This page explains what a tech pack is and why a factory cannot accurately quote or produce an order without one, for anyone who receives, checks or assembles a tech pack: a merchandiser, a pattern maker, a costing clerk, or a new entrant to the trade. This lesson teaches information flow: a tech pack carries an order's exact requirements from the buyer to the factory floor, so every department works from the same facts instead of a guess.
A merchandiser at a garment factory checks a tech pack every time a new order arrives, before any fabric is bought, any pattern cut, or any price quoted.
Without this skill, a factory can start work from a partial document and be forced to guess the missing details. A guess about construction can produce a garment sewn the wrong way. A guess about sizing can produce a garment that does not fit. Knowing a tech pack's core sections, and checking all of them are present before quoting or cutting, is what turns a partial document into a specification a factory can trust.
You need: no earlier lesson; this is the first lesson of this course.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: building a bill of materials in full (lesson T05-C05-L02); adding construction detail and a measurement spec (lesson T05-C05-L03); adding grading rules and packing instructions (lesson T05-C05-L04); assembling a complete tech pack (lesson T05-C05-L05).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Tech pack | A document that specifies exactly what a garment is: measurements, fabric, trims, construction and artwork, that a factory produces against. |
| Measurement spec | The document listing every point of measure for a garment, its required value at each size, and its accepted tolerance. |
| Grade rule | The set amount added or removed at each specific point on a pattern, for each size step away from the base size. |
| Seam allowance | The fabric width between a cut edge and a stitch line, commonly 1 cm (3/8 inch) for a plain seam, though it varies by construction. |
| Stitch class | A standard international classification (ISO 4915) naming how a stitch is formed, such as class 301 lockstitch or class 401 chainstitch. |
A tech pack is the complete document set a factory needs to make a garment: a bill of materials (every material and cost component, such as fabric, trims, making, overhead and profit), construction detail (stitch class, seam type, seam allowance per point), a measurement spec (every point of measure, its value at each size, and tolerance), grading rules (how the base size scales to every other size, using a grade rule), and labelling and packing instructions. A tech pack detailed enough that a factory can calculate an accurate cost from it, with no missing information forcing a guess, is a costable specification. Order A's own fixed identity — basic T-shirt, single jersey, 15,000 pieces, FOB USD 3.20 — is the real order whose tech pack this course assembles, one section at a time.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Complete tech pack | All five sections present, each traceable to a fixed source: costing breakdown, construction convention, measurement spec, grade rule, packing figure | A factory can quote, cut and produce with no missing information forcing a guess |
| Incomplete tech pack, missing construction detail | Bill of materials and measurements present, but no stitch class or seam type stated | A factory has to guess construction methods, risking a garment built the wrong way |
| Incomplete tech pack, missing grading rules | Base size specified, but no rule stated for producing the other sizes | A factory cannot cut a full size range accurately from a single base size alone |
| Costable vs non-costable bill of materials | A bill of materials detailed enough to calculate FOB is costable; one that just states "cotton T-shirt" with no material costs is not | A factory cannot price a non-costable tech pack without guessing at cost components |
| Export MTO order, for example Order A | A complete tech pack is assembled before the factory commits to a bulk quotation for an overseas buyer | Shows the same five-section standard applies whether the buyer is overseas or local |
| Domestic MTS order, for example Cedar & Co.'s own forecast orders | The same five sections are still required, even when the factory itself sets some of the figures from its own standard block, rather than receiving all of them from an outside buyer | Shows the five-section standard holds across Make to Order and Make to Stock, and across export and domestic business |
Delta Garments' merchandising team, preparing an export Make to Order quotation for Order A's T-shirt, needs a complete tech pack before it can give Northline Apparel an accurate FOB quote, rather than an estimate based on assumptions. Mona, the merchandiser, checks the tech pack Northline Apparel has sent against the five core sections before her team commits to any figure.
If any section is missing, Mona cannot simply proceed with the sections that are present. A bill of materials alone tells her what the garment costs to make; it does not tell her how the garment is sewn or what size it must be at every point. Delta Garments' quotation, and later its production, depends on all five sections being present and consistent with each other.
The worked numberOrder A's own fixed FOB breakdown (docs/02 section 7): fabric USD 1.15 + trims USD 0.20 + making USD 1.10 + overhead USD 0.49 + profit USD 0.26 = FOB USD 3.20. This is the concrete number a complete bill of materials, one section of the tech pack, makes possible to calculate accurately, rather than estimate.
