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Glite Dictionary
machine-hour

machine-hour

5.8
One hour of a machine's running time that measures work done or cost
  • noun
  • /məˈʃin ˌaʊər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : hora máquina
  • To calculate the total cost of production, we need to multiply the machine hours used by the hourly rate.

Examples

  • Employees recorded 150 machine hours during the maintenance check of the equipment.

  • The usage can be measured by machine hours or throughput time, rather than traditional fixed-time depreciation methods.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The factory manager reported that they produced 1,200 widgets in just 200 machine hours.

Surface Forms

machine-hour singular
machine-hours plural

Morphology

machine-hour = machine + hour (transparent) = machine + hour

The meaning is directly interpretable from 'machine' + 'hour' as a unit measuring machine operation lasting one hour.

Etymology

Machine-hour comes from the two simple words machine ('device' or 'tool') and hour ('60 minutes'), so it literally names the amount of work a machine does in one hour. That's why companies use machine-hour to record running time and to help calculate cost, maintenance, or how well a machine works.