produce so the belt never starves or backs up.
Real throughput drops with rejects, size-grade changes and breaks; rate per worker is descriptive (line capacity ÷ crew), not a strict per-person quota.
Grading line — key facts
- Hours needed
- lot ÷ capacity (kg/h)
- Days needed
- hours ÷ working hours/day
- Labour hours
- hours × workers
- Per worker
- capacity ÷ workers
- Working hours
- ≈ 6–10 productive hrs/day
- Bottleneck
- slowest stage caps the line
- Match to
- the busiest day's arrivals
- Privacy
- Runs in your browser; nothing uploaded
Keep the lot moving while it's fresh
At the peak of harvest, produce arrives faster than you can think — and a grading line that can't keep up turns into a queue of fruit waiting in the heat, losing grade by the hour. The maths is simple but easy to get wrong by eye: the lot divided by the line's real capacity gives the hours, the hours over your working day give the number of days, and the crew sets the labour bill. Get those numbers before the season, not during it.
This tool returns the hours and days needed, the throughput per worker, and total labour hours from your lot, line capacity, working hours and crew — so you can size the line to the busiest day, plan shifts, and decide whether another hand or a faster machine clears the backlog. Pair it with the Packaging & Crate, Fruit Waxing and Produce Transport tools for the whole post-harvest chain.
Beat the bottleneck
Size the line to the busiest day's arrivals.
Plan the crew
See labour hours and output per worker.
Set the window
Know the days to clear each lot.
Protect grade
Move produce before it waits and wilts.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is grading time calculated?+
Hours needed = lot size ÷ the line's rated capacity in kg per hour. Days needed = hours ÷ your working hours per day. Labour hours = hours × number of workers, and throughput per worker = capacity ÷ workers. This tool computes all of these so you can plan crew and shifts around the lot in front of you.
What is rated capacity?+
Rated capacity is how much produce a sorting or grading line can process per hour (kg/h), as quoted by the maker or measured on your line. Real throughput is usually a little below the rating because of feed gaps, blockages, changeovers and quality checks, so use an honest working figure rather than the brochure peak.
Why match line size to daily arrivals?+
At peak harvest, fruit and vegetables arrive faster than a small line can grade them, so a backlog builds, produce waits and quality drops. Sizing the line — or the crew and hours — to the busiest day's arrivals keeps the lot moving while it's fresh and avoids the bottleneck that costs you grade and price.
How does crew size change the result?+
More workers on a line lift effective throughput up to the machine's limit and cut the labour hours per kg of waste, but each adds cost. The throughput-per-worker figure shows output per person, which is handy for comparing crew sizes and deciding whether another hand or a faster line is the better spend.
What working hours should I enter?+
Use the productive hours your line actually runs per day — typically 6–10 hours once you allow for setup, breaks, cleaning and shutdown. If you run multiple shifts, enter the combined running hours. Honest working hours give realistic days-needed figures so you can plan the harvest window properly.
Can it tell me if I'll clear the day's arrivals?+
Yes — enter a single day's arrivals as the lot and your working hours: if hours needed exceeds your working hours, the line can't clear that day and a backlog grows. Either add a shift, add crew, or move to a higher-capacity line. The days-needed figure makes the gap obvious.
Does this include washing or waxing time?+
No — it sizes the grading or sorting step from its own kg/h capacity. Washing, waxing, drying and packing are separate stages with their own rates; the slowest stage sets the line's true throughput. Plan each step, then balance them so no single station becomes the bottleneck.
Will it work for any produce or units?+
Yes — enter the lot in kg, quintal or tonne and the capacity in kg/h, and it works for any graded crop: apples, citrus, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and more. Different produce grades at different rates, so use the capacity figure that matches your line and that crop.
Are the figures exact?+
They are solid planning figures. Real throughput varies with produce condition, sizing splits, downtime and worker experience. Time a known lot on your line to calibrate the capacity figure, then re-use it for planning — the calculator is for steering the harvest window, not stopwatch precision.