Every decorated garment order goes through the same path. Shops differ in how much of it is written down, and that difference shows up as jobs that quietly sit for a week.
The useful discipline is not naming the stages. It is defining, for each one, the single condition that lets a job leave it.
The nine stages
| Stage | Exit condition | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Enquiry | Requirement, quantity and target date captured | Counter |
| 2. Quote | Priced and sent | Counter |
| 3. Approval | Proof accepted in writing, with a timestamp | Customer |
| 4. Deposit | Payment terms satisfied or account approved | Office |
| 5. Blanks | Stock confirmed or purchase order raised | Office |
| 6. Artwork | Separations, digitised file or transfer sheet ready to run | Art |
| 7. Production | All pieces decorated | Floor |
| 8. QC and pack | Counted, checked, folded, boxed, labelled | Floor |
| 9. Dispatch and invoice | Shipped or collected, invoice issued | Office |
Written like this, two things become obvious. Stages 3 and 5 depend on someone outside your building. And every stage has exactly one owner, which is the only way a stalled job gets noticed.
Why exit conditions matter more than names
"In artwork" is a description. "Separations complete and saved to the order" is a condition. The first can be true for a week without anyone lying. The second cannot.
The test: could two people disagree about whether a job has left this stage? If yes, the condition is too vague.
The two stages that cost you weeks
Approval. The job is priced, wanted, and completely stationary. The only fix is an automated chase on a schedule plus one visible list of everything awaiting a customer. See cutting artwork approval time for the mechanics.
Blanks. A confirmed order with unconfirmed stock is a promise you have not checked. Confirm availability at quote time for anything unusual, and raise the purchase order the moment the deposit lands, not the morning you plan to print.
Where quality control belongs
Not at the end. A count and a check at the start of production catches short-shipped blanks before you decorate 46 of the 50 pieces you were sent. Then a second check at pack. Two cheap checks beat one expensive one; see the QC checklist.
Make the current stage visible without asking
The reason to run stages at all is that anyone can see where every job is without interrupting anyone. That means one board, visible to the whole shop, that is a byproduct of doing the work rather than something someone updates.
Printer's Friend models these stages directly: the production board for the office, the floor board for a shop TV, and per-role operator screens filtered to the stages each station owns. Artwork approvals are timestamped in the customer portal, so stage 3 stops being a text message you have to go looking for.
Once the stages are honest, you can measure them. Print shop KPIs covers which of those numbers actually predict a good month.