Knitted Bag Capacity Booking: How 200,000 pcs a Month Is Planned, Reserved and Released
How far ahead does a knitted bag programme have to reserve production capacity? Capacity runs at 7 production lines and about 200,000 pcs per month, which is roughly 9,000 pieces across a 22-working-day month, and it is booked rather than held open. A standard 30-day bulk run needs its bed slot reserved about 45 days ahead, and a Q4 shipment needs about 60. This article breaks the monthly number down, shows what a reservation actually buys, and prices the three ways a late booking costs money.
What Capacity Means on a Knit Line
Capacity on a knitted bag programme is bed time measured in pieces per day: 7 production lines at about 200,000 pcs per month, which is roughly 9,000 pieces across a 22-working-day month, and it is consumed by the piece rather than by the order.
That last distinction is the one buyers run into. A programme placing 100 pcs and a programme placing 20,000 pcs both consume bed time in proportion to pieces, but they consume planning attention in very different ways, and it is the planning attention that runs out first. Every piece knitted occupies a bed for a cycle — about 9 minutes on a first run and about 8 minutes once the line has been tuned — and every change of programme occupies the bed for a re-setup. A month of 200,000 pieces is therefore not 200,000 divided by anything; it is a schedule of programmes, each with its own set-up, yarn booking and inspection slot, fitted into 22 working days.
The consequence for a buyer is simple and worth internalising: capacity is not a gate that opens when an order is placed. It is a schedule that was filled before the order arrived, and the question to ask is not whether capacity exists but which slot is free and what it takes to hold it.
The 200,000 pcs per Month, Broken Down
About 200,000 pcs per month across 7 production lines works out at roughly 9,000 pieces per working day across the floor, 1,286 per line per day, and about 160 pieces per line per eight-hour shift at a 9-minute cycle once set-ups are counted.
| Measure | Figure | What it means for a booking |
|---|---|---|
| Production lines | 7 | Each line takes one programme at a time, plus its set-up |
| Monthly output | About 200,000 pcs | The whole floor, across all programmes running that month |
| Working days per month | About 22 | The denominator buyers usually forget when converting to a daily rate |
| Pieces per working day | Roughly 9,000 | What the floor clears at full plan |
| Pieces per line per day | About 1,286 | The unit a single programme competes for |
| Cycle time per piece | About 9 minutes first run, 8 minutes after tuning | The conversion from pieces to bed hours |
| Bulk window per programme | 30 days | Including yarn booking, knitting, finishing and inspection |
Two caveats keep the arithmetic honest. First, the daily figure assumes a mixed programme load; a month of nothing but large totes produces fewer pieces than a month of pouches, because the cycle is set by the body, not by the schedule. Second, set-up time is real and is the reason a fragmented month produces less than a consolidated one: a programme that runs 100 pcs and then hands the bed to another programme pays a re-setup at each end, and enough small programmes in a month will consume more bed hours than the pieces account for.
Booking Windows: How Far Ahead to Reserve
Reserve about 45 days ahead for a standard 30-day bulk run and about 60 for a Q4 shipment: 45 covers yarn booking at 10 days, the 30-day run and a buffer, and 60 covers the peak-season squeeze on top of that.
The window is built from three blocks, not guessed. Yarn booking is the longest pole at 10 days or more, and on a custom or dope-dyed shade it can run longer. The bulk run itself is 30 days from handover: yarn across the first 10, knitting across days 8 to 20, finishing and trim across days 18 to 26, and inspection, packing and release across days 24 to 30. Add a buffer for the sampling window of 7 working days if the programme is new, plus the approval cycle on the buyer side, which is the variable nobody else can control. Forty-five days is what that stack comes to when the yarn is a stock shade and the approval is prompt.
- Standard reservation window
- About 45 days before despatch
- Q4 or peak-season window
- About 60 days before despatch
- Yarn booking
- 10 days or more, longer on a custom shade
- Sampling, if the programme is new
- 7 working days, plus the buyer approval cycle
- Bulk production
- 30 days from handover
- Inspection and release
- Days 24 to 30, at AQL 2.5 under ISO 2859-1
- Despatch term
- FOB Xiamen, with CIF and DDP available
What a Reservation Actually Buys
A reservation buys three things: a named bed slot, a yarn booking placed against it, and an inspection date — and it does not buy the right to change the specification later, which is why a reserved slot should be paired with a frozen brief.
