How Much Is Your Garment Factory Actually Losing Per Month?
Most CMT factory owners think they're losing 1–2% of output to lost bundles and payment disputes. The real number — once you count supervisor chase-time, accountant reconciliation hours, and pieces that never make it to the dispatch lot — is usually 5–9%. Plug your numbers in below.
Your Factory's Numbers
Adjust these to match your factory. Defaults are typical for a 50-machine CMT operation.
Count helpers and trainees as 0.5 each.
Take-home including overtime and piece-rate bonus. Default $220 ≈ ₹18,000 ≈ ৳24,000.
Total finished pieces per month across all lines.
Default $6/piece is typical for basic knitwear/woven. Premium = $12–25.
% of monthly pieces that vanish between cutting and dispatch. Industry avg without QR tracking: 1.5–3%.
Time supervisors spend physically searching racks, asking operators "where is this bundle?", or recounting WIP.
Time spent matching paper bundle tickets to operator pay claims, resolving disputes.
Auto-suggested based on operator count. Edit if you have a custom quote.
Your Monthly Loss
Where the money is going right now — every month.
We'll review your factory's losses and book a 20-min walkthrough — no slides.
How the calculation works
The ROI math for garment ERP software in CMT factories isn't mysterious — but it's diffuse, which is why owners chronically underestimate it. Here's exactly what we count.
1. Lost / unaccounted pieces
In a paper-bundle factory, between 1.5% and 3% of monthly output goes missing between the cutting room and the dispatch lot. Sometimes a bundle is misplaced. Sometimes one operator does the work but credit goes to another. Sometimes a bundle is labelled but never returns from the line and quietly gets reissued. The cost is the FOB value of those pieces — because you paid for fabric, paid for cutting, paid wages, and the finished pieces never reached the buyer.
Formula: Monthly pieces × Lost % × FOB value
2. Supervisor chase-time
Supervisors in paper-bundle factories spend 4–8 hours per week physically searching for bundles, asking operators "where is this batch?", recounting WIP at end of shift, or chasing the cutting room about a missing component. We use $4/hour as the loaded supervisor cost (wage + benefits + opportunity cost) — adjust if your factory pays differently.
Formula: Supervisor hours/week × 4.33 weeks × $4/hour × number of supervisors (estimated as 1 per 25 operators)
3. Accountant reconciliation
End-of-month piece-rate reconciliation is the single biggest hidden cost. Accountants and supervisors sit together for 8–12 hours per week matching paper bundle tickets to operator pay claims, resolving "I did 200 pieces, you paid me for 180" disputes. Multiply by year and it's often 600+ person-hours annually that an ERP eliminates entirely.
Formula: Accountant hours/week × 4.33 × $5/hour
4. Payment-dispute productivity loss
The hardest cost to see: when an operator believes they were short-paid, their throughput drops 12–18% the following week (factory-floor study, Nepal CMT, 2024). Even when only 10% of operators have an active dispute, the line-wide effect is real. We model this as 5% of total wage cost as a productivity penalty.
Formula: Operators × Avg wage × 5%
What Scan ERP actually fixes
- QR bundle tracking kills the lost-bundle line item — every bundle is scanned at every station, so nothing vanishes.
- Auto piece-rate calculation kills the accountant reconciliation line — paychecks are computed live, with operator agreement on each scan.
- Live WIP dashboard kills supervisor chase-time — they see exactly which line, which operator, which bundle on the screen.
- Per-operator pay transparency (operators see their earnings live on their phone) kills the dispute productivity penalty.
The recovered loss almost always pays for the subscription within 30–60 days. After that, it's pure margin recovery.
Ready to stop losing money?
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ROI FAQs
How is the ROI of a garment ERP calculated?
ROI = (Monthly Loss Recovered − Monthly ERP Cost) ÷ Monthly ERP Cost × 100. The three biggest recoverable losses in a CMT factory are lost bundles (1–3% of monthly output), supervisor and accountant reconciliation hours, and dispute-driven productivity drag. Scan ERP customers typically recover 8–15× the monthly subscription within the first 90 days.
What is the payback period for garment factory ERP software?
For a 50–150 machine CMT factory, typical payback is 30–60 days. Factories with severe paper-bundle losses (3%+ unaccounted) often see payback in under 30 days. Larger factories recoup faster in absolute dollars; the percentage payback period stays similar because subscription scales with size.
What numbers do I need to calculate ERP ROI for my factory?
Operator count, average monthly wage, monthly piece output, average FOB per piece, and rough hours/week supervisors and accountants spend chasing bundles or reconciling pay sheets. Even rough estimates produce useful results — most factories underestimate by 30–50% because the costs are diffuse.
Is this ROI calculator accurate for my factory?
The calculator uses industry-benchmark loss percentages drawn from CMT factories in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Nepal. Adjust the inputs to match your factory. For a precise audit, request a free factory walkthrough — we look at your actual paper sheets, sample bundles, and pay reconciliation process.
How much does Scan ERP actually cost?
Starts at $200/month for a 10–50 machine factory and scales to $3,000/month for 200+ machines. No setup fees, no per-user fees, no contract. Hardware (Pi edge cache, label printer, biometric) is optional and one-time. See /pricing.html for current pricing.