The most useful KPIs for a garment factory cover five areas: productivity (line efficiency, operator efficiency, capacity utilisation), quality (DHU, right first time, AQL pass rate), material (fabric consumption variance, cut-to-ship ratio), delivery (on-time delivery, air freight cost) and cost and people (cost per minute, absenteeism, attrition, machine downtime). An owner needs these on one screen, updated daily, not in fourteen spreadsheets.
Fourteen WhatsApp messages and no answer
This is a composite scenario drawn from situations we see often in Indian factories.
Ravi took over his father’s garment business in Ambattur, Chennai, three years ago. Two factories, eleven lines, a sampling unit and a warehouse. Every morning, his phone fills with reports: an Excel from production, a photo of the cutting register, a PDF from QA, a voice note from the planning head, a WhatsApp from the merchandiser about a delayed trim.
By 10 am, Ravi has read everything and understood almost nothing. Is the business doing better than last month? Which line is struggling? Which shipment is at risk? He has data, but no picture.
His father ran the business on instinct and a walk around the floor. With two factories and three times the orders, that doesn’t scale.
This list is what Ravi and his team eventually settled on.
Productivity KPIs
- Line efficiency
(Output × Style SMV) ÷ (Operators × Working minutes) × 100
Tells you: how well each line converts available minutes into garments.
- Operator efficiency
(Pieces produced × Operation SMV) ÷ Minutes on standard work × 100
Tells you: individual performance, training needs and who can support a bottleneck.
- Capacity utilisation
Booked SAM minutes ÷ Available SAM minutes × 100
Tells you: whether you’re overbooked or have room to take more orders.
- Machine downtime %
Downtime minutes ÷ Planned machine minutes × 100
Tells you: whether maintenance is costing you output.
Quality KPIs
- DHU (defects per hundred units)
Total defects found ÷ Pieces checked × 100
Tells you: the defect level at in-line or end-line inspection. Note that one garment can have more than one defect.
- Right first time (RFT)
Pieces passed without rework ÷ Pieces checked × 100
Tells you: how much output needs repair, which hides time and cost.
- AQL pass rate (final inspection)
Inspections passed ÷ Total final inspections × 100
Tells you: shipment risk with buyers.
Material KPIs
- Fabric consumption variance
(Actual consumption − Costed consumption) ÷ Costed consumption × 100
Tells you: whether the cutting room is eating your margin.
- Cut-to-ship ratio
Pieces shipped ÷ Pieces cut × 100
Tells you: how much of what you cut actually becomes revenue. Losses here mean rejections, damages or missing pieces.
- Order-to-ship ratio
Pieces shipped ÷ Pieces ordered × 100
Tells you: whether you short-ship (penalties, lost revenue) or over-ship (wasted material).
Delivery KPIs
- On-time delivery (OTD)
Shipments made on or before ex-factory date ÷ Total shipments × 100
Tells you: your reliability, which buyers remember longer than price.
- Air freight cost as % of sales
Air freight paid by the factory ÷ Sales value × 100
Tells you: the cost of planning failures. This number should be near zero.
Cost and people KPIs
- Cost per minute (CPM)
Total factory cost for the period ÷ Total minutes worked by direct operators
Tells you: your true cost of production per minute, the base for every quotation. Compare it with the price per minute you earn on each order.
- Absenteeism %
Days absent ÷ Total scheduled days × 100
Tells you: how much planned capacity disappears before the shift starts.
- Attrition %
Operators who left in the month ÷ Average headcount × 100
Tells you: whether you’re constantly training new people, which drags efficiency down.
A summary table for your dashboard
| Area | KPI | Review frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Productivity | Line efficiency, operator efficiency | Hourly / daily |
| Productivity | Capacity utilisation | Weekly |
| Productivity | Machine downtime % | Daily |
| Quality | DHU, RFT | Hourly / daily |
| Quality | AQL pass rate | Per shipment |
| Material | Fabric consumption variance | Per lay / daily |
| Material | Cut-to-ship, order-to-ship | Per order |
| Delivery | On-time delivery | Weekly / monthly |
| Delivery | Air freight % | Monthly |
| Cost | Cost per minute | Monthly |
| People | Absenteeism, attrition | Daily / monthly |
Three mistakes owners make with KPIs
Too many numbers. If your dashboard has 60 metrics, nobody looks at any of them. Start with the 15 above; drop the ones you never act on.
Numbers that arrive too late. Monthly efficiency tells you what went wrong four weeks ago. Efficiency and DHU need to be visible during the shift.
Numbers nobody owns. Each KPI needs one owner: the production manager for efficiency, the QA head for DHU, the planning head for OTD. Review them in a short daily meeting.
Where the data has to come from
Most of these KPIs depend on shop-floor data: bundle scans, QC checks, downtime logs, attendance. If that data is collected on paper and typed into Excel later, the dashboard will always be a day late and a little wrong. The KPIs are only as good as the data behind them.
Where TPCS fits
TPCS brings these numbers together because it captures them at source:
- MES for line and operator efficiency, downtime and hourly output
- End-line QC on tablets and AQL for DHU, RFT and inspection results
- Cut plan, inventory and order closing for fabric variance and cut-to-ship
- TNA and dispatch for on-time delivery
- CEO dashboard and visual display boards that show it all live, on a phone or a factory-floor screen, with Power BI integration if you need deeper analysis
How Ravi’s story ended
Ravi’s mornings changed. Instead of fourteen messages, he opens one dashboard on his phone. Line efficiency and DHU by factory, today’s at-risk shipments, fabric variance on running orders. His 10 am meeting with the production, QA and planning heads now takes 20 minutes and ends with three decisions, not three arguments.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most important KPIs in a garment factory?
Line efficiency, DHU, right first time, fabric consumption variance, cut-to-ship ratio, on-time delivery, cost per minute, absenteeism and machine downtime are among the most useful.
How do you calculate line efficiency in garments?
Line efficiency = (Output × Style SMV) ÷ (Operators × Working minutes) × 100.
What is DHU in the garment industry?
DHU (defects per hundred units) = Total defects ÷ Pieces checked × 100. It measures defect levels, counting every defect even if one garment has several.
What is cut-to-ship ratio?
Pieces shipped ÷ Pieces cut × 100. It shows how much of the cut quantity actually ships, revealing rejections and losses.
What is cost per minute in garment manufacturing?
Total factory cost for a period divided by the total minutes worked by direct operators. It’s used to price orders and check profitability by style.
See your factory on one screen
Book a TPCS demo and we’ll show you a live CEO dashboard built on real shop-floor data, from line efficiency to on-time delivery.