Before reaching out to the Tier 3, the CRR must first determine the status within FDM4 following this process.
If a customer or rep is inquiring about the status of an order being produced at a Tier 3, you must first log into FDM4 and determine if the Tier 3 has the product and the art. It is essential to confirm these two things before making any contact with the Tier 3.
The way to do that is outlined in the 4-step process below.
Step 1: Check the Warehouse Status in Review Customer Orders
The status you want to see is "In Production". This indicates the product and the art have been released to the Tier 3 in the Vendor Portal, but it does not necessarily mean the order is physically in production since we don't have visibility into the Tier 3's scheduling. This is also indicated by no colored dots in the Alerts column. Before reaching out, check Change Tracking to see when the order history shows "DecoProdStart" as this indicates the day the order was fully released to the Tier 3.
If a reasonable amount of time has passed since DecoProdStart occurred, you can reach out to the Tier 3.
Step 2: Check for Product Issues
To check for product delivery, click the Purchase Orders button (or Hamburger > Purchase Orders) to see receipt status of the garments. The received column will populate with the quantity that has been checked in at the Tier 3.
If it shows anything less than 100% received, the Tier 3 does not yet have all the product they need to run this job. Use the PO number to track the order on the B2B site, or reach out directly to the buyer for tracking information.
If the Purchase Order is 100% received, this indicates the backorder is related to art. Proceed to Step 3.
Step 3: Check for Art & Art Holds
Let's discuss art in two parts: Art/Design Status and Art Holds.
Art/Design Status
Getting the proof approved is only part of the process of getting the art released to the Tier 3. When you see a Proof Status of "Proofing Complete" in Proof Management or a change tracking record of "ProofCom", this does not indicate the Tier 3 has the art.
Once a proof is complete, the artist must finalize the production artwork, wait on digitizing (embroidery), add details and color schemes, and set the art and design status to approved.
Art Holds
An easy way to know if the Tier 3 is still waiting on art is an art hold in the Holds column and a yellow dot in the alerts column.
Art holds include:
- Decoration Proof Hold - Waiting on Proof to be created or awaiting customer to approve
- Decoration Art Hold - Waiting on digitizing or vector files to be added
- Art Setup Status Required - The art status has been been updated to complete by an artist
- Art Licensing Hold -Waiting on licensing approval from CLC/other licensing body.
- Dimension Hold - Waiting on artist to set art dimensions.
- Color Scheme Hold - Waiting on the artist to add a color scheme.
While the holds above are not issues in and of themselves, having an order sit with the same hold for too long may indicate the order has stalled.
When you see a hold, reach out to the Art Coordinator for your area for additional information or escalation.
Reaching out to the Tier 3 for Order Updates
Please reach out directly to the Tier 3 on order status once you have confirmed:
- Product is 100% received
- The art has been released
- The status is In Production
- A reasonable amount of time has passed since DecoProdStart