A lot of interesting commentary came out of Tuesday’s entry, What is a size break?, one of which was the question of the optimal size range. By way of example is Sarah’s question:
How many sizes can be reliably covered by grading before the technique breaks down and there really should be an adjustment for a new shape? Misses sizes based on an 8 or 10, can be graded from 0 to 20 (11 sizes). I think it is stating the obvious that this large a grade would not work. In an ideal manufacturing world, what would?
Wars have been started under flimsier pretexts but few would agree it is possible to do a good job of grading 11 sizes from one base size pattern. There is a lot of wiggle room depending on styling and fabrication so try to limit your answer to specific examples.
You should know that today’s entry is a pre-pop quiz to another pop quiz to be published next week (now here). At that time you’ll see how having too many sizes can dilute the size spread such that your medium is not a medium for costing purposes. If you’re not sure why a medium is the base size for costing purposes, Analyzing sales by size is required reading -as is part two in the series. However, this does not mean a medium always should be the base size, far from it. Not knowing when it should or shouldn’t be -or even which size should be- can bury you. Happily, this has a simple solution, I wish most production and sizing problems could be fixed this easily. In next week’s pop quiz you’ll get the chance to explain (or read) how to do that too.
Regrouping, today’s question is: How many sizes can be reliably covered by grading before the technique breaks down and there really should be an adjustment for a new shape?