Sales Sample vs Bulk Production
This week back in the office was a much needed change of pace in comparison to last week, full of final review on the FA10 collections and development of the SP11 line. I’m going to make this post about the process of moving from sales samples garments to bulk production.
After receipt of sales sample garments (which are manufactured and produced independent of bulk production, giving us the opportunity to change things – details, fabrications, colors, etc) and to drop pieces, we review each and every item and send comments back to the vendors for things that must be changed and resubmitted for approval before proceeding with bulk production. Another very tricky part of this process is that the vendor who manufactured our sales samples (SS) is not always the vendor who will get the PO for bulk production. Initially, vendors are submitted POs for a SS order, which is usually done at 1.5 times FOB cost. Vendors may run into various problems/challenges with any given style, such as limitations with the machinery in their factories inhibiting them from manufacturing to our expectations. One would think that upon submittal of the GRs, the vendor would be able to say yes or no, we can/can’t do that, but surprisingly (I think) they will often take styles and then later on (which can create many problems for us in the long run) they come to us with these problems, and many of them make it our job (which it really should be theirs) to come up with the solution. A perfect example was a knitted jacquard polo with a “cross” type design going across the left chest. There were limitations in how many colors of yarns could be knit going vertically and horizontally, and the vendor came to us 3 weeks before SS were due and asked us to change the design. Not willing to alter the integrity of our design, we came up with alternative solutions such as knitting the ground of the garment and then printing the cross design, or digitally printing the entire garment for SS purposes only. This garment is a perfect example of where the vendor took something on that they were unable to complete, giving us good reason to move this style to another vendor for bulk production in order to get what we wanted. One thing you don’t want to do however, is tell the vendor that they are not getting bulk POs for styles X, Y and Z before they have completed their SS order. At this point they would have little/no incentive to complete their SS orders (of course they need to consider long term relationships etc, and there are vendors who will still take care of your needs even if you don’t give them certain bulk POs, but there are vendors who will totally screw you, so you just have to be careful). Because of this, it’s best to wait until SS are done before issuing bulk POs. As all SS are reviewed, pricing must be finalized and bulk vendors decided. At this point, comments are sent out to vendors on things that must be changed for bulk, and we must send any quality approvals, garment samples, whatever we have for any garments that are being assigned to new vendors so that they have as much to work with as possible. It is now time for vendors to submit everything, trims, lab dips, qualities, protos etc for bulk production at which time we will “approve for bulk”. Almost everything that was approved previously was “approved for SS only” – this is a safe way for us to proceed as it always gives us an out to change anything before bulk begins.