| Value chain |
The connected stages that create, move and sell a product, from raw material to the final customer. |
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| Fibre |
The raw material, for example cotton from the plant or polyester made from oil. |
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| Ginning |
Separating cotton fibre from the cotton seed. Done by a gin, right after the fibre is picked and before it can be spun. |
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| Yarn |
Fibre twisted into a continuous thread. Fabric is made from yarn. |
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| Mill |
A company that makes yarn or fabric: a spinning mill, a knitting mill, a weaving mill, a dyeing mill. |
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| Knitted fabric |
Fabric made by looping the yarn. Stretchy. Used for T-shirts and underwear. |
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| Woven fabric |
Fabric made by crossing threads on a loom. Used for shirts and jeans. |
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| Garment |
A finished piece of clothing, cut and sewn from fabric. |
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| Dyeing and finishing |
Giving the fabric its colour and its final feel or performance. |
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| Garment factory |
The company that cuts fabric and sews it into finished clothing. |
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| Buyer |
The company that places the order with the factory: a brand, retailer, buying office, agent or trading company. |
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| Customer |
The person who buys the finished T-shirt and wears it. |
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| Retailer |
The shop, physical or online, that sells to the customer. |
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| Full package order |
The factory buys the fabric and trims, makes the garment and sells the finished piece. |
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| CMT (cut, make and trim) |
The buyer supplies the fabric; the factory is paid only for cutting, sewing and finishing. |
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| Buyer-nominated supplier |
A mill or trim supplier chosen by the buyer, and sometimes paid by the buyer directly. |
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| FOB (free on board) |
The factory delivers the goods on board the ship at its own port. Freight from there is the buyer's cost. |
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| Letter of credit |
A bank promise to pay the factory once the shipping documents match the order. |
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| Merchandiser |
The person who follows an order from the first request until the goods are shipped. |
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| Ex-factory price |
What the buyer pays the factory for the finished goods, at the factory's own gate, before any delivery cost is added. |
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| Delivered cost |
The buyer's true cost once the goods have reached its own warehouse: the ex-factory price plus delivery — freight, insurance and duty for an imported order, or local transport for a domestic one. |
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| Wholesale price |
The price a brand charges when it sells the finished goods on, for example to its own retail arm or another retailer. |
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| Shop price |
The price the customer pays at the till. Also called the retail price. |
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| Margin |
Profit divided by the selling price, shown as a percentage of what a company sells for. |
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| Markup |
Profit divided by the cost, shown as a percentage of what a company paid. |
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| Overhead |
A factory's running costs that are not fabric, trims or direct labour: rent, electricity, management salaries and similar costs, shared across all the pieces it makes. |
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| Trims |
Everything sewn or attached to a garment besides the main fabric: labels, buttons, zips, thread, care labels. |
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| Liquidated damages |
A penalty amount, fixed in the contract in advance, paid for a specific failure such as late delivery. |
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| AQL |
A statistical inspection method that checks a sample of goods and uses an agreed rule to pass or fail the whole batch. |
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| Rework |
Fixing a fault in goods already made, instead of scrapping them or accepting them as they are. |
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| Force majeure |
A clause that excuses both sides from normal delay or cancellation penalties when an event genuinely outside either party's control prevents performance. |
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| Grace period |
A set number of days or weeks a contract allows before a penalty or the right to cancel begins to apply. |
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| Clause |
One numbered rule inside a signed contract. Different clauses can cover different kinds of failure. |
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| Lead time |
The total time from a confirmed order to the goods reaching their destination. |
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| Sequential stage |
A stage that cannot start until the stage before it has finished. |
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| Parallel stage |
A stage that can happen at the same time as another, because it does not depend on that other stage finishing first. |
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| Critical path |
The chain of sequential stages that sets the shortest possible total time for the order. |
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| Buffer |
Extra days or weeks added to a timeline on purpose, to absorb a likely delay. |
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| Sea freight |
Moving goods by ship. Slower and much cheaper per unit of weight than air freight. |
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| Air freight |
Moving goods by aeroplane. Much faster and much more expensive per unit of weight than sea freight. |
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| Ownership |
The legal right to a good: to keep it, sell it, or use it as security for a loan. Decided by who paid for it and by the contract. |
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| Possession |
Physically holding or storing goods. A company can possess goods it does not own, and a company can own goods it does not possess. |
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| Consignment stock |
Stock a supplier keeps ownership of while it is physically held at the factory, until the factory uses it. |
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| Deposit |
A partial payment made before an order is finished. Does not usually transfer ownership of the whole order by itself. |
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| Goods-in-process |
Partly finished goods: cut pieces, garments mid-sewing, garments awaiting inspection. |
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| Risk |
Who bears the cost if goods are lost, damaged or destroyed. Usually moves with ownership, decided separately in the contract. |
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| Contracting party |
The company that signs a document as a party to the contract, and that the other side has a legal right to be paid by. |
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| Service or compliance company |
A company that supports an order without ever owning the goods or the contract, for example a freight forwarder or a testing lab. |
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| Vertical integration |
One company or corporate group owning more than one stage of the ten-stage chain, instead of buying that stage's output from an outside company. |
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| Fully integrated |
One group spins, knits or weaves, dyes and sews under one ownership, with no outside company in between those stages. |
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| Partially integrated |
A company owns some stages but still buys an earlier or later stage from an outside company. |
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| Independent company (fully disaggregated) |
Every stage is owned by a separate company, and each company sells its output to the next one at arm's length. |
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| Hand-off |
The point where goods, and ownership of them, pass from one separate company to another. |
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| Sister company |
A company under the same corporate group as another company, but registered as a separate legal entity. |
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| Intercompany pricing |
A price charged between two companies in the same corporate group, even though no outside buyer is involved. |
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| Producer |
A company that physically makes or transforms something: a fibre grower, a mill, or a garment factory. |
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| Brand |
A company that designs or selects products, puts its name on them, and sells to the final customer, directly or through others. |
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| Intermediary |
A company that connects a buyer and a factory, or a seller and a buyer, without necessarily making or owning the product itself. |
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| Certification body |
A company that checks goods or a factory against a named quality or sustainability standard; it does not make, own or resell the goods. |
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| Freight forwarder |
A company that arranges the shipping and paperwork for moving goods from factory to buyer. |
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| Buying office |
A branch of the buyer's own company, staffed by the buyer's own employees, usually based near its factories. Not a separate business. |
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| Sourcing office |
An office that works exclusively for one buyer near its factories, sometimes set up as a separate legal entity the buyer owns or contracts. |
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| Agent |
An independent business that is paid a commission for arranging or managing an order on behalf of whichever side hired it. |
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| Commission |
A payment to an agent, normally a percentage of the order value, agreed in advance in the agency agreement. |
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| Agency agreement |
The written contract that states what an agent is allowed to do on the hiring company's behalf and how it is paid. |
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| Trading company |
A company that buys goods in its own name and resells them, taking ownership of the goods, unlike a buying office, sourcing office or agent. |
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| Legal entity |
A company recognised in law as able to sign contracts, own property and be sued, separately from the people who own or run it. |
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| Authority |
What an agent or office is actually allowed to agree to on someone else's behalf as set out in its written agreement. |
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| Spinning mill |
A company that spins fibre into yarn, buying fibre by weight and selling yarn by weight. |
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| Knitting mill |
A company that knits yarn into knitted fabric by looping it, buying yarn and selling greige fabric, usually by weight. |
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| Weaving mill |
A company that weaves yarn into woven fabric on a loom, buying yarn and selling greige fabric, usually by the metre. |
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| Greige fabric |
Fabric, knitted or woven, that has not yet been dyed or finished. |
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| Warp and weft |
The two sets of yarn crossed on a loom to make woven fabric: warp runs the length, weft runs across it. |
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| Loom |
A machine used to cross warp and weft yarn into woven fabric. |
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| Combined mill |
One company performing more than one of the four textile mill processes. |
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| Capability sheet |
A document a mill sends listing the machines, processes and capacity it actually has on site. |
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| Make to Stock (MTS) |
Producing against the seller's own sales forecast, rather than a single confirmed buyer order. |
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| Open account |
A payment method where the buyer pays the factory an agreed number of days after delivery, with no bank guarantee in between. |
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| Restocking cycle |
The repeating timeline a Make to Stock buyer runs to keep its shops supplied. |
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| Selling model |
The route a product takes from the company that makes or brands it to the final customer, and who is responsible for each part of that route. |
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| Wholesale |
A brand sells to other retailers, who then sell to the final customer; the brand does not run the shop. |
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| Private label |
A retailer commissions a factory to make a product to its own specification, sold under the retailer's own store brand. |
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| Own brand (vertical retail) |
A company designs, brands and sells through its own shops or site, with no separate retailer in between. |
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| Pure retail |
A shop or site that buys and resells other companies' branded products, carrying many brands, without making or owning a brand itself. |
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| E-commerce |
Selling through a website or app rather than, or as well as, a physical shop; a channel that wholesale, private label and own-brand businesses can all use. |
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| Store brand |
The retailer's own brand name, used on private-label products it commissions rather than on products it buys from outside brands. |
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| Exclusivity clause |
A contract term that limits who else a factory (or a buyer) may deal with while the agreement is in force. |
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| Design ownership |
The right to the product's specification and pattern, normally held by whoever commissioned the design and paid for it. |
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| Unsold-stock risk |
The financial exposure of holding goods that were made or ordered but have not yet been sold to a final customer. |
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| Developed range |
A product a factory designs on its own initiative, then offers to more than one retailer to relabel as that retailer's private label. |
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| Sale-or-return |
A contract clause under which the seller can send unsold goods back to the factory for a refund; unusual in apparel unless specifically agreed. |
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| Channel |
A route through which a business sells to its final customer: a physical shop, a website, or a marketplace. |
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| Size ratio |
The split of an order's total quantity across the sizes offered, for example 1:2:2:1 for S:M:L:XL. |
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| Return rate |
The share of pieces sold that customers send back, usually shown as a percentage. |
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| Split channel stock |
Holding separate stock for e-commerce and for physical shops, rather than one shared pool both channels sell from. |
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| GSM |
Grams per square metre: the standard way fabric weight is stated. |
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| Independent retailer |
A retail company, separate from the brand, that buys goods wholesale and decides its own shop price. |
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| Hybrid selling model |
A brand that sells through more than one route to market at once, for example wholesale and its own direct retail, often at different prices. |
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| Confirmed order |
An order both sides have agreed to, in writing, with its payment security in place; not a quotation or a discussion. |
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| Pre-negotiated capacity |
Factory production capacity a buyer reserves ahead of a season, before a specific order is confirmed. |
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| Operational risk |
The risk that a confirmed order is not finished on time, to spec, or at the agreed cost. |
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| Commercial risk |
The risk that finished goods will not sell, carried by whoever owns unsold stock. |
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| Pre-production agreement |
A written agreement that lets work start before an order's full payment security is in place, stating clearly who carries the cost if the order later falls through. |
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| Make to Order (MTO) |
Production starts only after a specific buyer has confirmed a specific order, with quantity, price and delivery date agreed. |
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| Purchase order |
A document from a buyer confirming quantity, price and delivery date, which commits the buyer to pay for the goods it orders. |
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| Forecast |
A company's own estimate of what it expects to sell, used to decide how much to produce before any specific sale exists. |
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| Forecast risk |
The risk that a sales forecast turns out to be wrong, carried by whichever company committed to that forecast. |
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| Buffer stock |
A small stock of fast-moving components a mainly Make to Order factory keeps on hand to shorten lead time on repeat orders. |
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| Hybrid production model |
A company that runs Make to Order and Make to Stock lines side by side, usually split by customer, product line or channel. |
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| Stock code |
An internal reference number a company gives a product it plans to hold as its own stock. |
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| Production instruction |
A factory's internal document that authorises a specific production run, whatever triggered it. |
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| Sales forecast |
An estimate of how much of a product will sell, made before any confirmed sale exists. |
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| Warehousing cost |
The rent, handling and insurance cost of holding finished goods in a warehouse before they are sold. |
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| Markdown |
A reduction in the shop price of goods that have not sold as forecast, used to clear the remaining stock. |
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| Sell-through rate |
The share of stock actually sold within a planned period, used to judge whether a forecast was right. |
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| Specification reference |
A named or numbered tech pack or approved specification a purchase order points to, so both sides agree exactly what is being made. |
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| Delivery terms |
The point named in a purchase order where delivery happens, such as FOB at a named port, and the date it is due. |
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| Payment terms |
The part of a purchase order stating when and how the factory is paid, for example letter of credit at shipment or open account. |
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| Cancellation clause |
A contract clause, referenced or attached to the purchase order, stating what happens if the buyer cancels after production has started. |
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| Enquiry |
A buyer's request for a price on a possible order, before anything is confirmed. |
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| Costing |
Working out what an order would cost to make, so a price can be quoted back to the buyer. |
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| Approvals |
The stage where samples are made and signed off by the buyer before bulk production starts. |
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| Bulk production |
Making the full quantity of the order, as opposed to a small sample. |
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| Inspection |
Checking finished goods against the agreed specification before they are shipped. |
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| Closing an order |
Formally marking an order finished once shipment and paperwork are complete. |
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| Order tracker |
A working document that logs each stage of an order against its planned and actual date. |
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| Checkpoint |
A specific moment in an order's life where its progress is checked against the plan. |
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| Proto sample |
The first, rough sample made from the tech pack, often in the wrong fabric, to prove the design and construction idea works before investing further. |
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| Fit sample |
A sample made in the correct fabric at the sample size, checked against the size specification to prove the garment fits. |
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| Sales sample |
A sample shown to the buyer's own customers or sales team, sometimes before the order is fully confirmed, to gauge interest. |
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| Pre-production (PP) sample |
A sample made from the actual bulk fabric and trims, the last sample checked before bulk cutting begins. |
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| Sample size |
The one size, usually M, that samples are made in and measured against, rather than every size in the order. |
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| Size specification |
The set of body measurements, plus cutting allowance, that a garment in a given size must meet. |
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| Bulk fabric |
The actual fabric batch bought and dyed for the full order quantity, as opposed to the small quantity used to make a sample. |
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| Dye lot |
One batch of fabric dyed together in the same vat, which can differ slightly in shade or hand-feel from another batch of the same colour. |
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| Turnaround time |
The time a buyer takes to review a sample and send back its comments or approval. |
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| Production tracking |
Comparing a stage's actual finish date against its planned date throughout production, to catch a delay while it can still be fixed. |
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| On track |
A stage finishes on or before its planned date. |
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| Recoverable delay |
A stage finishes late, but a buffer later in the timeline absorbs it without moving the final date. |
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| Non-recoverable delay |
A stage finishes late with no buffer left, so the final date must move or a costlier recovery option must be used. |
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| Port cut-off |
The last date cargo can be delivered to the port for it to be loaded onto a booked sailing. |
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| Escalate |
Telling the people who need to know, early, that a delay may change the delivery date, instead of waiting for it to happen. |
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| Final inspection |
The last check of the finished, packed goods, done just before or at loading; a fail can stop shipment even at the last moment. |
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| Packing list |
The document that states how the goods are packed: how many pieces are in each carton, and how many cartons in total. |
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| Commercial invoice |
The document that states the price and value of the goods being shipped, used by customs and by the bank. |
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| Bill of lading |
The shipping line's document proving the goods were loaded; its date is the legal record of the FOB hand-over. |
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| Claim window |
The agreed number of days after delivery in which a buyer may raise a fault or shortage before the order counts as accepted. |
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| Order closure |
The point at which every closing check has passed and the tracker's final stage can be marked Done, not merely "shipped". |
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| Single order |
One style, planned, priced and timed on its own, without reference to any other order. |
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| Collection |
A group of styles planned, made and sold together for a season, rather than as a single, standalone order. |
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| Category |
The broad type of garment a style belongs to, such as top, bottom, outerwear or accessory, used to check a collection's balance. |
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| Capsule collection |
A small, focused collection built around one theme or a short selling window, still planned as a group rather than as single orders. |
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| Range plan |
A single sheet listing every style in a collection, so its category, price and colour balance can be checked at a glance. |
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| Price point |
A specific price level a style is planned to sell at, used to balance a collection across cheaper and more expensive items. |
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| Category balance |
Having enough styles in each product category, such as tops and bottoms, that customers can put outfits together from the range. |
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| Colour balance |
A mix of safe, reliably-selling colours and a smaller number of newer or seasonal colours across a range, rather than betting on only one approach. |
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| Volume balance |
Planning higher quantities on safer, proven styles and lower quantities on newer or higher-risk styles within the same range. |
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| Season budget |
The total amount a retailer plans to spend buying stock for one season, set before it sees every brand's final range. |
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| Committed spend |
The value of purchase orders a retailer has already confirmed against its season budget. |
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| Open-to-buy |
A retailer's season budget minus its committed spend: the amount still available to commit to any range. |
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| Reallocation |
Moving open-to-buy that was set aside for one brand or range to a different one instead. |
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| Range plan sheet |
The one-sheet tool listing every style in a collection, its category, quantity and price. |
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| Seasonal calendar |
The full timetable for a collection, from concept to shop floor, covering every style's confirmation and production dates. |
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| Confirmation deadline |
The latest date a style can be confirmed and still reach the shared shop-floor date, given its own lead time. |
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| Staggered confirmation |
Confirming each style in a collection at a different time, based on its own lead time, so all styles are still ready by the same shared date. |
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| Shop-floor date |
The date goods must be in the shop, ready to sell, for the start of a selling season. |
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| Range planning |
Deciding a collection's mix of styles, price points and colours before any single style's order is confirmed. |
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| Top-up order |
A small, short-lead-time order placed once a collection is already selling, to restock a fast seller. |
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| FOB price |
The price the factory charges for the garment, delivered on board the ship at its own port. |
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| Fabric cost |
The cost of the fabric used in one garment, driven by fabric price per kilogram and consumption per piece. |
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| Making charge |
The labour cost of cutting, sewing and finishing one garment. |
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| Costing sheet |
The document that lists a garment's cost components and adds them to the price the factory quotes. |
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| Share of price |
One cost component's dollar value divided by the total price, usually shown as a percentage. |
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| Profit |
The money left over after all costs are paid, out of a selling price. |
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| Cost before profit |
Everything a company pays to make or buy a product, before its own profit is added. |
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| Selling price |
The price a company charges for what it sells; profit plus cost before profit. |
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| Cash on delivery |
Payment made at or very near the moment the goods are physically delivered to the buyer. |
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| Cash flow |
The movement of money into and out of a business over time, separate from how much an order is worth on paper. |
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| Cash-flow gap |
The length of time between a factory finishing production and actually receiving payment for that production. |
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| Working capital |
The money a business needs on hand to keep operating while it waits to be paid for goods already made. |
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| Cost component |
One part of a garment's total price: fabric, trims, making, overhead, or profit. |
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| Formula |
An instruction in a spreadsheet cell that calculates a value from other cells, instead of a value typed in by hand. |
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| Typed number |
A value entered directly into a cell as a fixed figure, with no formula behind it. |
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| Department |
A team within a company responsible for one part of the business, such as production, quality or merchandising. |
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| Headcount |
The number of people working in a department or company. |
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| Merchandising |
The department that follows an order from confirmation to shipment and is the factory's main point of contact for the buyer. |
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| Production |
The department that cuts, sews and finishes fabric into garments to the approved specification. |
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| Quality assurance |
The department that inspects work in progress and finished goods against the agreed quality standard, separate from the department that makes the goods. |
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| Stores |
The department that receives and holds fabric and trims until they are needed, then issues them to the cutting room. |
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| Cutting room |
The area where bulk fabric is cut to the approved marker, the step between fabric arriving and sewing starting. |
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| Tech pack |
A document that specifies exactly what a garment is: measurements, fabric, trims, construction and artwork, that a factory produces against. |
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| Design department |
The buyer-side team that creates the tech pack and specification, deciding what the product is, not how much or when. |
T01-C08-L02 |
| Quality or compliance function |
The buyer-side team that sets the required quality and compliance standard a factory must meet, sometimes visiting the factory to audit it. |
T01-C08-L02 |
| Factory-side merchandising |
The merchandising function inside the factory that tracks an order's production progress and reports its status outward to the buyer. |
T01-C08-L03 |
| Buyer-side merchandising |
The merchandising function inside the buying office that tracks an order against the buyer's own commitments and reports requirements inward to the factory. |
T01-C08-L03 |
| Two-way translation |
Merchandising's role of turning a factory-side event into a question for the buyer's side, and a buyer-side event into a question for the factory's side. |
T01-C08-L03 |
| Quality |
Whether the goods match the agreed specification: the right fabric, the right measurements, the right stitching. |
T01-C08-L04 |
| Compliance |
Whether the factory itself meets legal and buyer-required standards, for example labour conditions, workplace safety and documentation, checked separately from any one order. |
T01-C08-L04 |
| Audit |
A planned visit or review that checks a factory against a required standard, not against one order's specification. |
T01-C08-L04 |
| Sustainability |
The environmental and social footprint of an order or a factory beyond the minimum standard that compliance requires, for example water use in dyeing or the sourcing of the fabric. |
T01-C08-L04 |
| Quality assurance department |
The team inside a factory that inspects work in progress and finished goods against the specification. |
T01-C08-L04 |
| Career path |
The sequence of roles a person moves through over time, often across different companies or departments. |
T01-C08-L05 |
| Transferable skill |
A skill built in one role that still works in a different role, department or company type. |
T01-C08-L05 |
| Generalist |
Someone whose role covers several functions, for example quality, compliance and design together, rather than one narrow specialism. |
T01-C08-L05 |
| Specialist |
Someone whose role covers only one function in depth, for example only quality or only costing. |
T01-C08-L05 |
| Ripple effect |
The way a genuine change in one document should flow through and be checked against the other documents built on it. |
T01-C09-L03 |
| Single point of truth |
The idea that, for any one fact about an order, there is one document that is correct, and every other copy of that fact should match it. |
T01-C09-L03 |
| PLM (product lifecycle management) |
The system or method that manages a product's own information, from design through development: its tech pack and its sample-round history. |
T01-C09-L02 |
| ERP (enterprise resource planning) |
The system or method that manages a business's transactional information: its orders, inventory, costing and production scheduling. |
T01-C09-L02 |
| Version confusion |
When two people work from different, outdated copies of the same document without realising it. |
T01-C09-L02 |
| System of record |