Buyers sometimes treat a reservation as a soft intention and are surprised when it behaves like a commitment. Once a slot is held, yarn is booked against it and trim is ordered against it, because a bed slot without material is not a slot. That means a reservation creates a cost if it is cancelled late, and it creates an obligation on the buyer side to have the specification and the artwork settled by the date the slot opens. The good news is that the same mechanism protects the buyer: a reserved slot does not move when a larger programme arrives, which is exactly what an unreserved slot does.
The Three Costs of Booking Late
Booking late costs money in three ways, and the third is the largest: an expedited yarn booking, a compressed inspection, and — most often — a delivery date that slips by a full shipping cycle rather than by the few days actually lost.
The first is direct. Yarn that would have been booked at 10 days gets booked at a premium or drawn from a reserve, and a custom shade that needed 10 days may not be available at all, forcing a stock substitute the buyer did not want. The second is inspection time: a run finished in a hurry arrives at the pre-shipment inspection with less conditioning time, and a body measured before it has relaxed produces measurements that are wrong in both directions. The third is the one that hurts. A run that finishes three days after the intended vessel sailing does not arrive three days late; it arrives on the next sailing, which can be a week or more, and the retail date moves accordingly.
- Expedited yarn: a premium on the lot, or a stock substitute that was not the intended shade.
- Compressed inspection: less conditioning time, so GSM and dimensions are measured before the body has relaxed.
- Missed sailing: a three-day slip in finishing becomes a full cycle in arrival, not three days.
- Overtime and weekend running: sometimes available, always charged, and never free of fatigue-related quality risk.
- Fragmented runs: splitting a programme across two slots to fit it in adds a second set-up and a second inspection.
Peak Season and the August Wall
Capacity tightens from August for Q4 despatch, and the practical rule is to reserve 60 days ahead for anything landing in the fourth quarter — because the constraint in peak season is not the knitting, it is the shipping and inspection slots around it.
The word 'wall' is accurate rather than dramatic. A programme that starts its bulk run in late September for a November landing is competing with every other programme doing the same, and while 7 production lines at about 200,000 pcs a month absorb a great deal, the inspection and despatch capacity around them does not expand. The buyer-side mitigation is to move the decision earlier rather than the production: reserve the slot in July against a specification that is 80% settled, and use the intervening weeks to close the remaining 20%. A reserved slot with an unsettled artwork is recoverable; an unreserved slot in October is not.
Colourways, Set-Ups and Bed Time
A multi-colourway programme consumes more bed time than its piece count suggests, because each colourway is a separate yarn set-up: a 300-pcs order in three colourways carries three set-ups, and consolidating it into one colourway per run lowers the bed time noticeably.
MOQ at 100 pcs per style and per colourway encodes the same economics. The minimum is not an arbitrary threshold; it is roughly the point at which a set-up amortises across enough pieces to be worth running. Below it, the set-up dominates the piece cost. Above it, the cost per piece flattens and the constraint becomes bed availability rather than economics. A buyer planning a four-colourway launch should therefore ask two questions: can the colourways be staggered across successive runs so each one gets a full bed rather than a shared one, and does the launch genuinely need all four at once.
Single colourway, one run
One set-up, best bed utilisation, lowest unit cost. The baseline every other option is measured against.
Three colourways, one run
Three set-ups inside a single 30-day window. Workable, but the run consumes noticeably more bed hours than the piece count implies.
Staggered colourways
One colourway per run across successive months. Smooths capacity and improves shade continuity at the cost of a later full range.
Consolidated reorder
Alternating shades between repeats rather than splitting every run. Lowers unit cost more than any negotiation on the same quantity.
Reserved annual slot
A rolling twelve-week forecast with a pencilled slot per run. Converts capacity from a negotiation into a schedule.
Unreserved opportunistic run
Placed when the need arises. Works outside peak season and fails inside it, usually at the inspection or sailing step.
