TL;DR
- Layout work often frees 10–20% of handling time at near-zero cost.
- Freed floor space is only cash if you sublet, avoid expansion or cancel storage.
- Map the material path before you move a single machine.
Shops grow by adding machines where space happened to be free. After three years the material path crosses itself four times, and every garment pays for the detour.
- 1Draw the physical path of one order from goods-in to shipping.
- 2Count handovers, buffers and direction changes.
- 3Relocate buffers before machines — it is cheaper and often sufficient.
- 4Re-time the handling per order and convert into loaded labour cost.
Handling reduction
- Handling before
- 6.4 min / order
- Handling after
- 4.1 min / order
- Orders per month
- 620
- Time released
- 23.8 h — cash only if overtime or temp hours fall
Interactive example
Facility cost per productive hour
- Facility rate
- € 20,00 / h
- Allocated to this cell
- € 16.000
- Cash saving from allocation
- € 0
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Create a reportRelated reading
Facility costs explained — allocation is not saving
Rent, floor space and overhead must be allocated, but they rarely change with a machine.
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Availability × Performance × Quality — measured on the constraint, not on every machine.
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Why released labour hours are not cash savings
Time freed on the shop floor changes the payroll only under specific conditions.
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Direct vs indirect labour
Only one of them belongs in your cost per garment.
5 min12/06/2026
