Tech packs are an essential part of the apparel and consumer goods industries. They serve as contracts, blueprints, supplier information, specifications and contain everything needed to product a style or product. Tech packs provide detailed instructions to a factory of when, how and with what a product is made. Errors or incomplete information result in costly mistakes and delays.
What happens when it contains inaccurate or missing information? Multiple email exchanges with vendors to clarify instructions, the waste of time and materials associated with sending samples back-and-forth to confirm that the product is right, and even more time and money spent when it isn’t. Costs can increase due to wrong assumptions by the factory based on incorrect tech pack data.
But not to worry—here are three tips to making the perfect tech pack:
Tip #1 – Know what goes into a tech pack. It should provide all the information that a factory needs to make a product including:
- Design and technical drawings, flat sketches or 3D files, front, side and back views, dimensions
- Size – points of measure (POM)of the finished garment, size chart and grade rules or inside and outside dimensions and acceptable tolerances
- Material details including composition, density, colorways, weight, cost, wash, and suggested suppliers
- Construction details like stitching, method of fastening or attachment, gluing, drying times, and processes to finish the product like polishing
- Bill of Materials (BOM) that includes every single component used in the style like buttons, zippers, thread, tags, trim, fasteners, embroidery, laces, snaps, magnets, and straps
- Contract details like quantity, delivery date, and packaging
- Anything else needed to manufacture the product like label placement, care label, size label, testing, fit history, and quality testing.
Tip #2 – Digitally transform your process and stop manually creating tech packs! Meticulously pulling together data from multiple sources—emails, spreadsheets, sketches, various programs, material specs—and compiling it is tedious, time-consuming and prone to errors.
Instead, turn over a new leaf in 2021 by automating the process—rely on a modern Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution to do it for you. Alleviate the stress of having to put a tech pack together by hand, freeing up designers and product developers from data entry and allowing them to focus on style and product creation.
Tip #3 – Well… there is no Tip #3! Just take a moment to appreciate the benefits of having tech packs automatically compiled by PLM from a central digital repository, resulting in accuracy, reduced lead times, faster product development, improved supplier communication, smooth production runs, overall time saved and happy developers and designers!
Want to learn more? Join the upcoming webinar on November 5 at 2 p.m. ET: Still Making Tech Packs? Modernize and Liberate Your Product Development Workflow, presented by Centric Software®.
If you are unable to attend, (or the date has passed) contact cgrass@centricsoftware.com for the replay or details on how to set up your own demo.
