> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.garmentflow.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Generate the factory work order

> Produce the single A4 PDF a factory works to for a specific order's run of a tech-pack-originated style — the OEM's cover in front of the brand's own pages.

You end this workflow with a printable
<Tooltip tip="The single A4 PDF a factory works to for a specific order's run of a tech-pack-originated style.">[factory work order (製造單)](/reference/glossary#work-order)</Tooltip>
in your hand: one A4 PDF containing the OEM's cover (order header,
per-colorway × per-size quantity matrix, confirmed
<Tooltip tip="The list of checks a factory works to when inspecting the garment — measurements, construction, labels, packaging, folding, materials.">[QC checklist](/reference/glossary#qc-checklist)</Tooltip>)
followed by the brand's own tech-pack pages. It is the second form of the MO
document — the first being the 8-tab Excel workbook — and both can be
produced for the same MO.

## What this workflow achieves

A factory document is **spec × commitment**. The specification lives on the
[tech pack](/modules/tech-packs) that seeded the
<Tooltip tip="The reusable product record that owns the BOM, cost sheet, and manufacturing orders.">[style](/reference/glossary#style)</Tooltip>;
the commitment lives on the
<Tooltip tip="A customer's commitment to buy specific styles, colorways, and quantities to ship by a given date.">[order](/reference/glossary#order)</Tooltip>
and the
<Tooltip tip="The production document issued for a specific order's version of a style; its content is frozen when it is issued.">[manufacturing order (MO)](/reference/glossary#mo-manufacturing-order)</Tooltip>
that binds the style to that order. Until this workflow, nothing produced a
single printable package containing both. The work-order PDF does — one
document a cutting-room supervisor can hold.

## When to use it

* **The order is confirmed and the MO is bound to it.** You need the
  factory-facing document for the run.
* **An earlier work order needs to be re-issued.** A confirmed QC check
  changed, a quantity moved, a pack's page trim was adjusted — regenerate
  the PDF and hand the new one to the factory.

## Prerequisites

* **A tech-pack-originated style.** The style must have been created from a
  tech pack. A style built by hand does not carry a source pack to compose
  the body from.
* **An order-bound MO version.** The MO must be bound to an order. An
  MO opened on a style with no order renders the workbook as header-only and
  does not qualify for the work-order PDF either — see
  [Build a manufacturing order (MO)](/modules/build-an-mo) for the binding.
* **The Tech Packs capability enabled on your account.** The PDF action is
  visible on the MO tab only when the style qualifies.

## Roles involved

The order team or production coordinator generates the work order in the
ordinary course of releasing a run. The trim over the pack's own pages
(section 2 below) is set once per pack by whoever prints the first work
order that uses it; every later work order using the same pack reuses that
setting.

## Step-by-step

### 1. Open the MO tab

From the [order](/modules/orders), open the style line, then the **MO**
tab. Pick the MO version the factory should work to. The **Download PDF**
action appears next to the existing **Download Excel** action when the MO
qualifies (order-bound, style originated from a tech pack).

### 2. Confirm the pack's page trim

Every work-order generation opens the trim dialog over a live preview of
the pack's pages, pre-filled with the pack's saved answer:

<Frame caption="The trim dialog — opened over a live preview of the pack's current page, with Top and Bottom lines drawn over it and a page-switch below so the reader can check the trim on later pages before committing.">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/garmentflow/Fmyz5mmo3FpdeFPv/images/workflows/generate-the-factory-work-order/work-order-trim-dialog-en.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=Fmyz5mmo3FpdeFPv&q=85&s=a33145fce52be55112df97de6db94b3f" alt="A modal dialog titled Trim the source pack's header / footer, with a note explaining the pack's pages carry the brand's own header and footer and the trim setting is saved on the pack and reused for every work order printed from it. The dialog's body shows a live preview of page 1 of the pack — the Ridgeline Utility Pant NW-2761 cover — with the brand's header band across the top and footer band across the bottom. A Page 1 of 10 switcher sits below the preview, and Top / Bottom percentage fields sit below that. A Cancel and a Save & generate button sit in the footer." width="1428" height="1620" data-path="images/workflows/generate-the-factory-work-order/work-order-trim-dialog-en.png" />
</Frame>

**Trim the source pack's header / footer.** The pack's pages carry the
brand's own header and footer — their factory, their season, their own
page numbering — baked into the page render. Left as-is, the printed work
order would show two headers per body page disagreeing about who is
making the garment. The dialog lets you cover both bands so the reader
sees only the OEM's own order band on top.

