CMT prices are often set by asking "what did we charge last time?" or "what is the market paying?". This approach loses money as soon as the product changes or costs go up. A sounder way is to calculate the price from how many minutes the product takes to sew and what one minute costs you. This article walks through the same calculation for both sides: the company placing work with a workshop and the workshop doing the contract sewing.
The figures in this article are examples chosen only to show how the calculation works; they do not reflect the costs of any real company or an industry average. Costs vary by company, region and period, so run the calculation with your own figures.
The logic of CMT pricing: minutes
What a sewing workshop sells is minutes at the machine. The basic formula:
Unit CMT price = (Product minutes × Cost per minute) ÷ Efficiency × (1 + Profit margin)
The formula has four unknowns: the product's standard minutes, the workshop's cost per minute, a realistic efficiency and the target profit.
How to work out the cost per minute
All of the workshop's costs for one month are divided by the total number of minutes available for production that month.
| Item | Example value (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Total monthly costs (wages, SGK social security contributions, rent, electricity, depreciation, overheads) | 1,500,000 TL |
| Operators working in production | 30 people |
| Net working time per day | 480 minutes |
| Working days per month | 22 days |
| Total minutes per month (30 × 480 × 22) | 316,800 minutes |
| Cost per minute (1,500,000 ÷ 316,800) | ≈ 4.73 TL |
The amounts in the table (in Turkish lira, TL) are illustrative; they only show how the formula works.
The cost of support staff such as pressing, quality control and packing goes into total costs, but only the operators who actually sew are counted in the minutes. Otherwise the cost per minute comes out lower than it really is.
What is the product minute value (SAM)?
SAM (standard allowed minute) is the total time of all the sewing operations for a product at standard pace. The times measured for each operation (for example "topstitching the pocket opening" or "side seam") are added up, and an allowance for rest and personal needs is added on top. It can be measured with a stopwatch or estimated from past values for similar products.
Just to give an idea, and bearing in mind that it varies greatly by style: a basic T-shirt can take 8–12 minutes, five-pocket trousers 20–30 minutes and a lined jacket over 60 minutes. Style details (number of pockets, embroidery, lining) change this time considerably, so always look at the product itself before quoting.
Worked example
| Step | Example value (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Product | Chino trousers |
| Product minutes (SAM) | 24 minutes |
| Cost per minute | 4.73 TL |
| Cost at 100% efficiency (24 × 4.73) | 113.52 TL |
| Realistic efficiency | 70% |
| Cost adjusted for efficiency (113.52 ÷ 0.70) | 162.17 TL |
| Profit margin | 12% |
| Unit CMT price (162.17 × 1.12) | ≈ 181.63 TL |
In most workshops, efficiency is well below 100%: style changeovers, waiting, rework and learning time all eat into the day. With small quantities and frequently changing styles, efficiency drops even further, which is why it makes sense to charge a higher unit price for low-quantity work.
What to watch for when quoting
- Quantity: a 200-piece job and a 3,000-piece job do not run at the same efficiency.
- What the price includes: pressing, packing, sewing on labels, attaching trims, transport. If this isn't stated in writing, disputes follow later.
- Payment terms: 60-day payment terms are a financing cost for the workshop and are reflected in the price.
- Defects and waste: it should be agreed in writing who pays for re-sewing and corrections.
- Currency: if you sell in a foreign currency but the CMT price is in Turkish lira (TL), exchange rate movements affect your profit; track the selling price and the CMT price in the same table, together with the exchange rate.
Check the calculation once the order is finished
A quote is an estimate. When the order ships, look at the actual figures: selling price, CMT price, fabric and other costs. Profit by style shows which product types you really make money on. After a few orders, your CMT prices rest on your own data rather than on guesswork.
In Üretimo, when you enter the selling price and the CMT price on an order, each workshop's payable is calculated automatically on the accounting screen, and with the Finance add-on, so is profitability by style.
CMT price, workshop payables and profit in one place. Enter the price on the order, and workshop payables and profit by style are calculated automatically. 15 days free.
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