How to Add Process Lines to a Job

About this Task

This topic outlines the steps necessary to accurately record the process lines required on a job order.

Background

Once a Job Order has been raised and the job header fields have been populated, the next stage of writing up a customer job order is to record the process lines that are required for the job from inception to completion.

(Note: In the below sections, the numbers in parenthesis refer to the annotations in the above screen-shot)


The process pane (1) allows one or more process lines for the job to be recorded.

What is a Process Line ?
A Process Line record details the department that is responsible and the categories of activities within that department that are required for the job order to be completed, as well as high level information such as the position of any image on a garment, or how many colours the image is made up from, how many of an item are required, and what the pricing for the items is.

As of the time of this user guide, the following process departments exist :-

• Art - this process line is treated somewhat different to others, in that it doesn't require resource allocation records  - see adding an artwork only process line for more information.
• Embroidery
• Heat Transfer
• Other Processes
• Print Digital
• Print Screen

It is important to understand the following three pieces of information at this point when writing up a job :-

1. A job order will be composed of one or more process lines - For example, if a garment is to be printed with an image front and back, then the process lines would include Print Screen for Front and Print Screen for back at a minimum.
2. The process line is a high level recording of the activities that are required. By itself it does not yet contain all the details pertinent for the job to be undertaken to completion.
3. A technical specification placeholder record must be associated to each process line.
   The Technical specification record associated to the process line contains the detailed granular / technical information as to how to undertake the process, and thus varies according to the type of process.
   
   This level of granular information might not be known in full when the job is being written up, (in which case it  will be populated later in the job order process), but what is important in the job writing process is that for each process line added, a corresponding technical specification record is required to be associated to it.

Prerequisites

Ensure that you are in the Job Details form for the job order that you need to add process line information on, and that the Job Header Fields have been populated.

Procedure

1. In the job detail form, click on the new record icon just above the process pane.
   
   
2. This inserts a new (blank) process line record
   
   (Note: this also creates a resource allocation record for the process line)
   
3. Populate the process line record as follows :-
   
   1. The Sort field allows you to record a numeric value against the process line. This can be used to help sort the grids contents if you have a large number of process lines on the job order. Populating this field is optional.
      
      
   2. In Department, from the drop down list, select the department that will undertake the process.
      The following departments (see note) are available for selection :-
      
      Art
      Embroidery
      Heat Transfer
      Other Processes
      Print Digital
      Print Screen
      
      Note: the department values that are displayed here as selectable are driven from system preferences.
      
      
   3. In the Position field, select from the drop down, the value that relates to the position of where the department process should occur.
      The values that are shown in the drop down depend upon which department was selected in step 3)b)
      .
      For example, if Print Screen department was selected, the following example fields (see note below) are available for selection :-
      
      Back
      Front
      Left Breast
      Right Breast
      Left Sleeve
      Right Sleeve
      
      If Other Processes was selected, then the following are available for selection:-
      
      Cut out and insert
      Machine Bag
      
      Note: the process position values that are displayed here are maintained in system preferences.
      
      
      
   4. The Colour Way field usually (but not exclusively) refers to job orders which require the Print Screen department.
      In general terms colour way refers to how many times a print run will have to be stopped to facilitate a change in the printed image.
      
      If the printing of the image for the selected position does not require any changes (i.e. it is a single colour), Colour Way can be recorded as A
      (Tip: Although typically populated with a single letter, this field can be edited to hold extra information to aid clarity)
      
      There are two common scenarios when changes are required for an image to be printed.
      
      
      When the same single colour image will be printed on an order but in two (or more) different colours (Same screens used)

       

      Under this scenario, an order is placed for printing a common image on the front of 100 garments, but the requirement is to have the image printed in two different colours.
      For half of the order, the image will be printed in red ink; for the other half in blue.
      In physical terms, this means the actual print run will be stopped partially through in order that an ink colour change can occur, using the same screens:
      
      e.g. for an order of 100 shirts with a common image but a requirement to have the image printed in two different colours, the Order would be entered as:-
      Colour Way A for 50 for Red Version.
      Colour Way B for 50 for Blue Version.

