Production Lead Time Calculator: Work Back from Your Delivery Date

A clothing order runs on two clocks, sampling and bulk production, and neither of them includes transport. This calculator puts all three on one calendar. Give it the date the goods have to be in your hands and it returns the last day an order can still start. Give it the day the deposit went out and it returns the day the goods land. Freight and clearance are yours to fill in, because those figures come from your forwarder and your import broker rather than from us. The arithmetic runs inside your browser, and the figures you enter stay on your device.

Where each number comes from

Four of the six boxes describe your side of the journey and two describe ours, which is why the answer is only as good as the figures you put in. The table below says what each box means and who holds the number.

The last line is the one most first orders underestimate. A sample that sits on a desk for ten days costs exactly ten days of schedule, and no amount of factory capacity can give them back. If you need a date held, nominate one person on your side to approve, and send the decision the day the sample lands.

Why the deposit date and the enquiry date are not the same day

Our published bulk window is 15–25 working days after sample approval and deposit. That phrasing is precise: the window opens when two things are in hand, the approved sample and the deposit, not when the first email arrives. Everything between an enquiry and that point — fabric selection, colour standards, trim approvals, the payment in transit — sits outside the window and belongs to the planning stage. The production timeline walks through that stage in order.

The reverse tab therefore calls its answer Place the order by, and it means the day the design is confirmed and the deposit has cleared. Treating that date as the day to start writing the enquiry will put the whole schedule late by however long the specification takes to settle. If you already know the fabric, the weight, the colour standard, the size chart and the decoration placement, that stage can be a single exchange of emails rather than a fortnight of samples going back and forth.

Reading an answer that has already passed

When the date the calculator returns sits in the past, the target is not achievable on the figures you entered, and the message tells you how many days short it is. Three things can close that gap. Freight and clearance are usually the quickest to improve, by re-quoting the route or clearing at a different port. The sample stage can be shortened by turning comments around on the day the sample arrives, or by running a single round where the style allows it; the sampling question sets out what a round covers. The delivery date can move. What cannot be compressed is the bulk window itself: a figure below 15 working days is not a production option we offer.

If the shortfall is only a few days, resist the temptation to shave the production figure to make the arithmetic fit. The number that gives way in that situation is normally the buffer in front of your launch, and a launch date that has no buffer left is the one that ends up paying for a late container.

What sits outside the calendar

The calculator counts Monday to Friday as working days and does not deduct public holidays, so a window that crosses one needs those days added on top. Chinese New Year is the one to plan around, because the shutdown is longer than a public holiday and it moves every year. Four other items can extend a schedule without appearing in any of the boxes:

• Fabric that has to be made rather than taken from stock. A bespoke weight or colourway is knitted and dyed before anything can be cut, and that mill schedule runs ahead of ours.
• Custom trims. Woven labels and hang tags are produced at 1,000 pieces, jacquard patches and silicone badges at 300, and each is a separate run at a separate supplier. They are booked alongside the fabric so they stay off the critical path.
• Third-party testing. We can arrange it with a laboratory in China when your buyer asks for a report, and the turnaround belongs to the lab.
• Decoration passes. Print, heat transfer, embroidery and jacquard each add a step in sampling and a step in bulk, and pieces queue at that process before they can be sewn.

Checking a schedule someone else has quoted you

The forward tab is the one to use on a supplier’s promise. Enter the day the deposit went out and the six figures as they were quoted, and see whether the arrival date that falls out matches the date you were given. If it only matches when one box is set below the window we publish for that stage, the useful question is which stage is being overlapped and in what order the work will run — an answer you can check against a sample approval date.

Two of our own figures are on the table for that comparison: sampling at 3–7 working days from a confirmed design, and bulk at 15–25 working days from approval and deposit, with the same window applying from 100 pieces up and larger runs scheduled on confirmation. Both are written into every quote, alongside the incoterm, because EXW, FOB Shenzhen or Yantian and DDP each hand the transport to a different party. A first order that will split across styles and colours can start from the small batch guide, which sets out how the 100-piece minimum works per style and per colour.

Send the style and the date you need to hit, and we will reverse the schedule against our own floor rather than against a general figure — including whether the fabric you want is held or has to be made. The contact page reaches the sales team directly. The other tool on the tools page settles the weight question first: the fabric GSM calculator converts, measures and estimates fabric before any of the clocks start.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find the latest date I can place an order?

Open the reverse tab, enter the date the goods have to be in your hands, and fill the other five boxes with your own figures. The top line of the result, Place the order by, is the last day the design can be confirmed and the deposit cleared while still hitting your date. If that day has already gone, the page tells you how many days short the schedule is, so you can decide whether to change the route or move the date.

Does the calculator count weekends and public holidays?

Sampling and bulk are counted in working days, Monday to Friday. Freight, clearance and the time a sample spends in transit are counted in calendar days, weekends included. Public holidays are not deducted from either, so a window that crosses one needs those days added on top. A factory date that falls on a weekend moves back to the working day before it, which keeps the answer on the safe side.

Why does bulk production start from the deposit and not from my order date?

Because the published window is 15–25 working days after sample approval and deposit, and both conditions have to be met before cutting starts. The stretch between an enquiry and that point covers fabric and colour selection, trim approvals and the payment in transit, and none of it is part of the production window. Planning from the enquiry date therefore returns a date that is later than the one you can actually hold.

What can I change if the date has already passed?

Three things. Re-quote the freight or clear at a different port, which is usually the fastest saving. Turn the sample around in a day rather than a week, or run a single round where the style allows it. Or move the delivery date. The bulk window itself is not adjustable: a figure below 15 working days is not a production option we offer, and shaving it only moves the risk to your launch.

Does a larger order take longer?

The published window is 15–25 working days from 100 pieces upwards, so quantity does not change the window. It does decide where inside that window an order lands, because a simple style in a fabric we hold sits at the short end while a heavier, more decorated or larger run sits at the long one. Runs of 5,000 pieces and above are scheduled on confirmation, and the booked slot is what governs the calendar.

Is air freight faster, and does it change production?

It changes the freight line only. Flying the goods shortens the transport days you enter, and production still runs its 15–25 working days. Which party books the transport depends on the incoterm: we work on EXW, FOB Shenzhen or Yantian and DDP door to door on request. On an FOB shipment your forwarder sets the routing, and on a DDP shipment the transit is confirmed in writing with the quote.

Can sampling be done in one round instead of two?

It can, and most styles settle in one or two rounds, with a new block occasionally taking three. A single round only works when the brief is complete before cutting: fabric, weight, colour standard, size chart, decoration placement and trims all fixed. Where something is still open, the second round is usually cheaper than discovering the gap in bulk, because a change during production means re-cutting or re-making the affected pieces.