Act on the result
Allocate the scarce resource to the highest valid contribution while respecting demand limits.
Educational only: Business decision support, not accounting, tax or legal advice.
Privacy: No account is required. Tool inputs and results stay in this browser. Anonymous categorical usage analytics send only governed page, tool, cluster and action identifiers; tool inputs and results are never sent. Error monitoring is disabled. Optional saved state stays only on this device.
Update policy: Reviewed when formulas or official dependencies change.
Scope: Market-neutral small-business planning using your own assumptions.
What this planner helps you decide
Best for
Operators allocating a genuinely constrained resource across competing products or services.
Outputs
Contribution per constrained unit, feasible mix, total contribution and unused capacity.
Start here
Define the bottleneck unit once, then enter demand and contribution assumptions for each option.
Use a different tool when: Do not use this to allocate scarce capacity to a profitable product mix; use Capacity-constrained Profit Mix Planner for that decision. Use this tool to choose the highest-contribution use of a constrained operating resource.
Profit & break-even
Capacity Constraint Profit: contribution per constrained unit
Contribution per constrained unit, feasible mix, total contribution and unused capacity.
Amounts use the same currency as your inputs. No currency conversion is performed.
Capacity Constraint Profit
Test whether a bounded capacity expansion serves enough constrained demand to recover its period cost and improve contribution.
Your numbers stay in this browser
Enter whole units of demand for the period.
Enter the maximum whole units the current operation can serve.
Enter revenue earned per served unit. Use one consistent ex-tax currency basis.
Enter cost avoided when one unit is not served. Use one consistent ex-tax currency basis.
Enter the whole additional units available in this scenario.
Enter the incremental cost attributable to this period. Use one consistent ex-tax currency basis.
Decision result
Review the operating threshold and incremental comparison on the same entered capacity, cost and demand basis.
- Units served before expansion
- 100 units
- Constrained demand units
- 50 units
- Units served after expansion
- 130 units
- Incremental units served
- 30 units
- Incremental contribution
- 260.00
- Expansion break-even units
- 9 units
Scenario comparison
Each row names the assumption axis changed from the baseline.
ScenarioResultDifference
Entered scenario260.00Baseline
Lower Capacity expansion units224.00-36.00
Higher Capacity expansion units296.0036.00
Save these results, change an input, then compare the updated figures with this baseline.
The baseline is temporary in this tab and is not added to shared scenario links or generated reports.
Calculation details
View calculation detailsView the formulas and inputs used for these results.
Units served before expansion
Units served before expansion
min(demand units, current capacity units)100 unitsResult100 units
Uses the exact shared engine result and only the entered market-neutral operating assumptions. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Capacity Constraint Profit Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Units served before expansionDemand Units
- 150
- Units served before expansionCurrent Capacity Units
- 100
- Units served before expansionSelling Price Per Unit
- 20
- Units served before expansionVariable Cost Per Unit
- 8
- Units served before expansionCapacity Expansion Units
- 30
- Units served before expansionExpansion Period Cost
- 100
Constrained demand units
Constrained demand units
max(0, demand units − current capacity units)50 unitsResult50 units
Uses the exact shared engine result and only the entered market-neutral operating assumptions. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Capacity Constraint Profit Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Constrained demand unitsDemand Units
- 150
- Constrained demand unitsCurrent Capacity Units
- 100
- Constrained demand unitsSelling Price Per Unit
- 20
- Constrained demand unitsVariable Cost Per Unit
- 8
- Constrained demand unitsCapacity Expansion Units
- 30
- Constrained demand unitsExpansion Period Cost
- 100
Units served after expansion
Units served after expansion
min(demand units, current capacity units + capacity expansion units)130 unitsResult130 units
Uses the exact shared engine result and only the entered market-neutral operating assumptions. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Capacity Constraint Profit Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Units served after expansionDemand Units
- 150
- Units served after expansionCurrent Capacity Units
- 100
- Units served after expansionSelling Price Per Unit
- 20
- Units served after expansionVariable Cost Per Unit
- 8
- Units served after expansionCapacity Expansion Units
- 30
- Units served after expansionExpansion Period Cost
- 100
Incremental units served
Incremental units served
units served after expansion − units served before expansion30 unitsResult30 units
Uses the exact shared engine result and only the entered market-neutral operating assumptions. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Capacity Constraint Profit Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Incremental units servedDemand Units
- 150
- Incremental units servedCurrent Capacity Units
- 100
- Incremental units servedSelling Price Per Unit
- 20
- Incremental units servedVariable Cost Per Unit
- 8
- Incremental units servedCapacity Expansion Units
- 30
- Incremental units servedExpansion Period Cost
- 100
Incremental contribution
Incremental contribution
incremental units served × (selling price per unit − variable cost per unit) − expansion period cost260.00Result260.00
Uses the exact shared engine result and only the entered market-neutral operating assumptions. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Capacity Constraint Profit Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Incremental contributionDemand Units
- 150
- Incremental contributionCurrent Capacity Units
- 100
- Incremental contributionSelling Price Per Unit
- 20
- Incremental contributionVariable Cost Per Unit
- 8
- Incremental contributionCapacity Expansion Units
- 30
- Incremental contributionExpansion Period Cost
- 100
Expansion break-even units
Expansion break-even units
ceiling(expansion period cost / contribution per served unit), when contribution is positive9 unitsResult9 units
Uses the exact shared engine result and only the entered market-neutral operating assumptions. The engine retains raw precision; display formatting does not feed calculation.