The one place a piece of information is considered authoritative, when it might otherwise exist in several documents. |
T01-C09-L05 |
| Explicit versioning |
Naming a document's revision clearly, with a date and status, instead of calling every copy 'final' or 'latest'. |
T01-C09-L05 |
| Confirmed receipt |
An active reply from the person who received a change, stating that it arrived and was understood, not just silence after it was sent. |
T01-C09-L05 |
| Source-checking |
Checking a number against the document it originally came from, before using that number in a new document. |
T01-C09-L05 |
| Specification information |
Information that says exactly what to make: measurements, fabric, trims, construction and artwork, carried mainly in the tech pack. |
T01-C09-L01 |
| Commercial information |
Information that fixes the terms of the deal: price, quantity, delivery date and payment terms. |
T01-C09-L01 |
| Status information |
Information about where the order actually is right now: which stage it has reached, and whether it is on time. |
T01-C09-L01 |
| Third-party information |
Information passed between a buyer and a factory by a company that is neither, such as an agent. |
T01-C09-L01 |
| Relay |
To pass a message from one side to the other without changing what it means; only reliable if nothing is lost or altered. |
T01-C09-L01 |
| Information risk |
The chance that a wrong or late piece of information causes a loss, and how large that loss could be. |
T01-C09-L01 |
| Wrong data |
Information that was never correct from the moment it was entered, such as a price typed incorrectly. |
T01-C09-L04 |
| Late update |
Information that was corrected at the source, but the correction had not yet reached everyone who needed it. |
T01-C09-L04 |
| Revision |
One numbered version of a document, such as a tech pack, produced when a change is made and approved. |
T01-C09-L04 |
| Current copy |
The single most recently approved version of a document, the one everyone is meant to work from. |
T01-C09-L04 |
| Export buyer |
A buyer whose goods leave the factory's country, such as Northline Apparel, which typically runs its own formal audits of its suppliers. |
T01-C10-L03 |
| Domestic buyer |
A buyer whose goods stay in the factory's own country, such as Cedar & Co., which often oversees the same factory more lightly and less formally. |
T01-C10-L03 |
| Formal requirement |
A compliance or sustainability rule that is written down and checked on a fixed schedule, rather than left to an informal, ongoing relationship. |
T01-C10-L03 |
| Working conditions |
The real, everyday labour and safety conditions inside a factory, separate from how formally any one buyer documents or checks them. |
T01-C10-L03 |
| Self-assessment |
Rating your own confidence or skill in an area, as a starting point for deciding what to learn next. |
T01-C10-L05 |
| Skill area |
One named block of ability this Track built, for example tracing the chain of companies or reading a costing sheet. |
T01-C10-L05 |
| Entry-level role |
A first job in a company, one that expects a new hire to keep learning on the job rather than arrive already expert. |
T01-C10-L05 |
| On-the-job learning |
Skill and knowledge gained through doing the actual work, after starting a role, rather than before it. |
T01-C10-L05 |
| Capital-intensive |
Describes a stage of production that needs large machinery and investment more than it needs many workers, such as spinning or dyeing. |
T01-C10-L02 |
| Labour-intensive |
Describes a stage of production that needs many skilled workers more than it needs large machinery, such as garment-making. |
T01-C10-L02 |
| Concentration |
The way a type of business tends to cluster in a limited number of places rather than spreading evenly everywhere. |
T01-C10-L02 |
| Raw material |
The basic input a stage of production starts from, such as raw cotton fibre going into a spinning mill. |
T01-C10-L02 |
| Headquarters |
The location where a company's design, buying and management decisions are made; not necessarily where its products are manufactured. |
T01-C10-L02 |
| End market |
The country or region where a product is finally sold to the customer. |
T01-C10-L02 |
| "Made in" label |
The label on a finished garment stating where it was assembled, cut and sewn, not necessarily where every earlier stage of the chain took place. |
T01-C10-L02 |
| Sourcing technology |
Tools that help a buyer find and evaluate factories or mills before placing an order. |
T01-C10-L04 |
| Production technology |
Systems such as PLM and ERP, and tools such as an order tracker, that manage information about how goods are made and their status. |
T01-C10-L04 |
| Retail technology |
Systems such as e-commerce that change how finished goods reach and are sold to the customer. |
T01-C10-L04 |
| Connected information |
Information that actually passes from the stage where it was created through to the next stage that needs it, rather than staying inside the first stage. |
T01-C10-L04 |
| Industry shape |
The overall pattern of company types, sizes and roles that make up an industry, seen as a whole rather than one order at a time. |
T01-C10-L01 |
| Upstream |
Closer to the raw material end of the chain, for example a spinning mill or a dyeing mill, compared with a garment factory or a brand. |
T01-C10-L01 |
| Downstream |
Closer to the final customer end of the chain, for example a brand, a retailer or a shop. |
T01-C10-L01 |
| Vertically integrated |
Describes a company or group that owns more than one stage of the chain itself, instead of buying from a separate company at each stage. |
T01-C10-L01 |
| Scale |
The size of a company, commonly shown by its workforce, output or number of outlets, which can vary widely even between companies doing the same kind of work. |
T01-C10-L01 |
| Natural fibre |
A fibre grown or produced by a plant or animal, not manufactured from chemicals. |
T02-C01-L01 |
| Staple fibre |
A short fibre, like cotton, wool or linen, that must be spun into yarn before it can be woven or knitted. |
T02-C01-L01 |
| Cotton |
A natural fibre grown on the cotton plant's seed pod, called a boll; soft, absorbent and breathable. |
T02-C01-L01 |
| Wool |
A natural fibre sheared from a sheep's fleece; warm, elastic and naturally resistant to catching fire. |
T02-C01-L01 |
| Silk |
A natural fibre unwound from the silkworm's cocoon; fine, strong for its weight, with a natural sheen. |
T02-C01-L01 |
| Linen |
A natural fibre from the stem of the flax plant; cool and strong when dry, but creases easily. |
T02-C01-L01 |
| Boll |
The seed pod of the cotton plant that holds the cotton fibre and the cotton seed together. |
T02-C01-L01 |
| Fleece |
The whole coat of wool sheared from one sheep in a single shearing. |
T02-C01-L01 |
| Staple length |
The length of an individual cotton fibre, measured in millimetres. Longer staple generally spins into a stronger, finer yarn. |
T02-C01-L02 |
| Micronaire |
A reading of a cotton fibre's fineness and maturity. Mills specify a target range because fibre that is too fine or too coarse both cause problems. |
T02-C01-L02 |
| Trash grade |
A grade for how clean and white the raw cotton is. A lower grade needs more cleaning before spinning, which adds cost. |
T02-C01-L02 |
| Combed cotton |
Cotton yarn that has been through combing, a step that removes the shortest fibres before spinning, giving a smoother, stronger, more even yarn. |
T02-C01-L02 |
| Carded cotton |
Cotton yarn spun without the combing step. Cheaper, but less smooth and less even than combed yarn of the same count. |
T02-C01-L02 |
| Yarn count (Ne) |
A number describing how fine a yarn is in the English cotton count system. A higher count number means a finer yarn. |
T02-C01-L02 |
| Ply |
The number of single strands twisted together to make a yarn. "/1" means single-ply: one strand, not twisted with another. |
T02-C01-L02 |
| Combing waste |
The percentage of raw fibre removed as short fibre during combing. It is a real cost, not a fault, because it is what makes combed yarn smoother. |
T02-C01-L02 |
| Continuous filament fibre |
A fibre produced as one long, unbroken strand rather than short lengths; silk is the only natural filament fibre. |
T02-C01-L03 |
| Insulation |
Trapping air to reduce heat loss, a key property of wool's crimped fibre structure. |
T02-C01-L03 |
| Absorbency |
A fibre's ability to take up and hold moisture, such as cotton's absorbency compared to silk's. |
T02-C01-L03 |
| Wrinkle recovery |
How well a fabric springs back into shape after being creased; linen has poor wrinkle recovery compared to cotton. |
T02-C01-L03 |
| Fibre length |
How long an individual fibre is, one of the three properties (with fineness and strength) that carry through into yarn quality. |
T02-C01-L04 |
| Fibre fineness |
How thin an individual fibre is; finer fibres pack more filaments into a yarn's cross-section, for a smoother, more even yarn. |
T02-C01-L04 |
| Fibre strength |
The tensile force a single fibre bears before breaking; it caps how strong the spun yarn can ever be. |
T02-C01-L04 |
| Twist |
The turns put into fibres during spinning that lock them together into a yarn. |
T02-C01-L04 |
| Extra-long staple cotton |
Unusually long-staple cotton (such as Egyptian or Pima), pricier than standard cotton and not needed for every product. |
T02-C01-L04 |
| Spec (specification) |
The written requirements a fibre, yarn or fabric must meet for a given order. |
T02-C01-L04 |
| Breathable |
Letting air pass through the fabric, so the wearer stays cooler in warm weather. |
T02-C01-L05 |
| Man-made fibre |
A fibre manufactured in a factory rather than grown directly by a plant or animal; splits into cellulosic and synthetic families. |
T02-C02-L01 |
| Cellulosic fibre |
A man-made fibre that starts from natural plant cellulose, usually wood pulp, chemically processed into fibre; for example viscose. |
T02-C02-L01 |
| Synthetic fibre |
A man-made fibre built up from petrochemicals, such as polyester, nylon or elastane. |
T02-C02-L01 |
| Wood pulp |
Processed plant cellulose, the natural starting material a cellulosic fibre is made from before it is turned into fibre in a factory. |
T02-C02-L01 |
| Petrochemical |
A chemical building block refined from oil, the starting material a synthetic fibre is built up from. |
T02-C02-L01 |
| Biodegradable |
Able to break down naturally over time; cellulosic fibres are biodegradable because their starting material is plant cellulose, unlike most synthetic fibres. |
T02-C02-L01 |
| Melt-spinning |
Forcing a melted polymer through tiny holes and cooling it into a continuous filament, the way polyester and nylon are made. |
T02-C02-L02 |
| Spinneret |
A metal disc with many tiny holes that a melted polymer is forced through during melt-spinning, forming individual filaments. |
T02-C02-L02 |
| Polymer |
A long chain of repeating molecules; polyester and nylon are both built from petrochemicals into polymer chains before melt-spinning. |
T02-C02-L02 |
| Man-made cellulosic fibre |
A fibre manufactured from wood pulp via a chemical process, not grown as a fibre (cotton) or built from petrochemicals (polyester). |
T02-C02-L03 |
| Viscose |
Original, most common man-made cellulosic fibre; soft, good drape, weaker wet than modal/lyocell. |
T02-C02-L03 |
| Modal |
Modified viscose process; better wet strength and shrink resistance than plain viscose. |
T02-C02-L03 |
| Lyocell |
More contained chemical process recovering/reusing solvent; strong wet and dry. |
T02-C02-L03 |
| Wet strength |
Fibre strength remaining when soaked with water. |
T02-C02-L03 |
| Drape |
How a fabric falls and moves on the body. |
T02-C02-L03 |
| Elastane |
Synthetic fibre that stretches several times its length and recovers its shape; blended at a small percentage, never alone. |
T02-C02-L04 |
| Cotton-elastane blend |
A mostly-cotton fabric with a small elastane percentage, e.g. 98/2, such as Order B's denim. |
T02-C02-L04 |
| Comfort stretch |
Small give for movement without changing a garment's structured fit. |
T02-C02-L04 |
| Stretch recovery |
How well a stretch fabric returns to shape, the property that matters over a garment's lifetime. |
T02-C02-L04 |
| Polyester |
Quick-drying, wrinkle-resistant, colour-holding synthetic fibre; the most-used synthetic fibre for apparel. |
T02-C02-L05 |
| Blend |
A fabric of two or more fibres mixed so the product gains a property no single fibre supplies alone. |
T02-C02-L05 |
| Hard requirement |
A requirement a product cannot succeed without; failing it eliminates a fibre regardless of cost. |
T02-C02-L05 |
| Opening and cleaning |
First spinning stage: bales opened, impurities like leaf and trash removed. |
T02-C03-L01 |
| Carding |
Combs fibres into a web, then forms a rope-like sliver. |
T02-C03-L01 |
| Sliver |
Loose rope-like strand of roughly aligned fibres from carding. |
T02-C03-L01 |
| Drawing |
Combines and thins slivers, evening fibre distribution. |
T02-C03-L01 |
| Roving |
Thinned, lightly twisted strand before final spinning. |
T02-C03-L01 |
| Winding |
Final stage: yarn wound onto cones for shipping. |
T02-C03-L01 |
| Cone |
The wound package of finished yarn shipped to a customer. |
T02-C03-L01 |
| Tex |
A universal yarn-fineness system where a higher number means a thicker yarn, the opposite direction from the Ne system. |
T02-C03-L02 |
| Single-ply yarn |
A yarn made of one single strand, not twisted with another. |
T02-C03-L03 |
| Multi-ply yarn |
A yarn made of two or more single strands twisted together for extra strength. |
T02-C03-L03 |
| Twist direction (S or Z) |
Which way a yarn's strands are twisted, named for which way the diagonal lines slant. |
T02-C03-L03 |
| Marker wastage |
Fabric lost during cutting because pattern pieces never fill a cutting layout perfectly; a separate allowance from combing waste. |
T02-C03-L05 |
| Finished-yarn requirement |
The total weight of yarn an order actually consumes, the buyer-facing figure a mill is invoiced against. |
T02-C03-L05 |
| Raw-cotton input |
The weight of raw cotton a spinning mill must buy to produce a given weight of combed yarn, once combing waste is accounted for. |
T02-C03-L05 |
| Minimum order quantity |
The smallest amount a mill will accept or process as one order, which a calculated yarn requirement is often rounded up to. |
T02-C03-L05 |
| Combing |
An optional stage, after carding, that removes the shortest fibres from the sliver for a smoother, stronger yarn. |
T02-C03-L01 |
| Evenness |
Whether a yarn stays the same thickness along its length, without visible thick or thin spots. |
T02-C04-L01 |
| Yarn strength |
The force a yarn withstands before breaking, under the tension the next process applies. |
T02-C04-L01 |
| Count consistency |
Whether a yarn's actual measured count matches the count it was ordered as, checked across a batch, not one sample. |
T02-C04-L01 |
| Yarn batch |
One quantity of yarn produced and tested together, reported as a single unit even though it is made of many cones. |
T02-C04-L01 |
| Tolerance |
The accepted range around an ordered value within which a measured result still counts as a match. |
T02-C04-L01 |
| Borderline |
A result that sits at the edge of the accepted tolerance: not a clear pass, not a clear fail. |
T02-C04-L01 |
| Incoming-yarn inspection |
The check a factory runs on a yarn batch after it arrives and before it is released to the next process. |
T02-C04-L01 |
| Thick and thin places |
Visible variation in a yarn's diameter along its length; an evenness fault, often traced back to the drawing or roving stage. |
T02-C04-L02 |
| Nep |
A small, tangled knot of fibre that shows as a tiny dark or light speck in finished fabric, usually from immature or short fibre not fully removed at carding or combing. |
T02-C04-L02 |
| Slub |
A thick, uneven lump in a yarn; a fault on a smooth-yarn order, but a deliberate design feature on an order specifically requesting a textured, slub-yarn look. |
T02-C04-L02 |
| Yarn test certificate |
A mill's formal, written, measured report of a yarn batch's quality, section by section, distinct from an informal sales claim. |
T02-C04-L03 |
| Count section |
The certificate's section reporting the batch's actual measured count (Ne or Tex) against the ordered count, usually with a stated tolerance band. |
T02-C04-L03 |
| Strength section |
The certificate's section reporting breaking force, often as an average with a stated minimum. |
T02-C04-L03 |
| Evenness section |
The certificate's section reporting a numeric unevenness measure for the batch. |
T02-C04-L03 |
| Fault count section |
The certificate's section reporting specific fault counts, such as neps and thick/thin places, per unit length. |
T02-C04-L03 |
| Unevenness index |
A numeric measure of how much a yarn's thickness varies along its length; lower generally means more even. |
T02-C04-L03 |
| Quality claim |
A mill's own written or spoken statement about its yarn's quality, such as "premium" or "extra-strong," made as a sales statement rather than a measured report. |
T02-C04-L04 |
| Breaking force |
The actual measured force a yarn sample bears before it snaps, reported as a number on a certificate rather than an adjective in a claim. |
T02-C04-L04 |
| Comparison baseline |
The specific thing a comparative claim measures itself against, such as "our usual yarn," which needs its own stated numbers before the comparison can be checked. |
T02-C04-L04 |
| Quality dimension |
One of the three independent measures of yarn quality: evenness, strength, and count consistency. |
T02-C04-L05 |
| Named fault |
A specific, identified defect, such as thick and thin places, neps, or slubs, rather than a vague "bad yarn" label. |
T02-C04-L05 |
| Standing procedure |
A checklist or method applied to every case that meets its conditions, not just the case that was used to build it. |
T02-C04-L05 |
| Checklist item |
One line of a checklist naming a single thing to check, with a result recorded separately from every other item. |
T02-C04-L05 |
| Product brief |
A customer's description of a product's requirements, such as season, care, price point and look, often written without naming a fibre. |
T02-C01-L05 |
| Cotton-polyester blend |
A mostly-cotton or mostly-polyester fabric mixing the two fibres, typically for easy-care durability and wrinkle resistance. |
T02-C05-L01 |
| Minority fibre |
The smaller-percentage fibre in a blend, added for a specific property the main fibre alone does not provide. |
T02-C05-L01 |
| Blend ratio |
The percentage of each fibre by weight in a blended yarn or fabric, main fibre named first, such as Order B's denim, 98/2 cotton-elastane. |
T02-C05-L01 |
| Easy-care |
Describes a fabric that resists wrinkling and dries quickly, needing less ironing; a common reason a cotton-polyester blend is chosen. |
T02-C05-L01 |
| Blend ratio range |
One of a few recognisable bands blend ratios cluster into (very small, moderate, roughly even). |
T02-C05-L03 |
| Trial |
A mill's test production run to confirm or fix an exact blend percentage. |
T02-C05-L03 |
| False precision |
Stating a number with more exactness than the facts support. |
T02-C05-L03 |
| Three-fibre blend |
A blend combining three fibres in one fabric, each contributing a distinct property, rather than the two-fibre blends Order A and Order B's jeans already show. |
T02-C05-L04 |
| Weave |
The pattern in which warp and weft yarns interlace to form a woven fabric; the three basic weaves are plain, twill and satin. |
T03-C01-L01 |
| Interlacing pattern |
The specific over/under sequence a weave follows, such as plain's over-one-under-one or twill's stepped diagonal. |
T03-C01-L01 |
| Plain weave |
The simplest interlacing pattern: weft over one warp yarn, then under one, every row. |
T03-C01-L02 |
| Twill weave |
A weave whose interlacing steps sideways by one yarn each row, producing a visible diagonal line; Order B's 12 oz denim is a twill weave. |
T03-C01-L02 |
| Satin weave |
A weave whose weft floats over several warp yarns before interlacing once, producing a smooth, shiny face at the cost of lower abrasion resistance. |
T03-C01-L02 |
| Weft float |
The length of weft yarn passing over several warp yarns without interlacing. |
T03-C01-L02 |
| Diagonal line |
The visible stepped line on a twill fabric's face. |
T03-C01-L02 |
| Ends per inch (EPI) |
The number of warp yarns packed into one inch of a woven fabric's width. |
T03-C01-L03 |
| Picks per inch (PPI) |
The number of weft yarns packed into one inch of a woven fabric's length. |
T03-C01-L03 |
| Fabric width |
How wide a fabric comes off the loom, usually stated in inches or centimetres, separate from EPI and PPI. |
T03-C01-L03 |
| Construction line |
The short standard way a spec sheet or reorder note states a woven fabric's EPI PPI and width together. |
T03-C01-L03 |
| Stretch woven |
A woven fabric with a small percentage of a stretch fibre, such as elastane, added to give it comfort stretch, unlike a plain woven with no added stretch yarn. |
T03-C01-L04 |
| Satin-faced twill (sateen-type twill) |
A twill-family construction woven or finished for extra face sheen, combining twill's base with some of satin's smoothness, at a real trade-off. |
T03-C01-L05 |
| Trade-off |
Gaining more of one property (e.g. sheen) means giving up some of another (e.g. durability), since the two sit at opposite ends of a weave's interlacing structure. |
T03-C01-L05 |
| Knitting |
The process of forming fabric by pulling loops of yarn through previous loops, repeatedly, using needles. |
T03-C02-L01 |
| Needle |
The tool that holds and forms each loop during knitting. |
T03-C02-L01 |
| Weft knitting |
Knitting in which loops form across the fabric's width, one row at a time, from a single yarn feeding through many needles. |
T03-C02-L01 |
| Warp knitting |
Knitting in which loops form along the fabric's length, from many yarns feeding many needles at once. |
T03-C02-L01 |
| Loop |
The basic unit of a knitted fabric, formed by pulling one length of yarn through a previous loop; knitting connects loops, weaving interlaces two sets of straight yarn. |
T03-C02-L02 |
| Knit structure |
The pattern in which a knitted fabric's loops are formed and connected; common structures are single jersey, rib and interlock. |
T03-C02-L02 |
| Needle bed |
A knitting machine's row of needles; single jersey uses one needle bed, rib and interlock use two. |
T03-C02-L02 |
| Single jersey |
A weft-knit structure made on one needle bed, with a distinct flat (knit) face and a looped (purl) face, and a tendency to curl at raw edges. |
T03-C02-L02 |
| Rib |
A weft-knit structure made on two needle beds, alternating knit and purl columns; stretches and recovers well widthwise and does not curl. |
T03-C02-L02 |
| Interlock |
A weft-knit structure made of two layers of rib knitted together; thicker, smoother and more stable than single jersey, with both faces looking alike. |
T03-C02-L02 |
| Gauge |
The number of needles per inch on a knitting machine, describing how fine or coarse the resulting knit is. |
T03-C02-L03 |
| Stitch length |
The amount of yarn fed into forming each loop of a knitted fabric. |
T03-C02-L03 |
| Structural stretch |
Stretch that comes from a fabric's own structure (such as a knit's loops opening and closing) rather than from an added stretch fibre like elastane. |
T03-C02-L04 |
| Interlaced yarn |
A yarn in a woven fabric that crosses another set of yarns at right angles and cannot open and close the way a knitted loop can. |
T03-C02-L04 |
| Cutting ease |
Extra fabric allowance built into a pattern beyond the body's exact measurements to allow movement and comfort. |
T03-C02-L04 |
| Fibre content |
The fibre or fibres a fabric is made from and their percentage share, stated on a fabric's spec sheet or label. |
T03-C02-L04 |
| Knit fabric |
A fabric formed by looping yarn through itself repeatedly using needles rather than interlacing two sets of straight yarn. |
T03-C03-L01 |
| Total fabric requirement |
The full quantity of fabric an order needs, calculated from per-piece consumption times order quantity. |
T03-C03-L01 |
| Selvedge |
The tightly-woven edge strip of a fabric where the weft yarn turns back; unusable for cutting pattern pieces. |
T03-C03-L03 |
| Shrinkage allowance |
An extra margin subtracted from a fabric's width to account for shrinkage after washing or finishing. |
T03-C03-L03 |
| Usable width |
A fabric's cutting-room-usable width after subtracting selvedge and shrinkage allowances from its full loom width. |
T03-C03-L03 |
| Production buffer |
A small percentage added on top of a bare fabric consumption total to cover a mill's normal production variance and roll-end losses. |
T03-C03-L04 |
| Fabric price |
The agreed price per unit (kilogram or metre) for a fabric, multiplied by total consumption to calculate fabric cost. |
T03-C03-L05 |
| Fabric consumption |
The amount of fabric (by weight or length) one garment piece uses, the basis for calculating an order's total fabric requirement. |
T03-C03-L01 |
| Oz/yd2 (ounces per square yard) |
A fabric-weight unit common for woven fabrics, especially denim, stating how many ounces one square yard of the fabric weighs. |
T03-C03-L02 |
| Denim |
A woven cotton fabric, usually in a twill weave, commonly used for jeans and often quoted by weight in ounces per square yard. |
T03-C03-L02 |
| GSM to oz/yd2 conversion |
The standard textile-unit conversion oz/yd2 = GSM / 33.9, used to compare a knit fabric's weight, usually stated in GSM, with a woven fabric's weight, often stated in oz/yd2. |
T03-C03-L02 |
| Full width |
A fabric's whole width as it comes off the loom, stated on a spec sheet before any allowance is subtracted. |
T03-C03-L03 |
| Marker layout |
The cutting layout that arranges a garment's pattern pieces on a length of fabric before cutting; it must fit inside the fabric's usable width, not its full width. |
T03-C03-L03 |
| Weft |
The yarn that runs across a woven fabric's width, turning back at each edge to form the selvedge. |
T03-C03-L03 |
| Bare consumption total |
An order's fabric requirement from per-piece consumption multiplied by quantity alone, before any buffer is added. |
T03-C03-L04 |
| Roll-end loss |
Fabric left unusable at the start or end of a roll, one of the reasons a mill's actual output falls slightly short of a bare calculated figure. |
T03-C03-L04 |
| Cutting-room contingency |
A further small allowance a factory's own planning may add, separate from the mill's production buffer, to cover its own cutting errors or rework. |
T03-C03-L04 |
| Purchase-order quantity |
The fabric quantity actually written on the purchase order sent to a mill: the bare consumption total plus whichever buffer has been agreed. |
T03-C03-L04 |
| Production variance |
The normal, small difference between a mill's planned output and its actual output on any one production run. |
T03-C03-L04 |
| Indigo dye |
A dye that colours only the outer surface of a yarn, not all the way through its core; the reason indigo-dyed denim fades along stress points with wear. |
T03-C04-L01 |
| Fading |
The lightening of a dyed fabric's colour with wear or washing. |
T03-C04-L01 |
| Chino |
A cotton twill fabric, usually undyed or solid-dyed, lighter than denim. |
T03-C04-L01 |
| Solid dye |
A dye method colouring evenly through the fibre, unlike indigo's surface-only method. |
T03-C04-L01 |
| Standard fabric |
A fabric with no added technical function beyond its basic fibre and construction, such as Order A's plain cotton knit or Order B's denim without elastane. |
T03-C04-L02 |
| Performance fabric |
A fabric engineered for an added technical function beyond a standard fabric's basic properties, such as stretch, moisture-wicking or water resistance. |
T03-C04-L02 |
| Moisture-wicking |
A fabric or finish designed to move sweat away from the skin to the fabric's outer surface. |
T03-C04-L02 |
| Water resistance |
A finish or fibre treatment that resists water penetration without being fully waterproof. |
T03-C04-L02 |
| Specialty fabric |
A fabric with a coated, laminated or highly technical construction, used for products needing properties a standard woven or knitted fabric cannot provide alone. |
T03-C04-L03 |
| Coated fabric |
A fabric with a layer applied to its surface, such as for water resistance or shine, distinct from a fibre-blend performance addition. |
T03-C04-L03 |
| Laminated fabric |
Two or more fabric layers bonded together, often for insulation or full waterproofing. |
T03-C04-L03 |
| Mill trial |
A mill's test production run used to confirm an exact process or construction before committing to a full order. |
T03-C04-L03 |
| Borderline case |
A request or measurement that sits between two categories and needs the ambiguity flagged rather than a guessed answer. |
T03-C04-L05 |
| Weight (fabric) |
How heavy a fabric is for its area, commonly stated in ounces per square yard (oz) for denim and in GSM for many other fabrics. |
T03-C04-L01 |
| Brief |
A customer's description of a product's requirements, often written without every construction detail specified. |
T03-C04-L05 |
| Spec sheet |
A document stating a product or material's agreed requirements against which an incoming shipment is checked. |
T03-C05-L01 |
| Shade match |
Visual or instrument comparison of a fabric's colour against an approved swatch. |
T03-C05-L01 |
| Fault count |
The number and severity of visible defects found in a fabric shipment per length. |
T03-C05-L01 |
| Shrinkage test |
A test measuring how much a fabric shrinks after washing or wet processing. |
T03-C05-L01 |
| Independent check |
An inspection dimension checked and passed or failed on its own, not averaged together with other dimensions. |
T03-C05-L01 |
| Hole/tear |
A fabric defect where the material is torn or punctured through. |
T03-C05-L02 |
| Stain |
A discoloured mark on fabric from oil dirt or another substance. |
T03-C05-L02 |
| Shade band |
A visible band of colour variation across a fabric roll from uneven dyeing. |
T03-C05-L02 |
| Structural defect |
A fabric fault from the weaving or knitting process itself, such as a broken yarn or dropped stitch. |
T03-C05-L02 |
| Fault scoring |
A method assigning point values to fabric faults by type and totalling them per length, against an agreed maximum. |
T03-C05-L02 |
| Agreed maximum |
The highest total fault-score points a fabric roll may reach per length and still pass inspection. |
T03-C05-L02 |
| Roll |
A length of fabric wound onto a cylindrical core for storage and transport. |
T03-C05-L02 |
| Fashion fabric |
The main fabric of a garment: the fabric the customer sees, touches and thinks of as the garment's own fabric. |
T03-C05-L03 |
| Interlining |
A stiffening or reinforcing layer sewn or fused inside a garment section, such as a collar, cuff or waistband, to hold its shape. |
T03-C05-L03 |
| Lining |
A separate inner fabric layer covering part or all of a garment's inside, used for comfort, a clean finish, or opacity. |
T03-C05-L03 |
| Structured section |
A part of a garment built to hold a fixed shape rather than fall softly like the fashion fabric around it. |
T03-C05-L03 |
| Opacity |
How much a fabric blocks light from passing through it. |
T03-C05-L03 |
| Fabric test report |
A mill's formal written measured report of a fabric roll's quality, stated section by section, distinct from an informal quality claim. |
T03-C05-L04 |
| Fabric quality claim |
A mill's own written or spoken statement about its fabric's quality, made as a sales statement rather than a measured report. |
T03-C05-L04 |
| Colour fastness |
A rating for how well a fabric's dye resists fading or bleeding usually stated as a numeric grade in a report's colour fastness section. |
T03-C05-L04 |
| Fabric inspection |
The check a factory or buyer runs on a fabric shipment after it arrives before it is released to cutting. |
T03-C05-L01 |
| Supporting material |
A material used alongside the main fabric in a garment such as interlining or lining that is not the fashion fabric itself. |
T03-C05-L03 |
| Fabric preparation |
The steps (desizing, scouring, bleaching) that clean greige fabric before it can be dyed evenly. |
T04-C01-L01 |
| Desizing |
Removing the sizing agents applied before weaving or knitting to protect the yarn during production. |
T04-C01-L02 |
| Scouring |
Removing natural waxes oils and impurities from raw fibre so dye can reach it evenly. |
T04-C01-L02 |
| Bleaching |
Removing a fabric's remaining natural colour so a dye's true shade shows correctly once applied. |
T04-C01-L02 |
| Production log |
A written record that a process step ran on a fabric, without necessarily recording whether the step achieved its purpose. |
T04-C01-L03 |
| Measured check |
A test that produces a result about the fabric's actual state, rather than only recording that a process ran. |
T04-C01-L03 |
| Starch test |
A colour-change test that shows whether sizing residue remains on the fabric, confirming whether desizing genuinely worked. |
T04-C01-L03 |
| Absorbency test |
A test measuring how quickly a fabric absorbs a drop of water; slow absorption suggests residual wax or oil from incomplete scouring. |
T04-C01-L03 |
| Whiteness standard |
A reference comparison confirming a bleached fabric reached the expected level of whiteness, rather than merely "some bleaching happened." |
T04-C01-L03 |
| Uneven bleaching |
Patchy whiteness across a fabric, from inconsistent bleach application or timing. |
T04-C01-L04 |
| Residual sizing |
Stiff patches or poor dye uptake in spots from incomplete desizing. |
T04-C01-L04 |
| Over-processing |
Too much time or too strong a chemical concentration in scouring or bleaching, which can weaken the fibre. |
T04-C01-L04 |
| Hand-feel |
How a fabric feels to the touch. |
T04-C01-L04 |
| Diagnosis |
Matching a fault's symptom to its likely cause among a process's specific steps. |
T04-C01-L04 |
| Dye |
A chemical formulated to bond with a specific fibre type's molecular structure giving fabric its colour. |
T04-C02-L01 |
| Dye class |
A category of dye chemistry matched to a specific fibre type, such as reactive dyes for cotton, disperse dyes for polyester, or vat/indigo dyes for denim. |
T04-C02-L01 |
| Fixation |
A chemical step that permanently bonds a dye to a fibre so the colour resists washing and rubbing off. |
T04-C02-L01 |
| Reactive dye |
A dye class that bonds chemically with cellulosic fibres such as cotton, linen and viscose. |
T04-C02-L02 |
| Disperse dye |
A dye class formulated for synthetic fibres such as polyester, which have no chemical sites for a reactive dye to bond with. |
T04-C02-L02 |
| Acid dye |
A dye class used on protein fibres such as wool and silk, and on some synthetics such as nylon. |
T04-C02-L02 |
| Vat dye |
A dye class, including indigo, used where a surface-only wash-fast colour is wanted; the dye does not need to reach the fibre's core. |
T04-C02-L02 |
| Batch dyeing |
Dyeing a fixed quantity of fabric together in one vessel, as one dye lot. |
T04-C02-L03 |
| Continuous dyeing |
Running fabric continuously through a dyeing line at high speed, rather than dyeing it as separate fixed batches. |
T04-C02-L03 |
| Dye-lot minimum |
The smallest quantity a mill will run as one dye batch. |
T04-C02-L04 |
| Minimum-charge premium |
A higher per-unit charge a mill applies when it runs a dye batch below its own dye-lot minimum, charging as if the order were the full minimum quantity. |
T04-C02-L04 |
| Combined dye lot |
Combining a below-minimum order with another compatible order (same colour and fibre) to reach a mill's dye-lot minimum together. |
T04-C02-L04 |
| Colour standard |
The reference colour a buyer sets and communicates to a mill, against which every lab dip and bulk dyeing is checked. |
T04-C03-L01 |
| Lab dip |
A small dyed fabric or yarn sample a mill produces to show how close it can get to a colour standard before bulk dyeing. |
T04-C03-L01 |
| Physical swatch |
A real fabric or yarn sample in the target colour used as a colour standard. |
T04-C03-L01 |
| Standardised colour reference |
An industry colour system code such as a Pantone number used to communicate a colour precisely. |
T04-C03-L01 |
| Approved previous production sample |
A piece of a prior already-accepted order used as the colour standard for a repeat or similar order. |
T04-C03-L01 |
| Verbal description |
A colour communicated only in words with no fixed reference to measure against; not a valid colour standard. |
T04-C03-L01 |
| Strike-off |
A larger sample produced on the actual bulk fabric, confirming the colour holds on real production material, not just a lab sample. |
T04-C03-L02 |
| Colour approval report |
The document stating whether a submitted lab dip or strike-off matches the colour standard, and what must happen next. |
T04-C03-L03 |
| Conditional approval |
The outcome stating a sample is close enough to proceed only after a specific stated adjustment is actually made. |
T04-C03-L03 |
| Shade variation |
A difference in colour between separate dye lots or rolls, even when both were dyed to the same colour standard. |
T04-C03-L04 |
| Metamerism |
When two colours that match under one light source look different under another light source. |
T04-C03-L04 |
| Colour approval tracker |
The tool tracking a bulk order's colour approval stages from lab dip through bulk dyeing sign-off. |
T04-C03-L05 |
