Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for technical textile manufacturers.
A checklist built from how technical textile manufacturers work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Customer specifications
- Roll register
- Line settings by run
- Lab readings and certificates
- Slitting and offcut stock
- Fibre and polymer lots
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- Plant head
- Technical manager
- Line operators
- Laboratory
- Sales and despatch
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Metres produced against metres ordered
- Rolls passed, held and rejected by line
- Test readings against specification by product
- Fibre and polymer lots and the rolls they fed
- Offcut and short end stock by width
- Outside coating metres out against returned
- Certificates issued by customer and order
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Accounting export
- Lab gauge or tester export
- Line controller data
- Barcode or label printer
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Is it for textile makers who sell by specification?
- How does a roll link to the raw material?
- Can it store line settings for each run?
- How is a failed roll handled?
- Can it plan slit widths from a master roll?
- Does it handle outside coating or lamination?
- Can our current certificates be reproduced?
- What happens to the data if we leave?
- What decides the cost?
- Is it worth it for one line?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Specifications live in the buyer’s email
- Line settings are not tied to the roll
- Test certificates are rebuilt by hand
- Slitting leaves odd rolls
- A faulty roll has no batch behind it
Prefer to talk it through? See the technical textile manufacturers page.