Industrial time represents time as a decimal number. Instead of hours, minutes and seconds, it is therefore a single number with decimal places. Industrial time is an important component of time recording and the transfer of working times to corresponding systems. Salaries and wages are settled during the industrial period.
Industry time definition
A normal working hour consists of 60 minutes. An industrial hour, on the other hand, consists of 100 industrial minutes. Industrial time is therefore based on the metric system, in which a whole always has a value of 100. We know this from money (100 cents is 1 euro) or units of measurement (100 centimeters is 1 meter).
One hour is therefore 1 in industrial time. 90 minutes is 1.5. This conversion is important for the documentation of working time, as it facilitates data management. Calculations with decimal numbers are easier than calculations with real time.
All modern time recording systems also use industrial time. Of course also the timecardwhich automatically converts standard time into industrial time.
The simplicity quickly becomes apparent when we try to add several standard times together:
- 3 hours, 5 minutes, 43 seconds
- 5 hours, 56 minutes, 39 seconds
- 7 hours, 28 minutes, 34 seconds
Each time the number of minutes or seconds exceeds the value of 60, we must add the value 1 to the preceding component. With more working hours, the calculation becomes more complex.
Industry time calculation
As mentioned, the industry time extrapolates everything to a maximum value of 100. Industrial hours, industrial minutes and industrial seconds therefore have a value of 1 as a whole as soon as the following component reaches the value 100.
In this way, real minutes result in industrial hours (also called decimal hours):
- 30 seconds = 0.01
- 1 minute = 0.02
- 2 minutes = 0.03
- 5 minutes = 0.08
- 10 minutes = 0.17
- 15 minutes = 0.25
- 20 minutes = 0.33
- 45 minutes = 0.75
- 60 minutes = 1
A working time of 3 hours and 45 minutes would therefore correspond to 3.75 industrial hours. As already mentioned, industrial time is based on the metric system:
- 1 normal hour (60 normal minutes) = 1 industrial hour (100 industrial minutes)
- 1/2 normal hour (30 normal minutes) = 0.5 industrial hour (50 industrial minutes)
- 1 normal minute (60 normal seconds) = 1 industrial minute (100 industrial seconds)
3.75 industrial hours are therefore 375 industrial minutes or 37500 industrial seconds. This already makes it clear why the calculation is easier than with standard time. 375 industrial minutes and 225 industrial minutes can simply be added together.
There are formulas for the correct calculation of industrial time:
Formulas for calculating industrial time
Normal time can be converted into industrial time using this formula:
Industry time = real hours + real minutes/60
Example: An employee has worked 7 hours and 34 minutes. Then the calculation is:
7 + 34/60 = 7.56 industrial hours
The calculation becomes a little more complex if we also include the real seconds. Then we apply the following formula:
Industrial time = real hours + real minutes/60 + real seconds/3600
Example: An employee has worked for 4 hours 28 minutes and 17 seconds. Then we do the math:
4 + 28/60 + 17/3600 = 4.47 industrial hours
Industrial hours are always calculated to two decimal places.
The reverse conversion from industrial time to standard time is a little more difficult, as decimal numbers are difficult to convert to standard time with complete accuracy.
One example makes this clear:
The conversion into real minutes from the industrial hours serves as the basis. This component is clearly staggered:
- 0.25 industrial hours = 15 standard minutes
- 0.5 industrial hours = 30 standard minutes
- 0.75 industrial hours = 45 standard minutes
- 1 industrial hour = 60 standard minutes
4.75 industrial hours are therefore 4 hours and 45 minutes in normal time.
However, industry hours are rarely spent in exactly these areas. A decimal number such as 5.38 industrial hours is more likely. For the conversion to standard time, we can ignore the decimal place. We transfer the 5 full hours to normal time. The decimal places are more difficult.
To determine the real minutes, we multiply the industry minutes by 60:
Real minutes = industry minutes x 60
In our example:
0,38 x 60 = 22,8
This shows the problem with the conversion: 22.8 minutes is approximately 23 minutes, but not an exact standard time. We therefore round up to 23 and obtain 5 hours and 23 minutes of standard time from 5.38 industrial hours. However, we would still have to convert the 0.8 standard minutes into real seconds for a completely accurate figure. The calculation is therefore more complex than the other way round.
