This page explains the step that comes after a style's total quantity is fixed: splitting that total by colour, then by size within each colour, so a factory knows exactly how many of each combination to cut and sew. It is for a buyer at a domestic brand or any retailer who places a make-to-stock order.
At work, a buyer such as Omar at Cedar & Co. does not simply tell Delta Garments "15,000 T-shirts" and stop there. A factory cannot cut fabric against a single total; it needs a quantity for every colour, and within every colour, a quantity for every size. Splitting a total evenly across colours and sizes without checking real demand is a real problem: sizes do not sell in equal numbers, and neither do colours, so an even split routinely leaves a brand short of its best-selling combinations and overstocked on its worst-selling ones. This lesson gives you the method for splitting a total quantity correctly.
You need: lesson 2.2's classification of Order A as a basic style is useful background but not required.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: phasing a classified, quantified range's delivery across a selling season (lesson 2.4), and assembling a complete range and assortment plan (lesson 2.5).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Buy quantity | The total number of units committed for one style, before that total is split by colour or size. |
| Colour split | The share of a style's buy quantity allocated to each colour offered. |
| Size ratio | The split of an order's total quantity across the sizes offered, for example 1:2:2:1 for S:M:L:XL. |
| SKU (stock keeping unit) | The smallest trackable unit in a range, one specific style, in one specific colour, in one specific size. |
| Depth of buy | How many units are committed to a single SKU, as distinct from how many different SKUs the range offers. |
| Reconciliation check | Adding every colour or size split back together to confirm it matches the original total quantity exactly. |
A single total quantity is not something a factory can act on directly. The total must first be divided into a colour split, the share of the total allocated to each colour offered, and then each colour's own quantity must be divided again by a size ratio, the split of that quantity across the sizes offered. Only once this two-level split is complete does a buy quantity become a set of specific, cuttable numbers, one for every style-colour-size combination, called a SKU. Skipping either level and asking a factory to work from a single total forces the factory to guess a split on the buyer's behalf.
| What can differ | The shapes you will meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic, make to stock | Cedar & Co.'s buyer, Omar, splits a T-shirt's total quantity across three colours and Order A's own size ratio before placing the order with Delta Garments from forecast. | A make-to-stock buyer owns the colour and size split entirely, with no wholesale catalogue to copy it from. |
| Export, made to order | Fairway Stores' buyer agrees a colour split with Northline Apparel first, then applies a size ratio per colour, before Delta Garments cuts fabric against the confirmed numbers. | The same two-level split applies even when a brand sits between the retailer and the factory. |
| A single-colour style | Order A itself, as originally specified, is a single-colour T-shirt, so its own colour split is simply 100% to one colour, and only the size ratio applies. | A colour split can be trivial, but it is never skipped; a single colour is still a stated, deliberate choice. |
| A style with an uneven size ratio | A style aimed at a narrower size range might use a ratio such as 1:3:3:1, weighting the middle sizes even more heavily than Order A's own 1:2:2:1. | The size ratio is not always Order A's own fixed 1:2:2:1; it is checked and set per style. |
Omar, the buyer at Cedar & Co., commits to Order A's own fixed total of 15,000 T-shirts from Delta Garments for his 12-shop domestic chain. Rather than order one colour, he splits the total across three colours for this style, white, black and navy, using an illustrative split of his own: white 50%, black 30%, navy 20%. Within each colour's own quantity, he then applies Order A's own fixed size ratio, 1:2:2:1 for S:M:L:XL, so every colour carries the same size shape.
| Question | Before the split | After the split |
|---|---|---|
| What can Delta Garments cut against? | Nothing; 15,000 pieces alone gives no colour or size detail | A specific quantity for every one of the 12 style-colour-size SKUs |
| Who decided the colour shares? | Not yet decided | Omar, based on Cedar & Co.'s own sales judgement |
| Which size ratio applies? | Not yet applied | Order A's own fixed 1:2:2:1, applied identically within each colour |
Using Order A's own fixed total and Omar's illustrative colour split, the white colourway alone works out as follows.
A common mistake is dividing a total quantity evenly across colours, or evenly across sizes, simply because an even split is the easiest number to calculate, rather than checking which combinations actually sell. If Omar had split Order A's 15,000 pieces into three equal 5,000-piece colour shares and then split every colour evenly across four sizes, ignoring Order A's own 1:2:2:1 ratio, Cedar & Co. would end up with far too many small and extra-large pieces relative to real demand, and far too few medium and large pieces, the sizes a size ratio like 1:2:2:1 exists specifically to weight more heavily.
