A garment factory runs two very different stores side by side, and confusing them leads to real mistakes: ordering more fabric because a finished goods count looked low, or promising a shipment date because a raw material count looked high. This lesson explains what each store actually holds, why the difference matters to the numbers a merchandiser, buyer or storekeeper reads every week, and how Delta Garments keeps the two stores separate for Order A, its basic T-shirt order for Northline Apparel.
Without this distinction, a buyer visiting a factory can mistake a healthy stack of finished fabric rolls for a healthy stock of finished T-shirts, and a storekeeper can report a store's stock level without saying which store, leaving the reader to guess whether the number describes fabric still to be cut or T-shirts ready to ship. This page teaches the product flow through a factory's two stores so both numbers are read correctly, and applies it to Order A.
You need: no previous lesson. A basic sense that a factory receives fabric and trims, and later ships finished garments, is enough.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: issuing fabric to the cutting room (Lesson 2), tracking one fabric roll's own balance (Lesson 3), or reconciling a store's own count against actual usage (Lesson 4). This lesson only teaches what each store holds and why that matters.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Raw material store | The store that holds fabric, trims and other inputs before they are issued to cutting or production, distinct from a store that holds completed units. |
| Finished goods store | The store that holds completed, packed units after production, ready for shipment or sale, distinct from a store that holds unprocessed inputs. |
| Raw material | The basic input a stage of production starts from, such as raw cotton fibre going into a spinning mill. |
| Work-in-progress (WIP) | Pieces that have started production but are not yet finished goods, sitting between two stages of the factory's workflow. |
| Roll | A length of fabric wound onto a cylindrical core for storage and transport. |
| Cutting room | The area where bulk fabric is cut to the approved marker, the step between fabric arriving and sewing starting. |
Every factory that buys material and sells a made product needs both stores, because the two counts answer two different questions. The raw material store's own count answers "how much fabric and how many trims does this factory have to start cutting with." The finished goods store's own count answers "how many completed, packed pieces does this factory have ready to load." A rise or fall in one store's count says nothing about the other store on its own; fabric can pile up in the raw material store while the finished goods store stays empty, if cutting has not started yet.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| Business model | A Make to Order factory like Delta Garments holds raw material for a specific confirmed order, such as Order A's 3,000 kg of fabric bought against Northline Apparel's own purchase order. A Make to Stock factory holds raw material against a rolling forecast instead of one dated order. | Reading a raw material count without knowing which model applies can make a healthy forecast stock look like an order shortage, or the reverse. |
| Product family | A garment factory's raw material store holds fabric rolls and trims by weight or piece; a hosiery mill's raw material store holds yarn cones by weight; a home-textiles converter's raw material store holds greige or finished sheeting fabric by length; a terry mill's raw material store holds yarn for weaving rather than finished fabric. | The unit counted changes by product family, but the same split between raw material and finished goods applies to every one of them. |
| Market | An export order under a fixed shipment date, such as Order A, needs its raw material store's own count checked against the timeline's fabric stage before cutting can start on schedule. A domestic Make to Stock chain checks its raw material store against its own reorder point instead of one fixed date. | A tighter export deadline makes an accurate raw material count more urgent, not the count itself different. |
| Where work-in-progress sits | Once fabric leaves the raw material store for the cutting room, it becomes work-in-progress, no longer counted in either store, until it is packed and moved into the finished goods store as completed units. | A buyer who adds the raw material count and the finished goods count and expects the order total will miss whatever is mid-production as work-in-progress. |
Sara, Northline Apparel's buyer, visits Delta Garments to check progress on Order A before the fixed shipment date. Karim, the production manager, shows her two rooms. The first is the raw material store: rolls of single jersey fabric and boxes of neck rib and trims, bought against Order A's own purchase order but not yet cut. The second, at the far end of the factory, is the finished goods store: cartons of completed, folded and packed T-shirts, counted by size and ready to load onto Bluewater Line's container.
Sara asks for "the stock count for Order A." Karim answers with two separate numbers, one for each store, because a single combined number would not tell her whether Order A is still waiting to be cut or is already finished and packed.
The worked numberBefore cutting starts, the raw material store's own count should show close to 3,000 kg of fabric and the matching neck rib and trims for 15,000 pieces; the finished goods store's own count should show zero, since no piece has been cut, sewn or packed yet. As cutting and sewing proceed, the raw material store's count falls, work-in-progress rises inside the cutting and sewing lines, and only once pieces are packed does the finished goods store's own count start to rise. At no point does adding the raw material store's count to the finished goods store's count equal 15,000 pieces while production is still running, because work-in-progress is not sitting in either store.
