Professional Pyrotechnic Operator/Fireworks Crew Training
Fireworks Show Setup Time

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Created by Michael Tockstein © 2006 Pyrotechnic Innovations
The Graph

How was the graph created?
The graph to the right is what you will use to determine your setup time. The stars represent actual data taken from my shows, and the strait line is the mathematical "guess" you use to find your setup time. The mathematical "guess" is based upon the least squares method of statistical modeling. In layman's terms, it predicts the line based upon the data points that I provided. You can see that the predicted line is very close to the data taken from actual shows.

How do I read the graph?
The graph's horizonal ("X") axis is the setup factor found from equation 1 below. Don't be intimidated by the equation below, it's actually quite simple. The vertical ("Y") axis is the time it will take to setup your show. To sum it all up:

  • Horizonal Axis = Setup Factor
  • Vertical Axis = Setup Time
    • Fireworks Show Setup Time

    How long will it take me to setup my Fireworks Show?
     The last thing you want is to fire your show late, as that will not make for a very happy customer. Sometimes it might be hard to judge how long it will take to setup a certain show, especially if you have not worked that particular venue before. After collecting data from numerous shows and much analytical thought, I have devised a relatively simple way to determine how long it will take to setup your fireworks show based upon a few variables. These variables include the number of crew you have, the experience of each crew member (quality factor), the number of shots, along with a few others such as if your shooting out of mortar boxes (using sand) or from a barge. If the quality factor is chosen correctly, this is a fairly precise way to determine your needed setup time.
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    The Equation

    How do I get the Horizontal ("X") Axis Value?
     The following equation is used to obtain the X-Axis Value:

    Quality Factor Scale
     The quality factor is the most important part of the equation, so time must be spent understanding it. The following is the list of quality factor values and the corresponding criteria. Your quality factor choice for each memeber of your crew must match closely to what I would have chosen for them in order for the equation to be accurate, so keep in mind that I have a pretty high standard, choose your quality factors wisely.

    Quality Factor:
  • Q = 10, only given to a person with tons of experience, can do everything without asking a single question, and works extremely fast.
  • Q = 9, someone who works really hard, has lots of experience, and is really motivated.
  • Q = 8, someone who works just as hard as a "9", but less experience.
  • Q = 7, someone who works hard, lacks alot of experience, but can handle any task after only being shown once.
  • Q = 6, someone who works at an average pace, moderate to low amount of experience, not alot of initiative, but does what you tell them to.
  • Q = 5, someone who works at an average pace, little experience, not much initiative.
  • Q = 4, someone who works realitively slow, most likely due to their inexperience, and for the same reason, not much initiative.
  • Q = 3, someone who works really slow, poor work ethic, has to be told what to do next every step of the way regardless of their experience.
  • Q = 2, someone who is pretty much useless, stands around most of the time, not willing to learn, has to be told over and over how to do something.
  • Q = 1, absolutely useless, did not hardly work at all, took no initiate to learn anything.
  • Q = 0, is not used since it wouldn't make sense.

    Examples
     Example 1: For a show with 500 shots, a crew of 7 with quality factors of 4, 7, 5, 5, 6, 8, 3, and no sand, barge, or set pieces, your setup equation (equation 1) will look like this:

    Setup Value = [(1)*(1)*500*7] / [0.1*(4+7+5+5+6+8+3)*log(7)]

    Which would equal = 1090

    Now taking that value and matching it to the horizontal axis of the graph, and then reading the value of the vertical axis that corresponds to the point of the "least squares" line, (shown on the graph below)
                                                

    You now have a setup time of around 7.5 hours.

    To show how much influence the quality factor has on the output of the equation, we shall use the same example using a better crew, with higher quality factors:

    Example 2: For a show with 500 shots, a crew of 7 with quality factors of 4, 7, 7, 8, 6, 9, 6, and no sand, barge, or set pieces, your setup equation (equation 1) will look like this:

    Setup Value = [(1)*(1)*500*7] / [0.1*(4+7+7+8+6+9+6)*log(7)]

    Which would equal = 881

    Now taking that value and matching it to the horizontal axis of the graph, and then reading the value of the vertical axis that corresponds to the point of the "least squares" line, (shown on the graph below)
                                                

    You now have a setup time of around 6.25 hours, a difference of over an hour with a good crew, which would make sense.
    • Where did this equation come from?
     This equation took numerous iterations to evolve since originally conceived. A step by step systematic approach was taken to derive the final result. These steps are shown below:

    Step 1 - Originally, the simplest possible form was tried, just the number of shells divided by the number of crew to give a "shot per person" type of answer. When plotted alongside the time it took to setup an actual show, the graph was not accurate, nor consistent, therefore useless. So it was fairly obvious that there were some other factors that needed to be added to the equation.
    Step 2 - Knowing that each crew member had his/her own working pace, and that experience and work ethic played a big role in the length of time needed to set a show up with a given crew, a "Quality" factor was added to each crew member. The quality factor added to the accuracy of the equation slightly, but the equation was still not consistent with it's prediction where large crews were used.
    Step 3 - I have had all different sized crews before, and made a key observation when the crew reached a really large size. There came a point where there was not enough work for everyone, and alot of people found themselves standing around a good portion of the time. Therefore, a logarithmic dependence on the number of crew was used in the equation. The logarithm implies that the efficiency of adding more crew starts to decrease at a certain threshold.
    Step 3 - The equation was now becoming fairly consistent for certain types of shows. When shows that utilized sand boxes, set pieces, or were setup on a barge were used in the equation, the equation became inconsistent again. Since these type of shows add additional time per shot, a factor was added to accomidate for this. This solved the problem. The equation now became consistent and was able to accurately predict setup times.