Fibre to Rail
Two things break a standard ERP in this trade. In the mill, the same cloth is not the same cloth: two dye lots of one colour do not match on the shop floor, so stock has to be kept apart by lot and shade and an order filled from one of them. In the factory and the shop, one product is really a matrix — a style multiplied by colour and size — and a system that files every cell as an unrelated item can tell you that you hold four hundred shirts, but not that you are out of medium in black.
Yarn lot to the shop rail
The mill
Spinning, weaving or knitting, dyeing and finishing, each a stage with its own lot. Yarn arrives by count and blend, cloth leaves by width and GSM, and the dye lot that joins them is carried the whole way so a roll can always be traced back to the batch it was coloured in.
- Lot through every stage: yarn, greige, dyed, finished
- Dye lot and shade band held against the roll
- Dyeing recipes, with batch cost and true yield
- Roll card: number, length, weight and four-point defects
- Bought by weight, processed by length, sold by either
Fabric trade
Selling cloth is selling a lot, not an item. An order is reserved against the shade it was approved on, cut lengths come off named rolls, and what is left of the roll stays visible instead of disappearing into an average.
- Reserve by lot and shade, not by item code
- Cut lengths off a named roll, with the remnant kept
- Width, GSM and shade printed on the sales line
- Swatch and sample issues tracked against the buyer
- One stock, priced by metre, kilo or roll
The garment factory
A style, its tech pack and its size set become a cut plan: a marker, a lay, a ply height and the bundles that come off it. Every bundle carries a ticket, every operation is scanned against it, and the day's output is what the piece rate is paid on.
- Style, colour and size as one matrix, not separate items
- Tech pack on the style: measurements, trims, construction
- Cut plan with marker, lay, ply height and output by size
- Bundle tickets scanned through each sewing operation
- Piece rate paid from counted output, operator by operator
- CMT work out and back, reconciled against fabric issued
Apparel trade & distribution
Wholesale and retail off the same matrix. Buyers order by size ratio, shops are allocated on their own size curve, and what did not sell is seen as a season rather than as stock of no particular age.
- Barcode per cell: style, colour and size
- Ratio packs ordered and received as one line
- Season and collection, with stock aged by season
- Allocation and replenishment on each shop's size curve
- Transfers between shops to rebuild a broken size run
- Markdown by season, and a channel for seconds
What it covers
The matrix
One style, many cells. Colour and size are attributes of the same product rather than a hundred unrelated codes, so a purchase, a cut plan, a transfer and a till receipt all speak about the same thing. The matrix is what makes “out of medium in black” a question the system can answer.
Lot, shade and roll
Two dye lots of one colour are two different goods to anyone who has to put them side by side. Stock is kept apart by lot and shade band, an order is filled from a single lot where it can be, and the exception is a decision somebody makes rather than something the system does quietly.
Cut, make and trim
The cut plan is where fabric is won or lost. Marker efficiency, ply height and end-of-roll wastage are planned before the knife, and what the subcontractor received is reconciled against what came back.
The season
Apparel does not age like a spare part. A collection has a life, and stock that is three seasons old is a different problem from stock that is three months old. Season sits on the item and follows it into the ageing, the markdown and the buy for next year.
Packed, marked and shipped
A garment shipment is not a weight, it is a carton list. Each carton is declared by the cells inside it — solid or ratio — and carries the buyer’s shipping marks, so the packing list, the invoice and what is actually in the box agree at the port. Garments travel on the hanger or flat packed, and because they fill a container long before they weigh one, the booking is made on volume.
Costing that survives the matrix
A shirt is not costed like a bolt. Fabric consumption comes off the marker, trims come off the cell, and the CMT rate and the piece rate land on the same order — so the margin is read per style and per colour, not averaged across a season.
Other solutions
Heavy Transport Management
Trip orders through to driver settlement, for fleets moving freight across long distances.
Last-Mile LogisticsLast-Mile Delivery Operations
Built for rider fleets paid per drop, where profitability is decided one rider and one day at a time.
Real EstateHomei
From the first metre of land to the last handed-over key: approvals, masterplan, launch, sales, collections and accounting on one platform.
See ERPNext running on your data
A 45-minute walkthrough tailored to your industry. No commitment.