Most merchandise tenders are decided on a price grid built months before the first delivery lands. Once the season starts, the factors that determine whether a programme runs to schedule are usually the ones the grid did not measure.
A quoted unit price is a prediction about a job that has not been made yet. What sits behind it is a supplier's ability to hold a delivery date when something changes late in the schedule, and the late change is most often artwork, around three weeks out from the run.
Factory ownership
Ownership of the plant decides most of the answers further down the list. A supplier that owns its factory books a job into a line it controls, and a change to that booking is an internal decision taken against a production calendar it sets. Where the plant belongs to a separate business, the same change is a request between two companies, and the job takes its place alongside whatever else that line is committed to.
Asking how long a first sample takes gives a direct read on which of those two situations applies. A supplier working in a plant it controls can name the steps between artwork approval and a sample in hand, and put a date against each of them.
Tooling and minimum orders
Minimum order quantities follow from who holds the tooling. When the mould belongs to the supplier, the size of a run is a scheduling decision taken against the production calendar for that line. When the mould sits with a factory the supplier buys from, a short run has to be requested from its owner, and the quoted price carries the cost of making that request.
For a park, the effect shows on the long tail of a range: the second and third character, the seasonal line, and the item a buyer wants to test in market before committing to a full run. Those lines carry the smaller volumes, so a minimum often decides whether they get made at all.
Mock-ups and production photography
Some suppliers charge for mock-ups and for production photography, priced per concept or per shot. The amount is minor on a single item and larger on a launch that needs four concepts worked up and presented before a licensor approves one of them.
We have never charged for either of them. Mock-ups and production photography sit inside the work of preparing a quote, so the number of concepts a buyer asks to see before a licensor decides does not change what that stage costs.
Ethical auditing
Sedex membership and SMETA auditing cover four areas: labour standards, health and safety, the environment, and business ethics. A completed audit exists as a document with a date on it, so it can be sent through during a tender alongside the pricing. Asking for the report and the date of the last audit puts that paperwork in front of a buyer while the supplier list is still open.
Supplier checklist
- Who owns the factory, and can we visit it?
- How long for a first sample, in days?
- What is the minimum on a single character or SKU?
- Do you charge for mock-ups or production photography?
- What ethical auditing are you covered by, and when was the last one?
- Who holds the tooling at the end of the programme?
None of the six is a trick question. Each has an answer that a supplier already holds: a name, a date, a figure, a document. A business set up properly can give all six in a single phone call, which puts the answers on the record before the pricing is compared.