This page is for anyone tracking a live order already booked onto a line, using Track 11's Course 1 method for spotting a slipped milestone, who must update that line's plan once the slip actually moves production into a different week. This lesson mainly teaches a decision: whether the week the order moves into can still absorb it alongside whatever else is already booked there.
This matters most for a domestic Make to Stock brand such as Cedar & Co., whose own run at Delta Garments can slip for ordinary reasons such as a late fabric delivery, moving its sewing into a week that may already carry another buyer's work on the same line.
Without rechecking the new week's own booking once a slip moves production into it, a merchandiser can assume the plan still holds simply because the order itself has not changed, while the week it lands in has already filled up. This lesson gives the method: take the slipped order's original booking, move it to its new week, add it to whatever else is already booked there, and check the combined total against that week's own capacity.
You need: Track 11's Course 1 method for spotting a slipped milestone, and the free-capacity method from lesson 11.5.1. You do not need to have reworked a booking plan after a slip before.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: identifying that a milestone has slipped in the first place (Track 11, Course 1), deciding whether to accept a brand-new order (lesson 11.5.1), and weighing a rush order against work already booked around it (lesson 11.5.4).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Critical path | The chain of sequential stages that sets the shortest possible total time for the order. |
| 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. |
| Overbooking | Booking more quantity onto a line or period than its actual daily capacity can produce, so the booked total exceeds what the line can deliver on time without added cost. |
| Make to Stock (MTS) | Producing against the seller's own sales forecast, rather than a single confirmed buyer order. |
A slip in a live order's own critical path, once it moves that order's production into a different week, does not just delay the order itself; it changes which week its booking sits on the shared sheet. The new week's own combined booking, the slipped order's quantity added to whatever else already sits there, must be checked against that week's own weekly capacity, exactly as any other combined booking would be, not assumed safe simply because nothing about the order's own quantity has changed.
Combined quantity on Line 2 in the new week, after the slip: Cedar & Co.'s own 3,600-piece run, moved into the week, added to the 4,200 pieces already booked there.
A merchandiser who has only ever tracked a slip that landed in an empty week should not assume every slip is this easy to absorb. What differs is how much of the new week's capacity is already committed before the slipped order arrives.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| A slip into a week with plenty of free capacity | The slipped order's quantity fits within the new week's free capacity without disturbing anything else booked there. | The simplest outcome, requiring only that the new week be checked, not assumed. |
| A slip into a week already close to full | Adding the slipped order's quantity to what is already booked pushes the combined total past the week's weekly capacity. | The plan must be reworked further: split the slipped order across weeks or lines, or move something else already booked. |
| A domestic Make to Stock order's own slip | A brand such as Cedar & Co. may absorb a short slip quietly if the new week has room, since its own sales forecast, not a buyer's fixed date, sets the pressure. | A domestic MTS slip is still checked the same way, even though the consequence of a further slip is commercial rather than contractual. |
| An export Make to Order order's own slip | A buyer such as Northline Apparel has its own fixed ship date tied to Order A's own critical path, so a slip that cannot be absorbed in the new week has a harder deadline behind it. | The same rework method applies, but the cost of failing to absorb the slip is measured against a buyer's own contracted date. |
| A slip large enough to move an order more than one week | The order's new week may itself already be affected by other slips or bookings, so the same check must be repeated for the week it actually lands in. | Every week an order passes through after a slip needs its own combined-booking check, not just the first one considered. |
Cedar & Co.'s own domestic Make to Stock run, 3,600 pieces, was originally booked to Line 2 in Week 5. A 4-day slip in fabric delivery, spotted using Track 11's Course 1 method, pushes the start of sewing back, moving the run's production into Week 6 instead. Line 2 in Week 6 already carries 4,200 pieces booked for a share of Order A's own shape, continuing the figures used in lesson 11.5.2.
| Fact | What it tells the merchandiser |
|---|---|
| Cedar & Co.'s own run, originally booked to Week 5 | 3,600 pieces |
| The slip's effect | Production moves from Week 5 into Week 6 |
| Already booked to Line 2 in Week 6 | 4,200 pieces (Order A's share, illustrative) |
| Line 2's weekly capacity | About 6,912 pieces (illustrative) |
This example is illustrative, not a claimed fixed academy fact: once the slip moves Cedar & Co.'s 3,600-piece run into Week 6, it is added to the 4,200 pieces already booked to Line 2 that week, giving a combined 3,600 + 4,200 = 7,800 pieces. Line 2's weekly capacity is about 6,912 pieces, so the combined total exceeds capacity by 7,800 − 6,912 = 888 pieces, and the plan for Week 6 on Line 2 must be reworked before the slip is simply accepted as absorbed.
