Confirming the Approved Drawing Before a Production Run
A production run should start from a released revision, not from the latest file someone happens to have. Confirm the release before the first part is cut.
Between a prototype and a production run, a drawing usually changes several times. The risk on the first production order is not that the changes were wrong. It is that the shop builds from a revision that was superseded by a change nobody sent.
What approved means here
Approved is a document state, not a feeling. It means a specific drawing number at a specific revision carries a release, with a date, from the person or group entitled to release it. Everything the review needs hangs off that: the material callout, the tolerance intent, the finish and the hole pattern.
If the answer to which revision is approved takes more than a minute to find, that is worth fixing before the run rather than during it.
The confirmation to make
- Drawing number and revision, written in the request itself rather than implied by a file name.
- The date the revision was released.
- Any markups, deviation notes or concessions accepted on the prototype that have to carry into production. An accepted deviation at prototype is not automatically approved for a run.
- Which drawing the shop should treat as current if two files arrive in the same week.
Why file names are not enough
Most drawing packages arrive as PDFs named after the part and a number. Two revisions can carry the same file name, and a downloaded copy does not announce that it is stale. The only reliable reference is the revision letter or number on the drawing itself, quoted in the request.
That is also the record that makes a reorder reproducible. Repeat work cuts from the stored program, and the stored program is only as good as the revision it was built from.
What happens when a change lands mid run
Sometimes a revision is released after the first parts are cut. Say so immediately and say what it applies to: the whole quantity, the balance, or the next release. A change that is not scoped gets applied to the wrong pieces, and a mixed delivery is harder to resolve than a delayed one.
What KorFab confirms back
That the drawing received is the revision stated, whether anything on it cannot be made as drawn, and what the release means for the schedule. That check happens before cutting, which is the only point where it is cheap.
Related
Reordering a part with a drawing revision covers the middle of a product life, where a change arrives between orders. This article covers the start, where a change arrives between prototype and run.