Overview of Technical Specification Composition

Abstract

Every process line that is added to a job order must have a corresponding Technical Specification record associated to it.

Technical specification records outline detailed specialised instructions of how to carry out a process line on a job order.

The composition and content of a technical specification record varies according to the type of the process it has been associated to.

Essentially, the more complicated the process line, the greater the number of components that make up the technical specification record.

For example, a print screen process has a technical specification record that contains Artwork components (details of the image that will be printed), Screen Set components,(details of the physical stencil set which will be used to print the artwork) as well as Tech Spec components, and a Colour Visual component that contains a representation of the artwork image that will be printed (and records the clients approval of the representation)

A re-labelling process line will have fewer components in its technical specification record. It doesn't have any artwork design components, nor screen-set, and its Tech spec contents are likely to be simpler.

Artwork Components

Generally speaking, process lines that require Artwork design and origination components (i.e, Print Screen, Print Digital, Embroidery and potentially Heat Transfer) require the ArtWork components to be created first before the actual Tech Spec Detail component can be populated. The reason is that many of the parameters that require populating on the Tech Spec Detail can only be known once the Art Work design and origination components are completed.

Technical Specification Record Components and responsibility for populating

As has been outlined elsewhere, the Production Administration department are responsible for associating a technical specification record to each process line when they are writing up a job order.

Following on from the above sections, wherever possible, populating the technical specification record's components should also be done as part of the process of writing up the job record.

Depending on its complexity of the technical specification and/or the experience of the production administration staff member whom is writing up the job order, this might not be possible in all cases.

The below table summarises the components that comprise technical specification records for each process line type, and a suggestion of which department should be responsible for populating the record.