Keep shade, size and grade on every box so a customer’s tiles always match.

Two boxes of the same tile can look different on a wall. Kiln temperature, glaze thickness and body moisture move the shade by a small amount, and a customer who orders in two lots sees the line between them. It cannot be hidden.

Production tracking for tile plants follows the body from the ball mill to the sorting line. Each firing lot carries its design, size and shade code. Sorting splits output into grades. Boxes and pallets keep the lot number all the way to the invoice, so a reorder can be matched to the original shade.

The body is milled, spray dried and pressed in sizes that depend on the order book. Pressed tiles pass through a dryer, receive glaze or digital print, and travel through the kiln on a roller line. Operators track press settings, glaze weight, kiln profile and breakage at each stage, noting the die in use and the shift that ran it. Some lines also polish or rectify edges.

At the end of the kiln the tiles reach the sorting line, where a machine or an inspector grades them by surface, size and shade. Premium, standard and rejected tiles are boxed and palletised with a lot and shade label. Sales staff quote the stock that is available in a single shade. Trucks load against the order.