Handbag Maison Lead Times: What to Expect, Gate by Gate, in Seven Checklists

The Critical Path in Twelve Lines

A programme's critical path is the shortest chain of dependencies from signed pack to handover, and on a standard route it runs twelve lines long. Anything not on those twelve lines has slack, and anything on them does not, which is why the list is worth reading before any date is agreed.

Three lines carry the great majority of the elapsed calendar: line three at 15-20 working days, line six at 6-10, and line ten at 20-30. Everything else is either short or running in parallel with something else, which is why arguing about the sampling window changes so little.

The parallel column is where the recoverable time sits. Six of the twelve lines can overlap with another, and a programme that overlaps them deliberately typically lands ten to fourteen days earlier than one that runs them in sequence.

Checklist A: Before the Pack Is Signed

The pack is the document every later stage measures against, so errors here propagate at full value. Five confirmations before signature remove most of the corrections that would otherwise surface during sampling.

Each of those five has the same structure: a number, a tolerance where one is needed, and a place on the drawing. A pack that contains adjectives in place of numbers is not finished, however polished it looks.

Checklist B: Before the Lot Is Reserved

Reservation is the longest single line on the critical path and the one most often started late. It can begin while the pack is still being written, because naming a material direction carries no design risk.

The fifth item is the one that saves the most time later. Where a substitute has already been discussed, an unavailable lot costs a day of conversation; where it has not, it costs the full reservation window again.

Checklist C: Before Sampling Starts

Sampling runs 6-10 working days, or 12-15 where the construction is complex, and it produces a sample plus a written correction list rather than a sample alone. Four items confirm that the window will be used well.

• Confirm the reference piece the sample will be measured against, because a sample without one can only be judged by opinion.
• Confirm the hardware arriving before the build starts, since a missing lock turns a 6-day window into a waiting period.
• Confirm who signs the correction list and within how long, where 24 hours is the working target.
• Confirm whether a second round is expected, because a second round adds 4-6 working days to the window.
• Confirm that the sample will be photographed on the bench, which settles geometry questions in minutes rather than days.

The second item causes more lost sampling windows than any other. A strap, a lock or a foot arriving after the build has started means the sample is built without it, measured without it, and corrected without anyone having seen it in place.

Checklist D: Before the Spec Is Frozen

The freeze is the line where a change steps from 1x to 6-10x in cost, which makes it the single most valuable signature on the whole programme. Four confirmations belong before it.

1. Every correction from sampling is closed and confirmed in writing, not merely discussed.
2. The retained reference piece is signed by both sides and set aside for the re-order.
3. The inspection plan is agreed: AQL 2.5 under ISO 2859-1, with sample size and accept numbers recorded.
4. Destination markets are fixed, so compliance is booked per lot for each one rather than amended later.

The third item is worth stating in numbers at the freeze rather than in principle. For a 500 pcs lot at general inspection level II the plan uses code letter H: 50 units drawn, accept 3, reject 4, and agreeing that now removes an argument at the end of the run.

Checklist E: Before Bulk Intake

Intake opens the 35-50 day bulk window, and once it has opened the calendar belongs to the bench. Five confirmations before that moment decide whether the window runs clean.

The fourth item is the least costly insurance on the entire list. Measuring the first cut piece against the frozen pattern takes two minutes and catches a grading error before several hundred panels inherit it.

Checklist F: During the Bulk Window

The 35-50 days of bulk are not a black box. Four checks during the window catch drift while it can still be corrected, which is the whole point of inspecting during a run rather than only at the end.

• Check stitch density weekly over 25 mm, because a machine drifting out of tension shows there first.
• Check edge finish against the reference, since three thin passes is a specification that erodes under time pressure.
• Check handle attachment with a static load test at 15 kg held for 60 seconds on a drawn unit.
• Check colour against the retained reference under D65 lighting, where a tolerance of ΔE 1.5 is the working figure.
• Check carton counts and packing order weekly, so the last week is not spent counting rather than correcting.

The first of those five is the most diagnostic. Stitch density drifts quietly, nobody sees it on a finished piece, and by the time it is visible the run has usually been finished for a week.

Checklist G: At Inspection, Packing and Handover

Inspection, corrections, packing and documents together hold 5-8 working days, and they are the stage most often squeezed when an earlier gate ran late. Squeezing them is how a good run ships badly.

Inspection standard

AQL 2.5 under ISO 2859-1, plan agreed before bulk began

Sample plan at 500 pcs

General inspection level II, code letter H: 50 units drawn, accept 3, reject 4

Correction buffer

Three working days for correction and re-check after the result

Edge paint full cure

24 hours after the final pass before units are packed

Export carton

10-12 units per carton for a 30 cm structured body, with dust bags interleaved

Documents at handover

Packing list, commercial documents, test reports and the inspection result

Transit to Northern Europe

25-35 days from FOB Xiamen; 18-25 days to the United States west coast

The 24-hour cure is the item most often overridden, and it is the one that produces edge paint marking inside the carton. Units packed before the final pass has cured arrive with impressions that no amount of care at the destination will remove.

The Fourteen Days You Can Still Recover

Around fourteen working days of a standard route are recoverable without touching the quality of the work: they sit in overlaps, in confirmations given early, and in decisions that were waiting rather than being made.

Added together those four recover around twelve to seventeen days, which is why the honest answer to how long a programme takes is given as a range. The bottom of the range is reached by confirmation discipline rather than by working faster.

What to Do When the Date Is Already Gone

Once a date has been missed, three options remain, and only two of them are honest: ship a reduced quantity on time, ship the full quantity late, or ship a simplified construction on time. The fourth option, compressing every remaining gate, is how a delay becomes a defect.

• Ship the first colourway on time and the second a fortnight later, which works where colourways are independent.
• Ship a reduced quantity to the launch appointment and the balance afterwards, provided the carton plan allows it.
• Simplify a construction detail for this run only, recorded as a deviation, and reinstate it on the re-order.
• Re-book freight rather than compressing the bench, since a week of transit is cheaper than a week of rework.

The third option deserves care. A deviation recorded in writing is a decision; the same deviation made quietly is a substitution, and it will be discovered at the re-order when the pieces do not match.

Our programme works to MOQ 500 pcs per style and colourway, with sampling at 6-10 working days and bulk at 35-50 days on FOB Xiamen terms, inspected to AQL 2.5 under ISO 2859-1. It runs across 7 production lines with about 200,000 pcs per month of capacity and export experience since 2014, delivered through our validated partner factory Quanzhou Yingming Bags, an SGS-validated site.

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