Lead times and how to plan a run

The clock starts at approval

Production time is counted from written artwork and technical approval, because nothing can be cut, screened or set before then. A property that sends artwork on the first of the month and approves the proof on the twentieth has not bought a twenty-one day lead time; it has bought a forty-one day one. This is the single most common cause of a band arriving after a season starts, and it is fixed by naming an approver before the enquiry rather than after the proof.

Transit is a separate line, deliberately

Quoted lead times are production only. Transit depends on destination, mode and customs, and bundling it into a single headline number produces a figure that is wrong for everybody. It also hides the decision worth making: air freight compresses the schedule at a cost, sea does not, and knowing the split lets a property choose rather than discover.

RFID adds a step, not just days

A banded run with a transponder requires technical confirmation as well as artwork approval — the credential scheme, the sample test on a real door where room access is involved, and the encoding verification before dispatch. Those are sequential, not parallel, which is why RFID lead times sit at the longer end. Starting the technical conversation at the same time as the artwork one, rather than after it, recovers most of the difference.

Plan for the reorder you have not thought about

Seasons run long, bands get lost, and a property that ordered exactly enough runs out in the last fortnight — which is the worst possible time to be waiting three weeks. Either order a margin above the forecast, or agree a phased delivery from a single production run so the second tranche is already made. The second option costs nothing extra and removes the risk entirely.