How to calculate utilisation for rented equipment
For rented equipment, separate the days it was in use from the days it sat idle, then use the check-out, the site hours, and the return record to decide whether to renew or send it back. A rental system says which screens hold the asset, the contract, the calendar, maintenance, and the return. Return inspection says what is checked on the day it comes back. Spare parts say what is in stock. This note says how the days in this hire are counted as in use or idle.
On this page
- Keep utilisation apart from the rental screens, the return, and the spares
- The standard separates manufacturing time, not a rental formula
- On hire, in use, and idle are written apart
- If the three records do not match, do not produce a figure
- The denominator is the days on hire in this period
- Renewal or return needs a line the company has written
- The days hang on the same identifier
- The period is calculated when the days, the records, and the decision are written
Keep utilisation apart from the rental screens, the return, and the spares
The rental system answers how the asset, the contract, the calendar, maintenance, and the return are recorded. Return inspection answers what is checked, item by item, on the day it comes back, and who signs. Spare parts answer which parts to stock and whether a unit on the shelf is reserved or available. Utilisation answers a different question: in this hire, which days the machine was in use, which days it was on hire and not in use, and whether the review ends in a renewal or a return. The four point at one another with the same identifier. See How to choose an equipment rental management system, How to inspect rented equipment on return, and How to manage spare parts for equipment.
How the identifier is assigned and printed is in How to assign asset tags for equipment. Who keeps the asset at the end of the term is in How to choose whether to lease or buy equipment. Equipment can be bought, leased, or taken forward with development in the same project. That is the block Buy, lease, or plan it with development on the homepage.
The standard separates manufacturing time, not a rental formula
ISO 22400-2:2014, read on 29 October 2026, shows a publication date of 2014-01 on the catalogue. The life-cycle table marks 2014-01-06 as the date the international standard was published. The stage is 90.92, international standard to be revised, and the page says it is expected to be replaced by ISO/DIS 22400-2 within the coming months. The abstract says ISO 22400 defines key performance indicators used in manufacturing operations management, and that this part specifies a selected number of those indicators by their formula and elements, their time behaviour, their unit, and other characteristics. With reference to equipment, the indicators relate to work units as specified in IEC 62264. The catalogue does not print a rental-utilisation formula, and it does not print a percentage that must be reached.
A preview of the standard text, read the same day, ISO 22400-2:2014 preview, says that "time" in these elements is a duration. Planned operation time is the planned time in which a work unit can be used, and it is a scheduled time. Planned busy time is planned operation time minus planned downtime. The note says planned downtime can be used for planned maintenance. Actual production time is the actual time during which a work unit is producing, and it includes only the value-adding functions. Actual unit down time is the actual time when the work unit is not executing order production although it is available. A note says many continuous operations talk about throughput in an arbitrary period, such as a day or a shift, rather than a production-order interval, so indicators built on the production-order model need to be adjusted. That split belongs to a manufacturing work unit. A machine out on hire is not a production order on that page. The company's own day categories are in the next section. Those elements are not copied in as the rental ratio.
On hire, in use, and idle are written apart
A day on hire runs from the check-out time on the check-out record through the day the return inspection is signed, and includes each calendar day between them. Until the return is signed, the day stays on hire. It is not cut short. A day in use is a day on hire for which the site-hours record shows the machine was used for the agreed purpose. The company writes whether "in use" means engine hours, an operator sign-in, or a work order, and dates that choice. If none of the three is written, days in use stay blank.
A day idle is a day on hire, with the site record showing no use, that does not fall inside planned downtime the company has already named. Planned downtime counts only the maintenance or the transport the company has listed. A blank that nobody can explain is not downtime. Planned downtime in the standard is a manufacturing schedule. Here, the separation of planned downtime from time available stays on the company's own list, and the company fills in the days. How the contract bills stays on the contract. Utilisation divides days in use by days on hire. The rent is not written into the ratio.
If the three records do not match, do not produce a figure
Check-out, site hours, and return inspection each carry this machine's identifier and a date. If one is missing, this period has no utilisation figure. The row says "records incomplete". If the dates conflict, for example if the return is signed before the last site-hours entry, the row says "not matched". The three are not averaged, and the more favourable book is not chosen.
What is checked item by item on the return day is in How to inspect rented equipment on return. This note uses the date of that signature as the end of the days on hire. It does not repeat the checklist. Site hours that were only spoken, and not written into the record, do not count as in use. If the company has not written whether a spoken addition counts, it does not count as in use.
The denominator is the days on hire in this period
Utilisation is days in use divided by days on hire in the same period. Calendar days before check-out are not in the denominator. A contract that has not started, with the machine still in the warehouse, is not pulled down because the calendar is moving. If days on hire are zero, there is no division. The row says "not yet checked out".
The standard's note says continuous operations may use a day or a shift, and that indicators built on a production order then need adjustment. If the company uses a shift rather than a calendar day, the same row states when the shift starts and ends, and those times match check-out and return. If the start and end are not written, the count uses calendar days. The ratio is written as the numerator, the denominator, and the quotient of those two integers. A percentage is not written first and then turned back into days.
Renewal or return needs a line the company has written
The quotient below which a machine is brought up for review is written by the operations owner and dated. Neither the catalogue nor the preview gives that line. Without a date on the line, a ratio that looks low does not by itself return the machine or renew it. The review row records the identifier, the period, the numerator, the denominator, whether the three records are complete, and a decision to renew, to return, or to keep, with a reason.
A decision to return still goes through return inspection. This row does not replace that check. A decision to renew names the new end date and which contract revision it points at. A decision to keep says how the next period will raise the days in use, or says the idle time falls inside planned downtime already written. A blank reason means the decision is not finished.
The days hang on the same identifier
Check-out, site hours, return, and this review use the shared identifier on the asset tag. See How to assign asset tags for equipment. Another machine of the same model is not added into this machine's numerator. A day whose identifier does not match is not counted as in use for any machine, and the row says "identifier not matched".
Issuing a spare part does not change a day in use. Stock is in How to manage spare parts for equipment. If a repair makes the machine unusable, it counts as planned downtime only when that kind of repair is already on the company's downtime list. A repair day that is not listed stays on hire. Whether it was in use is read from the site record.
The period is calculated when the days, the records, and the decision are written
If the meaning of in use is blank, if one of the three records is missing, or if the denominator is not the days on hire, this period has no utilisation. A blank is not filled in as zero, and it is not filled in as fully in use.
Three checks show the figure was actually calculated: on hire, in use, and idle are separated; the identifier and the dates match across the three records; and a renewal or a return has an owner and a date. A blank item means this period is not taken into a renewal.