Combined quantity on Line 2 in Week 6 after the slip: Cedar & Co.'s moved run plus what was already booked.
The amount by which the combined booking exceeds Line 2's weekly capacity in Week 6.
A common mistake is assuming a booking plan still holds once an order slips, on the reasoning that the order's own quantity is unchanged, without rechecking whether the new week it now falls into can actually absorb it alongside everything else already booked there.
When a live order's critical path slips, its production moves to a different week. That new week already has its own bookings. Add the slipped order's quantity to whatever else is already on that week, then compare the combined total to the line's weekly capacity, exactly as you would for any other week. Do not assume the plan still works just because the order's own quantity has not changed; the week it lands in might already be close to full. If the combined total is too high, the plan must be reworked further before the slip is treated as handled.
Omar's team at Cedar & Co. learns that a 4-day slip in fabric delivery has pushed the start of sewing for their own 3,600-piece domestic run from Week 5 into Week 6 on Delta Garments' Line 2. Mona checks whether the order's own quantity has changed, confirms it is still 3,600 pieces, and tells Omar's team the plan is unaffected, without checking what else is already booked to Line 2 in Week 6.
Karim's note to Mona:
Is it correct for Mona to tell Cedar & Co. the plan is unaffected, based only on the fact that their order's own quantity has not changed?
No. Mona must add Cedar & Co.'s slipped 3,600-piece run to the 4,200 pieces already booked to Line 2 in Week 6, giving a combined 7,800 pieces, and compare that total against Line 2's weekly capacity of about 6,912 pieces.
First, a slip that moves an order into a new week changes what it must be checked against, since that new week already carries its own bookings, whatever the order's own quantity does.
Second, 7,800 pieces exceeds Line 2's weekly capacity by 888 pieces, so Week 6 cannot absorb both bookings as they stand.
Mona should tell Omar's team the plan needs rework, for example moving part of Cedar & Co.'s run to a different line or week, rather than confirming Week 6 as unaffected.
If Mona had told Cedar & Co. the plan was fine without rechecking Week 6, Line 2 would carry 888 pieces more than its weekly capacity that week, discovered only once production was already under way and too late to plan around calmly.
One possible cost of the unchecked overbooking, in USD: the 888-piece shortfall covered by overtime at Order A's own fixed overtime rate of USD 0.15 per piece, reused illustratively.
Beyond overtime, an overbooked Week 6 discovered late can force a further delay to whichever order is pushed back to make room, passing the same slip on to a second order that had nothing to do with the original fabric delay.
This lesson uses the "Rework After Slip" sheet of the course's Order booking planner, which takes a slipped order's own booking, its new week, and whatever else is already booked to that line and week, and calculates the combined total against the line's weekly capacity automatically. Enter the slipped order's quantity, the new week's other bookings, and let the sheet flag any amount over capacity. Download link: the course tool, `templates/T11-C05-order-booking-planner.xlsx`.
1. A live order's critical path slips, moving its 2,000-piece booking from Week 3 to Week 4. Week 4 already has 5,500 pieces booked, and weekly capacity is 6,912 pieces. What should the merchandiser do?
2. After a slip, a line's combined booking in the new week is 7,800 pieces against a weekly capacity of 6,912 pieces. What is the correct next step?
3. Why must a slipped order's new week be rechecked, rather than assuming the plan still holds?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical path | المسار الحرج | Chemin critique | Kritik yol | The chain of sequential stages that sets the shortest possible total time for the order. |
| 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. |
| Overbooking | الحجز الزائد | Surréservation | Aşırı rezervasyon | Booking more quantity onto a line or period than its actual daily capacity can produce, so the booked total exceeds what the line can deliver on time without added cost. |
| Make to Stock (MTS) | إنتاج حسب المخزون | Fabrication sur stock | Stoğa üretim | Producing against the seller's own sales forecast, rather than a single confirmed buyer order. |
You now know how to rework a booking plan when a live order's own critical path slips into a week that already carries other work. The next lesson looks at the reverse pressure: a new rush order arriving and competing for capacity against orders already booked around it. Back to the course map