Sorry, have been on a plane to Darwin and back to Brisvegas today.
They actually are normal accounting terms IMHO. A committed order doesn't mean it has been invoiced yet which means the bookkeeper wouldn't have entered it into SAP, Xero, MYOB, Reckon or what not. Keep in mind you can only invoice when the order has been delivered to the client, not when the PO has been received. The clients are ordering first batches while preparing everything for the change in production. Significant downtime is potentially required (hey, I'm an accountant, not a textile worker, don't ask me how long the downtime is). You wouldn't want the downtime while you have big order quantities to deliver.
So most likely things will look like this: End of production run and committment to order => 90 days (pulled out of thin air) until change of production occurs at the client's premises. During this time AJX orders from the toll manufacturer for delivery to the client. Potentially AJX has to pay the toll manufacturer already at this stage. => delivery of chemicals to the client 2 days out from the change over of production => once the delivery receipt is received AJX invoices and books the revenue with a receivable against it => 45-120 days from here cash is due.
That means accruals can take a good 3 months from the day a client has committed to AJX getting a PO or booking revenue. Cash will take even longer to flow as outlined above, maybe even half a year.
Regarding car interiors. The model year for European and Japanese (don't mistake it for plate dates) car makers usually changes in September/October. So if they committed in say December last year you wouldn't see a changeover in production on their/their accessory supplier's end until 10 months later.
I think in general people here are too impatient with expectations regarding the pace of implementation completely unrealistic for any business environment, not even to mention the slow moving textiles industry.
(20min delay)