ORIGINAL COMPANY-CONTEXT PRACTICE
Calculate equipment utilization from hour-meter readings
Original practice scenario: A hypothetical fleet dashboard divides accumulated operating hours by calendar time. Machines have meter replacements, missing readings and different scheduled availability. Define a reliable calculation.
Written for independent practice using company context; this is not a verified question from a company interview.
A REASONED APPROACH
Model answer.
Define utilization relative to an explicit availability denominator and preserve meter generations. Raw counter differences can cross replacements or observation gaps and do not automatically describe continuous operation.
Work through it
- Partition readings by equipment and meter generation, deduplicate observations and calculate valid consecutive increments with event-time ordering and reset checks.
- Allocate increments to supported reporting intervals under a stated assumption, flagging gaps too large for defensible allocation instead of inventing detailed activity.
- Compare observed operating hours with scheduled available hours, separating maintenance, unscheduled downtime and unknown coverage at the intended fleet grain.
Tradeoffs to discuss
- Coarse intervals reduce interpolation assumptions but hide short idle periods; fine-grained reporting needs correspondingly strong telemetry.
Common pitfalls
- Do not allow utilization above the plausible interval without investigating counter or scheduling errors.
- Calendar hours and scheduled productive hours answer different questions and must not be mixed silently.