Twelve short in size 16, forty over in size 10
The purchase order is for 2,400 dresses across three colours and six sizes, with the brand's usual heavy weighting in 10, 12 and 14. The cutting manager works out the lays with a calculator and a pad: two markers, a ratio of 1-2-2-2-1-1, so many plies per colour. The numbers look right. At packing, size 16 in the floral print is twelve short and there are forty extra size 10s in black.
Somewhere between the order breakdown, the ratio, the plies and a lay that had to be cut short because a roll ran out, the arithmetic slipped. It usually does, a little, on most orders.
The plan is done where nobody can check it
Cut planning is a genuinely fiddly calculation, and the obvious answer is to be more careful. The actual trouble is that the plan lives on a pad, and what happens on the table afterwards is never reconciled with it.
- The order breakdown is copied by hand from the brand's PO into the plan.
- Ratios are chosen to suit the marker, then plies are worked out to hit the totals, with rounding at each step.
- Table length and maximum ply height limit what can go in one lay, and those limits are in someone's head.
- When a lay is changed on the day, the plan is not updated.
- Cut quantities are counted at the bundle stage, if at all, and not compared with the order until packing.
What a wrong cut plan costs
Shortages in a size mean a small recut, which is expensive per garment, needs fabric that may already be used, and can hold up the whole shipment. Overcuts are fabric and labour you paid for and cannot invoice. On orders where the brand counts to the unit, both lead to awkward conversations and sometimes a claim. And the cutting manager spends hours on arithmetic that a computer does better.
A cut order planner that keeps the order in view
- The size and colour breakdown is taken from the brand's purchase order, read from the PDF or spreadsheet they send, and checked by a person before it is used.
- You set your constraints once: table lengths, maximum plies for each fabric type, typical marker widths and your normal cut allowance per size.
- The planner proposes lays with size ratios and ply counts that meet the order within those limits, showing the expected quantity per size against what was ordered.
- The cutting manager can adjust the proposal, for example to reuse a marker that already exists in Gerber or Lectra, and see the effect on each size immediately.
- As each lay is cut, the actual plies are recorded and the planner updates what remains to be cut, so a short lay is made up in the next one.
- Cut quantities per size and colour flow on to the bundle stage and, at the end, are reconciled with packed and shipped quantities.
| Step | Pad and calculator | Cut planner |
|---|---|---|
| Order breakdown | Copied by hand | Read from the PO, then checked |
| Ratios and plies | Worked out, rounded at each step | Proposed within your limits |
| Lay changed on the day | Plan not updated | Remaining quantities recalculated |
| End of order | Count at packing | Cut, packed and shipped reconciled |
A cutting room with the numbers in front of it
The cutting manager starts from a proposed plan and spends time on the judgement calls: which fabric shrinks, which marker is worth reusing, which size the brand always adds to later. When a lay comes up short, the next lay absorbs it without a recount. Shortages are found when there is still fabric on the roll, rather than at the packing table.
Is this your packing table?
- Orders regularly ship short in one or two sizes.
- You have overcut stock you cannot sell back to the brand.
- Cut plans are worked out on paper by one person.
- Changes to a lay on the day are not written down.
- Cut quantities are only compared with the order at the end.