| Approved |
A colour approval outcome meaning the sample matches the colour standard within tolerance; proceed to the next stage. |
T04-C03-L05 |
| Conditional |
A colour approval outcome meaning proceed only after a specific stated adjustment is made. |
T04-C03-L05 |
| Rejected |
A colour approval outcome meaning the sample does not match the standard; a new sample must be resubmitted. |
T04-C03-L05 |
| Screen print |
A print method using one screen per colour, with a per-screen setup cost and a lower per-piece cost at higher volumes. |
T04-C04-L01 |
| Digital print |
A print method with no screens or per-colour setup cost, printing directly at a flat per-piece rate; better suited to small orders or many colours. |
T04-C04-L01 |
| Setup cost |
A one-time cost paid once for a print job regardless of how many pieces are printed, such as making/preparing a screen. |
T04-C04-L01 |
| Per-piece rate |
The cost per piece of actually printing once any setup is complete, separate from a one-off setup cost; digital print charges this as a flat rate with no setup, while screen print charges it per piece on top of its setup cost. |
T04-C04-L01 |
| Print house |
A company that prints designs onto fabric or finished garments for other manufacturers, for a fee per job. |
T04-C04-L01 |
| Screen |
The physical screen a screen print machine uses to deposit one colour of ink onto the fabric or panel; one screen per colour. |
T04-C04-L02 |
| Colour count |
The number of separate colours in a printed design, the factor that decides how many screens a screen print job needs. |
T04-C04-L02 |
| Break-even quantity |
The order size at which two print methods cost the same total; below it one method is cheaper, above it the other is. |
T04-C04-L03 |
| Print placement |
Where a print sits on a garment, measured from fixed reference points such as a set distance down from the shoulder seam. |
T04-C04-L04 |
| Placement specification |
The customer's written statement of exactly where a print must sit on the garment, checked against every printed piece. |
T04-C04-L04 |
| Misregistration |
Colours not lining up correctly, most common in multi-screen screen print when the screens shift out of alignment with each other. |
T04-C04-L04 |
| Ink cracking |
The ink film breaking into visible lines/apart, often from under-curing or the wrong ink type on a stretch fabric. |
T04-C04-L04 |
| Bleeding |
Ink spreading beyond its intended edge, often from too much ink or the wrong mesh count. |
T04-C04-L04 |
| Incorrect placement |
The print landing in the wrong position relative to the garment's reference points; a measurement and setup fault, not an ink fault. |
T04-C04-L04 |
| Mesh count |
How fine or coarse a screen's mesh is in screen print; the wrong mesh count can let too much ink through and cause bleeding. |
T04-C04-L04 |
| Gradient design |
A design with continuous colour transitions, such as a photographic image, rather than distinct flat colour areas. |
T04-C04-L05 |
| Fabric finish |
A treatment applied to fabric, before or after garment construction, that changes one of its properties, such as hand-feel or shrinkage, without changing the fibre or weave itself. |
T04-C05-L01 |
| Softening finish |
A finish, chemical or mechanical, that improves a fabric's hand-feel. |
T04-C05-L01 |
| Water-repellent finish |
A finish that adds surface resistance to wetting without making the fabric fully waterproof. |
T04-C05-L01 |
| Brushing/napping finish |
A finish that mechanically raises a fabric's surface fibres for a fuzzy hand, as on fleece. |
T04-C05-L01 |
| Garment washing |
Washing a finished garment, not just fabric, to change its size, colour or hand-feel to an approved standard. |
T04-C05-L01 |
| Stone wash |
A garment wash using abrasive stones, or a stone-like alternative, tumbled with garments to create a strong, worn fade, mainly on denim, with some risk of fabric wear. |
T04-C05-L02 |
| Enzyme wash |
A garment wash using enzymes to break down surface fibres, giving a softer hand-feel and a lighter, more even fade than a stone wash, with less fabric-damage risk. |
T04-C05-L02 |
| Standard wash |
A plain water wash, with detergent, mainly used to remove residual finishing chemicals and pre-shrink a garment, without an intentional fade. |
T04-C05-L02 |
| Wash count |
The number of separate wash cycles a garment order specifies, fixed independently of which wash type is used for each cycle. |
T04-C05-L02 |
| Wash standard |
The approved reference, a physical washed sample or written specification, that a production wash must match for size, colour and hand-feel. |
T04-C05-L03 |
| Wash approval report |
The document recording whether a washed garment batch passes on each of size, colour and hand-feel against the approved wash standard. |
T04-C05-L03 |
| Anti-shrink finish (sanforizing) |
A finish that mechanically pre-shrinks woven fabric so shrinkage in later washing stays within a controlled range. |
T04-C05-L01 |
| Neckline |
The finished edge of a garment around the neck opening. |
T05-C01-L01 |
| Collar |
A finished piece attached around the neckline of a woven garment. |
T05-C01-L01 |
| Cuff |
The finished edge at the end of a sleeve or a trouser leg. |
T05-C01-L01 |
| Yoke |
A shaped panel, usually at the shoulder or waist, that fits and supports the fabric gathered or seamed to it. |
T05-C01-L01 |
| Placket |
A finished fabric strip reinforcing an opening in a garment, such as a shirt front, so it can be fastened. |
T05-C01-L01 |
| Hem |
The finished edge at the bottom of a garment or sleeve, folded and stitched to prevent fraying. |
T05-C01-L02 |
| Sleeve type |
How a sleeve is constructed and attached to the body of a garment. |
T05-C01-L02 |
| Set-in sleeve |
A sleeve attached to the body of a garment at a seam around the armhole. |
T05-C01-L02 |
| Raglan sleeve |
A sleeve that extends in one piece to the neckline, with no separate armhole seam. |
T05-C01-L02 |
| Ribbed crew neckline |
A close-fitting ribbed neckline sitting at the base of the neck. |
T05-C01-L02 |
| Waistband |
The finished band at the top of a bottom garment, fitted at the waist. |
T05-C01-L03 |
| Belt loop |
A small fabric loop attached to a waistband, sized to hold a belt. |
T05-C01-L03 |
| Rivet |
A small metal fastener reinforcing a stress point, typically at a pocket corner, in denim construction. |
T05-C01-L03 |
| Five-pocket configuration |
The standard jeans pocket layout: two front pockets, a coin pocket inside one front pocket, and two back pockets. |
T05-C01-L03 |
| Coin pocket |
A small pocket nested inside one front pocket, counted as part of the front-pocket pair, not as a separate pocket. |
T05-C01-L03 |
| Closure |
A component that opens and fastens a garment, such as a zipper or a button. |
T05-C01-L04 |
| Zipper |
A closure that closes an opening using interlocking teeth or coil pulled by a slider. |
T05-C01-L04 |
| Button |
A closure that closes an opening by passing through a buttonhole. |
T05-C01-L04 |
| Elastic |
A stretch trim inserted into a waistband or cuff to allow fit without a separate closure. |
T05-C01-L04 |
| Drawcord |
A cord threaded through a channel and pulled to adjust a garment's fit. |
T05-C01-L04 |
| Garment anatomy worksheet |
A document naming every visible component of a garment, stating which garment it is found on, and classifying any closures or trims present. |
T05-C01-L05 |
| Top-to-bottom method |
Working through a garment in a fixed order, from neckline or collar down to hem or waistband, so no component is skipped. |
T05-C01-L05 |
| Care label |
A small label sewn into a garment stating how it should be washed and cared for; one common trim. |
T05-C01-L05 |
| Stitch class |
A standard international classification (ISO 4915) naming how a stitch is formed, such as class 301 lockstitch or class 401 chainstitch. |
T05-C02-L01 |
| Class 301 lockstitch |
A stitch class that interlocks a needle thread and a bobbin thread; each stitch holds independently, so cutting one thread does not unravel the seam. |
T05-C02-L01 |
| Class 401 chainstitch |
A stitch class formed from looped threads with no bobbin thread; the stitches interlock in a chain, so cutting one thread can unravel the whole line in one pull. |
T05-C02-L01 |
| Class 406/407 coverstitch |
A stitch class using multiple needle threads and looper threads together, giving a durable, stretchable finish commonly used on knit garment hems. |
T05-C02-L01 |
| Construction spec |
The document naming which stitch class, seam type and seam allowance each construction point of a garment must use. |
T05-C02-L01 |
| Seam type |
A standard classification (ISO 4916) naming how fabric pieces are joined at a seam, such as a plain seam or a flat-felled seam. |
T05-C02-L02 |
| Plain seam |
A seam type joining two fabric edges with a single line of stitching, the seam allowance pressed open or to one side. |
T05-C02-L02 |
| Flat-felled seam |
A seam type that folds the seam allowance over and stitches it flat against the garment, visible as two parallel stitch lines on the outside. |
T05-C02-L02 |
| 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. |
T05-C02-L02 |
| Pattern |
The template a garment is cut from, with the seam allowance already added beyond the garment's finished dimensions. |
T05-C02-L03 |
| Finished garment dimensions |
The measurements a garment is meant to have once sewn, as stated on the size chart or spec. |
T05-C02-L03 |
| Size chart |
The document stating a garment's intended measurement at each size. |
T05-C02-L03 |
| Construction point |
One specific place on a garment, such as a neckline, a seam, a hem or a closure, that the construction spec gives its own requirements for. |
T05-C02-L04 |
| Full pass |
A result where a construction point's stitch class, seam type and seam allowance all match the spec. |
T05-C02-L04 |
| Partial fail |
A result where one of a construction point's three properties does not match the spec, even though the other two do. |
T05-C02-L04 |
| Full fail |
A result where none of a construction point's three properties match the spec. |
T05-C02-L04 |
| Construction checklist |
A document listing every construction point of a garment, with its required stitch class, seam type and seam allowance, and space to record what was found and a Pass or Fail result. |
T05-C02-L05 |
| Pattern piece |
One piece of a pattern for a single distinct part of a garment, such as a front body, back body, sleeve or neck rib. |
T05-C03-L01 |
| Marker |
The layout of all pattern pieces for a size, or a set of sizes, arranged on fabric width, used to cut fabric with the least possible waste. |
T05-C03-L01 |
| Grading |
Scaling a base pattern up or down to produce every size in a size range, following a fixed grade rule. |
T05-C03-L02 |
| Base size |
The size a grade rule is applied to as the starting point for producing every other size in the range. |
T05-C03-L02 |
| Grade rule |
The set amount added or removed at each specific point on a pattern, for each size step away from the base size. |
T05-C03-L02 |
| Size range |
The full set of sizes an order offers, for example S M L XL. |
T05-C03-L02 |
| Single-size marker |
A marker containing pattern pieces for one size only, used for a small or size-specific cutting run. |
T05-C03-L03 |
| Multi-size marker (ratio marker) |
A marker containing pattern pieces for several sizes together, laid out in the order's own size ratio. |
T05-C03-L03 |
| Nested marker |
A marker whose pieces are arranged tightly, odd-shaped pieces fitted into each other's gaps, to reduce unused fabric between them. |
T05-C03-L03 |
| Marker efficiency |
The percentage of fabric in a marker actually used for pattern pieces, the standard-industry complement of marker wastage. |
T05-C03-L04 |
| Marker-planning worksheet |
A document that records a pattern's grade rule, a marker's size ratio and layout, and its calculated wastage, efficiency and fabric requirement, so all four can be checked together before cutting begins. |
T05-C03-L05 |
| Point of measure |
A specific place on a garment, such as body length or half chest, where a measurement spec states a required value. |
T05-C04-L01 |
| Measurement spec |
The document listing every point of measure for a garment, its required value at each size, and its accepted tolerance. |
T05-C04-L01 |
| Cut measurement |
The pattern's dimension before seam allowance and shrinkage effects are accounted for in finishing. |
T05-C04-L01 |
| Finished measurement |
The garment's actual dimension after full construction and any wash or finishing process. |
T05-C04-L01 |
| Body length |
The point of measure taken from the highest point of the shoulder, or a similar fixed reference, to the garment's hem. |
T05-C04-L01 |
| Half chest |
The point of measure taken straight across the garment at the underarm, representing half the total chest circumference. |
T05-C04-L01 |
| Sleeve length |
The point of measure taken from the shoulder seam to the sleeve's end. |
T05-C04-L01 |
| Sleeve width |
The point of measure taken across the sleeve opening, or at a specified point along the sleeve's length. |
T05-C04-L01 |
| Size set |
The complete set of measurements for every size in a size range, calculated from one base size and a grade rule. |
T05-C04-L02 |
| Size specification |
The set of body measurements, plus cutting allowance, that a garment in a given size must meet. |
T05-C04-L04 |
| Bill of materials |
The list of every material and cost component in a garment, with its cost, used to build up the FOB price. |
T05-C05-L02 |
| Lump-sum bill of materials |
A bill of materials that states only a total figure, with no separate component costs shown underneath it. |
T05-C05-L02 |
| Main label |
The label carrying the brand name and size, usually sewn into the neck or waistband, separate from the care label. |
T05-C05-L04 |
| Labelling and packing section |
The tech pack section stating what labels, packaging and carton marking a garment needs, including any cost-relevant packing choices. |
T05-C05-L04 |
| Carton marking |
The information printed or labelled on a shipping carton, such as order number, quantity and destination, so cartons can be identified and sorted. |
T05-C05-L04 |
| Printed label |
A label whose text is printed directly onto fabric tape, a lower-cost labelling choice than a woven label. |
T05-C05-L04 |
| Woven label |
A label woven with thread on a loom, a higher-cost labelling choice than a printed label. |
T05-C05-L04 |
| Saving package |
Order A's own fixed set of cost-saving choices, including a printed label, totalling USD 0.15 per piece off the FOB price. |
T05-C05-L04 |
| Costable specification |
A tech pack detailed enough that a factory can calculate an accurate cost from it, with no missing information forcing a guess. |
T05-C05-L05 |
| Construction detail |
The tech pack section naming the stitch class, seam type, and seam allowance for each construction point on a garment. |
T05-C05-L05 |
| Grading rules |
The tech pack section stating the base size and the grade rule applied to produce every other size in the range. |
T05-C05-L05 |
| Labelling and packing |
The tech pack section stating what labels, packaging, and carton marking a garment needs, including any cost-relevant packing choices. |
T05-C05-L05 |
| Full-assembly audit |
A single check confirming all five tech pack sections are present and consistent with each other, not checked one section at a time in isolation. |
T05-C05-L05 |
| Shade grading |
Sorting washed or dyed denim panels or garments into shade groups so that only pieces within the same, or a compatible, shade group are combined in one garment or one shipment carton. |
T06-C01-L03 |
| Crocking |
Indigo dye rubbing off a denim garment's surface onto another surface (skin, lining, another garment) through friction, a common denim-specific fault because indigo only colours the yarn's surface. |
T06-C01-L03 |
| Torque (twisted leg) |
A denim-specific fault where the outseam and inseam twist out of true alignment after washing, caused by the fabric's twill-weave bias. |
T06-C01-L03 |
| Whisker (scraping) effect |
A denim wash-finishing effect creating fade lines across the front thigh area that mimic natural wear creases; misalignment of this effect between garment panels is a denim-specific quality fault. |
T06-C01-L03 |
| Circular knitting machine |
A knitting machine that knits a seamless tube of fabric (or a complete sock) on a rotating cylinder of needles, rather than knitting or weaving flat fabric that is later cut and sewn. |
T06-C03-L01 |
| Linking |
Closing the open toe end of a knitted sock tube by joining its live stitches one by one, either by hand or on a linking machine; a poorly linked toe leaves a bulky or uncomfortable seam. |
T06-C03-L02 |
| Boarding |
A finishing step where a knitted sock is heat-set on a leg-shaped metal or plastic form to fix its final shape and size before packing. |
T06-C03-L02 |
| Welt |
A reinforced, more tightly knitted band at the top of a sock's cuff that resists laddering and holds the sock's opening in shape. |
T06-C03-L02 |
| Terry (looped pile) foot |
A knitting technique that adds a looped pile on the inside of a sock's foot for extra cushioning, commonly used in sports socks. |
T06-C03-L02 |
| Sock blank |
A sock straight off the circular knitting machine, before boarding, finishing or packing. |
T06-C03-L01 |
| Shell fabric |
The outer, exposed layer of a multi-layer garment such as an insulated jacket, providing the garment's face fabric and weather-facing surface. |
T06-C04-L02 |
| Insulation fill |
The material placed between an outerwear garment's shell and lining to trap air for warmth; commonly either down fill or synthetic fill. |
T06-C04-L02 |
| Down fill |
A natural insulation fill made from the soft under-plumage of a duck or goose, valued for its warmth-to-weight ratio but loses most of its insulating power when wet unless specially treated. |
T06-C04-L02 |
| Synthetic fill |
A man-made insulation fill, typically a polyester fibre, that keeps most of its insulating power even when wet, unlike untreated down. |
T06-C04-L02 |
| Seam sealing (seam taping) |
Bonding a waterproof tape over a garment's stitched seams so water cannot pass through the needle holes; standard practice on outerwear specified as fully waterproof, not only water-resistant. |
T06-C04-L03 |
| Durable water repellent (DWR) finish |
A surface treatment applied to a fabric so that water beads and rolls off rather than soaking in; distinct from a fully waterproof coating or lamination. |
T06-C04-L02 |
| Fully fashioned knitting |
A knitting method where each garment panel (front, back, sleeve) is shaped directly on the machine by increasing or decreasing stitches at its edges, then linked to the other panels, instead of being cut from a piece of flat fabric. |
T06-C02-L01 |
| Whole-garment (seamless) knitting |
A knitting method where an entire sweater is knitted in one continuous piece on a specialised machine, with no panels to cut, sew or link at all. |
T06-C02-L01 |
| Shaping (fashioning) |
Increasing or decreasing the number of stitches at the machine to form a knitted panel's curved edges, such as an armhole, neckline or waist taper, directly in the knitting rather than by cutting a curved edge from flat fabric. |
T06-C02-L02 |
| Linking (panel assembly) |
Joining two fully fashioned knitted panels edge-to-edge, stitch for stitch, at the shoulder, side or sleeve seam, giving a flatter, less bulky join than a sewn seam on woven or cut single-jersey fabric. |
T06-C02-L02 |
| Laddering (run) |
A knitwear fault where a single dropped stitch unravels vertically down a column of loops, most visible and most likely on finer-gauge knits. |
T06-C02-L03 |
| Pilling |
Small balls of loose fibre forming on a knitted garment's surface from wear friction, most common at underarms and side seams and more likely on coarser or lower-quality yarns. |
T06-C02-L03 |
| Four-way stretch |
A fabric that stretches and recovers both lengthwise and widthwise, standard for compression and performance activewear, unlike a fabric that only stretches in one direction. |
T06-C05-L01 |
| Flatlock seam |
A low-bulk seam that lies flat against the skin instead of standing up, used at activewear chafe points such as the underarm and inseam. |
T06-C05-L02 |
| Compression garment |
A close-fitting performance garment, usually four-way stretch, made to apply steady pressure to the muscle for support or recovery. |
T06-C05-L01 |
| Power net |
A firm, four-way stretch knitted mesh fabric used for control panels, straps and support areas in lingerie and shapewear, giving more holding power than a standard stretch fabric. |
T06-C06-L01 |
| Chlorine-resistant fabric |
A swimwear fabric, typically a polyester-elastane blend, engineered to resist the fibre breakdown and colour fade that chlorinated pool water causes in standard nylon-elastane fabrics. |
T06-C06-L01 |
| Underwire channel |
A fabric casing sewn into a bra cup to hold a rigid underwire in place along the cup's base, keeping the wire from shifting or poking through the fabric. |
T06-C06-L02 |
| Elastic trim gauge |
The width and stretch-recovery specification of an elastic trim used on a waistband, leg opening or bra band, chosen to match the garment's fit and support requirement. |
T06-C06-L02 |
| Cup lining |
An inner fabric layer sewn inside a bra or bikini-top cup for shape, support, opacity or modesty, separate from the cup's outer (face) fabric. |
T06-C06-L02 |
| Workwear |
A garment made for the physical demands of a specific job, usually built from a more durable, abrasion-resistant fabric than everyday clothing, and sometimes carrying protective features. |
T06-C07-L01 |
| Personal protective equipment (PPE) |
A garment or item worn specifically to protect the wearer from an identified workplace hazard, such as high visibility, flame, heat or chemical exposure, distinct from workwear worn mainly for durability. |
T06-C07-L01 |
| High-visibility (hi-vis) garment |
A garment made from fluorescent background fabric and retroreflective trim so the wearer is more easily seen, commonly assessed against a recognised standard such as EN ISO 20471. |
T06-C07-L02 |
| Flame-resistant (FR) fabric |
A fabric treated or constructed so it resists ignition and self-extinguishes rather than continuing to burn, commonly assessed against a recognised standard such as EN ISO 11612 for flame and heat protective clothing. |
T06-C07-L02 |
| Compliance certificate |
A document issued by a certification body confirming that a garment or fabric has been tested against a named standard and meets its stated requirement, distinct from a supplier's own unverified claim. |
T06-C07-L03 |
| Care and compliance labelling |
The labelling attached to a garment stating both how to care for it and which protective or compliance standard it is claimed to meet, required to be present and accurate on workwear and PPE. |
T06-C07-L04 |
| Terry weave |
A woven fabric structure that uses an extra pile warp beam, fed more loosely than the ground warp, so it rises into loops on the fabric surface for absorbency, instead of lying flat like a plain weave. |
T06-C08-L01 |
| Loop pile height |
The length the pile loops stand proud of a terry fabric's ground weave; a taller loop generally increases absorbency and softness but reduces loop density and durability. |
T06-C08-L01 |
| Pile weight (GSM) |
A towel's total fabric weight expressed in grams per square metre (GSM); a standard textile-industry measure used to compare how plush or absorbent different towel constructions are. |
T06-C08-L01 |
| Velour (sheared terry) |
A terry fabric finish in which the loop pile is cut and brushed flat on one face, giving a smoother, velvet-like surface, as distinct from uncut (looped) terry. |
T06-C08-L01 |
| Dobby border |
A flat, pile-free woven border at a towel's edge, produced on a dobby attachment that weaves small geometric or striped patterns, used for the hem area where a looped pile would fray or catch. |
T06-C08-L02 |
| Absorbency rating |
A standard textile-industry measure (for example, time taken for a fabric sample to absorb a set drop of water, or total water weight absorbed per gram of fabric) used to judge how well a finished terry product performs its main function. |
T06-C08-L02 |
| Thread count |
The number of warp and weft yarns woven per square inch of fabric; a standard industry measure used to describe a woven sheeting fabric's density, though a higher count does not always mean better quality since yarn thickness and ply also matter. |
T06-C09-L01 |
| Percale weave |
A plain, tightly woven fabric structure (one warp thread over, one weft thread under, repeated) commonly used for bedsheets, giving a crisp, matte, cool-to-the-touch feel. |
T06-C09-L01 |
| Sateen weave |
A satin-family weave structure with more weft (or warp) floats than a plain weave, giving bedsheet fabric a smoother, slightly heavier, lustrous drape compared with percale. |
T06-C09-L01 |
| Fitted sheet elastic |
Elastic sewn into each corner pocket (or all around the edge) of a fitted sheet so it stretches over and grips a mattress; a weak, short, or poorly stitched elastic is a common bedding quality fault. |
T06-C09-L02 |
| Duvet cover closure |
The opening mechanism (buttons, ties, or a zip/hook-and-loop strip) along one edge of a duvet cover that allows the duvet insert to be fitted inside and removed again for washing. |
T06-C09-L01 |
| Pillowcase construction (housewife and Oxford) |
The two standard pillowcase constructions: housewife style is a plain flat pocket closed with an inner flap or hem, while Oxford style adds a flat flange border stitched around the pocket's edge. |
T06-C09-L01 |
| Line balancing |
Arranging a sewing line's operations so that no single operation takes much longer than the others, so work flows through without piling up at one point. |
T07-C01-L02 |
| Capacity |
The maximum quantity a factory, a line or a department can produce in a given time, given its current people, machines and hours. |
T07-C01-L03 |
| Capacity planning |
Working out how much of a factory's available capacity a new order would use, before deciding whether to accept it and by when it can ship. |
T07-C01-L03 |
| Bottleneck |
The one stage in a production flow whose limited output slows down every stage after it, even when every other stage has spare capacity. |
T07-C01-L04 |
| Work-in-progress (WIP) |
Pieces that have started production but are not yet finished goods, sitting between two stages of the factory's workflow. |
T07-C01-L01 |
| Production report |
A factory's own regular record of what each stage produced against its target, used to see where an order stands and where it is falling behind. |
T07-C01-L05 |
| Standard minute value (SMV) |
The standard time, in minutes, a trained operator needs to complete one operation on one piece, used to calculate a line's expected output and workload. |
T07-C03-L02 |
| Capacity utilisation |
The share of a factory's available capacity actually being used by confirmed orders, expressed as a percentage of its maximum output. |
T07-C01-L03 |
| Fabric relaxation |
Letting a fabric roll rest flat, unrolled, before spreading and cutting so it can settle back from the tension and distortion put into it during knitting, weaving or finishing; cutting a fabric that has not relaxed risks cut pieces shrinking or distorting out of spec after cutting. |
T07-C02-L01 |
| Spreading |
Laying multiple layers (plies) of fabric on top of each other on the cutting table, one on top of the next, to build the lay that the marker is then cut through in a single pass. |
T07-C02-L01 |
| Lay (spread) |
The full stack of fabric plies built up by spreading, on which the marker is placed and through which the cutter cuts in one pass. |
T07-C02-L01 |
| Ply height (lay height) |
The number of fabric layers stacked in a lay, or the physical height this stack reaches; a cutting order sets a maximum ply height for a given fabric and blade because too high a lay risks inaccurate cutting through the lower plies. |
T07-C02-L01 |
| Bundling |
Sorting cut pieces from a lay into tied bundles, each bundle holding the matching pieces needed to sew one style, size and colour together as a unit, ready to move to sewing. |
T07-C02-L05 |
| Bundle ticket |
The tag or slip attached to a cut-piece bundle stating its style, size, colour and quantity, so the bundle can be tracked and matched correctly all the way through sewing. |
T07-C02-L05 |
| Cut-piece matching |
Checking that cut pieces meant to be sewn together (for example a garment's two front panels, or a striped fabric's pieces across a seam) match each other in shade, pattern placement or grain, not only in size, before they are bundled for sewing. |
T07-C02-L03 |
| Operation breakdown |
The list of every separate sewing step needed to complete a garment, each assigned to one operator and one machine on the line. |
T07-C03-L02 |
| Bundle system |
Cut pieces grouped into a fixed-quantity bundle that travels together from operation to operation through the sewing line, so progress can be counted bundle by bundle. |
T07-C03-L01 |
| Modular line |
A sewing line organised as a small team that shares several operations between them and moves single pieces (not bundles) through the team, instead of one operator per fixed operation. |
T07-C03-L01 |
| Steam pressing |
Applying heat and steam to a finished garment to remove wrinkles and set its final shape, at a temperature and method matched to the fabric to avoid scorching or shine marks. |
T07-C04-L02 |
| Folding specification |
The buyer's stated method for folding a garment before packing — for example how many folds, the finished folded size, and where any size sticker or tag is placed. |
T07-C04-L03 |
| Poly-bagging |
Sealing a finished, folded garment into an individual plastic bag before it is packed into a shipping carton, to keep it clean and pressed. |
T07-C04-L03 |
| Assortment packing |
Packing a carton with a mix of sizes (and sometimes colours) in a stated ratio, so that one carton on its own represents a size run rather than a single size. |
T07-C04-L03 |
| Solid-colour packing (solid packing) |
Packing a carton with only one colour, or only one size, rather than mixing an assortment; the alternative to assortment packing, chosen by the buyer's own packing instruction. |
T07-C04-L03 |
| Hang tag |
A printed tag attached to a finished garment by a string or plastic tack, separate from the sewn-in main and care labels, usually carrying the brand, price or size information. |
T07-C04-L01 |
| Lean manufacturing |
An approach to running a factory that works to remove waste — any activity that does not add value the buyer pays for — from every step, instead of only speeding up individual operations. |
T07-C05-L01 |
| The seven wastes (muda) |
The seven named categories of non-value-adding activity a lean factory looks for: transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing and defects. |
T07-C05-L02 |
| Kaizen |
A small, low-cost improvement made by the people who do the work, tried and measured quickly, instead of a large one-off project planned and installed by someone else. |
T07-C05-L03 |
| Gemba walk |
Going to the actual place where the work happens — the sewing floor, not the office — to see a problem directly before deciding how to fix it. |
T07-C05-L01 |
| 5S |
A five-step way of organising a workstation — sort, set in order, shine, standardise, sustain — so that tools, trims and parts are always where they are needed and any missing item is obvious at a glance. |
T07-C05-L02 |
| Root-cause analysis |
Asking why a problem happened repeatedly until the real underlying cause is found, instead of fixing only its first visible symptom. |
T07-C05-L04 |
| Standard work |
The one best-known way to do an operation, written down and followed by every operator doing that operation, so an improvement can be measured against a fixed starting point. |
T07-C05-L01 |
| Time study |
Directly timing a trained operator doing one operation, over several repeats, to build an accurate standard minute value for that operation. |
T08-C01-L02 |
| Observed time |
The raw time a stopwatch records for one repeat of an operation during a time study, before it is adjusted for the operator's pace. |
T08-C01-L02 |
| Rating |
A work-study specialist's judgement of how the observed operator's pace compares to a defined standard pace, expressed as a percentage (100% is standard pace). |
T08-C01-L02 |
| Basic time |
Observed time adjusted by the rating, giving the time a standard-pace operator would need for the same operation, before any allowance is added. |
T08-C01-L02 |
| Personal, fatigue and delay allowance (PFDA) |
A percentage added to basic time to cover an operator's personal needs, unavoidable fatigue, and short unavoidable delays, turning basic time into a standard minute value. |
T08-C01-L03 |
| Rated observation |
One timed repeat of an operation together with the work-study specialist's rating of the operator's pace during that repeat. |
T08-C01-L02 |
| Predetermined motion time system (PMTS) |
A method that builds an operation's standard time from published time values for basic human motions (such as reach, grasp and move), instead of a stopwatch time study; MTM and MOST are two widely used named systems. |
T08-C01-L04 |
| Available minutes |
The total working minutes a line or an operator has in a given period, before any efficiency loss is applied, calculated as operators multiplied by working minutes per operator. |
T08-C02-L01 |
| Efficiency percentage |
The share of a line's available minutes actually converted into standard output, separate from capacity utilisation, which instead measures how much of that output is booked to confirmed orders. |
T08-C02-L02 |
| Theoretical daily capacity |
The number of pieces a line could produce in a day if every available minute converted directly into output at the operation's SMV, before any efficiency loss is applied. |
T08-C02-L01 |
| Overbooking |
Booking more quantity onto a line or period than its actual daily capacity can produce, so the booked total exceeds what the line can deliver on time without added cost. |
T08-C02-L04 |
| Booking sheet |
A shared record that lists which lines are committed to which orders, in which weeks, and how much of each line's capacity each commitment uses, so every booking can be checked against the same total. |
T08-C02-L03 |
| Cycle time |
The time the slowest operator on a line actually takes to complete one piece at their own station, which sets the pace every other operator must match. |
T08-C03-L01 |
| Balancing loss |
The share of a sewing line's theoretical capacity that is lost because its operations are not evenly matched to the line's own cycle time. |
T08-C03-L03 |
| Pitch time |
The time interval at which a bundle or group of pieces (rather than a single piece) moves forward together along a sewing line, used when work is passed in small batches instead of one piece at a time. |
T08-C03-L02 |
| Single-needle lockstitch machine |
A sewing machine that forms class 301 lockstitch with one needle thread and one bobbin thread, the standard machine for plain seams on woven panels such as Order B's jeans side seam. |
T08-C04-L01 |
| Overlock machine (serger) |
A sewing machine that trims and neatens a raw edge while forming a seam that stretches with the fabric, the standard machine for knit side seams and edge finishing such as Order A's T-shirt side seam. |
T08-C04-L01 |
| Coverstitch machine |
A sewing machine that forms class 406/407 coverstitch with multiple needle threads and looper threads, the standard machine for durable, stretchable knit hems such as Order A's T-shirt hem. |
T08-C04-L02 |
| Flatlock machine |
A sewing machine that forms a flat, low-bulk seam by butting (not overlapping) two fabric edges together, commonly used for activewear seams that must lie flat against the skin at chafe points. |
T08-C04-L02 |
| Buttonhole machine |
A sewing machine that cuts and stitches a buttonhole in one operation so the opening does not fray. |
T08-C04-L01 |
| Bartack machine |
A sewing machine that sews a short, dense block of reinforcement stitching at a stress point, such as a belt loop or a pocket corner, so it does not open up under normal wear. |
T08-C04-L01 |
| Ring spinning frame |
A spinning machine that twists roving into yarn by winding it onto a rotating spindle through a small travelling ring and traveller; produces a finer, stronger, more even yarn than open-end spinning, but runs slower and costs more per kilogram. |
T08-C05-L01 |
| Open-end (rotor) spinning |
A faster, lower-cost spinning method that twists fibre into yarn inside a rotating rotor rather than on a ring and traveller; produces a coarser, less even yarn than ring spinning, suited to lower counts and lower-cost orders. |
T08-C05-L01 |
| Shuttle loom |
The oldest weaving-machine type, carrying the weft yarn across the warp inside a shuttle passed hand-to-hand or mechanically; slower than modern shuttleless looms and now mostly limited to narrow or specialty fabrics. |
T08-C05-L01 |
| Rapier loom |
A shuttleless weaving machine that carries the weft yarn across the warp using one or two rigid or flexible rapier arms; handles a wide range of yarn types and widths and can carry a dobby or jacquard attachment for patterning. |
