Kavango Uniforms: Capacity, One Key Worker and a Late Fabric Delivery
Kavango Uniforms is a small workshop in Rundu that sews school uniforms. It employs four machinists. The senior machinist, Ms Nangula, makes 25 shirts a day and also sets up machines and checks the work of the other three, who each make 15 shirts a day. Power cuts, thread breakages and late fabric deliveries reduce actual output by about 20% of the theoretical total. The workshop has just won an order for 1 800 shirts to be delivered in six weeks; the school calendar allows 30 working days, and the school will reject late delivery and charge a penalty of N$2 000. The fabric supplier has warned that the last 300 metres of fabric will arrive one week late. A rival factory has offered Ms Nangula N$500 more than her current N$3 200 a month, and she has asked for an answer by Friday. Overtime is paid at 1.5 times the normal hourly rate, and a local tailor has offered to sew finished shirts at N$35 each.
1. Calculate the theoretical and actual capacity of the workshop and decide whether the 1 800-shirt order can be met on current arrangements. Show the shortfall.
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Theoretical capacity per day:
- Ms Nangula: 25 shirts
- Three machinists: 3 x 15 = 45 shirts
- Total = 70 shirts a day
Actual capacity: with 20% lost to power cuts, breakages and delays, output is 80% of 70 = 56 shirts a day.
Over 30 working days: 56 x 30 = 1 680 shirts.
Order requirement: 1 800 shirts, so the shortfall is 120 shirts (about 7%), plus whatever buffer the late fabric forces.
The workshop therefore cannot meet the order on current arrangements, but it is close: 120 shirts is about 2.1 days of actual output. The decision should be to accept the order only with a written production plan that closes the gap, not to hope that the 20% loss disappears.
The late fabric adds a second problem: 300 metres arriving a week late cannot be cut and sewn early. If about 1.5 metres are needed per shirt, that batch is roughly 200 shirts - more than the whole shortfall - and it lands in the final week, when there is no slack. The plan must create a buffer of at least 150 shirts before that fabric arrives, and confirm the delivery date in writing.
2. Ms Nangula has been offered N$500 more elsewhere. Using the figures, advise the owner on how to respond, and explain the risk if she leaves.
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What she is worth to the business:
- She makes 25 of the 70 theoretical shirts a day, or 36% of capacity.
- She also performs setup and quality control, which the other three rely on.
If she leaves: theoretical capacity falls to 3 x 15 = 45 shirts a day, and actual output to 80% x 45 = 36 shirts a day. Over 30 days that is 1 080 shirts against an order for 1 800 - a shortfall of 720 shirts, the order fails, the N$2 000 penalty is triggered, and the school may not order again. The N$500 increase is N$6 000 a year; the lost order and reputation are worth far more than that.
Advice: an increase of N$500 is financially justified, but a pure counter-offer is fragile - she may be bid up again, or leave later for other reasons. Combine it with non-financial retention:
- A title and clear responsibility as production supervisor, with a written job description.
- A bonus tied to on-time delivery and quality of this order, so her extra pay depends on the result.
- Training one of the other machinists to set up machines, so the business is not dependent on one person.
- A written agreement on the new wage and duties, signed before Friday.
Risk to manage: if she stays only for the money, quality may slip under pressure. The owner should monitor rejection rates during the order and keep the local tailor as a fallback, not as a permanent substitute for supervision.
3. Recommend a plan to manage the late fabric delivery and the 120-shirt gap, comparing overtime with the local tailor.
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Cost comparison:
- A machinist's normal day: N$3 200 / 22 working days = about N$145 a day.
- Overtime at 1.5 times = about N$218 a day.
- Producing 120 shirts at 15 shirts per machinist-day needs 8 machinist-days: 8 x N$218 = about N$1 745 in overtime.
- The tailor charges 120 x N$35 = N$4 200.
Overtime is cheaper, but it has limits: tired workers make mistakes, and the machines and power supply must cope. The tailor is more expensive per shirt but adds capacity without using the workshop's machines or supervision.
Recommended plan:
- Weeks 1-3: run limited overtime (about one hour a day, or Saturday mornings) to build a buffer of 150-180 finished shirts before the late fabric arrives. Estimated overtime cost: roughly N$1 700-2 000.
- Contact the fabric supplier in writing, confirm the exact date, and get a quote from a second supplier for 300 metres in case the delivery slips again.
- Use the tailor for the late-fabric batch only (up to 200 shirts), so the final week is not overloaded. At N$35 each this is expensive, so negotiate N$30 or a fixed price for the batch, and inspect every shirt.
- Keep Ms Nangula on checking, not only sewing during the final week, and record daily output on a simple chart so problems are seen early.
- Tell the school in advance if any risk remains, and agree a staged delivery if possible - communication is cheaper than a penalty.
Do not simply accept the order and rely on goodwill: a written plan, a buffer and a second fabric source are what protect the N$2 000 penalty and the school's future business.