1.

Development of Collection

Developing a collection for any particular season involves many stages such as:

● Forecast research
● Mood Board
● Inspiration Board
● Market Research
● Color Board
● Swatch Board
● Trim Board
● Style Board
● Technical drawings/specifications
● Prototypes

In a year there are four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter

2. Proto Stage

A buyer will send the tech pack to the export house and get them to make samples before
placing a bulk order. The sampling is managed by the sampling department in the export house.

Proto Sample

The first such sample is known as a proto sample which is made according to the buyer
specifications and sent back to the buyer for review. The buyer may approve or reject the
sample and may request further samples before proceeding to the SMS order.

Salesman Sample (SMS)

A buyer then places an SMS order, which uses the final approved design of the product and
sent to be used by retailers of the buyer company. The SMS samples are generally directly
bought by the customers. The sales representatives use SMS in order to find out the level of
interest and gain feedback directly from customers.

3. Bulk Order

Once the SMS stage is done, based on the buying insights from the customers each retailer will
demand a particular number of bulk orders that are to be manufactured by the export house.
There is also something called Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) which means the minimum
number of units the supplier is willing to produce. The MOQ depends on supplier to supplier but
a large export house generally maintains a bigger MOQ for profit reasons.
The buyer would provide a material Order/Bill of Materials (BOM): It is the list of materials used
in the production of an item and can consist of leather, hardware, label & tags, and
miscellaneous (threads, edge color, dies, etc)

Inspection Stages:

Pre Production Sample (PP Sample): It is a sample of the products that occur before
manufacturing starts. PP sample helps buyers look over the design, including stitching, finish,
labeling, or any other manufacturing processes that need to be confirmed before large-scale
production begins.

Testing:

The buyer may request the products to be tested before bulk production. It includes different
types of tests such as dry rubbing, wet rubbing, etc. It may be done in-house or sent to a
laboratory outside the export house.

Shipment Sample or TOP (Top of Production): They are the first items off the production line
that are checked for quality control. The reason for sampling at this late stage is to ensure that
large-scale, mass production is setup in line with the original product vision and specifications.
TOP samples are also known as bulk samples are can be used as a sign that the scaled
production will be produce a quality end product.

The last stage of the process is called shipment where the bulk reaches the buyer through air,
land or ship.