A production target tells a line how many garments it should make in an hour or a day. A good target is based on the standard time of the garment, the people on the line and a realistic efficiency. A target that ignores any of these either demotivates the line or hides capacity.
The formula#
At 100% efficiency, a line could produce:
Real lines do not work at 100%, so apply a planned efficiency:
- Manpower: operators and helpers counted in the line (be consistent with how you calculate efficiency).
- Working minutes: minutes in the period, excluding scheduled breaks.
- Efficiency: planned efficiency as a decimal (65% = 0.65).
- SMV: garment standard minute value.
Worked example: daily target#
A polo shirt line has 32 people, works 480 minutes a day and the garment SMV is 16.0. The planned efficiency for this running style is 62%.
Hourly target: 595 / 8 = 74 pieces per hour (round down for a realistic hourly board).
Worked example: target for a new style#
New styles go through a learning curve. Planned efficiency usually starts low and rises over the first days. One common way to plan it:
| Day | Planned efficiency | Daily target (same line) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 35% | 336 |
| 2 | 45% | 432 |
| 3 | 52% | 499 |
| 4 | 58% | 556 |
| 5 onward | 62% | 595 |
The percentages here are an example. Use your own history for similar styles and the line's actual learning performance. A style with many new operations or a difficult fabric climbs more slowly.
Target per operator#
For individual operators, the target is based on the operation SMV:
An operation with SMV 0.50 has a 100% hourly output of 120 pieces. At 75% efficiency, the operator target is 90 pieces per hour.
Why not set the target at 100%?#
A target at 100% efficiency is the standard pace with no losses. Lines always have losses: machine breakdowns, feeding delays, quality repairs, style changes and unbalanced stations. A target that is never achievable becomes meaningless on the floor, and supervisors stop using it.
A target that is too low is also a problem: it hides spare capacity and gives the planning team the wrong idea of what the line can do.
The right target is one the line can reach with good effort and good management, and which improves as the line improves.
Hourly production boards#
Show the hourly target and actual output at the end of the line, hour by hour. The value is not the board itself, but the reaction to it:
- If an hour falls short, record the reason (machine, feeding, quality, absence).
- Look at the reasons each day and fix the biggest ones.
- The hourly production report template has columns for this.
Common mistakes#
- Using the wrong SMV, such as a quoted SMV from costing instead of the engineering SMV.
- Counting only operators in the target but all people in efficiency, or the other way round.
- Ignoring absenteeism: a target set for 40 people is wrong when 36 are present.
- Not adjusting for the learning curve at the start of a style.
- Changing the target during the day without recording why.
Use the production target calculator for daily and hourly targets, and garment capacity calculation for planning over weeks and months.
Related guides#
- What is SMV: the standard minute value behind every target.
- Line balancing: making sure no single station stops the line reaching its target.
- Takt time: the pace needed to meet customer demand.
- Low line efficiency: what to check when the line keeps missing its target.