T08-C05-L01 |
| Air-jet loom |
A shuttleless weaving machine that carries the weft yarn across the warp using a jet of compressed air; the fastest common loom type for plain and twill fabrics at volume, such as denim, but less suited to complex woven patterning. |
T08-C05-L01 |
| Flat knitting machine |
A knitting machine that knits flat panels or fabric on a straight needle bed, rather than a seamless tube on a rotating cylinder like a circular knitting machine; used for shaped panels (for example sweater pieces) as well as flat yardage. |
T08-C05-L01 |
| Payback period |
The time it takes for a machine's total monthly savings to add up to its total investment cost. |
T08-C06-L01 |
| Preventive maintenance |
Scheduled inspection and parts replacement done before a machine breaks down, on a fixed timetable. |
T08-C06-L02 |
| Breakdown maintenance |
Repair work done only after a machine has already stopped working, usually more costly than preventive maintenance. |
T08-C06-L02 |
| Downtime cost |
The value of production lost while a machine is stopped, whether for a scheduled visit or an unplanned breakdown. |
T08-C06-L02 |
| Depreciation |
Spreading a machine's purchase cost over its useful working life instead of counting it all in the year it was bought. |
T08-C06-L01 |
| Quality control |
The set of inspection and testing activities that check whether a specific batch of work in progress or finished goods meets the specification, distinct from quality assurance, which sets up the checks in the first place. |
T09-C01-L01 |
| Quality checkpoint |
One fixed point in an order's flow, from incoming fabric to final inspection, where goods are checked against the specification before being allowed to move to the next stage. |
T09-C01-L02 |
| In-line inspection |
A quality check carried out while a garment is still moving through the sewing line, at one or more fixed points between operations. |
T09-C01-L02 |
| Critical defect |
A defect serious enough to make a garment unsafe, illegal to sell, or unusable by the customer; a single critical defect can fail the whole inspected lot. |
T09-C01-L03 |
| Major defect |
A defect likely to be noticed by the customer and to affect the garment's saleability or performance, though it does not make the garment unsafe or unusable. |
T09-C01-L03 |
| Minor defect |
A small imperfection unlikely to be noticed in normal use or to affect saleability, recorded but not on its own a reason to reject the garment. |
T09-C01-L03 |
| AQL (Acceptable Quality Level) |
A statistical inspection method that checks a sample of goods and uses an agreed rule to pass or fail the whole batch. |
T09-C02-L01 |
| Lot size |
The total quantity of finished goods in the shipment or batch being inspected, before any sample is drawn from it. |
T09-C02-L01 |
| 100% inspection |
Checking every single piece in a lot, rather than a sample; the alternative AQL replaces for most final inspections. |
T09-C02-L01 |
| Sampling table |
The published reference table that turns a lot's own size into the exact sample size and pass/fail rule an inspector must use. |
T09-C02-L01 |
| Inspection sample size |
The exact number of pieces an AQL inspection pulls from a lot, read from the sampling table using the lot's own size and the inspection level, not chosen by the inspector. |
T09-C02-L02 |
| Sample size code letter |
The letter the sampling table assigns to a lot size range and an inspection level, used to look up the exact sample size in the same table. |
T09-C02-L02 |
| General inspection level |
The standard inspection strictness (usually level II) a sampling table applies unless the buyer's contract states a different level. |
T09-C02-L02 |
| Acceptance number |
The largest number of defects of one class a sample may contain while the whole lot still passes. |
T09-C02-L02 |
| Rejection number |
The smallest number of defects of one class a sample can contain that fails the whole lot. |
T09-C02-L02 |
| Defect count |
The running total of defects found within one class, kept separately for critical, major and minor throughout one inspection. |
T09-C02-L03 |
| Failed inspection |
An AQL inspection whose result crosses at least one defect class's own rejection number, meaning the lot does not pass as it stands. |
T09-C02-L04 |
| Chargeback |
A cost the buyer deducts from what it pays the factory, to cover the buyer's own cost of fixing or replacing a failed shipment. |
T09-C02-L04 |
| Third-party inspection agent |
An inspector working for the buyer, not the factory, who has the authority to pass or fail a shipment on the buyer's behalf. |
T09-C02-L04 |
| Final inspection report |
The single document that records a lot's identity, its sampling plan, its defect tally, and its signed overall result, so a buyer can act on it without further questions. |
T09-C02-L05 |
| Sign-off |
A named person's confirmation, with their name and the date, that they reviewed the inspection and accept its recorded result. |
T09-C02-L05 |
| Physical test |
A test that measures how a fabric or garment behaves under wear, washing, or handling, such as its strength or how much it shrinks. |
T09-C03-L01 |
| Chemical test |
A test that checks a fabric, dye, or trim for a substance that could harm the wearer or breach a law in the buyer's country. |
T09-C03-L01 |
| Tensile strength |
The pulling force a fabric bears in a straight line before it tears. |
T09-C03-L01 |
| Seam strength |
The pulling force a sewn seam bears before its stitches break or the fabric tears along the stitch line. |
T09-C03-L01 |
| Restricted substances test |
A chemical test that checks for banned or limited substances, such as certain azo dyes or formaldehyde, against a standard such as OEKO-TEX or REACH. |
T09-C03-L01 |
| Independent testing lab |
A third-party laboratory, not owned by the factory or the buyer, that performs these tests and issues a report both sides can rely on. |
T09-C03-L01 |
| Grey scale |
A standard numeric scale, typically 1 to 5, used to rate colour fastness; a higher number means less visible change or transfer. |
T09-C03-L02 |
| Required result |
The specific rating or percentage the buyer's tech pack states a test must meet or better. |
T09-C03-L02 |
| Actual result |
The rating or percentage an independent testing lab actually measures for that fabric or garment. |
T09-C03-L02 |
| Wash cycle |
One complete run of a garment through washing, used both in production and in a shrinkage test's method. |
T09-C03-L02 |
| Test lab report |
An independent testing lab's written, measured record of a test's method, result and pass/fail outcome against a named standard. |
T09-C03-L03 |
| Test standard |
The named method or specification, such as an AATCC or ISO method, a report states it tested against. |
T09-C03-L03 |
| Buyer's standard |
The buyer's own complete set of required results across every test line, stated in its tech pack. |
T09-C03-L03 |
| Retest |
Running a test again, usually after a change to the fabric, process, or sample, to check whether the required result is now met. |
T09-C03-L04 |
| Sort and cull |
Separating a batch into pieces that pass a required result and pieces that do not, rather than treating the whole batch the same way. |
T09-C03-L04 |
| Concession |
An agreement, recorded in writing, where a buyer or brand knowingly accepts goods that failed a stated required result, usually at a reduced price. |
T09-C03-L04 |
| Testing tracker |
A single working document listing every test line an order needs, its standard, sample stage, required result, actual result, date, outcome, and action if failed. |
T09-C03-L05 |
| Sample stage |
The point in production, fabric, cut panel, or finished garment, at which a test's sample is taken. |
T09-C03-L05 |
| Social compliance audit |
A planned, independent check of a factory's labour conditions and treatment of workers against a named standard, separate from any single order's product specification. |
T10-C01-L01 |
| Third-party auditor |
An auditor employed by neither the factory nor the buyer, engaged to check a factory's labour and workplace conditions independently and report the same finding to both sides. |
T10-C01-L01 |
| Code of conduct |
A buyer's own written statement of the minimum labour, safety and ethical standards every factory making its goods must meet, used as the standard a social compliance audit checks against. |
T10-C01-L01 |
| Non-conformance |
A specific way in which an audited factory's practice fails to meet a required standard, recorded as one finding with its own severity rating and location, not a general impression that something is wrong. |
T10-C01-L01 |
| Freedom of association |
A worker's right to join, form, or take part in a trade union or worker organisation without being punished, discouraged or blocked by their employer. |
T10-C01-L02 |
| Forced labour |
Work performed under threat, coercion, or without a worker's free and informed consent, for example through withheld identity documents, unpayable recruitment debt, or an inability to leave the job freely. |
T10-C01-L02 |
| Child labour |
Work performed by a person below the legal minimum working age for that type of work in the country concerned, or work that is hazardous to a child's health, safety or development regardless of age. |
T10-C01-L02 |
| Minimum wage |
The lowest wage a worker may legally be paid for their work, set by the country where the factory operates and checked against actual pay records during a social compliance audit. |
T10-C01-L02 |
| Core labour standard |
One of the small set of labour rights an audit checks in every factory regardless of country, commonly covering child labour, forced labour, freedom of association, working hours, wages, health and safety, and discrimination. |
T10-C01-L02 |
| Severity rating |
The scale — commonly Critical, Major or Minor — an audit uses to rank how serious a recorded non-conformance is, which decides how quickly it must be corrected. |
T10-C01-L03 |
| Objective evidence |
The document, record, measurement, or observation an auditor actually saw or checked to support a finding, rather than a worker's or manager's unverified statement alone. |
T10-C01-L03 |
| Corrective action plan (CAP) |
A written plan a factory submits after an audit finding, stating the root cause, the action that will fix it, who owns that action, and the date it will be completed by. |
T10-C01-L04 |
| Preventive action |
A change made to stop a non-conformance's underlying cause from producing the same finding again, going beyond simply fixing the one instance already found. |
T10-C01-L04 |
| Verification audit |
A follow-up audit, usually of a specific corrective action plan already submitted, that checks whether the promised action was actually carried out and whether the original non-conformance is genuinely closed. |
T10-C01-L04 |
| Product safety risk |
A feature of a finished garment, such as its flammability, small parts or sharp points, capable of causing physical harm to the wearer, checked separately from, and in addition to, the garment's construction quality. |
T10-C02-L01 |
| Flammability standard |
A recognised test standard controlling how easily a fabric or garment ignites and burns, used to judge whether a garment is safe to sell, with stricter limits commonly applied to children's sleepwear than to everyday adult clothing. |
T10-C02-L01 |
| Choking hazard |
A small, detachable component of a garment, such as a button, snap or decorative trim, that a young child could pull off and place in the mouth or swallow. |
T10-C02-L01 |
| Sharp point or edge |
A pin, staple, broken needle tip or unfinished trim edge left in or on a finished garment that can cut or puncture the wearer. |
T10-C02-L01 |
| Drawstring hazard |
A functional or decorative cord at the neck, hood or waist of a garment, restricted or removed on young children's upper outerwear in many markets because it can catch and cause strangulation. |
T10-C02-L02 |
| Age group |
The band of ages a garment's size range and safety rules are written for; children's wear commonly draws a stricter line at younger ages. |
T10-C02-L02 |
| Wash care symbol |
A standard pictogram used on a care label to show a washing, drying, ironing or bleaching instruction without relying on any one language. |
T10-C02-L03 |
| Legal disclosure requirement |
A rule requiring a seller to state a specific true fact to the customer, such as fibre content, rather than leaving it unstated. |
T10-C02-L03 |
| Destination market |
The country or market a specific shipment of goods is being sold into, which decides which market's labelling rule applies. |
T10-C02-L04 |
| Restricted substance |
A chemical substance that a law, a buyer's standard, or a certification limits or bans, either in a finished product or in how that product was made. |
T10-C04-L01 |
| Restricted Substances List (RSL) |
A buyer's or standard's written list naming which substances are restricted in the finished product a customer receives, and at what limit. |
T10-C04-L01 |
| Chemical inventory |
A factory's own written record of every chemical it holds, where each came from, and what each is used for. |
T10-C04-L01 |
| Sample-based test |
A test run on one sample taken from one fabric lot or one production batch, not on every unit a factory produces. |
T10-C04-L01 |
| Supplier declaration |
A written statement from a chemical or fabric supplier confirming what a substance contains and that it meets a named restricted list. |
T10-C04-L01 |
| Safety Data Sheet (SDS) |
A supplier-issued document listing a chemical's hazards, safe handling, and storage information, that must accompany a hazardous chemical. |
T10-C04-L02 |
| Hazard classification |
A standard category, such as under the Globally Harmonized System (GHS), describing the type and severity of harm a chemical can cause. |
T10-C04-L02 |
| Storage location |
The specific place in a factory where a chemical is physically kept, recorded so it can be found, checked, and handled correctly. |
T10-C04-L02 |
| Out-of-date SDS |
A safety data sheet that no longer matches the chemical's current formulation or supplier, and needs replacing before the chemical is used again. |
T10-C04-L02 |
| Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL) |
A list naming which substances are restricted in the chemicals used during manufacturing, such as dyes and finishing agents, whether or not any trace of them remains in the finished product. |
T10-C04-L03 |
| Wet processing |
Any production stage that uses water and chemicals on fibre, yarn, or fabric, such as dyeing, printing, and finishing. |
T10-C04-L03 |
| Trace residue |
A small remaining amount of a chemical still present in a finished product after wet processing and washing are complete. |
T10-C04-L03 |
| Process discharge |
Water and chemical waste released from a wet-processing step, separate from what remains on the fabric itself. |
T10-C04-L03 |
| Sale stop |
An immediate halt on selling any further units of an affected stock line, issued as soon as a restricted-substances failure is confirmed. |
T10-C04-L04 |
| Recall |
A request to customers or retail points to return units of an affected stock line already sold or distributed. |
T10-C04-L04 |
| Root-cause trace |
The process of tracing a failed test result back to the specific chemical, supplier, and production stage that caused it. |
T10-C04-L04 |
| Corrective batch |
A new production run made after a failure is traced and fixed, intended to replace the affected stock. |
T10-C04-L04 |
| Chemical management tracker |
A single working document listing every chemical a factory holds, its supplier, use, hazard classification, safety data sheet status, storage location, and RSL/MRSL compliance status. |
T10-C04-L05 |
| Active chemical |
Any chemical currently held or in use by a factory, whether newly delivered, mid-use, or nearing the end of its stock. |
T10-C04-L05 |
| Compliance status |
A tracker row's recorded state against the RSL, the MRSL, or both, showing compliant, non-compliant, or under review. |
T10-C04-L05 |
| Cross-order chemical |
A chemical used across more than one order running on the same factory floor at the same time. |
T10-C04-L05 |
| Supply chain traceability |
The ability to follow a garment's materials and processing stages back through each stage of the chain to their origin, using a record kept at every stage. |
T10-C05-L01 |
| Chain of custody |
The unbroken, recorded sequence of who held, processed or transported a material from one stage of the chain to the next. |
T10-C05-L01 |
| Chain stage |
One named step in a garment's production chain, such as spinning, knitting, or dyeing, at which a material changes hands or changes form. |
T10-C05-L01 |
| Origin record |
A document stating where a raw material, such as fibre or yarn, actually came from. |
T10-C05-L01 |
| Traceability tracker |
A single working document listing every chain stage an order's material passed through, the party responsible, the record proving it, and whether that record is complete. |
T10-C05-L01 |
| Digital Product Passport (DPP) |
An emerging regulatory requirement, developing under the EU's Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, expected to carry a product's material composition, origin and environmental information digitally, accessible through a scannable code. |
T10-C05-L02 |
| Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) |
The EU regulation under which the Digital Product Passport is being developed, aimed at making products sold in the EU more durable, repairable and traceable. |
T10-C05-L02 |
| Scannable code |
A code, such as a QR code, printed or attached to a product, that a customer or inspector can scan to open that product's digital record. |
T10-C05-L02 |
| Material composition |
The named fibres and their share of a garment's total weight, such as 100% cotton or a percentage blend. |
T10-C05-L02 |
| Circularity |
Designing and managing a garment so its materials can be reused, recycled or repaired instead of being discarded after one use life. |
T10-C05-L03 |
| Design for disassembly |
Constructing a garment so its parts, such as trims, linings or blended fabrics, can be separated easily at end of life to support recycling. |
T10-C05-L03 |
| Mono-material construction |
Building a garment from one fibre type throughout, fabric, thread and trims, so it does not need fibre separation before recycling. |
T10-C05-L03 |
| Recycled content |
The share of a garment's fibre that comes from recycled material rather than newly produced (virgin) fibre. |
T10-C05-L03 |
| Take-back scheme |
A brand or retailer programme that collects a garment back from the customer at end of life for reuse, recycling or resale. |
T10-C05-L03 |
| Order-level compliance file |
One combined file holding an order's certification, chemical-testing and traceability records together, so a buyer or auditor can check every requirement in one place. |
T10-C05-L04 |
| Top of production (TOP) sample |
A sample pulled from the very first pieces actually cut and sewn in bulk, to prove the bulk production run itself matches the approved PP sample. |
T11-C02-L01 |
| Sample approval outcome |
The named result a buyer issues once a sample review is complete: approved, approved with comments, or rejected. |
T11-C02-L02 |
| Approved with comments |
An outcome meaning the sample is close enough to proceed, but only once specific, stated changes named on the comment sheet are actually made. |
T11-C02-L02 |
| Comment sheet |
The buyer's own written document recording, point by point, what was checked on a sample and what, if anything, must change. |
T11-C02-L02 |
| Resample |
A full new sample made and resubmitted after a rejection, replacing the sample that was rejected. |
T11-C02-L03 |
| Revision plan |
A working document listing every comment sheet point, who is responsible for acting on it, and the date it must be done by. |
T11-C02-L04 |
| Sample approval tracker |
A single working document listing every sample round an order goes through, its sample type, date submitted, outcome, comment sheet point, and action taken. |
T11-C02-L05 |
| Sample round |
One full cycle of a sample being submitted, reviewed, and returned with an outcome, whether that outcome is approved, approved with comments, or rejected. |
T11-C02-L05 |
| Amendment |
A written change to a purchase order's price, quantity or date, agreed by both sides and recorded on the order itself. |
T11-C04-L01 |
| Written confirmation |
A dated message, letter or amended purchase order that records what both sides agreed, so neither side can later deny it. |
T11-C04-L01 |
| Verbal agreement |
Something said out loud, by phone or in person, that has not yet been written down or confirmed by either side. |
T11-C04-L01 |
| Commercial terms |
The parts of an order that affect what is delivered or paid: price, quantity, delivery date and specification. |
T11-C04-L01 |
| Negotiating position |
The target figure, walk-away figure and concession options a person prepares before a negotiation, rather than deciding them during the call. |
T11-C04-L02 |
| Walk-away position |
The least favourable figure a person will still accept before ending the negotiation without an agreement. |
T11-C04-L02 |
| Target figure |
The figure a person aims for going into a negotiation, more favourable than the walk-away position. |
T11-C04-L02 |
| Concession option |
Something a person can offer or accept, beyond the headline figure, to help close a gap between two positions. |
T11-C04-L02 |
| Feasible alternative |
A version of a request the factory can actually deliver, offered in place of a request it cannot meet as stated. |
T11-C04-L03 |
| Counter-proposal |
A written reply that offers a different figure or date from the one requested, together with the reason it is offered instead. |
T11-C04-L03 |
| Stalled decision |
A decision that was due by a stated date, has passed that date, and has not been made by either side. |
T11-C04-L04 |
| Decision-maker |
The named person who actually holds the authority to make the specific decision that is stalled. |
T11-C04-L04 |
| Shipment delay |
Any slip against the order's own timeline that puts the confirmed ship date at risk, whatever stage of production it starts at. |
T11-C06-L01 |
| Fabric delay |
A shipment delay that starts because fabric arrives at the factory later than the critical path's own fabric milestone, so sewing cannot start on time. |
T11-C06-L01 |
| Sample rejection cycle |
The repeated round of submitting a sample, the buyer rejecting it, and the factory resubmitting a corrected sample, each round using days the critical path had not planned for. |
T11-C06-L01 |
| Recovery option |
One of the standard ways a factory can close or shorten the gap a confirmed delay has opened against the ship date, chosen before the delay actually happens. |
T11-C06-L02 |
| Air freight upgrade |
Moving some or all of an order by aeroplane instead of by sea to make up lost production days, at a higher freight cost per piece. |
T11-C06-L02 |
| Partial shipment |
Shipping the portion of an order that is ready by the ship date and holding the rest for the next available shipment, all by the same freight method. |
T11-C06-L02 |
| Split shipment |
Shipping one portion of an order by air to protect the date and the remaining portion by sea at the normal cost, so only part of the order carries the higher freight cost. |
T11-C06-L02 |
| Date renegotiation |
Agreeing a new ship date or delivery date with the buyer once no on-floor recovery option can close the gap, recorded in writing before production continues. |
T11-C06-L02 |
| Claim |
A buyer's request that the factory cover a stated cost the delay caused the buyer, such as an air-freight charge or lost retail sales, negotiated between the two sides. |
T11-C06-L03 |
| Landed cost |
The FOB price plus shipping and duty once goods reach the buyer's own country, USD 3.70 per piece on Order A. |
T11-C06-L03 |
| Sourcing channel |
One of the ways a merchandiser or buying office finds candidate factories, such as a trade show, a referral, a sourcing agent or a buyer-nominated list. |
T13-C01-L01 |
| Trade show |
An exhibition where factories and mills present their capability to potential buyers, at a fixed hall on fixed dates. |
T13-C01-L01 |
| First filter |
A quick check on a candidate factory's basic fit, such as product type, order size and location, run before spending time on a full qualification. |
T13-C01-L01 |
| Supplier qualification |
The process of checking a candidate factory's capacity, systems and compliance before placing an order with it. |
T13-C01-L01 |
| Trial order |
A small first order placed with a new supplier to test its capability before committing larger volume. |
T13-C01-L02 |
| Capability profile |
A document a factory prepares about itself, covering its machinery, capacity, certifications and product experience. |
T13-C01-L02 |
| Compliance audit |
A formal check, run by the buyer or a third party, of a factory's social, safety and legal standards. |
T13-C01-L02 |
| Financial stability |
A candidate factory's ability to fund raw material and running costs through an order without failing partway. |
T13-C01-L02 |
| Capacity mismatch |
When a candidate factory's real production capacity does not match what an order needs, in machine type, monthly output or product experience. |
T13-C01-L03 |
| Machinery list |
A factory's own record of the machines it owns, by type and count, used to check whether it can physically make an order's construction. |
T13-C01-L03 |
| Red flag |
A specific fact found during qualification serious enough, on its own, to stop the process before it goes further. |
T13-C01-L04 |
| Undisclosed subcontracting |
A factory sending part of an order to another factory to make, without telling the buyer, hiding who actually makes the goods. |
T13-C01-L04 |
| Expired certification |
A compliance certificate whose validity date has passed, so it is no longer proof of anything current. |
T13-C01-L04 |
| Supplier qualification checklist |
The working document recording every check run on a candidate factory before a first trial order is placed. |
T13-C01-L05 |
| Request for quotation (RFQ) |
The document a buyer sends a supplier asking for a price and terms on a named style, quantity and delivery. |
T13-C02-L01 |
| Quotation |
A supplier's written answer to an RFQ, stating its price and the terms that price is based on. |
T13-C02-L01 |
| Target delivery date |
The date the buyer needs the goods to reach the agreed delivery point, stated in the RFQ before any supplier quotes. |
T13-C02-L01 |
| Quotation validity period |
The length of time a supplier's stated price remains valid before it must be re-confirmed. |
T13-C02-L02 |
| Inclusions |
The costs a quoted price already covers, such as trims, printing or packing, stated or implied by the quotation. |
T13-C02-L02 |
| Exclusions |
The costs a quoted price does not cover, which the buyer would need to add separately if it accepted that quote. |
T13-C02-L02 |
| Normalising |
Adjusting two or more quotations so they are stated on the same delivery terms, quantity, and payment terms before their prices are compared. |
T13-C02-L03 |
| Ex-works (EXW) |
The supplier makes the goods available at its own premises; the buyer arranges and pays for all transport from there. |
T13-C02-L03 |
| Delivered price |
A price that already includes moving the goods to the buyer's own premises, unlike an ex-works price. |
T13-C02-L03 |
| Cost of credit |
The value to the buyer of being allowed to pay later, or the cost to the supplier of waiting to be paid, often estimated from a standard interest rate. |
T13-C02-L03 |
| Common basis |
The single set of delivery terms, quantity and payment terms that every quotation is converted to before being compared. |
T13-C02-L03 |
| On-time delivery rate |
The share of a supplier's past orders that arrived by their agreed date, used as a record of lead-time reliability. |
T13-C02-L04 |
| Quality fault rate |
The share of a supplier's past shipments that failed inspection or were returned for a quality reason. |
T13-C02-L04 |
| Cost of a delay |
The estimated financial impact of goods arriving later than agreed, such as air-freighting part of an order or missing a retail date. |
T13-C02-L04 |
| Cost of a quality fault |
The estimated financial impact of reworking, discounting or rejecting goods that fail inspection. |
T13-C02-L04 |
| Weighted comparison |
A comparison that combines normalised price with the estimated cost of lead-time and quality risk, not price alone. |
T13-C02-L04 |
| Comparison sheet |
The single working document that records an RFQ's facts, each supplier's quotation, the normalised prices, and the estimated risk, ending in one recommendation. |
T13-C02-L05 |
| Recommendation line |
The one sentence at the end of a comparison sheet stating which supplier is chosen and the main reason. |
T13-C02-L05 |
| Sourcing decision |
The final choice of which supplier to place an order with, made after price, terms and risk have all been weighed. |
T13-C02-L05 |
| Repeat order |
A new order for a style the buyer has already produced before, often with the same or a similar supplier. |
T13-C02-L05 |
| Fixed FOB target |
A total price the buyer states it is aiming for, used as a benchmark even before a full cost breakdown is agreed, as with Order B (jeans)'s USD 9.80. |
T13-C02-L05 |
| Audit trail |
The record, kept on the comparison sheet itself, of what each supplier quoted and why one was chosen, so the decision can be reviewed later. |
T13-C02-L05 |
| Material requirement list |
The full list of every material an order needs, each in its own unit and quantity, built line by line from the order's bill of materials and its order quantity. |
T13-C03-L01 |
| Safety stock |
An extra quantity of material planned on top of the bare requirement, to cover ordinary variation in a supplier's own delivery or a mill's own production run without stopping the cutting room. |
T13-C03-L03 |
| Incoterm |
A short, standardised international trade term that fixes which costs and risks the seller carries and which ones the buyer carries, at a named point in the shipment. |
T14-C01-L01 |
| EXW (ex works) |
The seller's own factory gate is the handover point; the buyer arranges and pays for every stage of transport from there. |
T14-C01-L01 |
| CIF (cost, insurance and freight) |
The seller pays the sea freight and the marine insurance to the buyer's named port, but risk still passes to the buyer once the goods are loaded on board. |
T14-C01-L01 |
| DDP (delivered duty paid) |
The seller pays and arranges everything, including import duty, all the way to the buyer's own named address. |
T14-C01-L01 |
| Risk transfer point |
The exact moment in a shipment's life where responsibility for loss or damage moves from the seller to the buyer, fixed by the incoterm in use. |
T14-C01-L01 |
| Booking |
The confirmed space a freight forwarder secures for a shipment on a named vessel or flight, before goods reach the port or airport. |
T14-C01-L02 |
| Shipping instruction |
The shipper's written instruction to the freight forwarder or carrier stating exactly how a shipment's documents should be prepared. |
T14-C01-L02 |
| Sailing date |
The date a booked vessel actually leaves port with the shipment on board, confirmed by the shipping line once loading is complete. |
T14-C01-L02 |
| Port cut-off date |
The last date a container can be delivered to the port or terminal to still make a booked vessel's sailing. |
T14-C01-L02 |
| Shipper |
The party named on a bill of lading who hands the goods to the carrier for shipment, usually the factory or its forwarder. |
T14-C01-L02 |
| Consignee |
The party named on a bill of lading who is entitled to receive the goods at the destination port. |
T14-C01-L02 |
| Full container load (FCL) |
A shipment large enough to fill a whole container by itself, booked and sealed for one shipper alone. |
T14-C01-L03 |
| Less than container load (LCL) |
A shipment too small to fill a whole container, consolidated in one shared container with other shippers' cargo. |
T14-C01-L03 |
| Consolidation |
The process of combining several shippers' smaller cargo lots into one shared container. |
T14-C01-L03 |
| Chargeable weight |
The weight a carrier actually bills for, either the cargo's real weight or a volume-based weight, whichever is greater. |
T14-C01-L03 |
| Container utilisation |
The share of a container's own weight or volume capacity that a shipment actually fills. |
T14-C01-L03 |
| Bill of lading status |
The current stage of a bill of lading's own life cycle, such as draft, original released, or surrendered, which decides who can collect the cargo. |
T14-C01-L04 |
| Draft bill of lading |
An unissued, unsigned version of a bill of lading, sent for the shipper's own review before the final original is issued. |
T14-C01-L04 |
| Surrendered bill of lading |
A bill of lading the consignee has returned to the carrier at destination, allowing the cargo to be released without presenting the physical original. |
T14-C01-L04 |
| Tracking checkpoint |
A specific stage in a shipment's journey, such as gate-in at the port or vessel departure, that a shipment tracker records. |
T14-C01-L04 |
| Shipment tracker |
This course's own workbook, one row per shipment, recording its incoterm, booking, container type, and tracking status in one place. |
T14-C01-L05 |
| Tracker row |
One complete record of a single shipment, filled in as each stage of its own journey is confirmed. |
T14-C01-L05 |
| Status field |
The single column on a tracker that states, at a glance, whether a shipment is booked, in transit, arrived, or delayed. |
T14-C01-L05 |
| Hybrid business model |
A factory's own combination of export orders and domestic orders running side by side, each tracked according to its own market's requirements. |
T14-C01-L05 |
| Certificate of origin |
A document, issued or stamped by a recognised body such as a chamber of commerce, stating the country where the goods were manufactured, used by the buyer's customs office to apply the correct duty rate. |
T14-C02-L01 |
| Document mismatch |
A disagreement between two documents describing the same shipment, such as a quantity that differs between the invoice and the packing list. |
T14-C02-L02 |
| Carton count |
The total number of cartons a shipment is packed into, stated on the packing list and checked against what is actually loaded. |
T14-C02-L02 |
| Line item |
One row of a document describing one product, quantity or value, checked one at a time against the same row on another document. |
T14-C02-L02 |
| Notify party |
The party the shipping line contacts when the goods arrive, so the shipment can be collected without delay. |
T14-C02-L03 |
| FOB hand-over |
The moment ownership and risk pass from the factory to the buyer, marked by the bill of lading's own loading date under FOB terms. |
T14-C02-L03 |
| Country of manufacture |
The country where a garment was actually made, which a certificate of origin states and a customs office relies on. |
T14-C02-L04 |
| Duty rate |
The percentage a destination customs office charges on a shipment's value, which can depend on the goods' own country of manufacture. |
T14-C02-L04 |
| Domestic shipment |
Goods moved from a factory to a buyer within the same country, crossing no border and passing no foreign customs office. |
T14-C02-L04 |
| Trade agreement |
An agreement between two countries that can lower the duty rate on goods proven, by a certificate of origin, to originate in one of them. |
T14-C02-L04 |
| HS code (Harmonized System code) |
The standard international code that identifies exactly what a product is for customs purposes, set by the World Customs Organization. |
T14-C03-L01 |
| Harmonized System |
The worldwide product-naming and numbering system every member country's own tariff schedule is built on. |
T14-C03-L01 |
| HS heading |
The four-digit level of an HS code, shared by every member country, that groups similar products together before a country adds its own extra digits. |
T14-C03-L01 |
| Customs classification |
Deciding which HS code a specific product falls under, based on what it is made of and how it is made. |
T14-C03-L01 |
| Tariff schedule |
A country's own published list of duty rates, one row per national tariff line, built on top of the international Harmonized System. |
T14-C03-L01 |
| National tariff line |
A country's own extension of an HS heading to eight or ten digits, carrying that country's own duty rate. |
T14-C03-L01 |
| Customs authority |
The government body at the buyer's border that checks a shipment's declared HS code and collects any duty owed. |
T14-C03-L01 |
| Knit garment |
A garment made from fabric formed by interlocking loops of yarn, such as Order A's own single jersey T-shirt. |
T14-C03-L02 |
| Woven garment |
A garment made from fabric formed by yarns crossing at right angles, such as Order B's own denim jeans. |
T14-C03-L02 |
| HS chapter |
The two-digit level of an HS code, the broadest grouping, that a heading sits inside. |
T14-C03-L02 |
| Construction-based classification |
Deciding a garment's HS chapter mainly from how its fabric is made, knitted or woven, rather than from fibre content alone. |
T14-C03-L02 |
