Garments and Textiles: Checking Size Ratios and Carton Assortment

A shipment of garments can be counted exactly right and still be a loss. If the order called for sizes in a certain ratio and the cartons hold another, you may find yourself with 400 pieces of the size nobody wants and none of the sizes that sell. The count tells you how many pieces there are. The assortment tells you whether they can be sold. This article covers how to check the size ratio in each carton and in the order as a whole, how to open a sample and how to log a shortfall.

What an assortment is

Garments are usually packed in set ratios. A carton of 12 might hold 2 small, 4 medium, 4 large and 2 extra large. This is a size run, or ratio pack, and the order is built around it: so many cartons of the run, and so many pieces in each size in total. Some cartons are solid, with a single size or colour inside. The packing list should say which type each carton is, and the order and the list should agree.

Colour is part of the assortment too. Cartons of the same style in different colours should be counted by colour as well as by size.

Check the outside first

Before opening anything, read the carton:

• the style code, the colour and the size ratio printed or written on the label;
• the pieces per carton and the carton number;
• the weight, if it is on the packing list, since a carton much lighter or heavier than its neighbours suggests a different content.

Count the cartons by style and colour, and compare the result with the packing list.

Open a sample and read the ratio

Open cartons at random, on the same rule you would use for other goods, with at least one carton for each style and colour. For each carton:

1. Count the pieces and compare them with the label.
2. Count by size and compare with the stated ratio.
3. Check that the size label on each garment agrees with the size on the carton.
4. Look at the colour against the order and the sample, and at the visible quality: seams, stains, loose threads, missing buttons and wrong care labels.
5. Record the result for that carton in a row of a table.

Garments are soft and quick to count, so counting a full carton of 12 or 24 pieces takes a couple of minutes. A larger sample is cheap here, and worth it.

Logging a shortfall

Compare in two ways: carton by carton, and for the order as a whole.

Use a table with these columns: style and colour, size, ordered, on the packing list, found in the sample, and the difference. The carton-by-carton findings are about the sample. Figures for the whole order come only from opening everything, or from multiplying the ratio by the number of cartons, which assumes that every carton is alike. Say which of the two you have done.

A conditional example

An order is 100 cartons of 12 pieces, 1,200 in all, in the ratio 2 small, 4 medium, 4 large and 2 extra large. By the order that makes 200 small, 400 medium, 400 large and 200 extra large. You open 10 cartons. Seven follow the ratio. Three hold 1 small, 4 medium, 5 large and 2 extra large. The record: "10 of 100 cartons opened; 7 follow the ratio 2:4:4:2; 3 hold 1:4:5:2 (one small short and one large over in each carton); photographs 71 to 84." You then open another 10 cartons from the pallets that the three came from, to see how far the pattern goes. You do not carry the figure over to the other 90 cartons. You record 3 small pieces short in the sample, and decide with the supplier how far to open.

In short

For garments the count and the assortment are separate checks, and the second is the one that settles sales. CargoChek counts the cartons, opens a sample that you agree, compares the size ratio with your order and gives you a table of the shortfalls with photographs.