system efficiency

How well it works

System efficiency measures how well a system converts inputs into useful outputs, expressed as the ratio of work produced to energy or resources consumed.

A heating system's efficiency indicates how much fuel becomes usable heat versus waste.

The term applies broadly—to machines, organizations, supply chains, or processes: The new software improved system efficiency by 40%.

Higher system efficiency means less waste and lower operating costs.

renewable energySelf-replenishing natural power
process improvementEnhancing operational efficiency systematically
just in timeAt the last moment
energy conservationUnchanging total in closed systems
carbon footprintTotal greenhouse gases produced

memory management · load balancing · data compression · smart grids · power grid · metabolic rate · resource allocation · nutrient absorption · fuel economy · bang for buck · parallel processing · energy storage · energy audits · hardware acceleration · cloud computing · sustainable design · zero waste · cycle time

Opposites

performance optimization

system efficiencyinefficiency

Suboptimal use of resources

waste · wastefulness · dysfunction · system failure · sluggishness

design philosophy

system efficiencyredundancy

Needless duplication

brute force · raw power · bloat · overhead · overengineering

resource consumption

system efficiencyprofligacy

Reckless, wasteful extravagance

overconsumption · extravagance · leakage · squander

Family

system, systems, systematic, systematically, systematize, systematization, systemic, systemically, efficiency

Familiarity: Top 200,000
Profile: Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G