Operations
Cups per day
Term from the vending glossary
Key sizing metric for hot-beverage machines: expected daily throughput. Determines grinder capacity, boiler capacity, and whether a second machine is needed.
Daily cup count is the metric that determines machine selection—not price. It defines bean and water tank capacity, service frequency, and whether the brew group is sized for the load.
What matters is planning for peak demand, not average. A location serving 200 cups daily, with 80 cups between 8:30 and 9:00, has different requirements than one with even distribution. Operators who look only at the daily total will purchase a machine that fits the numbers but creates queues during peak hours.
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Related terms
Bean-to-CupFully automatic coffee machine that grinds whole beans fresh to order and brews. Delivers highest cup quality but requires regular cleaning of the brewing group.Milk systemComponent for milk preparation: Instant (powder), Fresh Milk (chilled) or Dual-Milk (both). Determines beverage quality and cleaning effort significantly.Super-automatic coffee machineMachine that automatically executes the entire coffee preparation process: grinding, dosing, brewing, and dispensing. In the vending context, always designed as unattended self-service.Brew groupCore component of a fully automatic coffee machine: compresses ground coffee into a puck, forces hot water at defined pressure (9 bar) through it, and automatically ejects the spent grounds. Removable for easy cleaning.ThroughputNumber of vends from a machine per time unit — hour, day or month. Essential for machine category selection (hot beverages: 80–150 cups/hour for office machines, 200+ for high-performance machines) and for cost-effectiveness analysis. Excessive throughput for an undersized machine causes continuous duty and premature wear.