Piece count

Definition

How many garments are processed in a period, the volume figure behind every other number.

Why It Matters

Revenue can hold while pieces fall, which is what a price increase against a shrinking market looks like, and this trade has been shrinking for two decades as offices dressed down. A plant is a fixed-cost business, so pieces per day against capacity is the whole operating question. Ask for five years of piece counts beside revenue, and ask what happened to the dress-shirt line in particular, because that is the volume that left first.