Knitted Bag Programme Handover: Eleven Items Between an Approved Sample and a Running Bed

What Handover Is Actually For

Handover is the point at which an approved sample becomes a production specification, and it is complete when eleven items have been written down — because a bulk run that matches an approved sample visually but not numerically is a run waiting to be rejected.

Sampling and bulk are different activities with different standards of evidence. Sampling produces a piece that a buyer looks at and approves. Bulk produces 100 pcs or more that nobody looks at individually, judged instead by a sample drawn under an AQL plan and measured against a reference. That shift — from visual approval to statistical release — is why handover exists. The sample is the evidence; the eleven items are the argument that makes the evidence apply to the run.

The most common failure is a handover that happens in conversation. A buyer approves by email, the programme team starts bulk, and three weeks later the pre-shipment inspection measures against a reference nobody can produce, with tolerances nobody wrote down. Eleven items in a document takes an hour. It replaces a conversation that will otherwise be reconstructed under pressure at day 28.

The Eleven Items

Eleven items, in the order bulk needs them: the approved reference piece, the programme revision number, gauge and bed, yarn count and lot reference, finished GSM with tolerance, setting parameters, the trim list and jigs, the artwork map, the packing specification, the test reports, and the inspection standard.

1. Approved reference piece: a physical, measured, stored sample, not a photograph.
2. Programme revision number: the exact file revision bulk will run, with the superseded one kept retrievable.
3. Gauge and bed: E7, E12 or E14 and the machine class the programme was written for.
4. Yarn count and lot reference: count, fibre, recycled content and the specific lot approved.
5. Finished GSM with tolerance: a number, agreed at plus or minus 5%.
6. Setting parameters: temperature, dwell and the number of trials behind them.
7. Trim list and jigs: zip gauge and length, hardware finish, lining, label position, and any retained jig.
8. Artwork map: the digitised file, the knitted size, the colour count and the placement dimensioned.
9. Packing specification: units per carton, fold method, marking and the desiccant requirement.
10. Test reports: each material against each named standard, with the lot they were tested on.
11. Inspection standard: AQL 2.5 under an ISO 2859-1 sampling plan, and the release authority.

Item by Item: What Each One Prevents

Each of the eleven prevents a specific failure, and the three highest-value items are the setting parameters, the yarn lot reference and the packing count — the three most often left out of a handover and the three most likely to cause a rejection.

The Sample Record: Five Fields That Make Bulk Comparable

A sample becomes comparable to bulk when five fields are recorded against it: gauge, yarn lot, finished GSM, setting parameters and measurement conditions — and without all five, an approval is an opinion rather than a specification.

Measurement conditions are the field most often omitted and the reason two competent people measure the same bag differently. A knitted body keeps relaxing after it leaves the bed, so a piece measured on the knitting day is not the piece that ships. Conditioning for 24 hours at 20 °C and 65% relative humidity is what makes a measurement repeatable, and the standard atmosphere for conditioning and testing is published rather than a matter of preference. Recording the conditions alongside the numbers means a bulk reading can be compared to a sample reading without an argument about which one was taken properly.

Gauge

E7, E12 or E14, and the bed the piece was knitted on

Yarn lot

Count, fibre and the specific lot reference approved

Finished GSM

A number with the agreed tolerance, typically ±5%

Setting parameters

Temperature and dwell, and the number of trials behind them

Measurement conditions

Conditioned 24 hours at 20 °C and 65% relative humidity

Dimensions recorded

Twelve points, to ±3 mm, and handle drop to ±2 mm

Shade reading

Delta E under D65 against the archived swatch, tolerance 1.0

What Bulk Needs That Sampling Did Not

Bulk needs four things sampling never required: a yarn booking at the full run quantity, a bed slot with set-up time around it, jigs and packing materials, and an inspection date — and three of the four have to be arranged before day one rather than during the run.

Yarn is the longest pole, at 10 days or more, and on a custom or dope-dyed shade longer again. It is booked at day 1 to 10 of the 30-day window, and the quantity booked is the run quantity plus a reserve, commonly 15%, which covers both knitting waste and the next repeat. The bed slot carries a set-up: about 45 minutes on a repeat and about 1.5 days of programming on a first run, and the programme team needs to know which it is before the slot opens. Jigs and packing materials are ordered against the trim list and the packing specification, so both must be settled at handover. The inspection date is booked alongside the bed rather than arranged after finishing, because inspection capacity is a resource like any other.

