Line time
Also called Run time, Machine time
The hours a production line is committed to your run, which is what a co-manufacturer is really selling you.
A co-manufacturer’s scarce resource is not ingredients or labour, it is hours on a line. Everything they charge you is ultimately a way of pricing that, which is why their rates fall with volume — a longer run means fewer setups per unit produced.
Nominal line speed is misleading on its own. A line rated at twelve thousand units an hour will not deliver twelve thousand times eight in a shift, once you account for startup, changeovers, breaks, and the inevitable stoppage.
When you book a slot you are buying a window, not a quantity. If your ingredients arrive late, the window does not move — it goes to whoever is next.
NextBatch keeps this straight for you. Cost per unit, tolling tiers, yield and traceability all derive from the same plan you and your co-manufacturer share — so none of it is a number somebody typed twice.
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