At the process house (mill), grey fabric goes through washing, dyeing, heat-setting and finishing. Along the way it shrinks a little in length. You can't easily stop that, but you can easily measure it — and only the one who measures can talk to the mill about it.
The formula
Shrinkage % = short ÷ grey metres × 100
Beyond normal (m) = short − grey metres × normal%
Always divide by grey metres, not finished. With 1,000 grey and 940 finished, shrinkage is 6.0%, not 6.38%.
How much is normal?
There is no single number — it depends on your fabric and your mill. Below is only a rough range:
| Fabric | Usual range (in length) |
|---|---|
| Flat polyester filament, plain or satin | low — roughly 2–6% |
| Textured, spun or viscose fabrics | middle — roughly 4–10% |
| High-twist yarn (crepe, georgette and the like) | high — can go above 10% |
The process matters too: the heat-set temperature, how hard the stenter pulls, how many washes. So the best "normal" is your own data — look at the last 8–10 lots of a quality and take that as its normal.
Track it per challan
The challan to the mill carries the taka numbers and each taka's grey metres. When goods come back, write the finished metres against that same challan, taka by taka, with the mill's lot number. One monthly total tells you nothing.
Example — two mills, four challans, 5% normal
| Challan | Takas | Grey m | Finished m | Short m | Shrinkage | Beyond normal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A · Mill X | 12 | 1,404 | 1,335 | 69 | 4.91% | 0 |
| B · Mill X | 10 | 1,170 | 1,113 | 57 | 4.87% | 0 |
| C · Mill Y | 11 | 1,287 | 1,201 | 86 | 6.68% | 21.65 m |
| D · Mill Y | 2 | 234 | 222 | 12 | 5.13% | 0.30 m |
- Challan C: at 5% normal, 1,287 × 5% = 64.35 m short is fine. It came 86 m short — 21.65 m beyond normal.
- Mill X: 126 ÷ 2,574 = 4.90% — fine.
- Mill Y: 98 ÷ 1,521 = 6.44%, 21.95 m beyond normal in all. Multiply those metres by your finished rate — that is one month's loss, from one mill.
Try one challan's numbers in the shrinkage calculator.
What to check when shrinkage is high
- Is the measuring the same? How you measured the taka and how the mill did — by hand, on a folding machine, stretched or relaxed. Two different methods easily make a 1–2% gap.
- Did every taka come back? Fents, cut pieces and rejected takas often come separately. Count them, or shrinkage will look bigger.
- Look taka by taka. If one or two takas are far short, it's the cloth or a cut piece; if the whole lot is even, it's the process.
- Did the quality change? More picks, a new yarn lot or twist — if the grey is different, so is the shrinkage.
- Did the process change? Ask the mill about the lot's process — temperature, washing, finish. Compare what the same quality gives at another mill.
Common mistakes
- Dividing by finished metres. Always use grey metres.
- Simple average of challan percentages. For Mill Y, (6.68 + 5.13) ÷ 2 = 5.91%, but the real figure is 6.44%. Use total short ÷ total grey.
- One normal for every quality. Keep a separate normal per quality.
- Forgetting width. Cloth shrinks in width too. This guide is about length; match the finished width with what the party wants.
In Loomiro
In Loomiro's Mill & Job Work, grey takas go to the mill on a challan, and when they return you enter each taka's finished metres and the mill's lot number. Each quality's normal shrinkage % lives in the quality master. The Shrinkage Report, filtered by period and mill, shows grey vs finished mill-wise, quality-wise, challan / lot-wise and taka-wise — how many metres came short beyond normal, and their ₹ value at the last six months' sale rate. The mill with the highest shrinkage is called out at the top, qualities without a normal % are flagged, and "At mill" shows which goods have been at a mill for 0–15, 16–30, 31–60 or 60+ days.
For GST on mill challans and job work, read the ITC-04 guide.
The ranges above are only a rough guide. Set the normal for each of your qualities and mills from your own past lots.