| Fibre content declaration |
A statement of what fibres a garment is made of and in what proportion, used alongside construction to confirm a heading. |
T14-C03-L02 |
| Customs value |
The value of a shipment that a country's customs authority applies its duty rate to, most often the transaction value shown on the commercial invoice. |
T14-C03-L03 |
| Transaction value |
The price actually paid or payable for goods sold for export, the most common basis a customs authority uses to set the customs value. |
T14-C03-L03 |
| FOB value |
The value of a shipment at the point it is delivered on board the ship at the factory's own port, before freight and insurance to the destination are added. |
T14-C03-L03 |
| CIF value |
The value of a shipment including cost, insurance and freight to the destination port, used as the customs value basis by some countries instead of FOB. |
T14-C03-L03 |
| Freight |
The cost of transporting goods from the port of shipment to the destination, added to FOB value to reach a CIF value. |
T14-C03-L03 |
| Duty |
A tax a customs authority charges on goods crossing its border, calculated from the customs value and the applicable duty rate. |
T14-C03-L04 |
| Ad valorem duty |
A duty calculated as a percentage of a shipment's customs value, the most common duty type for apparel. |
T14-C03-L04 |
| Duty owed |
The amount of duty a customs authority charges on a shipment, calculated as the customs value multiplied by the duty rate. |
T14-C03-L04 |
| Classification and valuation sheet |
A single record bringing a shipment's HS heading, customs value and duty owed together, built from the shipment's own commercial invoice. |
T14-C03-L05 |
| Customs clearance |
The full process a shipment passes through at a border or port before customs allows it to be released to the importer. |
T14-C04-L01 |
| Customs declaration |
The formal statement, built from the shipment's documents, that is filed with customs to start the clearance process. |
T14-C04-L01 |
| Destination port |
The port or airport in the buyer's own country where an export shipment first arrives and where clearance takes place. |
T14-C04-L01 |
| Documentary inspection |
A customs review that checks a shipment's paperwork only, without physically opening or examining the goods. |
T14-C04-L01 |
| Physical inspection |
A customs review in which an officer opens and examines the actual goods against what the shipment's documents state. |
T14-C04-L01 |
| Customs release |
The formal step at which customs confirms a shipment may leave the port and move to the importer. |
T14-C04-L01 |
| Customs hold |
A shipment stopped at a customs stage, not released, until a stated reason is resolved. |
T14-C04-L02 |
| Document discrepancy |
A mismatch between two of a shipment's own documents, such as the commercial invoice and the packing list stating different quantities. |
T14-C04-L02 |
| Valuation query |
A customs question about whether a shipment's declared value is correct, requiring supporting proof before it is accepted. |
T14-C04-L02 |
| Corrected document |
A replacement version of a shipment document, reissued to fix the specific error customs has identified. |
T14-C04-L02 |
| Demurrage |
A daily charge for a shipment's container or cargo remaining at the port beyond its free storage period. |
T14-C04-L02 |
| Customs broker |
A licensed professional who prepares and files a shipment's customs declaration and handles clearance on an importer's or exporter's behalf. |
T14-C04-L03 |
| Power of attorney (customs) |
The signed authorisation an importer or exporter gives a customs broker to file a declaration and act with customs on their behalf. |
T14-C04-L03 |
| Document pack |
The complete set of a shipment's own documents a broker needs to prepare an accurate customs declaration. |
T14-C04-L03 |
| Broker's fee |
The charge a customs broker makes for preparing and filing a shipment's clearance, separate from any duty owed to customs. |
T14-C04-L03 |
| First-time exporter |
A business shipping outside its own country for the first time, with no existing broker relationship or export document routine. |
T14-C04-L03 |
| Customs clearance tracker |
A single working document listing every clearance stage a shipment must pass, its status, any hold reason, who is responsible, and the action taken. |
T14-C04-L04 |
| Clearance status |
The current state of a shipment's stage: not started, in progress, on hold, or cleared. |
T14-C04-L04 |
| Responsible party |
The factory, customs broker, or buyer whose action is needed next to move a clearance stage forward. |
T14-C04-L04 |
| Target date |
The date a clearance stage is expected to complete, used to flag a stage that is running later than planned. |
T14-C04-L04 |
| No-clearance shipment |
A domestic delivery that never crosses a border and therefore has no clearance stages of any kind. |
T14-C04-L04 |
| Free trade agreement (FTA) |
An agreement between two or more countries that lowers or removes duty on goods traded between them, once those goods qualify under the agreement's own rules. |
T14-C05-L01 |
| Most-favoured-nation (MFN) rate |
The standard duty rate a country charges on a good from any country it has no preferential agreement with. |
T14-C05-L01 |
| Preferential duty rate |
A duty rate lower than the most-favoured-nation rate, available only to a shipment that qualifies under a free trade agreement's rules. |
T14-C05-L01 |
| Rules of origin |
The conditions a free trade agreement sets for how much of a good's manufacture must take place inside its member countries before that good qualifies for the preferential rate. |
T14-C05-L02 |
| Regional value content (RVC) |
The share of a good's value that was added inside a free trade agreement's member countries, one common way rules of origin measure whether a good qualifies. |
T14-C05-L02 |
| Non-originating input |
A material or component in a good that came from a country outside the free trade agreement's own membership. |
T14-C05-L02 |
| Quota |
A limit a destination country sets on the quantity of a good it will let into the country, sometimes even at a preferential duty rate. |
T14-C05-L04 |
| Safeguard measure |
A temporary extra duty or limit a country applies to a good when a sudden rise in imports threatens its own domestic industry. |
T14-C05-L04 |
| Sanctions list |
A list, published by a government or an international body, naming countries, organisations, or individuals that other parties are restricted or prohibited from trading or dealing with. |
T14-C06-L01 |
| Restricted-party screening |
The practice of checking the names of a shipment's trading parties, such as the buyer, seller, bank, or carrier, against a published sanctions or denied-party list before a shipment or payment proceeds. |
T14-C06-L01 |
| Screening match |
A result where a name checked during restricted-party screening appears to correspond to a name on a published list, requiring further review before the shipment or payment can proceed. |
T14-C06-L01 |
| False positive |
A screening match that further review shows does not actually refer to the restricted party on the list, for example two different people or companies that happen to share a similar name. |
T14-C06-L01 |
| Compliance hold |
A pause placed on a shipment or a payment while a screening match, or any other compliance question, is reviewed and resolved. |
T14-C06-L01 |
| Forced labour import ban |
A destination country's own import control that stops goods believed to have been made with forced labour from entering, applied at the border by that country's own customs authority. |
T14-C06-L02 |
| Import detention |
The act of a destination country's customs authority holding a shipment at the border instead of releasing it, pending review of a suspected compliance problem such as a forced labour concern. |
T14-C06-L02 |
| Rebuttal evidence |
The supply-chain records a factory or importer presents to show a detained shipment was not in fact made with forced labour, such as labour-standards audit records, payroll and working-hours records, and recruitment-fee documentation. |
T14-C06-L02 |
| Recruitment fee |
A fee charged to a worker in connection with being hired, which can create an unpayable debt that traps the worker in a job, a recognised forced labour indicator when the worker bears this cost. |
T14-C06-L02 |
| Trade compliance file |
One combined file holding a shipment's screening confirmation, forced labour rebuttal evidence and traceability records together, so a buyer, bank or customs authority can check every trade-compliance requirement in one place. |
T14-C06-L03 |
| Cargo insurance |
Cover bought against loss of, or damage to, goods while they move from the factory to the buyer, most often for the ocean or air leg of an export shipment. |
T14-C07-L01 |
| CIF |
An Incoterm under which the seller pays the cost of the goods, the freight, and the cargo insurance through to the buyer's named destination port, even though risk passes to the buyer earlier, once the goods are on board. |
T14-C07-L01 |
| Insured value |
The amount a cargo insurance policy agrees to pay out on, commonly the shipment's invoice value plus a margin such as 10% to cover freight, duty and lost profit, though the exact basis is set by the policy itself. |
T14-C07-L01 |
| Insurance premium |
The amount paid to the insurer for cargo cover on a shipment, usually a small percentage of the insured value. |
T14-C07-L01 |
| All-risks cover |
A cargo insurance policy that covers loss or damage from any accidental cause not specifically excluded, the widest standard level of cover. |
T14-C07-L01 |
| Named-perils cover |
A cargo insurance policy that pays out only for the specific causes of loss it lists by name, such as fire or sinking, narrower and usually cheaper than all-risks cover. |
T14-C07-L01 |
| Invoice value |
The price stated on the commercial invoice for a shipment, the starting point for calculating how much cargo insurance cover to buy. |
T14-C07-L02 |
| Under-insurance |
Buying cargo insurance cover below the shipment's real exposure, so a payout after a loss leaves some of the true cost uncovered. |
T14-C07-L02 |
| Goods-in-transit insurance |
Cover against loss of, or damage to, goods while they move by road within one country, the domestic parallel to cargo insurance on an ocean or air export shipment. |
T14-C07-L02 |
| Insurance claim |
A shipper's or buyer's formal request to an insurer for payment after cargo is lost or damaged, supported by a survey report and shipping documents, distinct from a buyer's claim against a factory for a delay's own cost. |
T14-C07-L03 |
| Cargo surveyor |
An independent inspector who examines lost or damaged cargo and writes the survey report an insurance claim is built on. |
T14-C07-L03 |
| Survey report |
A cargo surveyor's written record of what was lost or damaged, its cause, and its extent, the main document an insurer checks an insurance claim against. |
T14-C07-L03 |
| Notice of loss |
The shipper's or buyer's first written report to the insurer that a loss or damage has happened, sent as soon as it is discovered. |
T14-C07-L03 |
| Total loss |
A loss in which the whole insured shipment is destroyed or never arrives, so the claim covers the full insured value. |
T14-C07-L03 |
| Partial loss |
A loss in which only part of the insured shipment is destroyed, missing or damaged, so the claim covers that part's own value, not the whole shipment. |
T14-C07-L03 |
| Underwriter |
The insurance company that accepts the cargo risk in exchange for the premium and decides whether to pay a claim. |
T14-C07-L04 |
| Claim dispute |
A stage at which the insurer questions or refuses part or all of an insurance claim, stating a reason the claimant can check against the survey report and policy wording. |
T14-C07-L04 |
| Time bar |
The final date stated in a cargo insurance policy after which a claim can no longer be made or pursued, whatever its merits. |
T14-C07-L04 |
| Advance payment |
A payment method where the buyer pays the factory some or all of the price before production starts or before the goods ship, most protective for the factory.,T15-C01 |
|
| Documentary collection |
A payment method where the factory's bank forwards shipping documents to the buyer's bank, releasing them to the buyer only against payment or a signed promise to pay, without a bank guarantee like a letter of credit.,T15-C01 |
|
| Payment risk |
The risk that a buyer does not pay, pays late, or pays less than agreed, separate from a bank's own risk of not honouring its promise.,T15-C01 |
|
| Issuing bank |
The bank that opens a letter of credit on the buyer's own instruction, promising to pay once compliant documents are presented.,T15-C02 |
|
| Advising bank |
The bank in the seller's own country that receives the letter of credit from the issuing bank and passes it to the seller, confirming it is genuine.,T15-C02 |
|
| Confirming bank |
A bank that adds its own promise to pay to a letter of credit already opened by the issuing bank, so the seller has two banks' promises instead of one.,T15-C02 |
|
| Beneficiary |
The party named in a letter of credit who is entitled to be paid once its documents comply, usually the seller or factory.,T15-C02 |
|
| Applicant |
The party who instructs its own bank to open a letter of credit, usually the buyer, and who must pay the bank back once it honours the credit.,T15-C02 |
|
| Latest shipment date |
The letter of credit's own fixed date after which the goods can no longer be loaded and still be paid under that credit.,T15-C02 |
|
| Expiry date (letter of credit) |
The letter of credit's own fixed date after which documents can no longer be presented for payment under that credit.,T15-C02 |
|
| Presentation period |
The number of days after shipment within which the beneficiary must present its documents to the bank, fixed by the letter of credit itself.,T15-C02 |
|
| Complying presentation |
A set of shipping documents that matches a letter of credit's own terms exactly, entitling the beneficiary to payment.,T15-C02 |
|
| Discrepancy |
A difference between a presented document and a letter of credit's own terms, or between two of the presented documents themselves, that a bank can refuse payment over.,T15-C02 |
|
| Letter of credit amendment |
A written change to a letter of credit's own terms, agreed by the applicant and accepted by the issuing bank, that takes effect only once the beneficiary also accepts it.,T15-C02 |
|
| Financing gap |
The period, and the amount of money, a factory must cover on its own between paying for material and labour and receiving the buyer's payment.,T15-C03 |
|
| Order finance |
Money a factory borrows or arranges specifically against one confirmed order, to be repaid once the buyer pays for that order.,T15-C03 |
|
| Purchase-order financing |
A loan a bank or lender extends against a confirmed purchase order, usually repaid once the buyer pays.,T15-C03 |
|
| Supplier credit terms |
An agreement letting a factory pay a mill or trims supplier a set number of days after delivery, instead of on or before it.,T15-C03 |
|
| Factoring |
Selling a confirmed, unpaid invoice to a finance company at a discount, in exchange for cash before the buyer's own payment date.,T15-C03 |
|
| Confirmed receivable |
Money a buyer is contractually committed to pay, even though it has not been paid yet.,T15-C03 |
|
| Net financing need |
The dollar amount a factory must still fund after subtracting any deposit received and any supplier credit already extended.,T15-C03 |
|
| Receivables finance |
Turning an unpaid, confirmed invoice into cash before the buyer's own payment date, by selling it or borrowing against it.,T15-C05 |
|
| Invoice discounting |
Borrowing cash against an unpaid invoice while the factory keeps collecting from the buyer itself; the invoice is the loan's own security, not something sold.,T15-C05 |
|
| Discount fee |
The charge a factor or bank takes for paying a factory early, usually a percentage of the invoice value tied to how many days early the cash arrives.,T15-C05 |
|
| Recourse |
A factoring term stating that the factory must repay the factor if the buyer never pays the invoice at all.,T15-C05 |
|
| Trade credit insurance |
An insurance policy that pays a factory a share of an invoice's value if an insured buyer fails to pay it, for reasons the policy covers.,T15-C05 |
|
| Non-payment |
A buyer failing to pay a confirmed, undisputed invoice at all, as distinct from paying it late.,T15-C05 |
|
| Coverage percentage |
The share of an insured invoice's value the insurer pays if the buyer does not pay; commonly around 90%, always confirm your own policy's stated figure.,T15-C05 |
|
| Self-insured retention |
The share of an insured invoice a factory carries itself, uninsured, equal to 100% minus the coverage percentage.,T15-C05 |
|
| Credit limit |
The maximum amount an insurer agrees to cover on sales to one named buyer; a sale above this limit is not insured for the excess.,T15-C05 |
|
| Opportunity cost |
The value of the best thing a factory could do with cash if it had it now, used to judge whether paying a discount fee for early cash is worth it.,T15-C05 |
|
| Hybrid production |
A factory building part of a run to its own forecast before a buyer confirms it, and finishing the rest once the buyer's own order is confirmed.,T15-C05 |
|
| Bulk discount |
A lower unit price a supplier offers for a larger purchase, often available only if payment is made promptly or in full.,T15-C05 |
|
| Export agent |
A person or company who places and manages export orders on behalf of a factory or buyer, usually paid a commission on the order's value.,T15-C05 |
|
| Tool combination |
The specific choice of receivables finance, credit insurance, both, or neither, that fits a given order's own market, payment term, and buyer risk.,T15-C05 |
|
| Buyer risk |
How likely a specific buyer is to fail to pay, based on its own payment history, size, and market, distinct from the general risk of the payment method used.,T15-C05 |
|
| Cash-timing problem |
The gap between when a factory ships an order and when it actually needs the resulting cash, the problem receivables finance solves.,T15-C05 |
|
| Non-payment problem |
The risk that a buyer never pays an invoice at all, the problem credit insurance solves.,T15-C05 |
|
| Foreign exchange (FX) risk |
The risk that a currency move between two dates changes what a fixed foreign-currency price is worth in the factory's own local currency.,T15-C06 |
|
| Local currency |
The currency a factory pays its own costs in and reports its own real profit in.,T15-C06 |
|
| Exchange rate |
The number of local-currency-units one unit of a foreign currency (here, one USD) converts into.,T15-C06 |
|
| Real margin |
A factory's margin measured in its own local currency, after any currency move is applied to a foreign-currency price.,T15-C06 |
|
| Order confirmation |
The date the buyer and factory agree the order's price, quantity and terms; the USD price is fixed from this date.,T15-C06 |
|
| Payment date |
The date the factory actually receives and converts the buyer's payment into local currency.,T15-C06 |
|
| Adverse currency move |
A change in the exchange rate, between confirmation and payment, that converts the same foreign-currency price into fewer local-currency-units.,T15-C06 |
|
| Forward contract |
An agreement with a bank to exchange a fixed amount of foreign currency for local currency at a rate agreed today, on a future date.,T15-C06 |
|
| Natural hedge |
Matching a factory's own foreign-currency income to a real foreign-currency cost it already has, so a currency move affects both sides in the same direction.,T15-C06 |
|
| Open position |
An amount of foreign-currency income or cost with no forward contract or natural hedge covering it, still exposed to a currency move.,T15-C06 |
|
| Hedge |
Any action a factory takes, before payment, to reduce its own exposure to a currency move.,T15-C06 |
|
| Spot rate |
The exchange rate available for converting currency immediately, on the day of the conversion itself.,T15-C06 |
|
| Illustrative exchange rate |
A clearly labelled example rate used to teach a calculation, never a real current market rate for any real currency pair.,T15-C06 |
|
| Bank guarantee |
A bank's promise to pay the buyer up to a fixed amount if the factory fails to meet its own contract obligation.,T15-C06 |
|
| Guarantee fee |
The amount a factory's own bank charges, usually a percentage of the guaranteed amount per year, for holding a guarantee open.,T15-C06 |
|
| Performance guarantee |
A bank guarantee that pays the buyer if the factory fails to deliver the order as agreed.,T15-C06 |
|
| Advance payment guarantee |
A bank guarantee that pays the buyer back an advance payment already made, if the factory fails to deliver against it.,T15-C06 |
|
| Guaranteed amount |
The fixed upper limit a bank guarantee promises to pay if the factory fails to meet its obligation.,T15-C06 |
|
| Guarantee period |
The length of time a bank guarantee stays open, and over which its own fee accrues.,T15-C06 |
|
| Financial risk sheet |
A single document listing every financial risk a new order carries, currency exposure and guarantee cost among them, with each row filled in only where it applies.,T15-C06 |
|
| Applicable row |
A row on a risk sheet that genuinely applies to the order being assessed, filled in with a real or illustrative figure.,T15-C06 |
|
| Not applicable row |
A row on a risk sheet correctly left empty because the risk it covers does not exist on this particular order.,T15-C06 |
|
| Specification |
The full, exact description of a product: fabric, construction, sizes, colours and quantity, needed before a firm price can be given.,T16-C01 |
|
| Firm enquiry |
An enquiry with a real order behind it, where the buyer intends to place the order once a suitable quotation is received.,T16-C01 |
|
| General price check |
An enquiry sent only to learn roughly what a product costs, with no order intended in the near term.,T16-C01 |
|
| Clarifying question |
A specific question sent back to the buyer to fill a gap in the enquiry, aimed at one missing fact rather than the whole specification.,T16-C01 |
|
| Costed quotation |
A quotation that shows the price broken into its cost elements, not just one total figure, so the buyer can check how it was built.,T16-C01 |
|
| Cost element |
One part of a price, such as fabric, trims, making, overhead, or profit, added together to form the full FOB price.,T16-C01 |
|
| Making cost |
The cost of cutting, sewing and finishing a garment, separate from fabric and trims, one of the five lines in a costed quotation.,T16-C01 |
|
| Quotation validity |
The length of time a quoted price stays fixed before the factory can require it to be requoted.,T16-C01 |
|
| Repeat style |
A style a factory has produced before for the same buyer, letting some production stages move faster than a first-time style.,T16-C01 |
|
| Stock programme |
A Make to Stock arrangement where a buyer restocks its own shops from its own sales forecast, rather than from one large export order.,T16-C01 |
|
| Price validity date |
The specific calendar date after which a quoted price is no longer guaranteed, stated on the quotation itself.,T16-C01 |
|
| Quotation presentation |
The document or message that hands a finished quotation to the buyer, showing price, cost build-up, and terms together in one clear place.,T16-C01 |
|
| First-round question |
A question a buyer typically asks immediately after receiving a quotation, usually answerable from the quotation's own figures without recosting.,T16-C01 |
|
| Fabric substitution |
A buyer's request to replace the quoted fabric with a different one, which changes the fabric cost line and must be recosted, not just restated.,T16-C01 |
|
| Combined timeline |
A single schedule showing how a hybrid order's MTO and MTS parts overlap or follow each other, rather than two separate, unrelated timelines.,T16-C01 |
|
| Tracking sheet |
A single sheet recording every open enquiry's own stage, from first message to accepted quotation, in one place.,T16-C01 |
|
| Enquiry stage |
The point an enquiry has reached: received, specification confirmed, quotation sent, terms agreed, or accepted.,T16-C01 |
|
| Stalled enquiry |
An enquiry that has remained at the same stage for longer than expected, usually because a question or a reply is still outstanding.,T16-C01 |
|
| Order book |
The full set of a buyer's or a factory's open and confirmed orders, tracked together rather than one at a time.,T16-C01 |
|
| Conversion |
The share of enquiries that reach an accepted quotation, out of all enquiries received in a given period.,T16-C01 |
|
| Mixed order book |
An order book containing more than one business model, such as both Make to Order and Make to Stock orders, tracked in the same sheet.,T16-C01 |
|
| Sales contract |
The document, however it is titled, that records the binding terms both parties agree an order will follow.,T16-C02 |
|
| Title |
Legal ownership of the goods; a contract states exactly when title passes from factory to buyer.,T16-C02 |
|
| Standard terms and conditions |
A buyer's own fixed document of contract clauses, applied to every supplier and every order unless a specific clause is separately negotiated.,T16-C02 |
|
| Acknowledgement |
A factory's own written or emailed confirmation that it has received and accepted a purchase order and its attached terms.,T16-C02 |
|
| Indemnity clause |
A clause requiring one party to cover the other party's own losses arising from a stated cause, such as a defective product.,T16-C02 |
|
| Governing law |
The clause stating which country's own law is used to interpret and enforce the contract if a dispute arises.,T16-C02 |
|
| Negotiated clause |
A clause in a contract that has been specifically discussed and agreed between the two parties, rather than accepted as printed.,T16-C02 |
|
| Silent acceptance |
Accepting a document's own terms by taking no action to object, rather than by actively agreeing to each clause.,T16-C02 |
|
| Open-ended liability |
A liability clause with no fixed cap, leaving the amount owed dependent on the actual loss claimed.,T16-C02 |
|
| Trade practice |
A customary rule followed within an industry even when not written into a specific agreement.,T16-C02 |
|
| Quality failure |
A garment or shipment that does not meet the agreed specification, triggering a liability or rejection clause.,T16-C02 |
|
| Authority to bind |
Whether the person making a statement, such as an agent, actually has the power to change the contract on the buyer's own behalf.,T16-C02 |
|
| Mutual assent |
Both parties clearly agreeing to the same specific change, not just one side proposing it.,T16-C02 |
|
| Informal comment |
A remark made in conversation or email that expresses an opinion or a hope, without either side treating it as a binding change.,T16-C02 |
|
| Course of dealing |
A pattern of past behaviour between two parties that can itself become evidence of what they intended, even without a single clear statement.,T16-C02 |
|
| Account management |
The ongoing work of keeping a buyer's confidence between orders, not only fulfilling the order in hand.,T16-C03 |
|
| Order-taking |
Answering only what a buyer asks for, order by order, with no planned contact or follow-up between orders.,T16-C03 |
|
| Account |
A buyer's whole relationship with a factory across every order it has placed and might place again.,T16-C03 |
|
| Repeat business |
Orders a buyer places again with the same factory because of past performance and the relationship, not only price.,T16-C03 |
|
| Account manager |
The person, often a senior merchandiser, who owns a buyer's whole relationship across every order, not just one.,T16-C03 |
|
| Touchpoint |
One planned instance of contact between the factory and the buyer's team outside an active order's own communication.,T16-C03 |
|
| Contact cadence |
A fixed, repeating rhythm of planned contact with a buyer's own team, continuing whether or not an order is currently open.,T16-C03 |
|
| Order-driven contact |
Contact that happens only because an order is open, stopping once the order ships.,T16-C03 |
|
| Quiet period |
The time between a buyer's active orders, when no shipment or approval forces contact to happen.,T16-C03 |
|
| Standing relationship |
A contact rhythm kept up over time, independent of any one order, that a buyer can rely on.,T16-C03 |
|
| Complaint |
A buyer's formal report that goods received did not meet an agreed standard.,T16-C03 |
|
| Root cause |
The real, underlying reason a fault happened, found by asking why until the actual cause, not just its symptom, is reached.,T16-C03 |
|
| Corrective action |
The specific change made to a process so the same fault does not happen again on a future batch.,T16-C03 |
|
| Fault rate |
The share of pieces in a batch found with a defect, usually stated as a percentage.,T16-C03 |
|
| Complaint log |
A record of every complaint received, its root cause, and the corrective action taken, kept over time.,T16-C03 |
|
| Goodwill gesture |
An extra step offered beyond the contractual fix, such as a discount or replacement, to show the buyer the relationship matters.,T16-C03 |
|
| Account growth |
Increasing an existing buyer's order volume, product mix, or both, beyond its current level.,T16-C03 |
|
| Product mix |
The range of different styles or product categories a buyer sources from one factory.,T16-C03 |
|
| Growth proposal |
A specific, figures-backed suggestion to a buyer for more volume or a wider product mix, based on the account's own performance.,T16-C03 |
|
| Performance record |
The factory's own history of on-time delivery, fault rate, and responsiveness on a given account, used as evidence in a growth proposal.,T16-C03 |
|
| Sourcing agent |
A third party representing one or more buyers, earning a commission, who often controls how much of an account's volume reaches a given factory.,T16-C03 |
|
| Capacity headroom |
The unused production capacity a factory has available to take on more volume from an existing account.,T16-C03 |
|
| Account record |
The complete history of one buyer's relationship with a factory, combining its account view, cadence, complaint log, and growth proposals.,T16-C03 |
|
| Hybrid account |
A buyer relationship that combines Make to Order and Make to Stock business with the same factory.,T16-C03 |
|
| Account owner |
The person, often a senior merchandiser, who owns a buyer's whole relationship across every order, not just one.,T16-C03 |
|
| Planned cost |
The cost of each component as built into the price at the time the order was confirmed.,T16-C04 |
|
| Actual cost |
The cost of each component as it really turns out once the order is made.,T16-C04 |
|
| Cost variance |
The difference between a planned cost and the actual cost for the same component.,T16-C04 |
|
| Overtime cost |
The extra cost of paying operators to work beyond normal hours to finish an order on time.,T16-C04 |
|
| Profit margin |
The profit component of a price, stated per piece or as a share of the price.,T16-C04 |
|
| Revenue |
The total money an order earns, the confirmed price multiplied by the quantity.,T16-C04 |
|
| Cost of goods sold |
The total direct and overhead cost of making an order: fabric, trims, making and overhead added together.,T16-C04 |
|
| Gross profit |
Revenue minus the cost of goods sold, before any further business-level costs are subtracted.,T16-C04 |
|
| Direct cost |
A cost that belongs to one specific order alone: its own fabric, trims and making.,T16-C04 |
|
| Open costing |
Sharing a cost breakdown with the buyer, line by line, instead of quoting only a single total price.,T16-C04 |
|
| Order P&L |
A statement that sets out one order's revenue, cost and profit as one continuous calculation.,T16-C04 |
|
| Indirect cost |
A cost that cannot be traced to one specific order alone, such as overhead, and must instead be shared across every order it supports.,T16-C04 |
|
| Overhead allocation |
Splitting a shared overhead pool across several orders in proportion to a chosen allocation base.,T16-C04 |
|
| Allocation base |
The measure used to split shared overhead fairly, such as pieces produced, machine hours, or order value.,T16-C04 |
|
| Overhead pool |
The total shared overhead cost for a period, before it is split across the orders that ran during it.,T16-C04 |
|
| Business P&L |
A statement that adds every order's own revenue and cost together for a period, then subtracts the factory's period overhead to show its overall result.,T16-C04 |
|
| Period overhead |
Running costs counted for a whole month rather than allocated to one order, such as a cost that arose after every order's own allocation was already fixed.,T16-C04 |
|
| Net profit |
A business's profit after every cost is subtracted, including costs not allocated to any single order.,T16-C04 |
|
| Combined revenue |
The total revenue of every order a factory runs within one period, added together.,T16-C04 |
|
| Reference order |
A named, completed past order a factory points to as proof of a specific capability, shared only with the naming buyer's own permission.,T16-C05 |
|
| Buyer concentration |
How much of a factory's total revenue comes from one buyer, rather than being spread across many.,T16-C06 |
|
| Market concentration |
How much of a factory's total revenue comes from one market, for example one country or one sales channel, rather than several.,T16-C06 |
|
| Revenue share |
The percentage of a factory's total revenue that one buyer or one market accounts for.,T16-C06 |
|
| Portfolio risk |
The risk that comes from how a factory's business is spread, or not spread, across its buyers and markets, separate from any one buyer's own reliability.,T16-C06 |
|
| Illustrative revenue share |
A clearly labelled example percentage used to teach a calculation, never a real disclosed figure for any real company.,T16-C06 |
|
| Order-volume cut |
A buyer's own decision to reduce how many pieces it orders, for reasons that may have nothing to do with the factory's performance.,T16-C06 |
|
| Concentration map |
A single document listing every buyer's and every market's own share of a factory's total revenue, so exposure is visible at a glance.,T16-C06 |
|
| Concentration threshold |
A share level, for example half of total revenue, above which a buyer or market is flagged as worth watching closely.,T16-C06 |
|
| By-buyer view |
A concentration map's rows organised by individual buyer, regardless of which market each buyer belongs to.,T16-C06 |
|
| By-market view |
A concentration map's rows organised by market, for example export or domestic, regardless of which buyer sits inside each market.,T16-C06 |
|
| Standing forecast |
The demand estimate an MTS buyer, like Cedar & Co., builds its own regular orders against, rather than placing one order at a time.,T16-C06 |
|
| Competitive positioning |
Comparing a factory against another supplier on the same measures, price, lead time and reliability, to see where each is ahead.,T16-C06 |
|
| Price gap |
The difference between two factories' own FOB prices for a comparable order, stated in currency per piece.,T16-C06 |
|
| Lead-time gap |
The difference between two factories' own timelines, from order confirmation to shipment, for a comparable order.,T16-C06 |
|
| Generic competitor |
An unnamed, illustrative competing factory used to teach a comparison method, never a real company.,T16-C06 |
|
| Hybrid capacity |
Factory capacity split between standing, forecast-based commitments and order-by-order commitments, rather than one or the other alone.,T16-C06 |
|
| Reliability record |
A factory's own history of meeting agreed ship dates and quality standards, tracked separately from price and lead time.,T16-C06 |
|
| Portfolio decision tool |
A single document combining a factory's own concentration risk and competitive positioning into one view, used before a new order is accepted.,T16-C06 |
|
| Post-order concentration |
What a buyer's own revenue share would become if a new order under discussion were accepted, recalculated from the current concentration map.,T16-C06 |
|
| Capsule order |
A smaller, one-off order outside a buyer's regular standing volume, often for a limited range or a special occasion.,T16-C06 |
|
| Individually attractive order |
A new order that looks good on its own figures, price, quantity, timing, without yet being checked against the factory's own wider concentration or positioning.,T16-C06 |
|
| Accept, negotiate or decline |
The three outcomes a completed portfolio decision tool should point toward, each with its own stated reason.,T16-C06 |
|
| Combined recommendation |
A single conclusion drawn from both the concentration check and the positioning check together, not from either alone.,T16-C06 |
|
| Data owner |
The role accountable for confirming that a specific business data item is current and correct. |
T17-C01-L01 |
| Approved source |
The document, approval or controlled record that proves the value currently in force. |
T17-C01-L01 |
| Source of truth |
The agreed authoritative current record used for a data item. |
T17-C01-L01 |
| Derived data |
A value calculated from other approved inputs. |
T17-C01-L01 |
| Data hand-off |
The point where information passes to another person or department that needs it. |