Cancellation, Slippage and What Happens to a Held Slot
A held slot survives a late specification, loses its yarn booking at about day 10, and converts to a cost if it is cancelled after material has been committed — so the three dates worth knowing are the slot date, the yarn date and the cancellation date.
The slot date is when the bed is scheduled to take the programme, and slippage before it is usually recoverable, because a schedule can be re-sequenced when nothing has been bought. The yarn date, around day 10 of the 30-day window, is the point of commitment: yarn is booked, trim is ordered, and a cancellation after that carries the cost of material already committed. The cancellation date is the buyer's own deadline, and it should be written into the booking rather than left implicit. A programme that knows these three dates behaves very differently from one that does not: it settles artwork by the slot date, confirms the shade before the yarn date, and cancels in time if the launch is called off.
- Slot date: the bed is scheduled; slippage before it can usually be re-sequenced at no cost.
- Yarn date, around day 10: material is committed, and a cancellation after it carries the material cost.
- Cancellation date: the buyer's own deadline, best written into the booking rather than implied.
- Sampling date: 7 working days, needed before the slot opens if the programme is new rather than a repeat.
- Inspection date: days 24 to 30, booked alongside the bed rather than arranged after finishing.
What a Capacity Brief Should Contain
A capacity brief needs six items: quantity per colourway, target despatch week, whether the programme is new or a repeat, the yarn direction, the compliance target and the flexibility band — and the last one is what turns a request into a booking that can actually be fitted in.
Capacity brief: the six items
- Quantity per style and per colourway, at MOQ 100 pcs per colourway
- Target despatch week, and whether it is fixed or movable by a week either way
- New programme or a repeat of an archived revision, which changes the sampling requirement
- Yarn direction: stock shade or custom, since it sets the booking pole at 10 days or more
- Compliance target, named before yarn is booked at day 10
- The flexibility band: what can move, by how much, and who decides
The flexibility band deserves a note because buyers rarely offer it and it is worth a great deal. A booking that says 'despatch in the week of the 14th, movable to the 21st if it secures a consolidated slot' will be fitted into the schedule far more easily than one that says 'must ship on the 14th'. Schedulers work in slots, and a request with a band gives them something to work with. For the risk side of planning, see custom knitted bag risk register.
Reserve a slot on your knit bag programme
Send the quantity per colourway and the target despatch week. Our knit team will confirm the reservation window, the yarn booking date and the inspection slot against 7 production lines at about 200,000 pcs per month. Start on the contact page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much capacity does a knit bag programme have?
Seven production lines at about 200,000 pcs per month, which is roughly 9,000 pieces per working day across the floor and about 1,286 per line per day. Capacity is booked rather than held open. A programme placing 100 pcs and one placing 20,000 both consume bed time in proportion to pieces.
How far ahead should I book production capacity?
About 45 days before despatch for a standard 30-day bulk run, and about 60 for a Q4 shipment. The window covers yarn booking at 10 days or more, the 30-day run, and a buffer. Add 7 working days of sampling if the programme is new, plus the buyer's own approval cycle.
Why does a three-day delay become a week?
Because a run finishing after the intended vessel sailing catches the next one. The knitting lost three days; the arrival loses a full shipping cycle, which is the largest of the three costs of booking late. A flexibility band offered at booking is what prevents the three days becoming a cycle at all.
What does a capacity reservation actually buy?
Three things: a named bed slot, a yarn booking placed against it, and an inspection date. It does not buy the right to change the specification later, so a reserved slot should be paired with a frozen brief. A reservation also creates a commitment on the buyer side to have artwork and specification settled.
Does a reserved slot move if a bigger order arrives?
No, which is the point of reserving. An unreserved slot does move; a reserved one does not, because yarn and trim have been committed against it and moving it would strand that material. Reserving 45 days out for a standard run and 60 for Q4 is what protects a slot from being displaced.
Why is MOQ stated per colourway?
Because each colourway is a separate yarn set-up on the bed. The 100-pcs minimum is roughly the point at which a set-up amortises across enough pieces to be worth running. Below the minimum the set-up dominates the piece cost; above it the constraint becomes bed availability.
How does peak season affect knit bag capacity?
