The order that shipped late. Again. And why.
The garment export process as it runs on most floors today, next to the same process on Prodman ERP. Tick every line you recognise and see what your cut-to-ship gap, your air freight and your chargebacks are worth in a year.
An export order is not lost on the day it ships late. It is lost in a hundred small silences before that: the lab dip nobody chased, the trim that arrived on Thursday instead of Monday, the line that ran at 48 percent for a week and nobody noticed.
By the time the ex-factory date arrives, the only levers left are air freight, a discount, or a chargeback. All three come out of a CM margin that was thin to begin with.
What follows is the export process written the way it actually runs, not the way the TNA calendar says it runs. Read the left column and tick every line that is true in your unit. Nothing gets submitted anywhere.
Tick every line true in your factory.
Be honest. Nobody is watching. Each one you tick lights up the way the same moment runs on Prodman ERP, and adds what that problem is quietly costing you every year.
Buyer order and planning
The plan lives on the order, not in a file. A stage that slips raises its hand the day it slips.
The Gantt shows every confirmed order against real line capacity, so an impossible date shows as impossible while you can still negotiate it.
Tech pack, approvals, ratios, materials, stages and dispatch all hang off one record that anyone with permission can read.
Sampling and approvals
Lab dips, fit, size set, PP sample and trim approvals sit on the order with a status you can see at a glance.
The approval check is enforced by the system, not by a merchant's judgement under date pressure.
Fabric and trims
Requirement from the order, purchase orders raised against dates, and supplier confirmations in writing on the portal.
Consumption per garment against actual godown balance, with a shortage flagged before the lay is spread.
Leftover fabric and trims are recorded at order close instead of being pushed to a corner of the store.
Cutting
Fabric issued to cutting and pieces produced are both captured, so consumption per garment is a real number.
Size-wise cut, bundled and sewn quantities are visible against the order ratio all the way through.
Sewing lines
The operator scans the bundle and enters produced and rejected. Line output, efficiency and WIP update themselves.
Every stage entry moves quantity forward, so what is lying where is visible without counting bundles.
Defects roll up by line, operator and operation, so the pattern is visible in days rather than in opinions.
Stoppage hours accumulate per machine and per cause across the year.
Washing, embroidery and outsourced work
Sent quantity, received quantity and completion dates are confirmed by the vendor on the supplier portal.
Quantities out and in are captured on the record, so the gap surfaces on the day of receipt.
Finishing, inspection and shipment
In-line and end-line checks catch the fault on the line and the shift that caused it, before the next 3,000 pieces are sewn the same way.
Every stage quantity is compared to the order quantity as the order runs, not at the end.
Size-wise, carton-wise packed quantities come off the same record the floor updated.
After the shipment
Fabric, trims, line hours, outsourced stages, rejects and freight roll into one order cost.
Tick the lines above to see what they cost you.
Assumes materials at 55% of turnover and a 12% net margin, the same assumptions as the ROI calculator, where you can change every one of them.
We set up every factory on site, by hand. That is why we take only a few each quarter.
What a Monday morning looks like after that.
- One page in the morning shows every style, every stage and every line, without walking the floor.
- The eleven open approvals on a style are a list with owners and dates, not a search through WhatsApp.
- Bulk never gets cut on a style the buyer has not approved.
- Trims are ordered backwards from the sewing date, so lines stop waiting on a zip.
- Actual fabric consumption per garment is a number you compare to the costing, every style.
- A line running below target is caught the same day, not at the weekly meeting.
- The washing unit and the embroidery vendor confirm quantities in writing, on the day.
- The cut-to-ship gap is visible from week one, so air freight becomes rare instead of routine.
What owners ask us at this point.
No. Buyer portals track what you report to the buyer. This tracks what is actually happening on your floor, which is the part you need for your own decisions. Most units run both, and the reporting to the buyer gets easier because the numbers underneath are real.
Scan the bundle, scan the line, enter produced and rejected. That is the whole interaction and it takes seconds. We kept it that short on purpose, because every system that asked a line operator to fill a form has failed.
Changes are the normal case in export, so they are handled as changes on the order record, with a date and a name, rather than as a new spreadsheet. That trail is also what lets you go back to the buyer about a late change with evidence.
Printing is where the product was built and proven, on a working factory floor. The core does not care what you make. Ordered stages, machines, promised dates, materials, quality and dispatch are the same shape in an apparel unit. We configure your stages, your units and your paperwork.
We set up every factory on site, by hand, over a few weeks. That is deliberate, and it is also why we take only a few factories each quarter. Start before your next big season, not during it.
Stop putting out fires. Start seeing the floor.
Book a 30-minute demo and we will show you Prodman ERP on a factory like yours. We take only a few factories each quarter, because we set up every one of them on site, by hand.
Taking on a limited group this quarter