T17-C01-L01 |
| Downstream user |
A person or team that depends on an earlier data item to do its own work correctly. |
T17-C01-L01 |
| Current approved record |
The one record accepted for new operational decisions now.,T17-C01 |
|
| Superseded copy |
An older copy kept for history but not for current instruction.,T17-C01 |
|
| Change log |
A history of what changed, who approved it and when.,T17-C01 |
|
| Effective point |
The date, time or event from which the new value must be used.,T17-C01 |
|
| Version conflict |
Two records showing different values while both are treated as current.,T17-C01 |
|
| Completeness |
All required fields and supporting approvals are present.,T17-C01 |
|
| Validity |
A value follows the allowed rule, format or range.,T17-C01 |
|
| Consistency |
A value agrees with the approved source and related fields.,T17-C01 |
|
| Timeliness |
The information arrives early enough for the receiver to act without avoidable delay.,T17-C01 |
|
| Exception |
A missing, invalid, conflicting or late item that needs correction or a decision.,T17-C01 |
|
| Escalation |
Passing an unresolved exception to the person with authority to decide.,T17-C01 |
|
| Master data |
Reusable reference data that stays stable across many orders until it is deliberately changed.,T17-C01 |
|
| Transaction data |
Data specific to one order or event, created once and not reused as a general rule.,T17-C01 |
|
| ERP system |
A business system that usually controls commercial transactions such as purchase orders, inventory, invoices and financial postings.,T17-C02 |
|
| PLM system |
A system that usually controls product specifications, bills of materials and their approved revisions.,T17-C02 |
|
| Workflow tool |
A system that usually controls tasks, approvals and hand-offs between people, without being the approved source for the underlying fact.,T17-C02 |
|
| Spreadsheet gap-filler |
A spreadsheet used only for information that no controlled system currently holds.,T17-C02 |
|
| Duplicate entry |
Typing the same fact into a second tool that already has, or should have, its own controlled copy.,T17-C02 |
|
| Revision history |
The record of every approved revision to a specification, in order, so people can see what changed and when.,T17-C02 |
|
| Controlled distribution |
Sending a revision only through the approved channel, so recipients cannot mistake it for an uncontrolled copy.,T17-C02 |
|
| Inventory movement |
A recorded change in stock quantity or location, such as a receipt, a transfer or a sale.,T17-C02 |
|
| Invoice |
A commercial document recording the amount owed for goods or services delivered.,T17-C02 |
|
| Financial posting |
An entry in the accounting records reflecting a commercial event, such as a payment or an accrued liability.,T17-C02 |
|
| Reconciliation |
Comparing two records of the same fact, such as a stock count and a system balance, to confirm they agree.,T17-C02 |
|
| Single point of entry |
Entering a fact into a system only once, at its source, rather than re-keying it at every hand-off.,T17-C02 |
|
| Shadow copy |
An unofficial copy of a fact kept outside the systems that actually own it, usually for convenience.,T17-C02 |
|
| Company boundary |
The point where information stops being controlled by one company's own systems and passes to another company's.,T17-C02 |
|
| Pass-through |
Forwarding a fact unchanged from its source to its destination, without retyping or reinterpreting it.,T17-C02 |
|
| Two-way traceability |
The ability to trace a fact back to its original source, and forward to everywhere it was sent, in either direction.,T17-C02 |
|
| Digital workflow |
An order's stages and milestones recorded in a shared digital tool instead of a private document, so anyone with access sees the same current record.,T17-C03 |
|
| Milestone owner |
The named person or department accountable for getting one specific milestone done on time.,T17-C03 |
|
| Due date |
The date a milestone must be completed for the rest of the critical path to hold.,T17-C03 |
|
| Task record |
One row in the digital workflow, holding a single milestone's own name, owner, due date and status together.,T17-C03 |
|
| Dependent milestone |
A milestone whose own due date cannot be met until an earlier, linked milestone is complete.,T17-C03 |
|
| Downstream milestone |
Any milestone that comes later on the critical path and is affected if an earlier one slips.,T17-C03 |
|
| Cascading delay |
The effect where a delay at one milestone pushes back every dependent milestone after it by the same amount.,T17-C03 |
|
| Linked task |
A task record connected in the digital workflow to the task record it depends on, so a date change carries forward.,T17-C03 |
|
| Alert |
An automatic flag raised by the digital workflow when a task record meets a defined risk condition.,T17-C03 |
|
| Escalation rule |
A rule that sends a specific kind of alert straight to a named manager instead of leaving it in a merchandiser's own queue.,T17-C03 |
|
| Replenishment cycle |
One repeating round of Make to Stock production, run against a forecast rather than a single confirmed order.,T17-C03 |
|
| Stock cover |
The number of weeks a brand's current stock is expected to last before it runs out, given its normal sales rate.,T17-C03 |
|
| Connected workflow |
A single digital workflow holding approvals, materials, production and shipment task records together, instead of four separate trackers.,T17-C03 |
|
| Mill-side milestone |
A task record whose completion depends on a supplying mill's own work, such as fabric delivery, rather than the factory's own floor.,T17-C03 |
|
| Single source of order truth |
The one connected workflow record everyone, across stages and companies, checks instead of their own separate tracker.,T17-C03 |
|
| Digital critical-path tracker |
The complete tool combining owner, due-date, status, linked-milestone, alert and connected-workflow fields for a live order.,T17-C03 |
|
| Live order |
An order currently in progress, being actively tracked, as opposed to a finished or a purely hypothetical one.,T17-C03 |
|
| True current status |
The order's real position right now, based on the tracker's actual data, not on the last verbal update someone remembers.,T17-C03 |
|
| KPI (key performance indicator) |
A measured number that a business tracks regularly because it is supposed to support a specific decision.,T17-C04 |
|
| Decision owner |
The person who has the authority to act on a KPI when it crosses its trigger value.,T17-C04 |
|
| Trigger value |
The specific level a KPI must reach before it changes what the decision owner does.,T17-C04 |
|
| Vanity metric |
A number that is tracked and reported but is not linked to any decision anyone actually makes.,T17-C04 |
|
| Cumulative progress |
The running total of work completed against a plan, measured at a point in time rather than only at the end.,T17-C04 |
|
| Leading KPI |
A measure taken early enough in a process that acting on it can still change the final result.,T17-C04 |
|
| Lagging KPI |
A measure that only confirms a result after the process it describes has already finished.,T17-C04 |
|
| Early warning |
A signal that a plan is at risk, given while there is still time to respond.,T17-C04 |
|
| Milestone check |
A planned point partway through a timeline where progress is compared against the plan.,T17-C04 |
|
| Contingency plan |
A prepared alternative action, ready to use if a leading KPI shows the main plan is at risk.,T17-C04 |
|
| Confirmed result |
A fact that is now certain and can no longer be changed by any action.,T17-C04 |
|
| Data input |
One of the individual figures that a dashboard calculation combines to produce its displayed number.,T17-C04 |
|
| Stale data |
Information that was once correct but has not been updated to reflect a more recent change.,T17-C04 |
|
| Double count |
An error where the same physical stock is included twice in a total, overstating it.,T17-C04 |
|
| Source check |
Comparing a dashboard number against the original record it was supposed to be built from.,T17-C04 |
|
| Action |
A specific step, stated with a verb, that changes a situation described in a report finding.,T17-C04 |
|
| Owner |
The single named person accountable for completing an action, never a department or a team.,T17-C04 |
|
| Follow-up date |
The date by which the owner must report progress or completion on an assigned action.,T17-C04 |
|
| Finding |
An observation from a report that describes a fact or a risk, before it is turned into an action.,T17-C04 |
|
| Portfolio review |
A single review that covers more than one order, often of different business models, together.,T17-C04 |
|
| Open item |
An action from a previous review that has not yet been completed or closed.,T17-C04 |
|
| KPI catalogue |
A single list of every KPI a business tracks, with its decision, owner and trigger value recorded together.,T17-C04 |
|
| Review cycle |
The regular interval, such as monthly, at which a business checks its KPIs and closes or updates its actions.,T17-C04 |
|
| Data-check history |
A record of when a KPI's inputs were last checked and what correction, if any, was found.,T17-C04 |
|
| Action tracker |
A single record of every action, its owner, its follow-up date, and whether it was closed on time.,T17-C04 |
|
| Closed action |
An action confirmed as completed at or before its follow-up date.,T17-C04 |
|
| Recap |
Bringing together tools built separately across earlier lessons into one combined resource.,T17-C04 |
|
| Access right |
Permission that allows a specific role to view, enter or change a specific piece of business information.,T17-C05 |
|
| Permission level |
The specific set of actions, such as view, enter or approve, a role is allowed to perform on a record.,T17-C05 |
|
| Change control |
The agreed process for approving, recording and communicating a change to controlled business information before it takes effect.,T17-C05 |
|
| Version history |
The ordered record of every saved version of a file or record, showing what changed and when.,T17-C05 |
|
| Control risk |
The chance that a working method can no longer reliably prevent, detect or correct an error before it causes loss.,T17-C05 |
|
| Single point of failure |
A single file, formula or person that, if it fails or is unavailable, stops the whole working method from working correctly.,T17-C05 |
|
| Data migration |
Moving existing records from an old working method into a new one, cleaned and checked before they are trusted there.,T17-C05 |
|
| Shared business system |
A controlled, generic business application used by more than one department or company at the same time, instead of separate personal files.,T17-C05 |
|
| Data cleansing |
Checking and correcting existing records for duplicates, missing fields and inconsistent formats before they are loaded into a new system.,T17-C05 |
|
| AI tool |
Software that produces text, summaries or answers by predicting likely, well-formed output from patterns in the data it was built on.,T18-C01 |
|
| Prompt |
The instruction or question a person gives an AI tool to get a useful response.,T18-C01 |
|
| AI-generated draft |
Text an AI tool has produced that has not yet been checked against the facts it should match.,T18-C01 |
|
| Spot-check |
Comparing one specific detail in an output against a fact you already know is correct.,T18-C01 |
|
| Human accountable decision |
The principle that a person, not the AI tool, remains responsible for a work decision or a document sent under their name.,T18-C01 |
|
| Data privacy |
Keeping confidential business information out of a tool or a request where it should not be shared.,T18-C01 |
|
| Drafting |
Producing a first version of a document or message that a person will still check and finish.,T18-C01 |
|
| Summarising |
Reducing a longer piece of text to its key points without changing their meaning.,T18-C01 |
|
| Tidying |
Reorganising or clarifying existing text without adding new facts to it.,T18-C01 |
|
| Comparison task |
Setting two pieces of text or two versions of a document side by side to find what changed.,T18-C01 |
|
| Fact-lookup task |
A task whose answer depends on a specific, checkable fact rather than on organising existing text.,T18-C01 |
|
| Confident wrong answer |
An AI-generated response stated in a fluent, assured tone despite being factually incorrect.,T18-C01 |
|
| Invented detail |
A specific fact, number or name an AI tool produces that was never supplied to it and does not exist in reality.,T18-C01 |
|
| Pattern-based answer |
A response built from what commonly appears in similar text, rather than from the actual facts of your own situation.,T18-C01 |
|
| Routine-task blindness |
The tendency to stop checking an AI-generated output carefully once a task starts to feel repetitive and familiar.,T18-C01 |
|
| Source document |
The original record that holds the true version of a fact, which an AI-generated output should be checked against.,T18-C01 |
|
| Fact check |
Comparing a specific claim in an output against a source you know is correct.,T18-C01 |
|
| High-stakes fact |
A fact whose error would cost real money, time or trust if acted on before being checked.,T18-C01 |
|
| Cross-buyer mix-up |
An error where a fact belonging to one buyer's order is applied to another buyer's order.,T18-C01 |
|
| Verification step |
A defined point in a task where a person confirms a fact before it is used further.,T18-C01 |
|
| Safe-to-use output |
An AI-generated result whose high-stakes facts have been checked and confirmed against a source.,T18-C01 |
|
| Personal checklist |
A short, memorised set of steps a person applies consistently to a repeated kind of task.,T18-C01 |
|
| Supplied fact |
A specific piece of information a person gives an AI tool as part of a request.,T18-C01 |
|
| Task fit |
Whether a task's answer depends on organising supplied text or on an unsupplied fact.,T18-C01 |
|
| Targeted check |
Comparing only a result's high-stakes facts against their own sources, rather than re-reading everything equally.,T18-C01 |
|
| Personal accountability |
The standing fact that the person who uses or sends an AI-generated result remains responsible for it.,T18-C01 |
|
| Instruction |
The written request you give an AI tool, stating the task, the facts and the required format.,T18-C02 |
|
| Context |
The facts, documents or numbers you give an AI tool so it works from your real situation instead of guessing.,T18-C02 |
|
| AI output |
The text an AI tool returns after an instruction.,T18-C02 |
|
| Known fact |
A fact you already have from an approved source, used to check an AI output.,T18-C02 |
|
| Fact-check |
Comparing a claim in an AI output against a known fact before you rely on it.,T18-C02 |
|
| Draft |
A first version of a document, written to be reviewed and changed before it is final.,T18-C02 |
|
| Professional judgement |
The decision a person makes about what a document should say, based on the real facts and their own accountability for it.,T18-C02 |
|
| Confirmed fact |
Something that has actually been agreed or verified, as opposed to something that sounds agreed.,T18-C02 |
|
| Iteration |
Asking an AI tool to revise a draft again after checking it, rather than accepting the first version.,T18-C02 |
|
| Document hand-off |
The point where a document leaves one person's control and reaches someone else who will act on it.,T18-C02 |
|
| First draft |
The first attempt at a piece of writing, produced either by a person or by an AI tool, meant to be checked and improved.,T18-C02 |
|
| Well-defined task |
A task where the facts, the format and the audience are all already clear before writing starts.,T18-C02 |
|
| Checking cost |
The time and attention needed to verify an output is correct before it is used.,T18-C02 |
|
| Recurring task |
A task repeated on a regular schedule, such as a weekly restock note, rather than done once.,T18-C02 |
|
| Judgement-heavy task |
A task where deciding what to say matters more than how the sentences are worded.,T18-C02 |
|
| Human check |
A person's own review of an AI-assisted output against known facts before it is used or shared.,T18-C02 |
|
| Hand-off point |
The moment an AI-assisted output leaves the control of the person or team that produced it.,T18-C02 |
|
| Material specification |
A document stating a fabric's or material's confirmed properties, such as width, weight or approved colour.,T18-C02 |
|
| Accountable reviewer |
The named person who checks an output and takes responsibility for its accuracy before it is shared.,T18-C02 |
|
| AI-assisted output |
Any document, note or summary that an AI tool helped produce, whether fully drafted by it or only partly.,T18-C02 |
|
| AI-use checklist |
The ordered set of checks a person applies to any AI-assisted task, from instruction to hand-off.,T18-C02 |
|
| Confirmed order portion |
The part of a hybrid order that is already agreed and fixed.,T18-C02 |
|
| Forecast order portion |
The part of a hybrid order that is planned but not yet fixed, subject to change.,T18-C02 |
|
| Confidential order data |
Order information such as buyer identity, unpublished price or an unreleased style that the business has agreed to keep private.,T18-C03 |
|
| Identifying detail |
Any fact, such as a buyer's name or an unpublished price, that could let an outside reader work out which specific order or customer is meant.,T18-C03 |
|
| Generic description |
A description of a task or product that leaves out any identifying buyer, price or style detail.,T18-C03 |
|
| Confidentiality policy |
A factory's or buyer's own written rule for what information may be shared outside the business and with whom.,T18-C03 |
|
| AI-generated summary |
A summary of data that an AI tool produced rather than a person writing it directly.,T18-C03 |
|
| Search query |
The words or question typed into a tool to find matching information.,T18-C03 |
|
| Plausible-but-wrong answer |
An AI-generated answer that reads as confident and reasonable but does not match the real, checkable facts.,T18-C03 |
|
| Source record |
The original file or system where a piece of order data was first entered and is kept up to date.,T18-C03 |
|
| Data-quality problem |
A weakness in the input data, such as missing, outdated or inconsistent entries, that makes any output built from it less reliable.,T18-C03 |
|
| Missing entry |
A field in a data set that has no value recorded, left blank instead of filled in.,T18-C03 |
|
| Inconsistent entry |
Two records that describe the same real fact with different, conflicting values.,T18-C03 |
|
| Shared AI session |
One continuous use of an AI tool in which everything typed or pasted earlier can still affect what the tool produces later in the same session.,T18-C03 |
|
| Cross-contamination |
Confidential detail from one buyer or order accidentally appearing in output meant for another.,T18-C03 |
|
| Data-safe AI-use worksheet |
The course's own working tool for deciding, field by field, what order information is safe to share with an AI tool.,T18-C03 |
|
| AI agent |
A system that can take a sequence of steps toward a stated goal, using data or other tools, without a person carrying out each step by hand.,T18-C04 |
|
| Automated workflow tool |
A tool that carries out a defined step of work with little or no human action each time it runs.,T18-C04 |
|
| Assisted step |
A task where an automated tool prepares or suggests work, but a person still checks or approves it before it takes effect.,T18-C04 |
|
| Human oversight |
A person checking the output of an automated or assisted step before it is trusted or acted on.,T18-C04 |
|
| Automation candidate |
A task that is well-defined, repetitive and low in commercial judgement, and so a reasonable task to consider automating.,T18-C04 |
|
| Commercial judgement |
The weighing of trade-offs, relationships and business consequences that a fixed rule cannot fully capture on its own.,T18-C04 |
|
| Escalation path |
The fixed route by which an automated step's error or an unclear case is passed to a named person to resolve.,T18-C04 |
|
| Fallback process |
The manual or assisted way of finishing a task if the automated version cannot complete it correctly.,T18-C04 |
|
| Error at scale |
The tendency of an automated step to repeat the same mistake many times quickly if its logic or input data is wrong, rather than making one isolated mistake.,T18-C04 |
|
| Commitment point |
The step in a workflow after which reversing an action costs real time or money, such as cutting fabric that has already been bought.,T18-C04 |
|
| AI-use policy |
A business's own written rule for which AI tools staff may use, what information may be given to them, and when a person must review the output.,T18-C05 |
|
| Confidential information |
Business information a company has agreed, by contract or by its own rule, not to share outside the people who need it to do their job.,T18-C05 |
|
| Human review |
A named person checking an AI tool's output against the facts before it is acted on or sent to anyone outside the business.,T18-C05 |
|
| Shadow use |
An AI tool used by staff for real work without the business's knowledge or approval.,T18-C05 |
|
| Ungoverned AI use |
AI use with no written policy, no information rule and no human review step in place.,T18-C05 |
|
| Silent error |
A mistake in an AI-drafted output that reads as confident and correct, so no one notices it before it is sent or acted on.,T18-C05 |
|
| Leaked specification |
A technical or commercial detail from a confirmed order shared outside the people who are meant to see it.,T18-C05 |
|
| Broken commitment |
A promise made to a buyer or a factory, in writing, that turns out not to match the real facts.,T18-C05 |
|
| Data ownership check |
Confirming who owns and controls the information an AI tool is fed, and what the vendor may do with it.,T18-C05 |
|
| Failure plan |
The agreed answer to what happens, and who is told, if an AI tool's recommendation or output turns out to be wrong.,T18-C05 |
|
| Vendor claim |
A statement a supplier makes about what its AI tool can do, which needs checking rather than automatic acceptance.,T18-C05 |
|
| Pilot period |
A limited trial of a new AI tool on a small, reversible decision before it is used on a larger or harder-to-reverse one.,T18-C05 |
|
| Reversibility |
Whether a decision made with an AI tool's help can be undone or corrected without lasting cost if the tool turns out to be wrong.,T18-C05 |
|
| Accountable person |
The one named individual who answers for a business decision, whether or not an AI tool helped produce it.,T18-C05 |
|
| Attribution error |
Blaming an AI tool for a mistake instead of naming the accountable person who used its output without checking it.,T18-C05 |
|
| Correction record |
A written note of what went wrong, who found it, and what was done to fix it, kept once an AI-assisted error is confirmed.,T18-C05 |
|
| Governance checklist |
A single working document that brings a business's own AI-use policy, risk awareness, adoption checks and accountability rule together in one place.,T18-C05 |
|
| Checklist score |
A simple count of how many checklist items a proposed AI tool passes, used to decide how much review it needs before adoption.,T18-C05 |
|
| Standing rule |
A rule written once in the checklist and applied the same way to every future AI tool, rather than re-decided each time.,T18-C05 |
|
| Gap item |
A checklist item a proposed AI tool fails or cannot answer, recorded so it is addressed rather than quietly ignored.,T18-C05 |
|
| Renewal check |
A repeat of the checklist run on an AI tool already in use, done on a fixed schedule rather than only at first adoption.,T18-C05 |
|
| Margin target |
The margin percentage a season's own plan requires a style to achieve, set before any single price is chosen.,T20-C05 |
|
| Initial retail price |
The first shop price set for a style at the start of a season, before any later markdown.,T20-C05 |
|
| Pricing formula |
Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin target), the calculation that turns a known cost and a margin target into the price that delivers it.,T20-C05 |
|
| Total profit |
Profit per piece multiplied by the number of pieces actually sold, the figure that decides which of two price plans earns the business more money.,T20-C05 |
|
| Price-volume plan |
A stated combination of one selling price and the quantity a retailer expects to sell at that price, used to compare against another such plan.,T20-C05 |
|
| Comparable branded style |
A branded product sold in the same shop, similar enough in construction and quality that a customer could reasonably choose between it and a private-label alternative.,T20-C05 |
|
| Complete pricing check |
Running the margin-target price, the price-volume comparison, and the branded-style price gap together for one style, rather than any one of the three alone.,T20-C05 |
|
| Reorder |
A repeat purchase order placed against a style the retailer has already sold before, based on its own forecast rather than a new buyer commitment.,T20-C05 |
|
| WSSI |
A weekly sales, stock and intake plan: the week-by-week table a retailer builds once open-to-buy is approved.,T20-C02 |
|
| Intake |
New stock arriving into a retailer's own stockroom or distribution centre in a given week, from a confirmed order.,T20-C02 |
|
| Opening stock |
The stock a retailer holds at the very start of a given week, before that week's own intake or sales are counted.,T20-C02 |
|
| Closing stock |
The stock a retailer holds at the very end of a given week, after that week's own intake and sales are counted.,T20-C02 |
|
| Average selling price |
The total money taken from a style's sales divided by the number of pieces sold, once full-price and markdown sales are both counted.,T20-C01 |
|
| Weekly sales rate |
The average number of pieces of a style sold in one week, found by dividing total pieces sold by the number of weeks elapsed.,T20-C01 |
|
| Full-price sale |
A sale made at the shop price originally set for the style, before any markdown is applied.,T20-C01 |
|
| Like-for-like growth |
The change in sales of the same style, in the same set of stores, between two comparable periods, excluding any stores opened or closed since the last comparison.,T20-C01 |
|
| Store base |
The specific set of stores counted in a sales comparison; it must stay the same in both periods for a like-for-like comparison to be valid.,T20-C01 |
|
| Sales history |
A style's own recorded sales from previous seasons, used as the starting point for estimating its future sales.,T20-C03 |
|
| Continuity style |
A style a buyer carries season after season, rather than a one-off style sold for a single season only.,T20-C03 |
|
| Known change |
A specific, identifiable reason a coming season's sales are expected to differ from the plain sales-history figure, such as more shops or a price change.,T20-C03 |
|
| Forecast error |
The difference between what a forecast predicted and what a style actually sold, once the season's real sales are known.,T20-C03 |
|
| Phasing |
Spreading a total forecast quantity across the weeks of a season, timed to a style's own real selling pattern rather than delivered as one lump sum.,T20-C03 |
|
| Selling pattern |
The share of a style's own total season sales that falls in each week, based on its own recorded sales history.,T20-C03 |
|
| Front-loaded |
A selling pattern where a larger share of a style's own total sales falls in the earlier weeks of a season.,T20-C03 |
|
| Delivery drop |
A scheduled point in a season when a phased quantity of a style is delivered to the shop.,T20-C03 |
|
| Re-forecast |
Updating the remaining part of a season's forecast once real sales data shows a sustained gap from the original estimate.,T20-C03 |
|
| Sales gap |
The difference between a style's own real recorded sales and what its standing forecast predicted for the same period.,T20-C03 |
|
| Sustained pattern |
A sales gap that continues across more than one recording period, rather than appearing in a single week only.,T20-C03 |
|
| Reorder point |
The quantity of stock remaining at which a Make to Stock buyer places its next production order against the standing forecast.,T20-C03 |
|
| Bias |
A forecast that is consistently too high or too low in the same direction across several periods, rather than randomly off in either direction.,T20-C03 |
|
| Over-forecast |
A forecast that turns out higher than genuine demand, resulting in surplus stock once the real selling period ends.,T20-C03 |
|
| Under-forecast |
A forecast that turns out lower than genuine demand, resulting in missed sales once the real selling period shows stronger demand than planned.,T20-C03 |
|
| Asymmetric cost |
A situation where the cost of one direction of forecast error is genuinely different from the cost of the other direction, for the same style.,T20-C03 |
|
| Retail planning system |
A shared, connected record that tracks stock, sales and reorder decisions by store and by size automatically, instead of a file someone updates by hand.,T20-C06 |
|
| Full-price sell-through |
The sell-through rate measured only on stock sold before any markdown was applied.,T20-C06 |
|
| Refresh timestamp |
The date and time a report last pulled data from its source, shown so a reader can judge how current a number is.,T20-C06 |
|
| Store allocation |
Splitting a confirmed shipment quantity across a retailer's own stores or shops, rather than shipping it all to one central point.,T21-C01 |
|
| Selling potential |
An estimate of how much a specific store is likely to sell, usually built from that store's own past weekly sales rate for a similar style.,T21-C01 |
|
| Distribution centre |
The central warehouse a retailer's confirmed shipments arrive at before any onward decision splits stock toward individual stores.,T21-C01 |
|
| Allocation ratio |
Each store's own selling potential expressed as a share of the total selling potential across all stores receiving the shipment.,T21-C01 |
|
| Comparable style |
A previously sold style similar enough to a new one that its own past sales are used to estimate the new style's own selling potential.,T21-C01 |
|
| Carton |
A packed unit of stock labelled for one specific store, built directly from that store's own share of an allocation.,T21-C01 |
|
| Even spread |
An allocation method that gives every store the same quantity, regardless of that store's own selling potential.,T21-C01 |
|
| Size curve |
The size ratio a style is cut in, used to split an allocation quantity across sizes rather than across stores.,T21-C01 |
|
| Store cluster |
A group of stores treated as one unit for allocation, because they share a similar level of selling potential.,T21-C01 |
|
| Sell-through-based reallocation |
Adjusting a later shipment's own store-by-store split to match real sell-through, rather than repeating an earlier estimate unchanged.,T21-C01 |
|
| Working template |
A single reusable worksheet that carries a course's own calculations from raw inputs to a finished, checked result.,T21-C01 |
|
| Allocation |
Splitting a style's first shipment across stores or channels before any of it has been sold.,T21-C02 |
|
| Replenishment |
Ordering more of a style that is already selling, based on how it is performing, rather than a first, unsold shipment.,T21-C02 |
|
| Excess stock |
Stock ordered beyond real expected demand, left unsold and tying up money until it is cleared, often at a markdown.,T21-C02 |
|
| Book stock |
The quantity a stock system shows for a location, built up from every receipt, sale and transfer it has recorded.,T21-C03 |
|
| Physical stock count |
Counting the real units sitting on the shelf or in the stockroom by hand, to check against the book stock.,T21-C03 |
|
| Perpetual inventory system |
A stock system that updates its book stock automatically after every recorded receipt, sale and transfer, rather than only at a yearly count.,T21-C03 |
|
| Point of sale (POS) |
The till system that records a sale and reduces book stock at the moment a customer pays.,T21-C03 |
|
| Inventory accuracy rate |
The physical count divided by the book stock, shown as a percentage, measuring how closely the system matches reality.,T21-C03 |
|
| Stock discrepancy |
The difference between what the book stock claims and what the physical count actually finds.,T21-C03 |
|
| Cycle count |
Counting one small group of items on a regular rotating schedule, instead of counting the whole stockroom at once.,T21-C03 |
|
| Full physical inventory |
Counting every item in a location at the same time, usually once or twice a year, closing normal activity while it runs.,T21-C03 |
|
| Count tolerance |
The size of discrepancy a store agrees to accept as normal variance before it triggers a closer check.,T21-C03 |
|
| Blind count |
A count taken without the counter seeing the book stock figure first, so the result is not influenced by what it is expected to show.,T21-C03 |
|
| High-usage item |
A stock item consumed often or in large quantity, usually counted more frequently because an error compounds faster.,T21-C03 |
|
| Count escalation |
Moving from a small cycle count to a full count of an item group once a result repeats or is too large to trust the cycle count alone.,T21-C03 |
|
| Inventory shrinkage |
Stock that is missing from a location without a recorded reason such as a sale or an approved transfer, distinct from a fabric's own shrinkage after washing.,T21-C03 |
|
| Known shrinkage |
Missing stock with a confirmed, recorded cause, such as a damage write-off or a caught theft.,T21-C03 |
|
| Unknown shrinkage |
Missing stock with no confirmed cause once counting and administrative errors are ruled out, usually attributed to uncaught theft.,T21-C03 |
|
| Internal theft |
Stock taken by a shop's own staff rather than by a customer.,T21-C03 |
|
| External theft (shoplifting) |
Stock taken by a customer or another outsider without paying.,T21-C03 |
|
| Administrative error |
A paperwork or data-entry mistake, such as a miscounted receipt or an unrecorded transfer, that makes the book stock wrong without any item actually being lost.,T21-C03 |
|
| Cost of inventory inaccuracy |
The share of an order's own planned margin lost to units the book stock claims exist but that are not actually there to sell.,T21-C03 |
|
| Planned margin per unit |
The profit component built into a piece's agreed price, before any inventory loss is applied against it.,T21-C03 |
|
| Total planned margin |
The planned margin per unit multiplied by the order's full confirmed quantity, the profit the whole order was designed to deliver.,T21-C03 |
|
| Share of margin lost |
The margin lost to a confirmed shortfall, divided by the order's total planned margin, shown as a percentage.,T21-C03 |
|
| Combined decision view |
A single tracker view that lines up every confirmed shortfall's count, cause and margin cost, so the largest real problem is visible at a glance.,T21-C03 |
|
| Shared inventory pool |
The part of a retailer's own store stock that is shown as available and sold through both the store and its online channel.,T21-C04 |
|
| Store-committed stock |
Stock physically in a store that the store needs to protect its own local sales, and that is not shared with the online channel.,T21-C04 |
|
| Online channel |
A retailer's own route to sell to a customer through its website or app, rather than through a physical shop.,T21-C04 |
|
| Stockout |
A situation where a store or a channel has no units of an item left to sell, though demand for it still exists.,T21-C04 |
|
| Ship-from-store |
Fulfilling an online order by picking the item from a store's own shelf stock and shipping it to the customer, instead of from a central warehouse.,T21-C04 |
|
| Fulfillment rule |
A stated condition that decides whether a specific store is allowed to fulfill a specific online order from its own shelf.,T21-C04 |
|
| Pick-and-pack time |
The staff time a store spends finding and packing its own shelf stock for an online order, taken away from serving walk-in customers.,T21-C04 |
|
| Fulfillment floor |
A minimum shareable-pool level below which a store stops fulfilling online orders from its own shelf.,T21-C04 |
|
| Draw-down rate |
How quickly a store's own shareable pool is being used up by online fulfillment over a given period.,T21-C04 |
|
| Floor breach |
The moment a store's own shareable pool falls below its stated fulfillment floor.,T21-C04 |
|
| Fulfillment routing |
Choosing which location, a nearby store or a central warehouse, actually ships a given online order.,T21-C04 |
|
| Landed fulfillment cost |
The full cost of getting an order from the chosen location to the customer, including shipping and any store staff time.,T21-C04 |
|
| Central warehouse |
A retailer's own dedicated stock location built for shipping online orders, separate from its store network.,T21-C04 |
|
| Floor space allocation |
Deciding how many square metres of a store's own selling floor each category occupies.,T22-C03 |
|
| Category sales share |
One category's own sales in a period, divided by the store's own total sales in the same period.,T22-C03 |
|
| Selling floor |
The part of a store's own total floor area open to customers for browsing and buying, excluding stockrooms, fitting rooms and staff areas.,T22-C03 |
|
| Target floor space |
