This page is for anyone who must answer, quickly, whether a new order fits a line that is already busy. Track 8's Course 2 showed how to record every commitment on a shared booking sheet. This lesson uses that sheet to answer a forward-looking question: given what a line already carries, how much of a brand-new order can it still take. It mainly teaches a decision: accept in full, accept in part, or decline or reschedule.
This matters most at a factory like Delta Garments, where a buyer such as Northline Apparel may ask, mid-season, whether a line can take an additional order on top of what it already carries. Saying yes without checking can commit the factory to more than a line can deliver; saying no without checking can turn away work a line has room for.
Without checking free capacity first, a merchandiser can compare a new order to a line's full weekly capacity and get the wrong answer. This lesson gives the method: find a line's free capacity for the week, then compare the new order against that free capacity, not full weekly capacity.
You need: a line's actual weekly capacity and its booking sheet, built as in Track 8's Course 2 (lessons 8.2.2 and 8.2.3). You do not need to have made an accept-or-reject decision before.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: building the booking sheet itself (Track 8, Course 2), splitting a new order across more than one line when one line's free capacity is not enough (lesson 11.5.2), and what happens when a live order already on the sheet slips and forces a rework of the whole plan (lesson 11.5.3).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Booking sheet | A shared record that lists which lines are committed to which orders, in which weeks, and how much of each line's capacity each commitment uses, so every booking can be checked against the same total. |
| Capacity utilisation | The share of a factory's available capacity actually being used by confirmed orders, expressed as a percentage of its maximum output. |
| Pre-negotiated capacity | Factory production capacity a buyer reserves ahead of a season, before a specific order is confirmed. |
| Make to Order (MTO) | Production starts only after a specific buyer has confirmed a specific order, with quantity, price and delivery date agreed. |
A new order's requested quantity is compared against a line's free capacity for the week it would use: the line's actual weekly capacity, from Track 8's Course 2, minus everything already booked to it that week. A line can look free when only its full weekly capacity is considered, and already full when its existing bookings are properly subtracted first. Only free capacity tells a merchandiser how much room a line genuinely has left for a new order.
Line 1's free capacity that week, in pieces: actual weekly capacity (Track 8, Course 2) minus Order A's own shape, already booked.
A merchandiser who has only ever booked a line with nothing on it yet should not assume every new-order decision looks the same. The comparison is always against free capacity; what differs is how much free capacity there is and what kind of order is asking for it.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| A line with nothing booked yet | Free capacity equals the line's full weekly capacity, so any request up to that ceiling can be accepted in full. | The simplest case, the baseline the method scales up from. |
| A line already carrying one confirmed order | Free capacity is the line's weekly capacity minus that order's booking, smaller than the full weekly figure. | The same request that would have fit an empty line may not fit a partly booked one. |
| An export order requesting pre-negotiated capacity | A buyer such as Northline Apparel may ask for capacity to be reserved ahead of season, before its own order details are final, checked against free capacity months in advance. | A reservation made early can use up free capacity that a later, more urgent request then finds is gone. |
| A domestic Make to Stock order requesting capacity today | A domestic brand such as Cedar & Co. asks for whatever free capacity the sheet currently shows, checked against today's bookings rather than a seasonal reservation. | The same free-capacity check applies, but against the sheet as it stands right now, not a forecast made months earlier. |
| A requested quantity larger than free capacity | The order cannot be accepted in full onto that line for that week without exceeding capacity. | The decision becomes accept in part, decline, reschedule, or (lesson 11.5.2) split across more than one line. |
Line 1 at Delta Garments already carries Order A's own shape, 4,800 pieces booked for a given week, continuing the figures fixed in Track 8's Course 2. Northline Apparel, the same export buyer behind Order A, now asks whether Line 1 can also take a new enquiry of 5,000 pieces in that same week.
| Fact | What it tells the merchandiser |
|---|---|
| Line 1's actual weekly capacity, about 8,988 pieces (illustrative) | The full ceiling for everything booked to Line 1 that week |
| Order A's own shape, 4,800 pieces already booked | The commitment that must be subtracted before checking a new request |
| Free capacity after subtracting the existing booking | 4,188 pieces, the true room left for a new order |
| Northline's new enquiry, requested quantity | 5,000 pieces, more than the free capacity available |
This example is illustrative, not a claimed fixed academy fact: Line 1's actual weekly capacity is about 8,988 pieces; with Order A's own shape already booked for 4,800 pieces that week, free capacity is 8,988 − 4,800 = 4,188 pieces. Northline's new enquiry asks for 5,000 pieces in the same week, which is 5,000 − 4,188 = 812 pieces more than Line 1's free capacity, so the enquiry cannot be accepted in full onto Line 1 for that week without exceeding capacity.
Line 1's free capacity that week: actual weekly capacity minus Order A's own booking already confirmed.
