The economic case should price avoidable loss and restoration

When a digital failure halts output after prime power is restored (for example, when a corrupted local database, a failed certificate bootstrap, or an unverified model update blocks an inspection gate for 90 illustrative minutes after mains return), the model must value the lost production volume accurately.[S03][S05][S23] Valuing every delayed or lost garment bundle at its full wholesale selling price treats raw cotton lint, yarn, dyestuffs, finishing chemicals, packaging, and piece-rate consumables as if they were destroyed during the hold, whereas an idle line consumes no raw materials.[R06][S05][S1203]

12.5 Price delayed and lost units at contribution margin, not gross revenue

Under managerial accounting, the loss from an unrecovered production hour depends on whether deferred output is made up within the scheduling window and what variable costs are saved while the line stands still.[S05][S1203] Publicly reported sector figures show the weight of persistent underutilisation in Cameroon's textile industry: a July 2023 report on CICAM recorded capacity utilisation at 33.7 percent at Garoua, 48.9 percent at CICAM 1, and 10.83 percent at CICAM 2, noting that underutilisation cost about 2 billion XAF in 2020 alongside restructuring estimates of 30.7 billion to 48.2 billion XAF (and one relaunch plan cited at 70.2 billion XAF).[R12][R13] Those third-party observations reflect broad industrial and equipment conditions rather than digital outage losses at a GFT facility.[R11][R12] For a single line evaluating digital continuity, the analyst must distinguish three cases:[S05][S1203]

• Deferred output recovered in normal shift hours: If the line has slack capacity later in the week and clears held bundles during regular paid shifts without missing a delivery window, lost contribution margin is zero; the only cost is temporary buffer handling.[R12][S05]
• Deferred output recovered through overtime shifts: If the plant meets its delivery commitment by running authorised overtime (at or above the statutory 1.2x overtime multiplier in Cameroon), the attributable cost is the incremental overtime labour premium, auxiliary energy, and supervisory overhead required to catch up, not the unit's contribution margin.[R16][S05]
• Permanently lost output on a bottleneck line: Only when the affected workstation is a bottleneck operating at full scheduled utilisation, or when a missed export shipping cutoff cancels the order, does an hour of post-restoration digital hold forfeit sales volume.[S05][S1203] Even then, the lost value per unit is the contribution margin (selling price less variable fibre, yarn, trim, dye, variable energy, and direct piece-work costs), never the gross selling price.[S1203]

12.6 Keep safety and mandatory traceability as gates, not trade-offs

Two requirements must never be traded off inside a payback spreadsheet: machinery safety interlocks and mandatory lot traceability.[S03][S05] As NIST SP 800-82 Rev. 3 emphasises, operational technology security and continuity architectures must address unique performance, reliability, and safety requirements.[S03] Hardwired emergency stops, thermal cutouts, pressure relief valves, and guard interlocks belong to the physical safety authority and must fail safe independently of any edge computer, database, or network switch.[S03] An economic model must never evaluate whether to fund a safety interlock based on avoided downtime, nor permit an automated restart after power return to bypass physical operator clearance.[S03][S06]

Similarly, when a buyer contract or customs regime requires complete bundle-to-bale traceability for shipment acceptance, preserving the event ledger is a market-access gate.[R06][S13] Safety and mandatory compliance define the minimum permissible service class, while contribution-margin and labour-saving calculations determine whether to invest in higher levels of automation, battery autonomy, and hardware redundancy.[S05][S1203] Capital budgeting, discount rates, tax treatment, and financing structures belong in wp13.[S05]