A common mistake is assuming a tech pack with a detailed bill of materials but no construction detail is "basically ready," since costing is the part buyers often focus on. A factory still needs construction detail to sew the garment correctly; skipping it risks a garment that costs the right amount but is built the wrong way.
This mistake happens because a detailed cost breakdown looks thorough at a glance, and it is often the section a buyer's team has spent the most time preparing. A merchandiser who only checks the bill of materials, and assumes the rest will "work itself out on the factory floor," passes the tech pack forward with a gap the pattern room and sewing line will meet directly, usually at the point construction actually starts, when correcting it costs more than catching it at intake would have.
A tech pack is the full set of papers a factory needs to make a garment correctly: what it costs, how it is sewn, what size it must be, how the sizes relate to each other, and how it is packed. If any one of these is missing, the factory has to guess that part, and a guess can mean a garment that costs the right amount but is sewn wrong, or fits wrong. A cost list detailed enough that a factory can work out an accurate price, with nothing left to guess, is a costable specification. Checking all five parts are present, every time, before any quote is given or any cutting starts, is what keeps a factory from building the wrong garment even when the price is right.
The facts in front of Delta Garments' merchandising team:
The document Delta Garments' merchandising team reads:
Is this tech pack ready for Delta Garments to start pattern making and production? Decide before you open the answer.
No — a detailed bill of materials allows accurate costing, but without a measurement spec and grading rules, Delta Garments' pattern room has no basis for cutting the garment to the correct size.
Two facts, together, decide this. First, the bill of materials is complete and costable: it sums correctly to Order A's own fixed FOB of USD 3.20. Second, the measurement spec and grading rules are both entirely absent, and pattern making cannot proceed on cost figures alone.
The buyer should be asked to complete these missing sections before production can start, even though the costing section alone looks thorough.
Starting production from an incomplete tech pack risks a factory guessing at missing details, construction methods or sizing, producing garments that cost the right amount but fit or construct incorrectly, framed here qualitatively against the concrete USD 3.20 FOB figure as the anchor.
The bill of materials in the buyer's submission gets this USD 3.20 figure right for every one of the 15,000 pieces. But a correct price on a garment that is the wrong size, because no measurement spec or grade rule was checked first, is not a saving; it is a real but not separately quantified cost this lesson's completeness check is designed to prevent, since a garment produced wrong still carries its full fabric, trim and labour cost.
Copy this table into the Tech pack template pack. Mark each section complete or not, using Order A's own fixed figures as the source for each row.
| Tech pack section | Figures come from | Complete | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bill of materials | Order A's own fixed FOB breakdown | Yes | 15,000-piece order |
| Construction detail | Course 2's own conventions | No | Not in the buyer's submission |
| Measurement spec | Course 4's own size-M figures | No | Not in the buyer's submission |
| Grading rules | Course 3's own grade rule | No | Not in the buyer's submission |
| Labelling and packing | Order A's own saving-package figure | Yes | Label, polybag, carton mark |
Download the full working sheet from the link on this course's page.
1. What are the five core sections of a tech pack?
2. What makes a tech pack's bill of materials costable?
3. A different order's tech pack has a detailed bill of materials and complete construction detail, but no grading rules. Is it ready for production?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tech pack | حزمة المواصفات الفنية | Fiche technique | Teknik paket | A document that specifies exactly what a garment is: measurements, fabric, trims, construction and artwork, that a factory produces against. |
| Measurement spec | مواصفة القياس | Fiche de mesures | Ölçü spesifikasyonu | The document listing every point of measure for a garment, its required value at each size, and its accepted tolerance. |
| Grade rule | قاعدة التدريج | Règle de gradation | Gradasyon kuralı | The set amount added or removed at each specific point on a pattern, for each size step away from the base size. |
| Seam allowance | سماحة الدرزة | Surplus de couture | Dikiş payı | The fabric width between a cut edge and a stitch line, commonly 1 cm (3/8 inch) for a plain seam, though it varies by construction. |
| Stitch class | فئة الغرزة | Classe de point | Dikiş sınıfı | A standard international classification (ISO 4915) naming how a stitch is formed, such as class 301 lockstitch or class 401 chainstitch. |
You now know a tech pack's five core sections and why a tech pack missing any one of them is not ready for production. The next lesson builds the first of these sections in full: a bill of materials, using Order A's own fixed FOB breakdown as the worked example. Back to the course map