Work out drive through throughput instantly with clear inputs, formula shown and shareable results.
Drive-through throughput is set by the slowest station, not by the total service time, because the stations operate in parallel on different cars. Cutting the bottleneck by five seconds adds meaningful capacity; cutting a non-bottleneck station adds none.
Capacity
Cars per hour = 3,600 / Bottleneck station seconds
Peak utilisation
Utilisation % = Peak hour cars / Capacity x 100
Because while one car pays, another is ordering and a third is collecting. Total time affects each customer's experience, not the rate of flow.
Order taking at lunch peaks and collection when kitchen output lags. Which one binds shifts through the day.