A sample approval log from lab dip to pre production sign off

Buyers approve in rounds, and a fit sample may go out three times, so each round is a separate row, because round two’s comment is why round three exists. Never overwrite a row.

Give every row a sample type, a round number and a courier airway bill number, because the number lets you prove when the parcel left and when it arrived. It settles who waited for whom.

Keep the style number and the buyer’s purchase order beside each row, because a log that cannot be filtered by style becomes a diary nobody reads. Dates matter most. Without a reply date the log cannot show a slow buyer, and without a sent date it cannot show whether your own team made the style late.

A lab dip is a small dyed swatch sent to match a shade, and a strike off does the same job for a print or embroidery. Both fix colour before bulk, so each needs a reference swatch that the quality table can hold against bulk fabric from the dye house the day a roll arrives.

Record the shade code, the dye recipe reference or print screen, the light source the buyer uses and which numbered swatch was approved. Keep the physical swatch in a labelled pocket carrying the same number, so anyone can find the approved shade without asking around. Label every swatch.

When bulk fabric arrives, the quality team compares it to that swatch under the same light, starting from the log rather than someone’s memory of a phone call. Fabric that matches in daylight can look different under shop lights, so write down the light source the buyer named on the day.

Fit samples carry measurement comments, so write them as a short table of point of measure against the buyer’s requested change, row by row. Free text such as “a bit looser” cannot be audited later, so the pattern maker has to guess the change in millimetres before cutting.

The size set follows once the fit sample passes, and it proves that grading holds at the smallest and largest sizes of the style. Note sizes and corrections.

Wash tests and shrinkage reports belong in the same log for the style, because a fit that passes before washing and fails after is a common cause of rework. Photographs of the garment on a body and flat on a table, saved against the round, settle many later arguments about what was approved.

The pre-production sample, often called the PP sample, is the last gate, and once the buyer signs it nothing about the style should change without a new round. Mark that row as approved.

Pass the row to the cutting room and the sewing line as one pack: the signed PP sample, the final specification, the approved shade swatch and the trim card. Everyone works from one version.

If a late change arrives by email, add a new row instead of editing the old one, so the history stays honest and the floor sees the current version. No signature, no cutting. Supervisors should check the PP row for the buyer’s signature and a date before the first roll is spread.

A shared sheet is enough to begin, so give each merchandiser a filter by buyer, colour the approved rows green, and review overdue replies in a short weekly meeting.

When styles run into hundreds, link the log to orders so that cutting cannot be released without an approved PP row, because that one rule prevents many bulk disputes. Keep it simple.

Start by entering the samples still open today, and add the closed ones later only if a buyer asks, because a log of open work gets used. A merchandiser who joins mid season should be able to read the log and see where each style stands, and that is the clearest sign that the layout works.