Costing sheets list trims as a price per piece: a button at sixty paise, a label at seventy-five.
Multiply by the pieces on the garment and you have the trims cost. But nobody buys one button.
They are bought in packs, and labels have a minimum, so what you pay is set by what you must
buy, not by what you use.
Two gaps between the price list and the bill
- Spares. A few more buttons than the garment needs, because some are lost,
sewn on wrong or sent as spares in the pack.
- Packs and minimums. A pack of 144 buttons cannot be bought in 100s. A label
supplier who will not print under 2,000 sells you 2,000.
The second is the larger. It depends on the size of the order, so the trims cost per garment is
not one number. It changes with the run.
A worked example
These figures are made up to show the sum. They are not a benchmark and not a claim about any
supplier or price. A shirt takes these trims:
- Buttons: 7 on the shirt and 1 spare, so 8 a garment. Sold in packs of 144
at ₹86.40 a pack, ₹0.60 a button.
- Main label: 1. Minimum 2,000, at ₹0.75 each.
- Care label: 1. Minimum 2,000, at ₹0.45 each.
- Hang tag: 1. Minimum 1,000, at ₹1.20 each.
- Polybag: 1. Sold in packs of 100 at ₹250, ₹2.50 each.
Read as a price list, the trims cost 7 × ₹0.60 + ₹0.75 + ₹0.45 +
₹1.20 + ₹2.50 = ₹9.10 a garment.
What an order of 1,000 actually buys
- Buttons: 8 × 1,000 = 8,000, which is 55.6 packs. Buy 56:
₹4,838.40.
- Main label: 1,000 is under the minimum of 2,000, so ₹1,500.
- Care label: 2,000 at ₹0.45, ₹900.
- Hang tag: exactly the minimum, ₹1,200.
- Polybags: 10 packs, ₹2,500.
The total is ₹10,938.40, which is ₹10.94 a garment. That is
₹1.84, or 20%, more than the price list said.
The same trims on smaller orders
The minimums do not move when the order does:
- 1,000 garments: ₹10,938.40, or ₹10.94 each.
- 500 garments: ₹7,269.20, or ₹14.54 each.
The labels and the tag cost the same as before, spread over half as many garments.
- 200 garments: ₹5,136.80, or ₹25.68 each. Of
that, ₹3,600 is the three minimums, ₹18 a garment.
Against the ₹640 direct cost in the
costing example, the trims are 1.7% on an
order of 1,000 and 4.0% on 200. That is the same effect as the setup costs in the
minimum order article, arriving through
the supplier instead of through the pattern.
Cost trims from the invoice, not from the price list
Take the packs you will really buy, the minimums you will really pay, add them up, and divide
by the garments. The result is the number to put on the sheet.
What to do with the leftovers
An order of 200 leaves 1,800 main labels and 1,800 care labels unused. They are not worth
nothing if you will use them on the next order, and they are worth nothing if you will not. Be
honest about which: labels with a style name or a buyer's name rarely carry over, and plain ones
may. Only count the leftover as an asset if there is a next order you can name.
What the sums leave out
- Made-up prices and minimums. All of them are assumptions in this
example. Use your own supplier's.
- Waste beyond the spare. Buttons sewn on wrong and tags crushed in
packing add to the count; the
rejects and rework article shows how to put a
figure on it.
- Freight and delivery. Small orders from a distant supplier can add more
than the trims cost. Add it to the invoice before you divide.
- Other trims. Zips, interlining, elastic and thread each have their own
packs. The same sum works for them; for thread, see
the thread article.
Put the figure into the costing calculator as part of the direct
cost. And before an order is quoted, run it for the run you are quoting. The same shirt has one
trims cost at 1,000 and another at 200.