The floor space a category should hold if its own space matched its own sales share exactly.,T22-C03 |
|
| Category footprint |
The floor space a category actually occupies right now, measured in square metres.,T22-C03 |
|
| Inherited split |
A floor allocation carried forward from when a store first opened or a category was first added, never recalculated against later sales.,T22-C03 |
|
| Fixture plan |
The arrangement of fixtures, such as gondolas, wall bays and tables, inside a category's own floor space.,T22-C03 |
|
| Customer flow |
The recorded pattern of how customers actually move through a specific store, for example which way most customers turn on entering.,T22-C03 |
|
| Gondola |
A free-standing, double-sided fixture, open on both sides, used to display stock in the middle of a store's own floor.,T22-C03 |
|
| Wall bay |
A fixture fixed to a store's own wall, usually shelving or rail, used where floor space along the perimeter is available.,T22-C03 |
|
| Fixture kit |
The set of fixtures a factory ships alongside an order, sized and matched to that order's own target floor space.,T22-C03 |
|
| Entrance turn pattern |
The recorded share of customers who turn a specific direction on entering a store, used to decide which side of the entrance gets the higher-traffic space.,T22-C03 |
|
| Sales per square metre |
A category's own sales in a period, divided by its own floor space in square metres, used to measure how hard that space is working.,T22-C03 |
|
| Store average sales per square metre |
A store's own total sales in a period, divided by its own total selling floor, used as the benchmark a category's own figure is compared against.,T22-C03 |
|
| Under-performing space |
Floor space whose own sales per square metre falls below the store's own average for a sustained period.,T22-C03 |
|
| Space productivity |
How much sales value a category's own floor space generates relative to its own size, expressed as sales per square metre.,T22-C03 |
|
| Reporting period |
The fixed span of time, such as a quarter, over which sales and floor space figures are compared on a like-for-like basis.,T22-C03 |
|
| Partial reset |
Adjusting only the fixtures and stock a season change actually requires, leaving the rest of a category's own layout in place.,T22-C03 |
|
| Full reset |
Rebuilding a category's own entire floor space, fixtures and stock from a blank layout, used when a season change is large enough to require it.,T22-C03 |
|
| Season change |
The point in a retailer's own calendar when one season's assortment, such as summer T-shirts, is replaced by the next, such as autumn layering pieces.,T22-C03 |
|
| Reset window |
The span of time a store has available to complete a layout change before it must reopen fully to customers.,T22-C03 |
|
| Carryover fixture |
A fixture from the previous season's own layout that stays in the same position because the new season's assortment still fits it.,T22-C03 |
|
| Coordination role |
The part an agent plays in scheduling and confirming a season change across a buyer's own supplier and a retailer's own store team.,T22-C03 |
|
| Combined space plan |
A single record, for one category, holding its own floor space, fixture plan, sales-per-square-metre figure and season-change status together.,T22-C03 |
|
| Decision conflict |
A case where one of the four space planning decisions for a category no longer agrees with another, such as a floor space cut proposed for a category earning above the store average.,T22-C03 |
|
| End-to-end check |
Reviewing a category's own floor space, fixtures, performance and season-change status together, rather than checking each one separately.,T22-C03 |
|
| Hybrid stock mix |
Stock for one category supplied through more than one route at once, such as a wholesale-bought range alongside a retailer's own domestic reorders.,T22-C03 |
|
| Layout review cycle |
The regular point, such as each reporting period or season change, when a category's own combined space plan is checked again.,T22-C03 |
|
| Category record |
The one row or entry in a space planning worksheet holding every decision made about a single category's own floor space.,T22-C03 |
|
| Eye-level space |
The shelf or fixture height positioned at a typical customer's natural eye level, the most easily noticed space in a store.,T22-C02 |
|
| Entry-point space |
The fixture or area nearest a store's entrance, the first product display a customer sees on entering.,T22-C02 |
|
| Fixture |
A table, rail, wall bay or other unit that holds product on a shop floor for display.,T22-C02 |
|
| Facing |
One folded or hung unit of a style shown at the front of a fixture for a customer to see.,T22-C02 |
|
| Anchor style |
The style a store places in its best space because its own sales record earns that space, not because it is a new arrival or a supplier preference.,T22-C02 |
|
| Outfit grouping |
Displaying styles together because they can be worn or used together, not because they arrived in the same shipment.,T22-C02 |
|
| Delivery-date grouping |
Displaying styles together only because they were received into the store on the same date, whatever their actual style relationship.,T22-C02 |
|
| Attachment rate |
The average number of additional items a customer buys alongside the first item they select.,T22-C02 |
|
| Complementary style |
A style whose look, colour or use naturally pairs with another style a customer already has or is considering.,T22-C02 |
|
| Cross-merchandising |
Placing complementary styles from different categories next to each other so a customer sees the whole outfit at once.,T22-C02 |
|
| Shipment batch |
A group of styles received into a store together as one delivery, which does not by itself decide how they should be displayed.,T22-C02 |
|
| Facing allocation |
The number of facings a store gives a style on a shared fixture, normally set to roughly match its own share of sales.,T22-C02 |
|
| Adjacency |
Placing two styles directly next to each other on the same fixture or wall bay.,T22-C02 |
|
| Visual differentiation |
Using signage, spacing or fixture type to keep two adjacent styles looking like distinct, deliberate choices rather than one discounted version of the other.,T22-C02 |
|
| Cannibalisation |
One style's sales coming at the direct expense of a second style's sales, rather than adding new sales to the store overall.,T22-C02 |
|
| Display freshness |
How recently a display's arrangement, styles or presentation have changed, as seen by a returning customer.,T22-C02 |
|
| Sell-through decline |
A drop in a display's own weekly sales compared with its first weeks on the fixture.,T22-C02 |
|
| Refresh cycle |
The planned interval at which a store changes a display's arrangement or styles before it is judged stale.,T22-C02 |
|
| Staleness threshold |
The sell-through level below which a display is treated as stale and due for a refresh.,T22-C02 |
|
| Reorder trigger |
The sales signal that tells a hybrid business it is time to place a repeat order rather than let stock run down.,T22-C02 |
|
| Field visit |
An agent's own visit to a shop floor to check how a display and its stock are performing in person.,T22-C02 |
|
| Product placement |
The decision of where in a store a specific style is displayed.,T22-C02 |
|
| Grouping |
The decision of which styles are displayed together and why.,T22-C02 |
|
| Space-to-sales match |
The degree to which the space a style receives, facings, position, matches its own share of a fixture's sales.,T22-C02 |
|
| Recheck interval |
How often a completed checklist should be reviewed again given changing sales data.,T22-C02 |
|
| Combined checklist view |
Seeing every placement and grouping check for one style together, rather than as separate, unrelated decisions.,T22-C02 |
|
| Display brief |
The written instruction from a merchandising or marketing team stating what a display should show, why, and by when.,T22-C04 |
|
| Focal point |
The one spot in a display where a customer's eye is meant to land first.,T22-C04 |
|
| Hero product |
The single product a display is built to sell, around which every other element is arranged.,T22-C04 |
|
| Brief deviation |
Any way a shop's own finished display differs from what the brief describes.,T22-C04 |
|
| Non-negotiable element |
A part of a brief a shop must keep unchanged in every adaptation, because it carries the idea itself.,T22-C04 |
|
| Brief sign-off |
A brief owner's confirmation that a shop's adaptation still delivers the brief's own idea.,T22-C04 |
|
| Baseline sales |
The sales a product would likely have made without the display, usually measured from a period just before it went up.,T22-C04 |
|
| Display lift |
The extra sales a display produces above the baseline, credited to the display itself.,T22-C04 |
|
| Attribution risk |
The chance that a sales change is wrongly credited to a display when another cause, such as a price change, actually produced it.,T22-C04 |
|
| Display period |
The fixed number of days or weeks a display stays up before it is measured or changed.,T22-C04 |
|
| Confounding factor |
Any other change happening at the same time as a display that could also explain a change in sales.,T22-C04 |
|
| Decision threshold |
The lift level a shop sets in advance, above which a display is judged worth keeping unchanged.,T22-C04 |
|
| Display fatigue |
A decline in a display's own lift over time, as customers who pass it daily stop noticing it.,T22-C04 |
|
| Display refresh |
A partial change to a display, such as new colours or a different grouping, meant to renew attention without a full rebuild.,T22-C04 |
|
| Display teardown |
Removing a display completely and returning its space to standard stock or a different display.,T22-C04 |
|
| Extension |
Continuing a display unchanged for a further fixed period because its own results still justify the space.,T22-C04 |
|
| Side-by-side test |
Running two competing display ideas for the same style at the same time, in matched conditions, to compare their own results directly.,T22-C04 |
|
| Matched shops |
Two groups of shops chosen to be as similar as possible in size, location type, and recent sales, so a test's result reflects the display idea, not a difference between the shops.,T22-C04 |
|
| Test variant |
One of the two or more competing display designs being compared in a side-by-side test.,T22-C04 |
|
| Statistical noise |
Random day-to-day or shop-to-shop variation in sales that is not caused by either display idea, and that a fair test tries to average out.,T22-C04 |
|
| Meaningful gap |
A difference between two variants' own results large enough to be trusted as real, not just noise.,T22-C04 |
|
| Control condition |
Keeping every factor except the display idea itself the same between the two groups, so the comparison isolates that one variable.,T22-C04 |
|
| Display record |
The complete history of one display, from its brief to its build, measurement, decisions, and any test it was part of.,T22-C04 |
|
| Linked sheet |
A tracker sheet whose rows connect to another sheet's rows for the same display, so the full record can be followed across them.,T22-C04 |
|
| Tracker owner |
The person or team responsible for keeping every sheet of the tracker current and complete.,T22-C04 |
|
| Record gap |
A missing entry in a display's own history, such as a build logged with no later measurement.,T22-C04 |
|
| Handover |
Passing a display's own record to a new reviewer or shop, complete enough that they do not need to ask the previous owner what happened.,T22-C04 |
|
| Visual merchandising |
The set of decisions about what a customer sees first in a store, where each product is placed, and how products are grouped, made separately from how much stock is sent.,T22-C01 |
|
| Stock plan |
A plan stating how many pieces of a style a store holds and when it is reordered, without stating where or how the pieces are displayed.,T22-C01 |
|
| Visual merchandising reset |
A planned change to a store's own display, moving which styles sit at a focal point and which move to a lower-traffic spot.,T22-C01 |
|
| Store window |
The glass-fronted display area facing the street, seen by a passer-by before entering the shop.,T22-C01 |
|
| Footfall |
The number of people who pass close enough to a shop to see its window in a given period.,T22-C01 |
|
| Conversion rate (footfall to entry) |
The share of passers-by who actually enter the shop, out of the total footfall counted for the same period.,T22-C01 |
|
| Window rotation |
The planned schedule for changing a window's own theme and featured styles, so a returning passer-by keeps seeing something new.,T22-C01 |
|
| Visual story |
A single, clear idea a window or display communicates, built from a small group of styles shown together rather than a wide spread of unrelated stock.,T22-C01 |
|
| Sightline |
The line of open view a customer's eye follows from one point in a store to another, without another fixture or wall blocking it.,T22-C01 |
|
| Power wall |
The fixture positioned at the point in a store a customer's sightline reaches earliest after entering, used for the style the store most needs to move.,T22-C01 |
|
| Customer path |
The route a customer actually walks through a store, shaped by the position of fixtures, aisles, and sightlines rather than by the stock plan alone.,T22-C01 |
|
| Colour blocking |
Grouping garments by colour on a fixture so a customer sees a clear colour story rather than a mixed run of unrelated shades.,T22-C01 |
|
| Story grouping |
Displaying two or more styles together around one theme, so a customer notices them as a set rather than as separate, unconnected items.,T22-C01 |
|
| Pieces per transaction |
The average number of separate items a customer buys in one visit, used to judge whether grouping is increasing what a customer buys beyond the one item they came for.,T22-C01 |
|
| Visual merchandising checklist |
A single document scoring a store against every visual merchandising decision this course covers: the window, the fixture layout, and colour-story grouping.,T22-C01 |
|
| Reset |
A planned, scheduled change to a store's own window, fixtures, or colour groupings, carried out on a fixed cycle rather than only after a problem is noticed.,T22-C01 |
|
| Display compliance rate |
The degree to which a store's own actual display matches the visual merchandising plan agreed for that period.,T22-C01 |
|
| Store checklist score |
The count of checklist items a store passes out of the total items checked, used to compare stores or track one store's own progress over time.,T22-C01 |
|
| Planogram |
A diagram showing exactly where each style should sit on a fixture, used so a store team can set up a display to match the plan without guessing.,T22-C01 |
|
| Third-party marketplace |
An online selling platform, owned and run by neither the buyer nor the retailer, where more than one seller lists products for the same shoppers to browse.,T23-C03 |
|
| Channel conflict |
A situation where one seller's own price or availability on one channel damages another seller's sales of the same style on a different channel.,T23-C03 |
|
| Retail price floor |
The lowest price a brand allows a style to be listed at on any channel, set to protect an existing retail partner's own shop price.,T23-C03 |
|
| Exclusive style |
A style a brand sells only through one retail partner, and does not list anywhere else.,T23-C03 |
|
| Marketplace commission fee |
The percentage of a listing's sale price that a third-party marketplace keeps for itself, before the seller receives the rest.,T23-C03 |
|
| Payment processing fee |
A further percentage a marketplace or its payment provider deducts to handle the buyer's card or wallet payment.,T23-C03 |
|
| Net proceeds |
The amount a seller actually receives from a marketplace sale, after commission and payment processing fees are subtracted.,T23-C03 |
|
| Second-quality stock |
Units that failed a quality check for the original buyer's order and are sold through a different channel instead of being shipped as first quality.,T23-C03 |
|
| Break-even listing price |
The lowest marketplace listing price at which net proceeds exactly equal the factory's own cost, with no margin left over.,T23-C03 |
|
| Social commerce channel |
A platform where shoppers browse posts, videos or livestreams and can buy directly from what they see, rather than searching a catalogue.,T23-C03 |
|
| Price-point fit |
How well a style's own price matches what shoppers on a given channel are used to spending there.,T23-C03 |
|
| Story fit |
How well a style carries a distinct design detail, origin or use that a short piece of content can actually tell.,T23-C03 |
|
| Channel fit score |
A simple combined score of a style's own price-point fit and story fit, used to decide whether it is worth listing on a channel.,T23-C03 |
|
| Impulse price range |
The price band within which a shopper on a social commerce channel is likely to buy on impulse, without much deliberation.,T23-C03 |
|
| Presentation guideline |
A brand's own stated rule for how its products should be shown, described or priced wherever they appear.,T23-C03 |
|
| Non-negotiable presentation element |
A part of a presentation guideline the brand will not allow a channel to vary, regardless of that channel's own usual practice.,T23-C03 |
|
| Presentation deviation |
Any difference between a brand's own presentation guideline and what actually appears on a channel.,T23-C03 |
|
| Escalation threshold |
The point at which a deviation is serious enough, or frequent enough, that it must be raised with the buyer rather than simply monitored.,T23-C03 |
|
| Unauthorised reseller |
A seller offering a brand's own product on a channel without the brand's or its agent's own agreement.,T23-C03 |
|
| Combined channel decision view |
A single working view that runs a style through listing fit, pricing, channel fit and presentation protection in one pass.,T23-C03 |
|
| Decision sequence |
The fixed order in which the four course decisions are checked, since a later check can depend on the outcome of an earlier one.,T23-C03 |
|
| Go or no-go outcome |
The single final answer, for one style and one channel, on whether to proceed, proceed with conditions, or not proceed.,T23-C03 |
|
| Product-page conversion rate |
The share of a product page's own unique visitors who complete a purchase, out of all unique visitors counted in the same period.,T23-C02 |
|
| Traffic volume |
The number of unique visitors a product page receives in a stated period.,T23-C02 |
|
| Add-to-cart rate |
The share of a product page's own unique visitors who add the product to their cart, out of all unique visitors in the same period.,T23-C02 |
|
| Checkout completion rate |
The share of shoppers who started checkout who actually finish the purchase, out of everyone who started checkout in the same period.,T23-C02 |
|
| Funnel stage |
One step in the sequence a visitor passes through on the way to a purchase: view, add to cart, start checkout, complete purchase.,T23-C02 |
|
| Baseline reading |
A page's own conversion figures for a fixed period, taken before any change, used as the point every later comparison is measured against.,T23-C02 |
|
| Bounce |
A visit in which the person leaves the product page without adding the item to their cart.,T23-C02 |
|
| One-variable test |
A test in which exactly one element of a page changes between the control and the test variant, so any difference in result can be attributed to that element alone.,T23-C02 |
|
| Traffic split |
The way incoming visitors are divided between the control version and the test variant, usually as close to equal as possible.,T23-C02 |
|
| Live page |
The version of a page a visitor is actually shown during a test, whether the control or the test variant, decided by the traffic split.,T23-C02 |
|
| Test period |
The fixed length of time a test runs before its result is read, agreed in advance and not extended or shortened partway through.,T23-C02 |
|
| Directional result |
A gap that points toward one variant performing better, without yet being large or well-supported enough to call meaningful.,T23-C02 |
|
| Drop-off point |
The specific funnel stage where the share of visitors continuing to the next stage falls furthest below what the same store's other pages typically show.,T23-C02 |
|
| Exit rate |
The share of visitors at a given funnel stage who leave without moving to the next stage.,T23-C02 |
|
| E-commerce merchandising |
The set of decisions about what a customer reads, sees, and clicks on a screen in order to choose and buy a product, made separately from how much stock is held.,T23-C01 |
|
| Product page |
The single web page for one style where a customer reads its description, sees its images, and decides whether to buy it.,T23-C01 |
|
| Digital shelf space |
The limited set of pages and positions on a website through which a customer can actually find a style, standing in for a physical shop's own fixtures and floor space.,T23-C01 |
|
| Site search |
The tool on a website that lets a customer type a word and find matching products directly, without browsing through pages.,T23-C01 |
|
| Product description |
The written text on a product page stating the fabric, fit, care, and use of a style, drawn from the factory's own tech pack.,T23-C01 |
|
| Size guide |
A table or chart on a product page showing body measurements against each available size, so a customer can choose without trying the garment on.,T23-C01 |
|
| Trust signal |
Any fact on a product page, such as a return policy or fabric composition, that removes a customer's doubt about buying without seeing the item in person.,T23-C01 |
|
| Return policy |
The stated terms under which a customer may send a purchased item back for a refund or exchange, shown on or near a product page.,T23-C01 |
|
| Homepage |
The first page a customer sees on a website, whose limited space decides which styles a customer notices before searching or browsing further.,T23-C01 |
|
| Top navigation |
The menu bar at the top of a website, whose limited set of links decides which categories a customer can reach in a single click.,T23-C01 |
|
| Featured space |
The small number of positions on a homepage reserved for the styles a business most wants a customer to notice first.,T23-C01 |
|
| Click-through rate |
The share of customers who see a featured style on the homepage and click through to its own product page.,T23-C01 |
|
| Category page |
The page listing every style within one product group, such as all T-shirts, that a customer browses before opening any single product page.,T23-C01 |
|
| Filter |
A tool on a category page letting a customer narrow the styles shown by a chosen attribute, such as size, colour, or price.,T23-C01 |
|
| Sort order |
The sequence in which a category page arranges its styles, such as best-selling first, newest first, or price low to high.,T23-C01 |
|
| Bounce rate |
The share of customers who leave a category page without clicking through to any product page at all.,T23-C01 |
|
| E-commerce merchandising checklist |
A single document scoring an online store against every e-commerce merchandising decision this course covers: the product page, the homepage, and the category page.,T23-C01 |
|
| Site conversion rate |
The share of a store's own online visits that end in a completed purchase, the combined result of every decision along the path from homepage to product page.,T23-C01 |
|
| Above the fold |
The part of a web page a customer sees without scrolling, the online equivalent of a physical shop's own entrance sightline.,T23-C01 |
|
| Customer record |
A single stored entry of information about one identified customer, built from that customer's own purchases and contact details.,T23-C04 |
|
| Purchase history |
The list of what a specific customer has actually bought over time, kept as fact rather than as a guess about that customer.,T23-C04 |
|
| Loyalty programme |
A scheme that rewards a customer for repeat purchases, usually in exchange for the retailer holding that customer's own purchase data.,T23-C04 |
|
| Consent-based data collection |
Collecting a customer's own data only after that customer has agreed to it, and only for the stated purpose the customer agreed to.,T23-C04 |
|
| Aggregated data |
Customer information combined across many customers, so no single customer can be identified from the combined figure.,T23-C04 |
|
| Programme running cost |
The yearly cost of operating a loyalty programme, including its data system, staff time and any reward paid out.,T23-C04 |
|
| Purchase-behaviour segment |
A group of customers, or buyer accounts, sharing a similar real pattern of order frequency and order value, used to decide where follow-up effort goes.,T23-C04 |
|
| Order frequency |
How often a specific customer or buyer account places a confirmed order, over a stated period.,T23-C04 |
|
| Order value |
The total value of the orders a specific customer or buyer account has actually placed, over a stated period.,T23-C04 |
|
| Repeat account |
A buyer account that has placed more than one confirmed order with the same factory over time.,T23-C04 |
|
| One-off account |
A buyer account that has placed a single confirmed order and has not returned with a further order since.,T23-C04 |
|
| Guesswork segmentation |
Grouping customers by assumption, memory or which contact is most vocal, rather than by their own recorded order data.,T23-C04 |
|
| Repeat-customer value |
The total profit a retailer earns from one customer's continued buying over a stated number of years, not just from a single sale.,T23-C04 |
|
| Customer acquisition cost |
The average marketing spend a retailer must make to win one new customer, calculated from total marketing spend divided by new customers won.,T23-C04 |
|
| Annual spend per customer |
The average amount one customer spends with a retailer over one year, used to build up a repeat customer's own value.,T23-C04 |
|
| Retention period |
The number of years a retailer expects an average customer to keep buying from it, used to calculate value over more than one year.,T23-C04 |
|
| Marketing spend |
Money a retailer spends specifically to attract new customers or encourage existing ones to buy again.,T23-C04 |
|
| Break-even comparison |
Checking whether a repeat customer's own value covers, or exceeds, the cost of acquiring a new customer, before deciding where to spend a budget.,T23-C04 |
|
| Behaviour-changing reward |
A reward that causes a customer to buy more, or buy sooner, than that customer would have without it.,T23-C04 |
|
| Behaviour-neutral reward |
A reward paid to a customer who would have made the same purchase anyway, adding cost without changing what the customer buys.,T23-C04 |
|
| Comparison group |
A group of customers who did not receive a reward, used to see what buying behaviour looks like without it.,T23-C04 |
|
| Incremental purchase |
A purchase a customer makes because of a reward, over and above what that customer would otherwise have bought.,T23-C04 |
|
| Reward cost |
The total value given up by a business through a reward, whether as a discount, a free item, or points redeemed.,T23-C04 |
|
| Net reward value |
The extra profit a reward produces from incremental purchases, minus the reward's own cost.,T23-C04 |
|
| Combined loyalty check |
Reviewing a proposed loyalty programme against all four of this course's own tools together, rather than checking only one.,T23-C04 |
|
| Linked worksheet |
A workbook where one sheet's own output feeds into another sheet's own calculation, so a change in one place updates the whole picture.,T23-C04 |
|
| Programme decision |
The single approve, adjust, or reject choice a business makes about a loyalty programme, informed by every check that applies to it.,T23-C04 |
|
| Data-field check |
Confirming a proposed loyalty programme collects only the customer data fields it actually uses, from Lesson 1.,T23-C04 |
|
| Segment fit |
Whether a proposed loyalty programme's own reward and messaging suit the real purchase-behaviour segment it targets, from Lesson 2.,T23-C04 |
|
| Value gap |
The difference between a repeat customer's own calculated value and a reward's own net cost, once acquisition cost and reward testing are both accounted for.,T23-C04 |
|
| Third-party logistics provider |
A company paid to store and ship goods it does not own, instead of the buyer building and staffing its own warehouse.,T24-C05 |
|
| Fixed distribution cost |
The part of running a distribution centre that stays the same no matter how many pieces pass through it, such as rent and permanent staff.,T24-C05 |
|
| Variable distribution cost |
The part of a distribution cost that rises with every extra piece handled, such as picking and packing labor.,T24-C05 |
|
| Break-even volume |
The volume at which running an in-house distribution centre costs the same as paying a third-party logistics provider; above it, owning is cheaper, below it, paying is cheaper.,T24-C05 |
|
| Distribution network shape |
The number and arrangement of stops goods pass through between the factory and the shop that finally sells them.,T24-C05 |
|
| Echelon |
One stop in a distribution network, such as a distribution centre or a regional hub, where goods are received and then moved on.,T24-C05 |
|
| Direct-to-store shipment |
Sending goods straight from one stop to a shop, with no further stop in between.,T24-C05 |
|
| Regional hub |
A smaller stock location serving a group of nearby shops, sitting between a central distribution centre and the shops themselves.,T24-C05 |
|
| Quoted rate |
The price a third-party logistics provider states for handling a given volume, before any hidden cost is added.,T24-C05 |
|
| Hidden cost |
A real cost of using a provider that its quoted rate does not include, such as management oversight or insurance.,T24-C05 |
|
| True comparable cost |
The quoted rate plus every hidden cost, giving a figure that can be fairly compared against an in-house operation's own fully loaded cost.,T24-C05 |
|
| Management oversight cost |
The value of a buyer's or agent's own time spent coordinating and checking a provider's work, often left out of a quote.,T24-C05 |
|
| Warehouse management system (WMS) |
Software that records a warehouse's own receipts, put-aways, picks and shipments at the moment each one happens, and keeps one running stock figure for every location.,T24-C04 |
|
| Paper-based stock system |
A stock system in which each event is written on a paper form first and entered into any computer record later, by a separate step.,T24-C04 |
|
| Location code |
The fixed reference, such as an aisle, rack and shelf combination, that identifies exactly where a unit of stock sits inside a warehouse.,T24-C04 |
|
| Put-away confirmation |
The step, on paper a signature and on a WMS a scan or entry, that records which location actually received a given unit of stock.,T24-C04 |
|
| Barcode |
A printed pattern of lines or squares that a scanner reads one at a time, in a direct line of sight, to identify a specific unit or carton.,T24-C04 |
|
| RFID tag |
A small chip and antenna attached to a unit or carton that a reader can pick up by radio signal without needing a direct line of sight.,T24-C04 |
|
| Line-of-sight scanning |
Reading a barcode by pointing a scanner directly at it, one unit or carton at a time.,T24-C04 |
|
| Bulk read |
Reading many RFID tags at once, such as every carton on a pallet, without pointing at each one individually.,T24-C04 |
|
| Read range |
The distance and angle within which a reader can successfully pick up a tag's signal.,T24-C04 |
|
| Tag cost per unit |
The cost of the barcode label or RFID tag attached to a single unit or carton, before any reader or software cost.,T24-C04 |
|
| Rollout cost |
The full one-time cost of introducing a technology into an operation: readers or scanners, tags or labels, software setup and staff training.,T24-C04 |
|
| Recurring cost |
The ongoing cost a rollout adds every month after installation, such as replacement tags, consumables or a software subscription.,T24-C04 |
|
| Monthly saving |
The value of the time and error reduction a rollout delivers each month, calculated from hours saved multiplied by their own labour cost.,T24-C04 |
|
| Total cost of ownership |
A rollout's own total cost plus its own recurring cost over a defined period, used to compare it fairly against an alternative.,T24-C04 |
|
| Technology break-even volume |
The number of units or cartons a rollout must process before its own savings equal its own total cost.,T24-C04 |
|
| Cycle count task list |
The set of specific locations a WMS assigns to be counted in a given cycle, generated automatically from its own rotation rules.,T24-C04 |
|
| Variance flag |
An automatic alert a WMS raises the moment a count entry does not match book stock, before the counter moves to the next location.,T24-C04 |
|
| Recording gap |
The delay between a warehouse event happening and its record becoming trusted, closed by a WMS and left open by a paper process.,T24-C04 |
|
| Technology fit |
Whether barcoding or RFID matches a specific operation's own carton mix, pallet handling and margin, per Lesson 4.2's method.,T24-C04 |
|
| Combined inventory control check |
Reading all four of the worksheet's own sheets together for one operation, rather than treating each as an isolated exercise.,T24-C04 |
|
| Warehouse |
A building where goods are received, stored, and prepared for onward movement before they reach their final customer.,T24-C01 |
|
| Receiving |
Checking an incoming shipment against its own paperwork and counting it before it is accepted into stock.,T24-C01 |
|
| Put-away |
Moving received goods from the receiving area to a specific storage location inside the warehouse.,T24-C01 |
|
| Picking |
Collecting the exact items and quantities an order calls for from their storage locations.,T24-C01 |
|
| Packing |
Preparing picked goods for onward transport, in the right cartons, with the right labels and documents.,T24-C01 |
|
| Dispatch |
Loading and releasing a packed order to the next carrier or destination, with its own paperwork completed.,T24-C01 |
|
| Order cycle time |
The total time from an order being placed to the goods actually leaving the warehouse.,T24-C01 |
|
| Delivery note |
The supplier's own document listing what it claims to be sending in a specific shipment.,T24-C01 |
|
| Receiving discrepancy |
A difference between what a shipment's own paperwork claims and what is physically counted on arrival.,T24-C01 |
|
| Short shipment |
A shipment that arrives with less quantity than its own paperwork claims.,T24-C01 |
|
| Overage |
A shipment that arrives with more quantity than its own paperwork claims.,T24-C01 |
|
| Receiving report |
The warehouse's own record of what was actually counted at receiving, matched against or compared with the supplier's claim.,T24-C01 |
|
| Location code |
The fixed reference, such as an aisle, rack and shelf combination, that identifies exactly where a unit of stock sits inside a warehouse.,T24-C01 |
|
| Slotting |
Deciding which items go in which locations, usually based on how often each item is picked.,T24-C01 |
|
| Fast-moving item |
An item picked often, usually placed close to the packing area to reduce travel time.,T24-C01 |
|
| Location capacity |
The maximum quantity a specific storage location can physically hold.,T24-C01 |
|
| Pick list |
A document specifying the exact style, size, quantity and destination for a warehouse worker to collect for one order.,T24-C01 |
|
| Pick error |
Collecting the wrong item, wrong quantity, or wrong size against a pick list.,T24-C01 |
|
| Order accuracy |
The share of an order's own pieces that are correctly picked and packed, matching the pick list exactly.,T24-C01 |
|
| Carton label |
The label attached to a packed carton stating its own contents and destination.,T24-C01 |
|
| Pack check |
A verification step comparing picked items against the pick list before a carton is sealed.,T24-C01 |
|
| Warehouse cycle |
The full sequence of receiving, put-away, picking and packing, and dispatch for one order.,T24-C01 |
|
| Bottleneck job |
Whichever of the four warehouse jobs is currently the slowest, limiting how fast the rest of the order can move.,T24-C01 |
|
| Cycle worksheet |
A single record tracking one order's own progress through all four warehouse jobs at once.,T24-C01 |
|
| Top-up run |
An additional Make to Order production run placed on top of a standing Make to Stock forecast, when demand justifies it.,T24-C01 |
|
| Raw material store |
The store that holds fabric, trims and other inputs before they are issued to cutting or production, distinct from a store that holds completed units.,T24-C02 |
|
| Finished goods store |
The store that holds completed, packed units after production, ready for shipment or sale, distinct from a store that holds unprocessed inputs.,T24-C02 |
|
| Material issue |
Releasing a measured quantity of fabric or trims from the raw material store to the cutting room or production line, recorded against a specific order.,T24-C02 |
|
| Issue slip |
The document that records what was issued from the raw material store, to which order, and how much, so the store's own book stock can be updated.,T24-C02 |
|
| Roll balance |
