Your Factory's Biggest Complaint
A major golf factory told me what new brands do that causes the most problems.
Let’s talk about something you might be doing that drives your factory crazy.
I asked a major golf factory what their biggest complaint is when it comes to the startup brands that they work with.
Here’s what they told me:
Their biggest issue with new brands is when they don’t update their tech pack after they review their prototype.
Why is this a problem?
Well it’s a problem for the factory for a few reasons, but it’s also a problem for you.
The biggest reason is that it can mess up your production
After you review your prototype, if you don’t update your tech pack with any changes, your next prototype, or your next production run, can come in wrong.
Why?
Because your factory is now referencing an incorrect tech pack.
You made changes, but you told the factory through email. So now your factory contact either needs to dig through their emails to try to communicate these changes to the people actually making your garment, or they’re just going to continue referencing your tech pack, which is now outdated.
Any reputable factory is going to do their best to make sure your changes are captured, but you can guess which option would be easier for them.
Maybe you took photos and added comments that you put into a PowerPoint deck. Isn’t that ok?
No, not really. I’m sure your notes are helpful, but they’re not in your tech pack. Now your factory has TWO documents, plus an email chain that they need to reference. That’s not easier.
It is in your own best interest to make this easy for the factory.
The tech pack serves as a record of your development process
Once you make a change from your original tech pack, if you don’t update it, your tech pack is no longer relevant. Now you’re just going on emails. At that point, why bother with a tech pack at all?
When you keep your tech pack updated, you can look back on it when you get your next proto in and compare what happened last time to what this new proto looks like.
It makes it easy for you to see what changes you asked for that your factory made, and which ones they missed.
Because your factory is sometimes going to miss changes that you asked for.
Both you and your factory are less likely to make a mistake when you keep your tech pack updated.
Using your tech pack to track these changes is SO MUCH EASIER than trying to track it all through email and PowerPoint decks.
You cannot scale sustainably without maintaining your tech packs
This is a place new brands get stuck as they start to grow.
It becomes unsustainable to work without an updated tech pack when you are juggling multiple styles, orders, and even multiple factories.
If you want to scale your brand, starting with a tech pack and then keeping your tech packs updated is the only way to grow sustainably.