throughput
THROO-put
/ˈθruːˌpʊt/
The amount of material or items passing through a system or process.
It is a measure of the actual rate of production, not just the capacity.
The story behind the word. A literal combination of 'through' and 'put'. It describes how much you can 'put through' a pipe, a machine, or a company in a given time.
Word relationships
- production rate: Production rate is a general term; throughput is more technical and often used in systems analysis.
- stagnation: A total lack of movement or flow through a system.
Commonly confused with
- capacity: Capacity is the maximum possible flow; throughput is the actual flow occurring.
Collocations
- maximum throughput
- data throughput
- increase throughput
Example sentences
- "By identifying the bottleneck, we were able to increase the factory's throughput by twenty percent." Manufacturing
- "The network's throughput was limited by the old router's processing speed." Computing
Memory hook
How much can you 'Put' 'Through' the system? The rate of flow.
When not to use
Do not use to mean 'output' unless you are specifically talking about the rate of flow through the system.
Fun facts
- In the Theory of Constraints, throughput is defined as the rate at which the system generates money through sales.
Related words
Explore more words
output, productivity, capacity, efficiency, bandwidth, production
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