The moment an order goes out to a contract workshop, visibility drops. Once a style is through the workshop door, the usual way to find out which stage it has reached is a phone call or a WhatsApp message. Once you have more than three workshops and more than thirty open orders, this stops working: something gets forgotten, and a delay is only noticed when the customer calls.
The seven steps below bring order to contract workshop tracking, whatever tool you use (Excel, a paper board or software).
1. One record line per order
The unit you track should not be the "order" but the style and colour. The navy and beige colourways of the same order may go to different workshops and finish on different days. Each line should hold at least:
- Style or order number, customer, product, colour, quantity
- Workshop (a contract workshop or your own line)
- Customer due date and the internal due date you gave the workshop
- Current stage and date of last update
If a style is split between two workshops, open two separate lines. "Half at Delta, half at Marmara" gets lost in a single line.
2. Make sure everyone reads the stages the same way
If people interpret stage names differently, the list misleads. For one person "in sewing" starts when the first piece comes off the machine; for another, when the first bundle is finished. Five to eight stages are enough; for each one, write down when an order moves into it:
| Stage | When does an order move into this stage? |
|---|---|
| Order | Customer approval received, style entered in the system |
| Fabric | Fabric order placed; the stage ends when the fabric arrives in the warehouse |
| Cutting | Marker ready, cutting started |
| At workshop | Cut pieces and trims delivered to the workshop |
| Sewing | The workshop has started bulk production |
| Quality check | The goods have reached quality control |
| Packing | Goods that passed inspection are being pressed and packed |
| Shipped | Delivery note issued, goods dispatched |
Share these definitions with your workshops too. When the workshop says "we've started sewing", everyone should understand the same thing.
3. Give the workshop its own internal due date
If the customer due date is 30 November, a workshop that finishes sewing on 30 November is already late: inspection, pressing, packing and shipping still lie ahead. Count back from the customer due date and give the workshop an internal due date. You usually need to leave 5 to 7 working days for inspection, packing and shipment; refine this figure by looking at your own past orders.
If the internal due date is not recorded, the workshop will say "that's not the date we agreed", and the discussion turns into an argument about who is right. If the date is written down, the matter is closed.
4. Put updates on a fixed rhythm
If information arrives from the workshop at random times, the list is never complete. Two methods work:
- The workshop updates it itself: the workshop supervisor marks the stage change on their phone. This is the most accurate information, because it comes straight from the source.
- The office asks at a fixed time: workshops are called at the same time every day (for example at 16:00) and the answer is written in the same place. An answer left in WhatsApp counts as lost.
Whichever you choose, the rule is: if it's not on the list, it doesn't exist. Everything learned over the phone goes on the list the same day.
5. The same three questions every morning
A tracking list earns its keep when it is read with the same three questions every morning:
- Is anything late? Every order past its internal due date but not yet shipped, with the number of days it is late.
- What has to be finished this week? Which stage have the orders due within 7 days reached? If they are still in sewing, there is a risk.
- Which workshop is overloaded? Active quantity per workshop. Placing a new order with a workshop that already has 3,000 pcs of open work guarantees a delay.
6. Keep trims and quality with the order
In contract manufacturing, a large share of delays come not from sewing but from missing trims: the zip hasn't arrived, the label was printed wrong, the button colour doesn't match. Every order should have a trims list underneath it, with the status of each item (ordered, arrived, sent to the workshop).
Record quality issues under the same order too, with photos: which size, how many pieces, what needs to be done. A note saying "too tight at the thigh" without a photo and a measurement will be remembered by nobody a week later.
7. Keep the CMT price with the order
If the unit CMT price payable to the workshop is entered with the order, the month-end workshop payable works itself out: shipped quantity times unit price, minus payments and advances made. If the price is kept in a separate notebook, checking the accounts at month end takes hours and leads to disputes with the workshop.
The most common mistakes
- Several copies of the Excel file: everyone updates their own file, and nobody knows which one is right.
- Tracking only the customer due date: the delay is noticed only in the final week.
- Information stuck in WhatsApp groups: you can't go back and find out "who said what".
- Making stage updates depend on one person: when that person goes on holiday, tracking stops.
Excel or software?
With fifteen open orders and two workshops, Excel is enough; to get started you can use our free production tracking template. Days-left and delay colour coding are already built in.
As workshops and orders multiply, Excel's limits show: one person updates the file, the workshop can't open it on a phone, and you can't see who changed what. At this point CMT tracking software lets workshop staff move the stage forward themselves and keeps the list up to date on its own.
Get workshop tracking off the phone. Workshop staff move stages forward from their phones, and late orders sit at the top every morning. 15 days free.
See CMT tracking software