TL;DR
- Demand-limited shops gain nothing in cash from more capacity.
- Capacity-limited shops gain contribution margin, never full revenue.
- State which of the two you are before modelling any investment.
Extra output valued at sales price inflates every automation case by a factor of three to five. The variable cost of those garments still has to be paid.
Value = min(Extra_capacity, Unserved_demand) × (Price − Variable_cost)
- Variable cost = garment, ink, film, powder, energy, direct labour, rejects
Demand-limited vs capacity-limited
- Demand-limited: you turn down no work; machines wait. Extra capacity = €0 until sales change.
- Capacity-limited: you decline or delay orders; extra capacity = margin on the work you can now accept.
- Mixed / seasonal: model peak months as capacity-limited and the rest as demand-limited.
3,000 extra garments per month
- Sales price
- €6.40
- Variable cost
- €4.05
- Contribution margin
- €2.35
- Value if fully sold
- €7,050 (not €19,200)
- Value if demand-limited
- €0
Interactive example
Investment, monthly benefit — payback, ROI and NPV
- Payback
- 11.8 months
- ROI over 36 months
- 206 %
- NPV
- € 171.250
Same calculation kernel as the full calculators. For a decision-grade result, open the matching calculator.
Run the numbers in a calculator
Turn your own numbers into a bank-ready PDF report.
Create a reportRelated reading
Why released labour hours are not cash savings
Time freed on the shop floor changes the payroll only under specific conditions.
8 min11/07/2026
Contribution margin, variable and fixed costs
The one split that determines whether an extra order helps or hurts.
7 min18/06/2026
Facility costs explained — allocation is not saving
Rent, floor space and overhead must be allocated, but they rarely change with a machine.
9 min05/07/2026
When is DTG more profitable than DTF?
Two digital processes with completely different cost structures and bottlenecks.
10 min09/07/2026