Negotiate

The levers are the negotiation, and each one is a mechanism you can ask about by name; these are the clauses to settle in writing before the price is agreed, in plain words:

• Minimum per colour. The smallest lot the mill will dye in one shade, and the surcharge below it. Ask for the price at your quantity per colour and at the minimum, because the minimum per colour, not the total, decides whether a small programme is possible at all.
• Tolerances. The plus or minus on finished width, on weight, on ends and picks and on residual shrinkage, each as a figure. A cloth can be right on construction and still wrong on width, and only a written tolerance makes that a claim.
• Shade band and inspection. The shade band agreed against the lab dip, whether cutting across lots is permitted, the four point system with the points cap, and who inspects before the rolls leave.
• Claims. The window for a claim on metres, width, weight, shade and shrinkage, the laboratory whose test report settles a dispute, and whether short or rejected metres are credited or reshipped.

What a bad answer looks like: “minimum is flexible for a good buyer” with no figure per colour, or “commercial tolerance” for the shade band, which is no band at all.