A single total quantity for a style is not enough for a factory to work with. The total must be split into a share for each colour, and then each colour's own quantity must be split again across sizes, using a size ratio like Order A's own 1:2:2:1 that gives the middle sizes more units than the smallest and largest. Splitting either level evenly, without checking which colours or sizes actually sell, routinely leaves too much stock in weak combinations and too little in strong ones. A reconciliation check, adding every split back together, confirms nothing was lost or invented along the way.
While preparing to cut Cedar & Co.'s white colourway of 7,500 pieces, Delta Garments' production planner suggests splitting the four sizes evenly, 1,875 pieces each, "to keep the cutting plan simple," rather than using Order A's own fixed 1:2:2:1 ratio.
Omar's note to Delta Garments' production planner:
Should the cutting plan use an even 25% split across sizes to keep production simple? Decide before you open the answer.
No. A simpler cutting plan is not the same as a correct one, and the size ratio exists specifically because sizes do not sell evenly.
First, what the fixed ratio reflects. Order A's own 1:2:2:1 ratio is not an arbitrary choice; it reflects real demand, with M and L each selling roughly twice as fast as S and XL.
Second, what an even split would create. A 25% even split would leave Cedar & Co. short of stock in its two best-selling sizes, M and L, while carrying excess stock in its two slowest-selling sizes, S and XL, the opposite of what actual demand calls for.
Omar should hold Delta Garments to Order A's own 1:2:2:1 ratio. A simpler cutting plan is not worth a quantity breakdown that no longer matches how the style actually sells. Lesson 2.4 develops how these same quantities are then phased for delivery across the selling season.
Framed in units rather than a single penalty figure: comparing the even 25% split against Order A's own fixed ratio shows exactly where the mismatch falls.
Across both M and L, an even split would leave Cedar & Co. 1,250 pieces short of its correct, demand-matched quantity in its two best-selling sizes, while carrying that same 1,250 pieces as excess stock spread across its two slowest-selling sizes, S and XL. That excess typically sells only at a markdown, while the shortfall in M and L represents sales Cedar & Co. cannot make at all until a repeat order arrives.
The workbook's "Quantity breakdown" sheet lists each style's total, its colour shares, and a size-ratio table applied within each colour, with a built-in reconciliation row that must equal the original total.
Omar's own rows record Order A's 15,000-piece total, its white 50%, black 30% and navy 20% colour split, and Order A's own 1:2:2:1 size ratio applied identically within each of the three colours, with the reconciliation row confirming all twelve SKU quantities sum back to 15,000 pieces exactly.
1. Why can't a factory cut fabric against a style's single total buy quantity alone?
2. Order A's own size ratio is 1:2:2:1 for S:M:L:XL. What does this ratio mean for a colour's 7,500-piece quantity?
3. Delta Garments proposes an even 25% size split to simplify cutting, instead of Order A's own 1:2:2:1 ratio. What should Omar do?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buy quantity | كمية الشراء | Quantité d'achat | Satın alma miktarı | The total number of units committed for one style, before that total is split by colour or size. |
| Colour split | تقسيم الألوان | Répartition des couleurs | Renk dağılımı | The share of a style's buy quantity allocated to each colour offered. |
| Size ratio | نسبة المقاسات | Ratio des tailles | Beden oranı | The split of an order's total quantity across the sizes offered, for example 1:2:2:1 for S:M:L:XL. |
| SKU (stock keeping unit) | وحدة تخزين مستقلة (SKU) | Unité de gestion de stock (SKU) | Stok tutma birimi (SKU) | The smallest trackable unit in a range, one specific style, in one specific colour, in one specific size. |
| Depth of buy | عمق الشراء | Profondeur d'achat | Satın alma derinliği | How many units are committed to a single SKU, as distinct from how many different SKUs the range offers. |
| Reconciliation check | فحص التسوية | Contrôle de rapprochement | Mutabakat kontrolü | Adding every colour or size split back together to confirm it matches the original total quantity exactly. |
You now know how to split a style's quantity by colour and size. The next lesson takes those same quantities and phases their delivery across a selling season instead of shipping everything at once. Back to the course map