• Yarn booked at run quantity plus about 15% reserve, across days 1 to 10.
• Bed slot reserved, with set-up time: 45 minutes on a repeat, 1.5 days of programming on a first run.
• Jigs retained and packing materials ordered against the packing specification.
• Inspection slot booked for days 24 to 30, not arranged after finishing.
• Capacity behind the run: 7 production lines at about 200,000 pcs per month.

The Handover Meeting and the Sign-Off Sheet

A handover meeting should run to an hour and end with a sign-off sheet carrying eleven lines and three signatures — because a handover that ends with a verbal agreement has not happened, it has been discussed.

The three signatures correspond to the three decision roles that were named at kickoff: the design decision owner signs for the reference piece and the artwork, the numbers owner signs for gauge, GSM and tolerances, and the compliance owner signs for the test reports and the inspection standard. Where one person holds all three roles, one signature is fine; what matters is that the sheet separates the decisions so that a later question can be traced to the person who made it. The meeting itself should be short and should not re-open the design. Its only job is to confirm that the eleven items exist, that they match the approved piece, and that bulk has what it needs to start on day one.

What the Buyer Should Keep After Handover

After handover the buyer should hold four things: a duplicate reference piece, the sample record, the signed handover sheet and the test reports — because every one of them is needed at inspection, at a reorder, or at a dispute, and none can be reconstructed reliably after the event.

The duplicate reference piece is the one that gets forgotten. A programme team keeps a reference as a matter of routine; a buying team often does not, and then has nothing to compare a delivery against when a question arises three months later. The sample record is the numeric half of the same evidence and should be kept as a document rather than as values inside an email. The signed sheet records who decided what, which matters when a question is about a tolerance rather than a defect. The test reports are needed at reorder, because a new lot has to be shown to meet the same standard, and they are needed at any market or customs enquiry.

• A duplicate reference piece, stored by the buyer rather than only by the programme team.
• The sample record as a document: gauge, lot, GSM, setting parameters and measurement conditions.
• The signed handover sheet, traceable to the person who made each decision.
• Test reports and chain-of-custody documents, needed again at reorder and at any customs enquiry.
• The programme revision number, which is what a reorder brief should quote rather than a style name.

Days 1 to 30 After Handover

Bulk runs 30 days from handover: yarn booking across days 1 to 10, knitting across days 8 to 20, finishing and trim across days 18 to 26, and inspection, packing and the pre-shipment release across days 24 to 30.

The overlaps are deliberate and are worth understanding, because they are where a buyer can legitimately ask questions. Knitting starts at day 8 while yarn booking runs to day 10, because the first yarn arrives before the whole lot is complete. Finishing starts at day 18 while knitting runs to day 20, because the first bodies off the bed go straight to trim. Inspection starts at day 24 while finishing runs to day 26, for the same reason. MOQ is 100 pcs per style and per colourway, the release is against AQL 2.5 under an ISO 2859-1 sampling plan, and the term is FOB Xiamen with CIF and DDP available.

The Shortened Handover for a Repeat Run

A repeat run needs five items rather than eleven — revision number, yarn lot, GSM, setting parameters and packing — because the programme, the artwork map, the trim list and the test reports are already archived against the revision.

With those five, a repeat re-setup takes about 45 minutes and the run completes in 22 days rather than 30. Without them it becomes a development, and the four one-off cost lines come back. For the change discipline that keeps a handover from drifting afterwards, see knitted bag specification change control.

Frequently Asked Questions

People Also Ask

Handover Is Where Sampling Stops Being a Conversation

Until handover, a knitted bag programme runs on judgement: a buyer looks at a piece and says yes. From handover on, it runs on numbers, because nobody looks at every piece in a run and a sample drawn under an AQL plan has to be measured against something.

The eleven items are the bridge, and they take an hour to write down. For the confidentiality questions that a handover sometimes raises about who holds the file, see knitted bag confidentiality practice. For the programme framework, see custom knit bags.