When a common image will be printed throughout the order, but with additional (differing) text on some of the order (Individual screen to be changed)

Tip: The Colour Way field can also be used to record reference to a spreadsheet or other document when writing up a job with a large number of identical process lines which differ only slightly.
For example, consider a job where there are 25 garments to be printed, and each has a common front, but the backs differ for each of the 25 shirts.
Rather than write up 25 process lines records for the back, each with a separate Colour Way reference, it would be more expedient to record  see attached doc in the Colour Way field. (see How to select an item from a drop down list for how to add an entry to the colourway drop down list) and add the external document to the job orders documents container field.

Notes:
a) There are many variations that can occur here in terms of Colour Ways and decorations, which cannot be exhaustively listed here, but require knowledge gained by experience.
If in doubt as to how to populate any elements on this layout refer to senior staff.

b) Certain processes (for example, packing) do not require Colour Way information to be recorded. For these scenarios, you can record the value as n/a

1. 5. The Colours / Screens/ Stitches field allows you to record a numeric value of how many colours (or stitches or screens) are associated with the process line Department and Position.
      For example, if the job order being raised refers to screen printing a 10 colour image on the front of a garment, then the value recorded here would be 10.
      
      
      
      Note on flash curing:for the Screen Printing process, sometimes a job order will be require the image to be printed onto a dark coloured garment. When this occurs, a base colour is often needed to "block out" the colour of the garment and form the foundation upon which the print is applied. Typically white is applied as this base, and during the printing process the white base must be dried before other colours can be applied. This drying process is known as flash curing, and typically will require an additional physical screen through which the base white ink is applied.
      
      This extra flash curing requirement is recorded in strokeone by suffixing the number of colours with a "F". For example, for a 10 colour print which required a base white ink to be first applied and flash cured, the number would be written as 10F.
      Suffixing a number with F will also cause the number of individual screen data records created for the screen-set in the associated technical specification record to be incremented by one. In the above example, the screen-set record would be created with eleven data records for the underlying screen-set members
      
      
      Similarly, if the job referred to embroidering an image made up of 1,000 stitches on the right breast of a garment, the value recorded would be 1K (as typically embroidery stitching is counted in units of one thousand)
      
      Note: This colour / screen/ stitch information may not yet be known when the order is first placed, as it ultimately is driven from the artwork associated with the order. This may not yet be received or available when the order is first placed. Should this be the case, you can leave it blank here, and it can be populated during the technical specification write up.
      

1. 6. In the To Be Given field record the total number required for the order for this process line.
      That is, the quantity required according to the Department / Position / Colour Way combination.
      
      Note:
      As this figure is recorded at the Department / Position / Colour Way level of uniqueness, it does not necessarily refer to the total size of the order, nor the garment size breakdown of the order.
      
      Tip: This field should always be populated with the required number for the process line. As it is a required field, when the process line is initially inserted, it is defaulted with a zero value.
      
      
      
      

   8. In Unit Price enter the price for one unit of the process.
      
   9. The Total Price field is automatically calculated as @sum (Unit Price * Quantity To Be Given).
      

1. 9. The Approved field is initially set as Red (Not Approved). This can be toggled to green (approved) when you are content that the process line is ready to occur.
      See Setting the Process Line Approved Status for example usage.
      
      Note: The process line approval icon is exposed in the corresponding process line layout - e.g. for a print screen process it is exposed in the print process layout.
      
      

4. Repeat steps 2) to 4) should the job order require more than one process line.

Results

Once the process lines for a job order have been recorded, the next step in writing up the job order is to populate scheduling information for the process, create / associate a technical spec to the process line, and record the details of the garments associated with the job order.

Related Topics
Writing Up a Job Order

Understanding the Job Order Detail Form

How to Populate Job Header Fields

How to Add Scheduling Information for a Process Line

Associating a Technical Spec to a Process Line

How to Populate Garment Sheets Required on a Job