This page is for anyone who has confirmed, using lesson 11.5.1's method, that a single line's free capacity is not enough for an order it must still fit somewhere. This lesson mainly teaches a decision: which lines together can cover the order's full quantity, and how much of it is booked to each. It builds directly on comparing a requested quantity against free capacity, now applied to more than one line at once.
This matters most at a factory like Delta Garments, where an agent such as Meridian Sourcing, representing a European buyer, may bring an order too large for any one line's free capacity that week, even though the factory as a whole has room for it once two lines are counted together.
Without checking each line's own free capacity separately, a merchandiser can either turn away an order the factory can actually cover, or promise a single line more than it can deliver. This lesson gives the method: find the free capacity on each candidate line, add those free capacities together, and only then decide how much of the order's quantity each line will carry.
You need: the free-capacity method from lesson 11.5.1, applied separately to each line being considered. You do not need to have split an order across lines before.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: deciding whether to accept a new order in the first place (lesson 11.5.1), reworking a plan once a live order already split across lines has its own critical path slip (lesson 11.5.3), and weighing a rush order against work already booked around it (lesson 11.5.4).
| 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. |
An order that exceeds a single line's free capacity can still be fully booked if it is split across two or more lines, provided each line's own share of the order stays within that line's own free capacity for the week in question. The lines' free capacities are added together only to check that the order can be covered at all; the actual booking is still made line by line, each share checked against its own line's free capacity, never against the combined figure alone.
Combined free capacity across Line 1 and Line 2 for the week: each line's own free capacity, added together to check the order can be covered.
A merchandiser who has only ever booked an order to one line should not assume every order that is too big can automatically be split. What differs is how many lines have free capacity that week and how their combined free capacity compares to the order.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Two lines, combined free capacity exactly covers the order | Each line takes a share, and the two shares add up to the order's full quantity with nothing left over. | The simplest split, the baseline the method scales up from. |
| Two lines, combined free capacity exceeds the order | Either line could take a smaller share, and the merchandiser can choose the split, for example favouring the line with more remaining free capacity afterwards. | The order can be split in more than one valid way; the check is still that no line's share exceeds its own free capacity. |
| Two lines, combined free capacity still falls short | Even added together, the lines cannot cover the order's full quantity that week. | The order can only be partly accepted across both lines, or a third line or a different week must be found. |
| An export order placed through an agent such as Meridian Sourcing | The agent represents a European buyer and may ask for the split to be confirmed line by line, since its own buyer will want to see which line makes which portion. | The split must be recorded clearly enough that each line's own share is traceable, not just a single combined total. |
| A domestic Make to Stock order split across lines | A domestic brand such as Cedar & Co. may have its run split across lines simply because free capacity that week happens to sit on more than one line, not because of any buyer request. | The same combined-free-capacity check applies whether the split is buyer-driven or simply where the free capacity happens to be. |
Following on from lesson 11.5.1, Line 1 at Delta Garments has 4,188 pieces of free capacity in a given week. Line 2, carrying its own existing booking of 4,200 pieces against a weekly capacity of 6,912 pieces, has 2,712 pieces of free capacity in the same week. Meridian Sourcing, the agent for a European buyer, places an order for 6,900 pieces needed in that same week.
| Fact | What it tells the merchandiser |
|---|---|
| Line 1's free capacity that week | 4,188 pieces (from lesson 11.5.1) |
| Line 2's weekly capacity, about 6,912 pieces (illustrative), minus 4,200 pieces already booked | Line 2's free capacity, 2,712 pieces |
| Combined free capacity across both lines | 4,188 + 2,712 = 6,900 pieces |
| Meridian Sourcing's order, requested quantity | 6,900 pieces, exactly matching the combined free capacity |
This example is illustrative, not a claimed fixed academy fact: Line 2's actual weekly capacity is about 6,912 pieces; with 4,200 pieces already booked that week, its free capacity is 6,912 − 4,200 = 2,712 pieces. Added to Line 1's own free capacity of 4,188 pieces, the two lines together have 4,188 + 2,712 = 6,900 pieces of free capacity, exactly matching Meridian Sourcing's 6,900-piece order, so the full order can be booked, with 4,188 pieces to Line 1 and 2,712 pieces to Line 2.
Line 2's free capacity that week: actual weekly capacity minus what is already booked to it.
The two lines' free capacities added together, exactly covering the order's full requested quantity.
A common mistake is checking an order's full requested quantity against a single line's free capacity, and turning the order away or losing it to another factory when that one line falls short, without checking whether a second line's free capacity that week could cover the rest.
When an order is too big for one line's free room, check whether another line has free room in the same week. Add the two lines' free amounts together to see if, combined, they can cover the whole order. If they can, decide how much of the order each line will make, keeping each line's own share inside its own free room. Write each line's share down separately, not as one shared number. Turning away an order because it does not fit one line, without checking whether a second line's free room could cover the rest, can lose work the factory actually had room for.
Meridian Sourcing places an order for 6,900 pieces, needed in a specific week. Mona checks Line 1 alone using lesson 11.5.1's method, finds its free capacity is only 4,188 pieces, and tells the agent the order cannot be booked, without checking any other line.
Karim's note to Mona:
Is it correct for Mona to declare the order impossible to book after checking only Line 1's free capacity of 4,188 pieces?
No. Mona must also check Line 2's free capacity for the same week: its weekly capacity of about 6,912 pieces minus the 4,200 pieces already booked gives 2,712 pieces free. Added to Line 1's 4,188 pieces, the two lines together have 6,900 pieces of free capacity, exactly matching the order.
First, an order that exceeds one line's free capacity is not automatically impossible, since another line may have free capacity the same week.
Second, 4,188 plus 2,712 equals 6,900, so the full order can be booked with 4,188 pieces on Line 1 and 2,712 pieces on Line 2.
Mona should confirm the order to Meridian Sourcing as fully bookable, split across both lines, rather than declining it on the basis of Line 1 alone.
If Mona had declined Meridian Sourcing's order after checking only Line 1, the factory would lose the whole 6,900-piece order to another supplier, even though its own combined free capacity across two lines exactly matched what was requested.
One illustrative measure of the lost order's value, in USD: the order's 6,900 pieces at Order A's own fixed FOB price of USD 3.20 per piece, reused illustratively to show the scale of a wrongly declined order.
Beyond the value of this one order, a supplier that turns away work it can actually cover risks losing the buyer's future orders too, since an agent or buyer who is wrongly told "no room" has no reason to check back before placing the next order elsewhere.
This lesson uses the "Split Across Lines" sheet of the course's Order booking planner, which reads each candidate line's actual weekly capacity and existing bookings, calculates each line's free capacity, and lets you record how much of a split order is booked to each line. Enter each line, the week, and the share booked to it, and let the sheet total the shares against the order's full quantity. Download link: the course tool, `templates/T11-C05-order-booking-planner.xlsx`.
1. Line 1 has 4,188 pieces free and Line 2 has 2,712 pieces free in the same week. An order requests 6,900 pieces that week. Can it be booked?
2. Line 1 has 2,000 pieces free and Line 2 has 1,500 pieces free in the same week. An order requests 4,000 pieces. What is correct?
3. Why is each line's share checked against that line's own free capacity, not only the combined free capacity of all lines?
| 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 split one order's booking across more than one line's free capacity so its full quantity still fits. The next lesson looks at what happens to a booking plan already built this way when a live order's own critical path slips and its production weeks shift. Back to the course map