Run at Rate

It is the commercial gate, not a technical demonstration. A line that produces good parts one at a time has proved nothing; Run at Rate asks whether it produces them at the contracted pace for hours without intervention. Typical trials run anywhere from one to eight hours, and the acceptance criterion is stated as a percentage of nominal rate achieved over the window, commonly 80 to 100 percent depending on the customer.

What catches suppliers out is the word normal. The trial is supposed to include the things that actually happen: tool changes, part presentation variation, operator turnover between shifts. A rate achieved by running the line with engineers standing beside it and hand-feeding parts is not a rate the customer will accept, and most specifications say so explicitly.

For quoting, Run at Rate is a scheduling and risk item rather than a line item. It happens late, it happens at the customer's site, and a failed trial means returning with engineers at your own cost. Where a specification defines the trial duration, the acceptance percentage and who bears the cost of a repeat, those three sentences deserve more attention than most of the equipment description.

What a Run at Rate specification usually fixes

• Duration: the sustained window, often 1 to 8 hours of continuous production.
• Acceptance rate: percentage of nominal output that counts as a pass, commonly 80 to 100 percent.
• Conditions: production tooling, production operators, normal material presentation.
• Quality gate: parts produced must also pass dimensional and process requirements, not merely exist.
• Failure consequence: who pays for the repeat trial, and how many attempts are allowed before remedies apply.