The shortfall: how much of Northline's new enquiry exceeds Line 1's free capacity that week.
A common mistake is comparing a new order's requested quantity against a line's full weekly capacity instead of its free capacity. This can make a line look like it has plenty of room, 5,000 pieces against a weekly capacity of 8,988, when the 4,800 pieces already committed to that same line and week have already used up most of what it can actually still take.
Before saying yes to a new order, work out how many pieces a line can actually still take that week. Start from what the line can produce in a week, then take away everything already booked to it. What is left is the line's free capacity. Compare the new order against that free number, not against the line's full weekly total. If the new order asks for more than the free capacity, it cannot all be accepted onto that line that week; some of it must wait, move to another week, or be declined. Checking a new order against the full weekly total, without subtracting what is already booked, makes a busy line look free when it is not.
Sara, the buyer at Northline Apparel, asks Mona whether Line 1 can also take a new 5,000-piece enquiry in the same week Order A's own shape already has 4,800 pieces booked to it. Mona compares the new enquiry's 5,000 pieces against Line 1's full weekly capacity of about 8,988 pieces and tells Sara it fits comfortably, without first subtracting Order A's existing booking.
Karim's note to Mona:
Is it correct for Mona to compare the new 5,000-piece enquiry against Line 1's full weekly capacity of 8,988 pieces, without subtracting Order A's existing 4,800-piece booking?
No. Mona must subtract Order A's existing 4,800 pieces from Line 1's weekly capacity of 8,988 pieces first, giving a free capacity of 4,188 pieces, and compare Northline's new 5,000-piece request against that free capacity, not against the full 8,988.
First, a line's weekly capacity is shared across every order already booked to it, so a new request is never compared against the whole figure on its own.
Second, 5,000 pieces exceeds the true free capacity of 4,188 pieces by 812 pieces, so the enquiry cannot be accepted in full onto Line 1 for that week.
Mona should tell Sara that Line 1 can take 4,188 pieces of the new enquiry that week, with the remaining 812 pieces moved to a different week or line, rather than confirming the full 5,000 pieces as fitting.
If Mona had confirmed the full 5,000-piece enquiry against Line 1's full weekly capacity without subtracting Order A's existing booking, Line 1 would end that week 812 pieces over its actual weekly capacity, once both orders are added together.
The amount by which Line 1 would be overbooked that week if the new enquiry were wrongly confirmed in full: both orders' quantities added together, minus the line's actual weekly capacity.
One possible cost of that overbooking, in USD: the 812-piece shortfall covered by overtime at Order A's own fixed overtime rate of USD 0.15 per piece, reused illustratively.
A wrongly confirmed order does not only cost overtime; it can also mean a late shipment to Northline Apparel or Order A's own delivery being pushed back to make room. Checking free capacity before confirming avoids the choice between these costs after a promise has already been made.
This lesson uses the "Accept or Reject" sheet of the course's Order booking planner, which reads a line's actual weekly capacity and its existing bookings from the shared booking sheet, calculates free capacity automatically, and compares any new enquiry's requested quantity against that free capacity. Enter the line, the week, the new enquiry's requested quantity, and let the sheet calculate free capacity and flag any shortfall. Download link: the course tool, `templates/T11-C05-order-booking-planner.xlsx`.
1. A line's weekly capacity is 8,988 pieces and it already has 4,800 pieces booked to it that week. A new order asks for 5,000 pieces the same week. What should the new order be compared against?
2. A line's free capacity for a week is 3,000 pieces. A new order requests 3,500 pieces the same week. What is the correct decision?
3. Why is a new order's requested quantity compared against a line's free capacity rather than its full weekly capacity?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Booking sheet | ورقة الحجز | Fiche de réservation | Rezervasyon tablosu | A shared record that lists which lines are committed to which orders, in which weeks, and how much of each line's capacity each commitment uses, so every booking can be checked against the same total. |
| Capacity utilisation | معدل استغلال الطاقة الإنتاجية | Taux d'utilisation de la capacité | Kapasite kullanım oranı | The share of a factory's available capacity actually being used by confirmed orders, expressed as a percentage of its maximum output. |
| Pre-negotiated capacity | طاقة إنتاجية محجوزة مسبقًا | Capacité pré-négociée | Önceden ayrılmış kapasite | Factory production capacity a buyer reserves ahead of a season, before a specific order is confirmed. |
| Make to Order (MTO) | الإنتاج حسب الطلب | Fabrication sur commande (MTO) | Siparişe göre üretim (MTO) | Production starts only after a specific buyer has confirmed a specific order, with quantity, price and delivery date agreed. |
You now know how to check a new order against a line's free capacity before accepting it. The next lesson looks at what to do when even the free capacity on one line is not enough, and the order must be split across more than one line. Back to the course map