A visitor or a new merchandiser who hears "the store shows 3,000 kg" can wrongly assume a T-shirt order is close to finished, when 3,000 kg of fabric sitting in the raw material store means cutting has not even started. The cost of this mistake is a wrong read on an order's own progress: a buyer who believes an order is nearly done, based on a raw material figure, can be badly surprised when the shipment date arrives and the finished goods store is still empty.
A factory keeps two separate stores. One holds fabric and trims bought but not yet used; the other holds finished, packed pieces ready to ship. Once material leaves the first store to be cut and sewn, it stops being counted in either store until it comes out the other end as a completed piece. Reading a stock number without knowing which store it comes from can make an order look further ahead, or further behind, than it really is. Always ask which store a figure describes before you decide what it means for the order. That one habit prevents most of the confusion between the two stores.
Sara reviews Delta Garments' weekly stock report for Order A and sees the raw material store's own count still at 900 kg, with the finished goods store showing 11,200 packed pieces.
Does the 900 kg remaining in the raw material store mean Order A is at risk of missing its shipment date? Decide before opening the answer.
No. The remaining 900 kg is consistent with the fabric still needed to cut the last pieces, not a shortage; the two store counts together confirm the order is on track.
1. 11,200 packed pieces already account for about 2,296 kg of the fabric used (11,200 × 0.205 kg), leaving roughly 3,075 − 2,296 = 779 kg still to be cut for the remaining pieces, close to the 900 kg on hand. 2. 900 kg in the raw material store is fabric waiting to be cut for the last pieces, not fabric left over because production has stopped; the finished goods count shows cutting and sewing are actively progressing. 3. Reading the raw material count alone, without the finished goods count, would have wrongly suggested a shortage; reading both together shows the order is proceeding normally toward its shipment date.
The two store counts answer different questions, and only together do they show an order's true position against its own timeline.
Order A carries a FOB price of USD 3.20 per piece on 15,000 pieces, giving:
If Sara had mistaken the 900 kg raw material figure for a sign that cutting had stopped, and raised a false alarm or asked Delta Garments to expedite fabric it did not need, the cost would not be the fabric itself; it would be wasted time on both sides chasing a problem that did not exist, on an order whose full USD 48,000 value depends on the shipment date being met without avoidable disruption. Reading the correct store for the correct question is a small habit that protects that value.
Use the T24-C02 Raw material store tracker workbook, "Raw material store balance" sheet. For each order, record the raw material store's own fabric and trims balance and the finished goods store's own packed-pieces balance as two separate columns, never combined into one figure. Start with Order A's own figures above, then add your own orders.
[Download the Raw material store tracker workbook](../../templates/T24-C02-raw-material-store-tracker.xlsx)
1. Why can a raw material store's own count and a finished goods store's own count never add up to the full order quantity while production is still running?
2. A different factory shows its raw material store at 1,200 kg of fabric and its finished goods store at 0 pieces packed, for an order that needs 1,000 kg total. What does this most likely mean?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw material store | مخزن المواد الخام | Magasin de matières premières | Hammadde deposu | The store that holds fabric, trims and other inputs before they are issued to cutting or production, distinct from a store that holds completed units. |
| Finished goods store | مخزن البضاعة الجاهزة | Magasin de produits finis | Bitmiş ürün deposu | The store that holds completed, packed units after production, ready for shipment or sale, distinct from a store that holds unprocessed inputs. |
| Raw material | مادة خام | Matière première | Hammadde | The basic input a stage of production starts from, such as raw cotton fibre going into a spinning mill. |
| Work-in-progress (WIP) | أعمال قيد التشغيل (WIP) | Encours de production (WIP) | Ara stok (WIP) | Pieces that have started production but are not yet finished goods, sitting between two stages of the factory's workflow. |
| Roll | لفة القماش | Rouleau | Top | A length of fabric wound onto a cylindrical core for storage and transport. |
| Cutting room | صالة القص | Salle de coupe | Kesim salonu | The area where bulk fabric is cut to the approved marker, the step between fabric arriving and sewing starting. |
Next you will learn how a raw material store releases fabric and trims to the cutting room in planned batches, so the cutting line never runs out mid-shift and the store's own book stock stays correct. Back to the course map