Most bag orders do not fail because of a bad factory. They fail because something changed after cutting had started: a colour approved from a screen, a size quoted from a similar product, a handle specified by description, a packing method assumed from the last order. Each of those changes costs more after the fabric is cut than before.

A specification freeze is the point at which every field is confirmed in writing and no further changes are accepted without a change order. It is not bureaucracy; it is the mechanism that keeps the quoted price and the promised date intact.

The Fields That Must Be Frozen

Seven fields cover the majority of disputes. Material specification with the fabric weight and composition. Colour, approved against a physical sample rather than a screen. Dimensions, stated as internal dimensions after filling. Handle type and attachment. Print or decoration, with artwork files and ink colours named. Packing method, including carton dimensions and quantity per carton. And the inspection standard that will apply at the end.

Each of those should be confirmed in one document with a date and a version, and the document should be referenced in the purchase order. Where a field is still open, the order is not frozen and the delivery date is provisional.

Two fields are most often left ambiguous. Colour approval from a screen is not approval, because screen colours vary; and dimensions quoted as flat sizes rather than internal dimensions produce a product that arrives smaller than expected. Both are cheap to settle at the freeze stage, and both are impossible to correct after cutting.

Sampling as Evidence, Not Ceremony

The sampling stages exist to prove different things, and the value of approving a sample is that it becomes the physical reference for production. A sample approved verbally, or approved and not retained, cannot do that job.

The final pre-production sample should be signed, dated and held by both parties, and it should be made from the actual production materials and the actual processes. A sample made from a stock fabric on a hand machine is a useful development step but not a production reference. The stages and what each should prove are set out in our notes on bag sampling stages.

Where print or decoration is involved, the approved sample should carry the actual print, not a digital representation. This is the field where approvals are most often given on evidence that cannot be compared with a finished item.

Commercial Terms Confirmed With the Spec

The freeze is also the moment to confirm the commercial frame: quantity with the tolerance, unit price, delivery term, delivery date expressed as a period from the freeze, payment structure, and the documentation that will be issued before shipment.

The delivery term decides who arranges carriage, insurance and clearance, and it should be written into the same document as the specification. The allocation of delivery, cost and risk under the agreed term is defined by ICC Incoterms rules, and a mismatch between the term quoted and the term ordered is a recurring source of commercial argument.

Capacity should be confirmed at the same time. A factory that has quoted a delivery period without checking its schedule against the season can accept the order and still miss the date, and verifying capacity before committing is what turns a delivery date into a commitment. The verification method is described in our article on verifying a factory for a seasonal peak.

Change Control After the Freeze

Changes will happen, and the point of the freeze is to make them visible rather than to forbid them. A change after the freeze should be raised in writing, costed, dated and approved, with an explicit statement of the effect on the delivery date.

Two categories of change are cheap and two are expensive. Artwork changes before the print plates are made, and packing changes before cartons are ordered, are usually routine. Material changes and dimension changes after cutting has started are disruptive at best, and where they are unavoidable the honest answer may be a new order rather than a modification.

The change log should be attached to the order file. It becomes the record of what was agreed and when, which is what makes a subsequent claim or a reorder straightforward rather than archaeological.

Making the Freeze Useful Rather Than Bureaucratic

A freeze document should fit on a few pages and be readable by both the buyer and the factory floor. Where it is written in a format the factory cannot use, it becomes an administrative artefact and the real specification reverts to email.

The practical test is whether a factory supervisor could work from it: material, colour reference, dimensions, construction, print, packing and inspection. If any of those requires a phone call to interpret, the document is incomplete.

The freeze should also travel with the order through documentation, inspection and shipping, so that the inspector checks against the same fields the buyer approved. Our https://tiiocti.com/factory-tour/ process keeps the frozen specification as the reference throughout, which is what makes the final inspection a verification step rather than a negotiation.

Preguntas frecuentes

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If orders keep shifting after they are placed, the freeze document is what stops it. Our factory tour and process material shows how a frozen specification is carried through production and inspection, and the sampling stages that support it are described in our sampling article.