Underwear Production & Lead-Time Planner

Sourcing delays are usually calendar problems, not production problems. Enter the date the goods must be in your warehouse and this planner works backwards through sampling, pre-production approval, bulk production and freight, so you can see the latest date you can place the PO. Based in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster of south-east China, Unitex manages sampling, quality control and export documentation for every order.

Build the reverse plan

Lead times used in the plan

• Lab dip: 3–7 days (new colour) — approved under D65 light.
• Fit sample: 7–10 days for standard underwear, 10–14 days for sleepwear and sport bras.
• Pre-production sample: 5–7 days after fit approval, including labels and packaging.
• Bulk production: 30–45 days after PPS approval (repeat styles 30–40 days).
• Sea freight: 30–35 days port-to-port to EU/UK; air 5–8 days; express 1–3 days.
• Chinese New Year: factories close for 2–3 weeks; the planner flags targets that fall in that window.

Planning rules of thumb: a repeat order runs roughly 60–75 days from PO to your warehouse; a new style with new fabric takes 75–95 days. The single largest avoidable delay is an unapproved lab dip — approve colour before you approve the fit sample.

From order confirmation to arrival: the full chain

A production lead time is not a delivery date. It is one link in a chain, and the chain starts before the factory sees a purchase order. The table below is the sequence we plan against, with the start point of each stage rather than a single total.

• Counter sample — clock starts when the tech pack and the fabric are both in hand. 7–10 days where the fabric is a stock quality, 12–18 days where it has to be developed.
• Sample approval — the buyer’s clock, typically 3–5 days. Every day here moves the shipping date by a day, which is why comments are best batched into one round rather than sent piecemeal.
• PPS (pre-production sample) — 5–7 days from approval plus fabric in-house. This is the last point at which a construction change costs sampling time rather than production time.
• Bulk production — 45–60 days for a new style, 30–40 days on a repeat, counted from PPS approval and deposit received. Whichever comes later sets the start.
• Final inspection — AQL 2.5, Level II, usually 1–2 days on site once production is complete (industry practice, not a fixed rule).
• Booking and loading — typically 5–7 days from inspection passed to container on board, which is where a late booking quietly costs a whole sailing.
• Ocean transit — quoted per port pair at booking. Asia–US West Coast and Asia–Europe services run on weekly proforma schedules, so a missed cutoff usually means seven days, not one.

Read together, two things follow. First, the fixed part of the chain is roughly six to eight weeks before a container moves, and none of it is compressible by asking the factory to hurry. Second, the two variables the buyer actually controls are the comment round and the deposit date — both are worth more than any negotiation on production days.

If you are planning backwards from a retail on-shelf date, start from the sailing schedule rather than from the production figure. Our capability and lead-time summary gives the per-stage numbers this table is built on.

Last updated: 2026-10-21 · Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. — OEM & ODM underwear sourcing partner

Unitex Underwear (Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd.) — OEM/ODM underwear sourcing and supply-chain partner in Xiamen, China; in the trade since 2009, incorporated in 2013. Based in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster, Fujian Province, south-east China.