The quantity of fabric still remaining on one specific roll after each cut is taken from it, tracked roll by roll rather than only as a total store balance.,T24-C02 |
|
| Material usage variance |
The difference between the material a raw material store's own count shows as used and the material production actually consumed for the pieces it made, found by reconciling the two records.,T24-C02 |
|
| Bundle location log |
A record, updated each time a bundle physically moves, of the exact zone or station where that bundle currently sits, separate from how much of it is completed.,T24-C03 |
|
| WIP report |
A single report listing every bundle's quantity issued, quantity completed and quantity remaining at every operation on a line, read together rather than bundle by bundle.,T24-C03 |
|
| Waiting-bundle count |
The number of bundles sitting unfinished in front of a single operation at one point in time, used to rank operations against each other.,T24-C03 |
|
| Handover count |
The quantity of finished pieces the sewing floor formally states it is transferring, recorded at the exact point a bundle crosses into the finished goods store.,T24-C03 |
|
| Receiving count |
The quantity of finished pieces the finished goods store itself counts on arrival, checked against the sewing floor's own handover count before the transfer is accepted.,T24-C03 |
|
| Pre-shipment reconciliation |
Checking a shipment's own finished goods stock against its packing list, piece for piece, before loading, to confirm the two actually agree.,T24-C03 |
|
| Digital colour standard |
A colour standard recorded as a numeric colour value inside a shared digital file, in addition to any physical swatch, so every party can check the same reference without relying on the physical swatch's own condition or the light it is viewed under.,T25-C03 |
|
| Colour value |
The specific numeric coordinates a digital colour standard records for one colour, read the same way on any calibrated screen or instrument regardless of the room's own lighting.,T25-C03 |
|
| Colour tolerance |
The maximum acceptable numeric difference between a digital colour standard's own colour value and a measured dye lot's colour value, before the dye lot is judged not to match.,T25-C03 |
|
| Digital material library |
A shared digital collection of approved colour standards and fabric records, organised so a design team can find and reuse an existing approval instead of starting a new approval from scratch.,T25-C03 |
|
| Material record |
One entry in a digital material library, holding one colour standard or one fabric specification's own approved details.,T25-C03 |
|
| Reuse |
Applying an already-approved material record to a new style, instead of running a fresh approval process for a colour or fabric already proven to work.,T25-C03 |
|
| Material version |
One specific saved state of a material record at a point in time, distinct from any later edit made to the same record.,T25-C03 |
|
| Version mismatch |
A difference between the material version a specific order approved and the version currently held in the shared library, caused by an edit made after that order's own approval.,T25-C03 |
|
| Virtual sample |
A 3D digital representation of a garment, built from a tech pack and a fabric's own digitized properties, that can be viewed and checked before any physical garment exists.,T25-C02 |
|
| Fabric digitization |
Measuring a physical fabric's own weight, drape and stretch, then entering those values into a 3D tool so a virtual sample behaves like the real cloth.,T25-C02 |
|
| Virtual fit avatar |
A digital body form, built to a garment's own size specification, used to display how a virtual sample sits, standing in for a real body.,T25-C02 |
|
| Design confirmation |
Approving a garment's silhouette, proportions, print placement or colour blocking from a virtual sample, without needing a physical sample.,T25-C02 |
|
| Physical confirmation |
Approving a garment's real fit, drape, stretch recovery, or finish, such as a wash, from an actual sewn sample, because a virtual sample cannot show it reliably.,T25-C02 |
|
| CAD system |
Software a factory uses to draft, grade and lay out pattern pieces on screen instead of on paper.,T25-C01 |
|
| Pattern room |
The area of a factory where a garment's pattern is drafted, graded and checked before cutting.,T25-C01 |
|
| Manual grading |
Scaling a paper pattern up or down by hand, using grading rulers, to produce every size in a size range.,T25-C01 |
|
| Digital pattern file |
The saved, editable computer file holding one style's own pattern pieces and their measurements inside a CAD system.,T25-C01 |
|
| Digitizing |
Turning an existing paper pattern into a digital pattern file inside a CAD system, by tracing or scanning it.,T25-C01 |
|
| Original pattern |
The already-approved paper pattern a digital pattern file is checked against before it is trusted for cutting.,T25-C01 |
|
| Size run |
The complete set of sizes a style is produced in, such as S, M, L and XL.,T25-C01 |
|
| Target consumption |
The fabric quantity per piece, or per order, a marker is expected to achieve before cutting is approved.,T25-C01 |
|
| Order specification file |
The single record naming which digital pattern, grade rule and marker version an order was actually approved and cut against.,T25-C01 |
|
| Version control |
Keeping track of which specific version of a digital pattern or marker file was used for a given cutting run, so a later change does not get confused with an earlier approved one.,T25-C01 |
|
| Body-scan data |
Measurements taken from a sample of real bodies by a body-scanning system, instead of from a single fit model or a paper size chart alone.,T25-C04 |
|
| Fit block |
The base pattern shape a factory cuts every size of a style from, before any style line is added.,T25-C04 |
|
| Physical fit session |
A scheduled session where a real sample garment is tried on a fit model or a sample of real bodies and adjusted by hand.,T25-C04 |
|
| Scanned population |
The group of real bodies actually measured by a body-scanning system for one fit project.,T25-C04 |
|
| Fit-complaint rate |
The share of a style's returns or complaints that state a fit reason, tracked per style.,T25-C04 |
|
| Virtual fit block |
A pattern shape held and adjusted inside a digital pattern system, built from measurements rather than cut in fabric.,T25-C04 |
|
| Average measurement set |
The single set of body measurements calculated by averaging every body in a scanned population.,T25-C04 |
|
| Digital adjustment |
A change made to a pattern shape inside a digital pattern system, applied without cutting or re-cutting fabric.,T25-C04 |
|
| Fit confirmation |
The final check that a virtual fit block's own adjustment actually corrects the problem it was built to fix.,T25-C04 |
|
| Digital-safe stage |
A stage of a fit workflow whose result a digital record can confirm reliably enough to approve without a human fit check.,T25-C04 |
|
| Human-check stage |
A stage of a fit workflow that still requires a person to check a real garment on a real body before it is approved.,T25-C04 |
|
| Digital approval log |
The record showing which stages of a style were approved digitally and which were confirmed by a human check.,T25-C04 |
|
| Digital record |
The single, current file or entry that holds one order's own version of a specific piece of information.,T25-C04 |
|
| Digital record version mismatch |
When two or more of an order's own digital records reference different versions of the same underlying pattern or fit decision.,T25-C04 |
|
| Record owner |
The person or role responsible for updating a specific digital record whenever its underlying information changes.,T25-C04 |
|
| Connected record |
One order's own single digital record that holds the CAD, 3D sampling and body-scan fit information together, each dated and versioned.,T25-C04 |
|
| Stale reference |
A record that still points to an earlier version of another record after that other record has since been updated.,T25-C04 |
|
| Hybrid order |
One style produced under two business models at once, usually one confirmed order line and one forecast order line.,T25-C04 |
|
| Sequenced decision |
A decision that depends on the outcome of an earlier decision in the same workflow, and so must run after it, not before.,T25-C04 |
|
| Combined saving |
The total saving from running every step of a digital workflow together, compared against running none of them or running them out of order.,T25-C04 |
|
| Workflow record |
The single file or tool holding the result of every step in a digital workflow for one style, kept for future reuse.,T25-C04 |
|
| Reuse value |
The saving a workflow record produces the second time it is used, without repeating the cost of the original decisions.,T25-C04 |
|
| Paper travel card |
A paper document that physically follows a bundle through a sewing line, updated by hand at each operation it passes.,T26-C02 |
|
| Daily output sheet |
A separate paper record, usually completed once per shift, that totals a line's own output for the day.,T26-C02 |
|
| Machine log book |
A separate paper record, kept near a machine or by a mechanic, noting when a machine stopped and why.,T26-C02 |
|
| Connected production record |
A single record that holds output, stoppage and location facts together, so one is never checked without the others.,T26-C02 |
|
| Cross-checking |
Manually comparing two or more separate paper records against each other to answer a question neither record answers alone.,T26-C02 |
|
| Machine data |
Production facts, such as stitch count or stop time, captured automatically by a sensor on the machine itself, without a person writing anything down.,T26-C02 |
|
| Manual hourly log |
A paper or simple digital record an operator fills in by hand, usually once an hour, stating pieces sewn and any stoppage.,T26-C02 |
|
| Estimate gap |
The difference between a manual log's own reported figure and what machine data actually recorded for the same period.,T26-C02 |
|
| Stitch count |
The number of stitches a sewing machine has completed, one of the raw facts a machine-mounted sensor can count directly.,T26-C02 |
|
| Stop time |
The total time a machine spent not sewing during a period, whether from a planned pause or an unplanned stoppage.,T26-C02 |
|
| IoT sensor |
A small device attached to a machine that measures one specific fact, such as stop time, vibration or temperature, and reports it automatically.,T26-C02 |
|
| Sensor installation cost |
The one-time cost of installing one IoT sensor: the sensor unit itself, wiring or mounting, and connecting it to a reporting system.,T26-C02 |
|
| Monitored fact |
The single specific measurement a given sensor is built to capture, such as motor vibration or stop time.,T26-C02 |
|
| Monthly value |
The cost or time a specific sensor's own data actually helps a business avoid each month, once it is installed and used.,T26-C02 |
|
| Low-value sensor |
A sensor whose monitored fact rarely changes or rarely causes a real cost, so its own monthly value stays below its installation cost.,T26-C02 |
|
| Total monthly saving |
The combined value of every source of saving a connected machine delivers each month, added together before comparing against cost.,T26-C02 |
|
| Hybrid order saving |
The saving a connected machine delivers across both an export MTO base and a domestic-style MTS top-up sharing the same line.,T26-C02 |
|
| Full order case |
The complete set of connection, accuracy, sensor and payback checks brought together for one order, rather than judged separately.,T26-C02 |
|
| Core run |
The confirmed Make to Stock portion of a hybrid order, produced against a standing forecast rather than a single fixed order.,T26-C02 |
|
| Single approval decision |
One decision covering a full order's own connected-machine investment, made from a combined worksheet rather than four separate judgments.,T26-C02 |
|
| Worksheet record |
The one place a business keeps every check from this course together for a specific order, for reuse on the next order.,T26-C02 |
|
| MES (Manufacturing Execution System) |
A system that records production activity directly from the factory floor, order by order and operation by operation, as it happens, in one connected record.,T26-C02 |
|
| Shop-floor dashboard |
A screen that shows a small number of figures drawn from shop-floor data, built to support one specific decision rather than to display everything a system records.,T26-C03 |
|
| One real question |
The single decision a dashboard exists to support, stated in advance, before any figure is chosen for the screen.,T26-C03 |
|
| Refresh cadence |
How often a dashboard's own figures update, set to match how fast the decision behind them actually needs to be made.,T26-C03 |
|
| Alert threshold |
The value a dashboard's own figure must cross before it signals that someone needs to act.,T26-C03 |
|
| Dashboard owner |
The person responsible for checking a dashboard's own figure against its threshold and acting on it.,T26-C03 |
|
| Data source |
The shop-floor record, such as a machine feed or a daily output sheet, that a dashboard's own figure is calculated from.,T26-C03 |
|
| Line efficiency |
A line's own actual output in a period, divided by its own target output for the same period, expressed as a percentage.,T26-C03 |
|
| Target pace |
The number of pieces a line is expected to produce per hour, set from its own known operations and staffing.,T26-C03 |
|
| Target output |
A line's own target pace multiplied by its own run time, giving the output the line is expected to reach over a shift or period.,T26-C03 |
|
| Actual output |
The real number of pieces a line produced in a period, counted from its own output log rather than assumed.,T26-C03 |
|
| Assumed efficiency |
An efficiency figure quoted from memory or habit, not calculated from a specific period's own real output data.,T26-C03 |
|
| Efficiency gap |
The difference between a line's own target output and its own actual output for the same period.,T26-C03 |
|
| Run time |
The hours a line actually operates in a period, used with target pace to calculate target output.,T26-C03 |
|
| Leading indicator |
A metric that changes early enough, before an outcome occurs, to give time to act on it.,T26-C03 |
|
| Lagging indicator |
A metric that only confirms an outcome after it has already happened, too late to prevent it.,T26-C03 |
|
| Bottleneck stage |
The single stage in a production sequence whose own capacity limits how fast the whole order can move, regardless of how fast other stages run.,T26-C03 |
|
| Work-in-progress backlog |
The quantity of an order sitting unfinished at a specific stage, waiting to be processed.,T26-C03 |
|
| Warning window |
The amount of time between a metric first signalling a problem and the deadline the problem would actually affect.,T26-C03 |
|
| Predictive test |
Checking a candidate metric against an order's own past actual outcome, to see whether the metric would have given useful warning.,T26-C03 |
|
| False alarm |
A metric signalling a problem that, on later evidence, did not actually affect the order's own final outcome.,T26-C03 |
|
| Combined worksheet |
A single tool that brings a dashboard's one real question, a line's own efficiency calculation, and a predictive-metric test together for one line or order.,T26-C03 |
|
| Per-style tracking |
Keeping a hybrid line's own dashboard, efficiency, and predictive figures separate for each style it runs, rather than blended into one line-wide figure.,T26-C03 |
|
| Weekly production review |
The regular meeting at which a factory checks its own dashboard figures, efficiency, and leading indicators against that week's own real output.,T26-C03 |
|
| Risk flag |
A worksheet's own marker showing that a specific style's own figures have crossed a threshold worth acting on.,T26-C03 |
|
| Shared line capacity |
The total run time a hybrid line has available, divided between the styles it carries in a given period.,T26-C03 |
|
| Worksheet owner |
The person responsible for keeping a combined worksheet's own figures current and acting on any risk flag it raises.,T26-C03 |
|
| Sewing-floor task |
One distinct operation performed at one station on a sewing line, such as attaching a sleeve or finishing a neckline.,T26-C04 |
|
| Manual judgement task |
A task where the operator must vary the setting, seam or check from piece to piece, based on something a machine cannot see or decide on its own.,T26-C04 |
|
| Style change |
A change in the garment's own cut, fabric or trim between orders or within an order's own size run, which can force a task's steps to vary.,T26-C04 |
|
| Single-process automation |
A machine or fixed device that performs one sewing-floor task the same way on every piece, without adjusting itself for variation.,T26-C04 |
|
| Utility submeter |
A separate meter installed on one line, department or machine group, measuring its own electricity or water use apart from the factory's single main meter.,T26-C04 |
|
| Consumption baseline |
The energy or water use a submeter records for a line over a stated period, used as the starting figure for tracking or comparison.,T26-C04 |
|
| Consumption intensity |
A line's own energy or water use divided by the pieces it produced over the same period, giving a per-piece figure comparable across orders.,T26-C04 |
|
| Guessed allocation |
An estimate of how much of a whole-factory utility bill belongs to one line, based on an indirect measure such as floor space or headcount, not a direct reading.,T26-C04 |
|
| Digital transformation |
Connecting several separate digital systems, such as real-time tracking, machine data, dashboards and automation, into one coordinated change across a factory's operations, rather than adding each system on its own.,T26-C05 |
|
| Digitization priority |
The ranked order in which a factory's separate manual processes are chosen for digital transformation, decided by weighing each process's own bottleneck impact against its own manual process cost.,T26-C05 |
|
| Manual process cost |
The recurring cost of running a specific factory process by hand: the labour time, delay and error rate it carries before it is digitized.,T26-C05 |
|
| Data feed dependency |
A rollout requirement where one digital system must already be running and producing reliable data before a second system can use that data as its own input.,T26-C05 |
|
| Multi-system return |
The total financial return calculated across every system in a digital transformation plan together, combining their costs and savings rather than judging each system's own payback separately.,T26-C05 |
|
| Combined transformation check |
Running digitization priority, rollout sequencing and combined return together on one new case, in one pass, rather than as three separate reviews.,T26-C05 |
|
| Real-time tracking |
Recording production output at the moment it happens, rather than totalling it once at a fixed point such as the end of a shift.,T26-C01 |
|
| End-of-shift count |
A production count taken only once, after a shift ends, that shows what happened during the shift but not when a problem inside it actually began.,T26-C01 |
|
| Reaction time |
The gap between the moment a production problem starts and the moment someone actually acts on it.,T26-C01 |
|
| Stalled line |
A line whose output has stopped, or fallen well below its usual pace, for longer than a normal short stop explains.,T26-C01 |
|
| Output entry |
A single record of the quantity completed at one operation at one specific moment, the smallest building block a real-time tracking system is made of.,T26-C01 |
|
| Batch entry |
An entry that records several completions covering a stretch of time all at once, logged after the fact rather than at the moment each one happened.,T26-C01 |
|
| Cumulative output |
The running total of pieces or bundles completed at an operation, added up from the start of the shift to the current moment.,T26-C01 |
|
| Entry lag |
The time between a unit of work actually finishing and its output entry being logged into the tracking system.,T26-C01 |
|
| Production dashboard |
A live screen or report that shows real-time output across a line's operations, or across several lines at once, updated as output entries arrive.,T26-C01 |
|
| Output curve |
The line drawn on a dashboard by plotting a line's own cumulative output against time, whose shape shows whether output is climbing steadily, slowing, or flat.,T26-C01 |
|
| Flat stretch |
A section of an output curve where cumulative output stops climbing for a period longer than a normal short pause explains.,T26-C01 |
|
| Pace gap |
The difference between an operation's actual real-time output and its own target pace over the same period.,T26-C01 |
|
| Cross-supplier critical path |
A critical path drawn across every supplier tier an order actually depends on, not only the factory the buyer directly contracts with.,T27-C03 |
|
| Upstream supplier |
Any supplier further back in the chain than the factory the buyer directly contracts with, such as a yarn spinner or a knitting mill supplying the factory's own fabric.,T27-C03 |
|
| Blind milestone |
A milestone whose progress a buying office cannot check directly, because it happens at a supplier the buying office has no line of sight into, and can only be tracked through an intermediary's own reporting.,T27-C03 |
|
| Ship-date threat |
A missed critical path date whose delay is large enough, with no downstream buffer left to absorb it, that it actually pushes back the order's own ship date.,T27-C03 |
|
| Approval matrix |
A single list of every approval a specific order needs, across every approval type, each with its own due date, owner and current status.,T27-C04 |
|
| Approvals window |
The number of days or weeks an order's own timeline sets aside for every required approval to clear before the next stage can start.,T27-C04 |
|
| OTIF rate |
The share of a supplier's past shipments that were both on time and in full, calculated together, not as two separate figures.,T27-C04 |
|
| In-full rate |
The share of a supplier's past shipments that delivered at least the agreed minimum quantity of the order.,T27-C04 |
|
| Agreed delivery terms |
The specific on-time window and minimum quantity two companies have agreed a shipment must meet to count as a success.,T27-C04 |
|
| Shipment record |
A single dated entry showing what quantity a supplier actually delivered against a specific order, and on what date.,T27-C04 |
|
| Trend direction |
Whether a supplier's own tracked figure, such as its OTIF rate, is rising, holding steady, or falling across several consecutive seasons.,T27-C04 |
|
| Single-season score |
A supplier's own performance figure for one specific season only, read without comparison to any earlier or later season.,T27-C04 |
|
| Risk prediction |
A judgment about a supplier's own likely future performance, built from its trend across several seasons rather than from its most recent score alone.,T27-C04 |
|
| Masked risk |
A worsening trend that stays hidden because each individual season's own score still falls inside an "acceptable" range on its own.,T27-C04 |
|
| Trend scorecard |
A single record placing a supplier's own figures for several consecutive seasons side by side, so a trend, not just a snapshot, becomes visible.,T27-C04 |
|
| Line-split record |
A record inside a combined worksheet that keeps a hybrid shift's own export-line and domestic-line figures separate, rather than blending them into one shared number.,T27-C04 |
|
| Single-review check |
Reading every relevant figure for an order or supplier in one sitting, using one combined document, instead of checking each tool separately on different occasions.,T27-C04 |
|
| Delay escalation trigger |
The point at which a supplier delay has used up its order's own remaining buffer, so it must be raised above a merchandiser's own regular check-in.,T27-C05 |
|
| Expediting |
Paying an extra cost on purpose to recover lost schedule time on an order already running late.,T27-C05 |
|
| Expediting cost |
The extra amount an expediting method costs above the order's own normal cost, such as overtime pay or an air freight upgrade.,T27-C05 |
|
| Cost of missing the date |
What a buyer loses by not expediting, such as a cancelled order, a lost customer or a penalty, compared against the expediting cost.,T27-C05 |
|
| Sunk cost |
Money already spent on an order that cannot be recovered by any future decision, and so should not decide what happens next.,T27-C05 |
|
| Cut-goods liability |
The amount a buyer still owes a factory under a cancellation clause for goods already cut before the order was cancelled.,T27-C05 |
|
| Vendor base |
The full set of suppliers a buyer manages together as a system, rather than one relationship judged on its own.,T27-C01 |
|
| Single-source dependency |
A situation where one style or category is bought from only one vendor, with no qualified alternative ready if that vendor fails.,T27-C01 |
|
| Vendor base management |
The ongoing work of qualifying, segmenting and allocating orders across a vendor base, not just placing individual orders.,T27-C01 |
|
| Order allocation |
Deciding which vendor in a base actually receives a given order or style, out of the vendors qualified to make it.,T27-C01 |
|
| Buying power |
The influence a buyer's total volume across its whole vendor base gives it in price and terms discussions, larger than any single order's own volume.,T27-C01 |
|
| Qualification file |
The record of every check run on a candidate factory, kept as part of the vendor base once that factory is added to it.,T27-C01 |
|
| Vendor performance segment |
A group a vendor is placed into within a vendor base, based on its measured delivery and quality record rather than how long it has been used.,T27-C01 |
|
| Tenure |
How long a business has been buying from a vendor, a fact about history rather than current performance.,T27-C01 |
|
| Segmentation review |
A periodic reassessment of every vendor's own segment placement, using its most recent delivery and quality data.,T27-C01 |
|
| Second-source qualification |
The work of qualifying an additional vendor for a style already running with one supplier, so the style is no longer single-sourced.,T27-C01 |
|
| Volume split |
Dividing a style's ordered quantity between two qualified vendors, rather than placing the full quantity with one.,T27-C01 |
|
| Switching cost |
The cost of qualifying, trialling and ramping up a second supplier, weighed against the single-source risk it removes.,T27-C01 |
|
| Value at risk |
The share of a style's own order value that would be exposed if its single supplier failed to deliver.,T27-C01 |
|
| Complete vendor base view |
A single working document that draws a vendor base's own overview, qualification status, performance segments, and second-source decisions together for one review.,T27-C01 |
|
| Full order value |
The order's own quantity multiplied by its own agreed price, the single figure a business is actually financially exposed to once the order is raised.,T27-C02 |
|
| Ambiguous term |
A word or phrase on a purchase order that a reasonable reader could interpret in two different ways, leaving the real commitment unclear until one side actually acts on it.,T27-C02 |
|
| Buyer order control checklist |
A single checklist recording, for one purchase order, whether it commits clearly, matches its own quotation, states every term without ambiguity, and shows every later amendment in writing.,T27-C02 |
|
| Agreeing evidence |
A case where sales history, trend and competitor pattern all point in the same direction. |
T19-C05-L04 |
| Buy quantity |
The total number of units committed for one style, before that total is split by colour or size. |
T19-C02-L03 |
| Colour split |
The share of a style's buy quantity allocated to each colour offered. |
T19-C02-L03 |
| Combined evidence |
Sales history, a confirmed trend and a competitor pattern read together as one picture, rather than as separate, unrelated facts. |
T19-C05-L04 |
| Combined line view |
A tracker layout showing an MTO line and an MTS line together, each keeping its own dates and status. |
T19-C03-L05 |
| Competitor range study |
Reviewing a competing retailer's own published range to identify useful patterns, without copying its specific designs. |
T19-C05-L03 |
| Core style |
A style carried in the range every season with only minor updates, because it reliably sells well and rarely needs to be dropped. |
T19-C02-L02 |
| Critical-path board |
A single shared record holding every style line's own milestones, organised so a buyer can scan across lines at once. |
T19-C03-L03 |
| Customer profile |
A description of who a store actually serves, used to decide what a range should include before any style is chosen. |
T19-C02-L01 |
| Cut date |
The latest date a factory can start cutting fabric and still meet a fixed in-store date. |
T19-C03-L02 |
| Early flag |
A risk signal raised on a milestone before its own due date has passed, based on a genuine sign of slow progress. |
T19-C03-L04 |
| Factory critical path |
The chain of sequential stages a factory controls, ending once goods reach the brand's own warehouse. |
T19-C03-L01 |
| Fashion style |
A style built around a current trend, sold for one season or less, carrying more sales risk in exchange for a chance of higher margin. |
T19-C02-L02 |
| Genuine trend |
A rise or fall in sales that continues across several separate weeks and is not explained by a single one-off event. |
T19-C05-L02 |
| Hybrid model |
A buying arrangement that combines make-to-stock and made-to-order elements within the same range. |
T19-C02-L05 |
| In-store date |
The fixed date a buyer wants goods physically ready for sale on a store's own selling floor. |
T19-C03-L02 |
| Price architecture |
How a range's styles are spread across different price points, from entry-level to premium. |
T19-C05-L03 |
| Private-label development cycle |
The fixed sequence of steps, brief, proto sample, fit sample and approval, a private-label style passes through before bulk production starts. |
T19-C06-L02 |
| Private-label development tracker |
The complete tool combining specification-ownership, sample-round, approval-outcome and consistency-check fields for a live private-label programme. |
T19-C06-L04 |
| Production timeline |
The full sequence of production steps a style must complete, from order placement to being ready for shipment. |
T19-C02-L04 |
| Range and assortment plan |
The single, complete document combining a range's space allocation, style classification, quantity breakdown and delivery phasing for a season. |
T19-C02-L05 |
| Retail critical path |
The full chain of dates a retailer plans, starting from confirmation and continuing past a factory's own warehouse arrival to the day goods are sellable in a named store. |
T19-C03-L01 |
| Retail critical-path tracker |
The complete tool combining retail-side stages, backward-calculated dates, multi-line organisation and risk-threshold flags for a buyer's own live accounts. |
T19-C03-L05 |
| Retail price ladder |
The sequence of separate selling prices a garment passes through, from the factory's FOB price to the shop price the final customer pays. |
T19-C01-L01 |
| Risk threshold |
The specific, defined condition that turns a milestone's status from on track to at risk. |
T19-C03-L04 |
| Sell-through window |
The period a style is expected to be actively sold before it is replaced, discounted or withdrawn. |
T19-C02-L04 |
| Selling space |
The physical floor, rail or shelf space in a store available to display a range, measured for planning purposes in linear metres or units. |
T19-C02-L01 |
| Short-lived spike |
A sudden rise in sales caused by a specific, one-off event, that falls back to the normal level once the event passes. |
T19-C05-L02 |
| Specification ownership |
Holding the tech pack, the fabric, the trims and the construction as the retailer's own decision, rather than accepting a brand's finished design. |
T19-C06-L01 |
| Style line |
One product style, sourced from one factory, tracked as its own row set on the critical-path board. |
T19-C03-L03 |
| Advance notice |
The amount of time between an early flag being raised and the milestone's own original due date. |
T19-C03-L04 |
| Agent-monitored milestone |
A milestone an agent checks on the factory's own behalf, on a schedule the buyer and agent agree in advance. |
T19-C03-L04 |
| Assortment |
The specific set of styles, colours and sizes a retailer actually decides to stock and display for a season, built from a wider range plan. |
T19-C02-L01 |
| Backward scheduling |
Starting from a fixed end date and subtracting each stage's own known length, in order, to find an earlier date. |
T19-C03-L02 |
| Basic style |
The simplest, most stable style in a range, changed least often between seasons, usually the highest-volume item a buyer carries. |
T19-C02-L02 |
| Confirmation date |
The date a buyer and a factory agree an order, the starting point of the factory's own critical path. |
T19-C03-L02 |
| Conflicting evidence |
A case where sales history, trend and competitor pattern point in different directions, requiring judgement to resolve. |
T19-C05-L04 |
| Consolidated shipment |
Combining more than one style into a single shipment once both are ready, rather than shipping each the moment it is individually finished. |
T19-C02-L04 |
| Consolidated view |
A way of reading a board across every line at once, rather than opening each line's own record separately. |
T19-C03-L03 |
| Depth of buy |
How many units are committed to a single SKU, as distinct from how many different SKUs the range offers. |
T19-C02-L03 |
| Design copying |
Reproducing a competitor's own specific design details closely enough to be recognisably the same product. |
T19-C05-L03 |
| Distribution centre processing |
The work a retailer's own warehouse does on goods after they arrive: checking, sorting and preparing them for individual stores. |
T19-C03-L01 |
| Floor-ready date |
The date goods are physically on a store's own selling floor, ready for a customer to buy. |
T19-C03-L01 |
| Forecast quantity |
The quantity a Make to Stock buyer commits to producing ahead of confirmed demand, based on expected future sales. |
T19-C05-L02 |
| Line-level status |
The on-track, at-risk or late status recorded for one specific style line, separate from any other line's own status. |
T19-C03-L03 |
| MTO line |
A row set on the tracker representing one confirmed, one-time Make to Order style. |
T19-C03-L05 |
| MTS line |
A row set on the tracker representing a recurring Make to Stock reorder cycle. |
T19-C03-L05 |
| Markdown stock |
Stock still unsold at the end of a selling period, cleared at a reduced price. |
T19-C05-L01 |
| Multi-factory board |
A critical-path board that holds lines from more than one factory in the same shared record. |
T19-C03-L03 |
| One-off cause |
A specific, identifiable event, such as a single promotion or a single social-media moment, that can explain a temporary change in sales on its own. |
T19-C05-L02 |
| Overstock risk |
The risk of producing more stock than customers actually buy, tying up money in unsold goods. |
T19-C05-L02 |
| Own-customer fit |
Whether a pattern learned elsewhere actually suits your own client's own customer, rather than simply being popular somewhere else. |
T19-C05-L03 |
| Plan reconciliation |
Checking that every number across a range and assortment plan's separate sections still agrees with every other section. |
T19-C02-L05 |
| Reconciliation check |
Adding every colour or size split back together to confirm it matches the original total quantity exactly. |
T19-C02-L03 |
| Retail-side milestone |
A milestone owned by the retailer's own office, not by the factory or the brand. |
T19-C03-L01 |
| Sales risk |
The chance that a style will not sell through at full price, higher for a style with a short trend life or unproven demand. |
T19-C02-L02 |
| Season readiness |
The point at which a range and assortment plan is complete, reconciled and fit to be used for placing real orders. |
T19-C02-L05 |
| Sewing start date |
The date sewing begins, which follows directly once cutting and any needed fabric preparation are complete. |
T19-C03-L02 |
| Shop-floor impact |
The effect a factory-side delay will eventually have on a store's own floor-ready date if it is not caught early. |
T19-C03-L04 |
| Single retail record |
One tracker a buying office checks instead of several separate, technique-specific documents. |
T19-C03-L05 |
| Space allocation |
The share of a store's selling space set aside for one style or category, used to size how much of it to buy. |
T19-C02-L01 |
| Stage duration |
The fixed number of days or weeks a single stage takes from its own start to its own finish. |
T19-C03-L02 |
| Store network |
The full set of a retailer's own shops that a single range plan must supply, not one shop alone. |
T19-C02-L01 |
| Store-level pattern |
A pattern in sales history that appears at one or a few stores rather than across the whole chain. |
T19-C05-L01 |
| Store-ready milestone |
The final milestone on the tracker, recording the date goods are actually ready for a named store to sell. |
T19-C03-L05 |
| Summary sheet |
The single view of a range and assortment plan that pulls one key figure from each of its underlying sections. |
T19-C02-L05 |