Capacity Constraint Profit Planner formulas →Inputs used by these formula steps
- Expansion break-even unitsDemand Units
- 150
- Expansion break-even unitsCurrent Capacity Units
- 100
- Expansion break-even unitsSelling Price Per Unit
- 20
- Expansion break-even unitsVariable Cost Per Unit
- 8
- Expansion break-even unitsCapacity Expansion Units
- 30
- Expansion break-even unitsExpansion Period Cost
- 100
Inputs used
- Demand units
- 150
- Current capacity units
- 100
- Selling price per unit
- 20
- Variable cost per unit
- 8
- Capacity expansion units
- 30
- Expansion cost for the period
- 100
Open this calculator with preset values
This calculator supports documented, shareable scenario URLs. Compatible assistants and applications can construct links using the parameters below.
Scenario links contain only allowlisted numeric and closed-choice inputs shown in the URL; Margin101 excludes free text and identifying fields. Anyone you share the URL with can read those numbers, so do not include private or identifying data.
| Parameter | Meaning | Unit | Allowed values | Presence | Default |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| capacityExpansionUnits | Enter the whole additional units available in this scenario. | units/period | 0 to 100000000 | Required | 30 |
| currentCapacityUnits | Enter the maximum whole units the current operation can serve. | units/period | 0 to 100000000 | Required | 100 |
| demandUnits | Enter whole units of demand for the period. | units/period | 0 to 100000000 | Required | 150 |
| expansionPeriodCost | Enter the incremental cost attributable to this period. Use one consistent ex-tax currency basis. | currency units/decision period, ex tax | 0 to 10000000 | Required | 100 |
| sellingPricePerUnit | Enter revenue earned per served unit. Use one consistent ex-tax currency basis. | currency units/unit, ex tax | 0 to 10000000 | Required | 20 |
| variableCostPerUnit | Enter cost avoided when one unit is not served. Use one consistent ex-tax currency basis. | currency units/unit, ex tax | 0 to 10000000 | Required | 8 |
Capacity Constraint Profit: contribution per constrained unit
Contribution per bottleneck unit is useful only when the entered resource is the actual constraint.
Formula summary
- Primary formula
- incremental units served × (selling price per unit − variable cost per unit) − expansion period cost.
Data used here
- The estimate uses your inputs and the general business formula documented in the methodology.
Decision checks
Stress-test the decision
Retest lower demand, higher unit cost and a different bottleneck.
When this estimate can be misleading
- Volumes, rates, capacity, time, costs and contribution are your records or scenarios; no benchmark or demand forecast is embedded.
- Keep all money and operating records on one consistent ex-tax basis and decision period.
- Incremental comparisons exclude disclosed sunk cost and do not guarantee demand, delivery capacity or a commercial outcome.
- This is educational business decision support, not accounting, tax, legal or financial advice.
- Contribution per bottleneck unit is useful only when the entered resource is the actual constraint.
Educational estimate, not advice. See all assumptions & limitations →
Related reading
Guides to interpret the decision and its assumptions.
- Make More or Raise Price? Manufacturing Capacity
Compare capacity, price and product-mix levers using contribution per constrained unit without forecasting demand.
Read guide
Frequently asked questions
How do I choose the highest-contribution use of a constrained operating resource?
Allocate the scarce resource to the highest valid contribution while respecting demand limits.
Which planning assumptions should I stress-test?
Compare a plausible alternative scenario and verify the decision-critical assumption that changes the plan most.