It tightens from August for Q4 despatch. The constraint is less the knitting than the inspection and despatch capacity around it, so reserve about 60 days ahead and settle the specification in the meantime. Reserve the slot in July against a specification that is 80% settled and close the rest afterwards.
Can a programme be split across two slots?
Yes, but it costs a second set-up and a second inspection. Consolidating into one slot, or staggering colourways across successive runs, uses the same capacity more efficiently. A fragmented month produces less than a consolidated one, because every handed-over bed costs a re-setup. Consolidating also avoids a second inspection slot.
How long is the bulk run once a slot opens?
Thirty days: yarn booking across the first 10, knitting across days 8 to 20, finishing and trim across days 18 to 26, and inspection, packing and release across days 24 to 30. Inspection, packing and release occupy days 24 to 30 under AQL 2.5 and an ISO 2859-1 plan.
What is the cycle time for a knitted bag?
About 9 minutes on a first run and about 8 minutes once the line has been tuned. The cycle is set by the body rather than by the schedule, so a month of large totes produces fewer pieces than a month of pouches. Two minutes a piece across a full month is a large number of bed hours.
What should a capacity brief contain?
Six items: quantity per colourway, target despatch week, new or repeat, yarn direction, compliance target, and a flexibility band stating what can move and by how much. The flexibility band is what turns a request into a booking a scheduler can actually fit in. Offering one is the single most useful thing a buyer can do at booking.
Does booking capacity change the inspection standard?
No. Every run is released against AQL 2.5 under an ISO 2859-1 sampling plan at FOB Xiamen, whether it was booked 60 days ahead or fitted into a gap. Packaging count and marking are checked on the same inspection regardless of how the slot was booked.
People Also Ask
Can I get a rush knitted bag order?
Sometimes, outside peak season, if a bed is free and the yarn is a stock shade. A custom shade rarely compresses, because the yarn booking at 10 days or more is the pole that does not move.
Why is capacity quoted per month and not per week?
Because the schedule is built from programmes, each with its own set-up, yarn booking and inspection slot. A month of 200,000 pcs is 22 working days of fitted programmes, not a uniform weekly rate.
Should I stagger my colourways?
Usually yes. One colourway per run across successive months smooths capacity, improves shade continuity and costs less than three set-ups inside a single window. Three set-ups inside one window consume more bed hours than the piece count alone suggests.
What is a flexibility band?
A statement of what can move, by how much and who decides. Offering a week either side of a target despatch week makes a booking far easier to fit into a full schedule.
How do I hold capacity for a programme that reorders?
Provide a rolling twelve-week forecast and pencil a slot per expected run. Capacity is booked rather than held open, so a pencilled slot is the closest thing to a reservation without a firm order.
Sources and further reading
Every figure on this page is either our own programme data or attributed below. Open the originals before you write them into a specification.
- ISO 2859-1 — Sampling procedures for inspection by attributes, Part 1: AQL-indexed sampling schemesISO The release plan that occupies days 24 to 30 of the bulk window and needs its slot booked like any other resource.
- Incoterms rulesInternational Chamber of Commerce The rule set behind FOB Xiamen and the point at which risk transfers on a booked despatch.
- Recycled Claim Standard and Global Recycled StandardTextile Exchange Chain-of-custody documentation that travels with the yarn lot booked against a reserved production slot.
- ISO 139:2005 — Textiles, standard atmospheres for conditioning and testingISO Why a compressed inspection window produces unreliable GSM and dimension readings before the body has relaxed.
- WHOLEGARMENT knitting business overviewShima Seiki Background on the bed-cycle and set-up structure that turns a piece count into booked bed hours.
Capacity Is a Schedule, Not a Stock Level
The single most useful change a buying team can make is to stop asking whether capacity exists and start asking which slot is free. Seven lines at about 200,000 pcs a month absorb a great deal, but they absorb it as a fitted schedule of programmes with yarn bookings and inspection dates attached, and a programme that arrives without a reservation joins the queue behind the ones that planned.
Reserve 45 days out, 60 for Q4, and give a flexibility band. For the handover that turns a reserved slot into a running programme, see knitted bag programme handover. For the wider framework, see custom knit bags.