Profit per printer-hour: which order earns its machine time?

Suppose one order leaves $24 after all included costs and occupies a printer for 4 hours. Another leaves $36 but takes 12 hours. The second earns more per order; the first earns $6 per printer-hour compared with $3. If printer capacity is your bottleneck, that difference matters.

These are hypothetical orders, not promised earnings. The comparison assumes every relevant cost is included. Revenue divided by print time is revenue per hour, not profit per hour.

Start with your order revenue, subtract your cost total, and divide what remains by machine time. Change the hours without changing the selling price to see how a slower profile affects the result. Then try adding a cost you forgot.

Three printers running for 4 hours use 12 printer-hours, even if the order finishes in 4 hours. Count every plate run and the reprints actually used for the order. Do not count the same machine time twice when combining a detailed plate estimate with an order total.

Human labor is different. Charge hands-on setup, assembly and packing as labor costs, rather than treating every unattended print hour as an hour of labor. For an estimate, use realistic slicer times; for a completed order, compare them with the actual machine time.

Profit per printer-hour helps compare demand for scarce machine capacity. It does not replace margin, order profit, lead time or the probability of selling the product. A fast order with almost no profit may still be less useful than a slower order with healthy earnings and reliable demand.

Compare jobs with the same cost assumptions. If depreciation or failure reserve is included in one estimate but excluded in another, the hourly figures are not directly comparable. Review margin versus markup before deciding on a discount, and use quantity pricing to protect the cost floor on a larger order.