Which products should a delayed factory make first?
Prioritise the smallest assortment that can support your seasonal launch, including its essential components, packaging and size mix. Ask the factory to confirm a feasible production sequence before goods become ready, with written hold and change instructions. Cambridge China Bridge can coordinate this with its own staff in China.
Define the smallest range you can actually sell
Start with the selling plan, rather than the factory's easiest products. Identify committed customer orders, essential display lines and the sizes or variants needed for a usable assortment. Write down the minimum acceptable quantity for each retained line and the latest useful warehouse receipt date. A collection of finished products may still leave you unable to fulfil orders or launch the range.
Group lines as essential for launch, useful if capacity remains, or deferred. Test whether the essential group still works if optional lines disappear. Use existing stock to fill gaps where suitable, and remove seasonal extras that would arrive too late to serve their purpose. For the wider buying calendar, see planning seasonal buying.
Prioritise complete selling units and their dependencies
For each essential line, list everything needed to sell or use it as intended: matching parts, accessories, instructions, labels and retail packaging. For a gift set, check the contents and fitted box together. For a garment range, protect the agreed size mix. Prioritise the delayed item that unlocks complete selling units, even when its own value is low.
Ask the factory which shared materials, tooling, finishing operations or subcontractors constrain these groups. Confirm component availability and the quantities of complete units each bottleneck allows. Avoid producing more main items than the available dependent parts can support unless you deliberately approve holding that unfinished stock.
Check whether the priority group can meet the cut-off
Clarify what the cut-off means with your forwarder: factory collection, warehouse receipt or another booking milestone. Work backwards through packing, inspection, any outstanding testing and inland transport. Ask the factory for line-by-line status, remaining operations, missing materials and evidence supporting its revised completion dates.
Compare feasible assortments by customer commitments, expected demand, contribution after extra freight and the usefulness of late stock. Ask whether grouping shared production operations would improve completion without starving essential lines. If the launch assortment cannot fit, reduce its scope or revise the launch plan before authorising more work.
Issue written sequencing instructions before completion
Send a dated priority schedule against the purchase order. Include product identifiers, approved variants, target quantities, linked components, production order, packed-ready dates and deferred lines. State which products must remain together and whether incomplete groups must be held. Use writing a production purchase order for the underlying specification.
Ask the sales contact and production supervisor to acknowledge the same schedule and flag conflicts before proceeding. Require your written approval for substitutions, reduced quantities, broken size mixes or changes to the sequence. Name the person who can approve changes, set progress checkpoints and replace superseded schedules so the factory floor follows the current instruction.
Working out your own order? Send us the product on WhatsApp and we reply the same working day: WhatsApp us
Keep production priority separate from shipment approval
A priority schedule tells the factory what to finish first. State separately how inspection, shipment and payment will be authorised. Manufacturers and importers placing products on the UK market must demonstrate compliance with relevant safety requirements. Keep unresolved safety evidence outside your launch-ready group; urgency is a reason to reduce the assortment, not to waive checks.
Before release, reconcile the completed assortment with your schedule and confirm what remains unfinished. Agree the revised plan and costs for the balance, including any extra freight or storage, without treating deferral as cancellation. Use deciding whether to accept a partial shipment for the shipping decision and checks before paying the balance for the payment checkpoint.
Frequently asked questions
Should the factory make bestsellers first?
Use expected demand and customer commitments, but check dependencies first. A bestseller without its required accessory or a workable size mix may contribute less to the launch than a complete supporting group.
What is a minimum viable seasonal assortment?
The smallest mix of products, variants and quantities that still supports your intended launch or committed orders. Define it around complete selling units and customer needs, rather than whatever finishes first.
Should I ship whichever products are ready?
Check whether they form a useful assortment and whether essential matching items are missing. Approve the actual shipment separately from the production sequence, with its revised costs and remaining-order plan.
What should written factory priorities include?
Include product identifiers, variants, quantities, dependencies, production order, packed-ready dates, deferred lines and hold instructions. Name the change approver and obtain acknowledgement from the production supervisor.