Garment Washing & Wet Processing Costing

Washing is the value-addition step where the quotation most often hides its assumptions. A laundry quotes a single per-piece charge, the costing team copies it onto the cost sheet, and nobody asks what the charge includes, what batch size it assumes, or what happens when the buyer approves a darker shade. Then the shade changes, the re-wash rate jumps, the batch runs half full, and the wash line that looked fixed turns out to have been conditional all along.

The natural search phrase for this skill is garment washing cost, and the discipline that prevents the surprise is simple: cost washing as a build-up of lines, not as a single quoted figure. The wash charge, the chemicals, the water and energy, the drying, the re-wash allowance, and the transport each get their own line. When any one of them changes, only that line moves, and the sheet stays honest.

The method has six steps, applied in order:

Step 1: Fix the wash recipe and the shade standard in writing with the buyer. The recipe is the chemical mix, temperature, time, and machine settings. It sets the chemical cost per piece and strongly influences the re-wash rate, so nothing else on the sheet is stable until the recipe is fixed.

Step 2: Confirm batch size and cycle time with the laundry. Batch count equals order quantity divided by pieces per batch. Total machine time equals batch count times cycle time. This is the capacity check: it proves the laundry can actually run the order before the shipment date.

Step 3: Collect the wash house charge per piece, covering machine time and labour. Ask whether it includes drying and quality checking. If it does not, add those lines yourself rather than assuming they are free.

Step 4: Add chemicals priced from the recipe per piece, water and energy per piece, and drying per piece. Chemicals must be priced from the actual recipe, never estimated as a round percentage of the wash charge, because on heavy washes the chemical line can exceed the wash charge itself.

Step 5: Apply the re-wash allowance by multiplying the subtotal by (1 + re-wash percent / 100). The allowance covers pieces re-washed for shade matching, stains, or uneven fading. Dark shades and heavy washes need a higher allowance than light enzyme washes.

Step 6: Add transport to and from the laundry per piece, and repeat the sheet for each candidate wash type at the same quantity, so the buyer sees the cost of a heavier wash before approving it.

All figures in this example are illustrative. The method is standard; the prices are example values.

Wash house charge: BDT 18.00 per piece, covering machine time and labour. Chemicals: BDT 6.50 per piece from the enzyme recipe. Water and energy: BDT 3.00 per piece. Drying: BDT 2.50 per piece. The subtotal is 18.00 plus 6.50 plus 3.00 plus 2.50, which is BDT 30.00.

A 3 percent re-wash allowance gives 30.00 times 1.03, which is BDT 30.90 per piece. For 8,000 pieces the order total is 30.90 times 8,000, which is BDT 247,200.

Now the batch check, which is the step most sheets skip. The order is 8,000 pieces at 100 pieces per batch, which is 8,000 divided by 100, which is 80 batches. At 45 minutes per cycle, total machine time is 80 times 45, which is 3,600 minutes, which is 60 hours. If the laundry has one machine available for 10 hours a day, the wash alone needs 6 days. That fact belongs on the sheet before the shipment date is promised, not discovered when the goods are already cut.

The same jeans washed three ways, all figures illustrative, all at the same quantity, all with the same 3 percent re-wash allowance. Only the wash charge, the chemical line, and (for stone wash) the water line change:

Enzyme wash: wash charge 18.00 plus chemicals 6.50 plus water and energy 3.00 plus drying 2.50 is 30.00, times 1.03 is BDT 30.90 per piece.

Stone wash: wash charge 24.00 plus chemicals 4.00 plus water and energy 3.50 plus drying 2.50 is 34.00, times 1.03 is BDT 35.02 per piece. Note the water line: stone wash uses more water than enzyme wash (BDT 3.50 against BDT 3.00), which is why its subtotal is 34.00 and not 33.50. The difference against enzyme wash is 35.02 minus 30.90, which is BDT 4.12 per piece, which on 8,000 pieces is BDT 32,960.

Bleach wash: wash charge 22.00 plus chemicals 8.00 plus water and energy 3.00 plus drying 2.50 is 35.50, times 1.03 is BDT 36.565, which rounds to BDT 36.57 per piece. The bleach chemical line is the highest of the three, which is why bleach wash costs more than stone wash despite a lower wash charge.

The comparison teaches the real lesson: no single line decides a wash type. Stone wash has the highest wash charge but the lowest chemical cost. Bleach wash has a middle wash charge but the highest chemical cost. Only the full build-up, with the water line stated, ranks them correctly.

The most expensive washing surprise is not a price rise; it is a shade change after quotation. The buyer approves a light shade, the factory quotes the enzyme sheet at BDT 30.90, and then the buyer approves a darker shade that needs a heavier recipe. The chemical line rises, the re-wash rate rises, and the original sheet is wrong on two lines at once.

The defence is a shade-change clause on the quotation: the wash price holds for the approved shade and recipe, and a darker approved shade re-prices the chemical and re-wash lines. The factory example in this lesson shows the clause working: a BDT 0.90 per piece correction (BDT 7,200 on 8,000 pieces) was small, but the clause has since protected three later orders from the same loss. Clauses are free; absorbing shade changes is not.

Transport to and from the laundry is routinely left off the wash sheet and discovered later as a freight variance. It belongs on the wash sheet because it is driven by the wash decision: a factory that washes in-house pays nothing, while a factory that sends goods to a laundry 40 kilometres away pays on every piece, twice. Add it as its own line, per piece, after the re-wash allowance, because a re-washed piece does not usually travel twice.

A complete wash cost sheet needs every line below filled and sourced: one, the wash recipe and shade standard agreed in writing. Two, batch size and cycle time confirmed, with the batch count and machine hours computed. Three, wash house charge per piece, with drying and checking confirmed as included or added. Four, chemicals priced from the recipe per piece. Five, water and energy and drying per piece. Six, re-wash percent from the wash type and shade history. Seven, transport per piece. Eight, the sheet repeated for each candidate wash type at the same quantity, so the buyer approves the wash with its cost visible.

Wash cost per piece is the wash charge plus chemicals plus water and energy plus drying, plus a re-wash allowance, plus transport. Batch size is the capacity check, the recipe is the cost driver, and the shade standard is the agreement that holds the price. Cost the wash type that matches the approved shade, show the re-wash line, and the wash line on every quotation becomes a number the factory can defend.