* Two adjustable lines, **Top** and **Bottom**, drawn over the current
  page. Drag them, or type a percentage into each field.
* **Up to 25%** of the page height each. A value out of range is refused
  rather than clamped, so the printed document never differs from what
  you saw.
* Page-switch buttons let you check the trim on later pages of the pack,
  since a header band shifts on some layouts.
* **Save & generate** stores the two numbers on the pack and produces the
  PDF in one action.

The setting is saved on the **pack**, not on the order or the MO — the
brand's page furniture is a property of the pack's layout, so one setting
serves every regeneration and every order that prints the same pack.
A pack you have already trimmed opens with your last answer in place;
click **Save & generate** to produce the PDF without further changes,
or adjust the lines first.

**The stored page renders are never modified.** The trim is two numbers
read at composition time; the pack, the review screen, and the pack-page
attachments on the style's **Packing** and **Production Notes** tabs
continue to show the pages untrimmed. Undoing a bad trim is changing the
number, not re-ingesting a pack.

A `.tpv` pack has no page renders to trim — its body is generated from
data — so the dialog opens with an empty preview and a note explaining
there is nothing to trim.

### 3. Print or hand off

The PDF downloads. What it contains:

* **The cover.**
  * The **order header band** — style, order number, brand, factory,
    delivery date, total quantity. The band is written in your language
    (English, 繁體中文, or 简体中文) so the factory reads it in the
    language the team uses.
  * The **per-colorway × per-size quantity matrix** for the order.
  * The **destinations** the run is going to.
  * The **confirmed QC checklist** for the style, grouped by category
    (measurements, construction, labels, packaging, folding, materials).
* **The body.**
  * Every page of the source tech pack, in the pack's order, with the
    header band re-drawn on top and the brand's own header/footer cropped
    away per the trim you set.
  * For a `.tpv` pack, the body is generated from the pack's data (there
    are no renders to compose over).

## Decision points

* **The work-order PDF is the printable factory document; the Excel is
  the workbook.** Produce both when the factory expects both. They read
  the same confirmed data and always agree — pick per your factory's
  practice, not per which one is "right".
* **Regenerate for a change, do not edit the PDF.** Every regeneration
  reflects current confirmed data. A change to the confirmed QC
  checklist, the order quantities, the destinations, or the pack's trim
  is picked up the next time you download the PDF.

## Business rules in play

Documented once on the canonical pages; this workflow summarises.

* **The document is a pure function of state that already exists.**
  Nothing is stored between generations. Regeneration reflects current
  data; there is no separate artifact to keep in sync.
* **The Excel and the PDF always agree.** Both are generated from the
  same confirmed data on the MO. If you have changed the MO's binding —
  for example, opened a new version — both artifacts follow.
* **The stored pack renders are never modified.** The trim is applied at
  composition time only, so every other reader of the pack's pages sees
  them as stored.
* **The trim is a per-pack setting.** Set it once from the work-order
  generate flow; every order that prints the same pack reuses it. The
  trim is not applied to the pack-page attachments on the style's Packing
  and Production Notes tabs — those show the pages untrimmed.

## What happens next

1. **Print the PDF and hand it to the factory** — the document a cutting
   floor works from.
2. **Print the workbook too, if the factory works from both.** The
   8-tab Excel is unchanged by this workflow — see
   [Build a manufacturing order (MO)](/modules/build-an-mo).
3. **Regenerate when anything moves.** A change to the QC checklist, the
   order quantities, the destinations, or the pack trim is one download
   away from a fresh PDF that reflects it.

## Best practices

* **Set the trim on the first work order for a pack, deliberately.** The
  answer serves every later order that prints the same pack, so a
  minute's care here saves the second and third readers reopening the
  dialog.
* **Keep the two artifacts together when a factory reads both.** Print
  the Excel workbook and the PDF for the same MO version — they are the
  same story in two shapes.
* **Do not treat the PDF as an archive.** Every regeneration replaces it
  with what the state currently says. The record of what a factory was
  handed lives on the run itself, not on a saved copy of the PDF.

## Related pages

* [From tech pack to work order](/concepts/from-tech-pack-to-work-order)
* [Import a tech pack](/modules/import-a-tech-pack)
* [Build a manufacturing order (MO)](/modules/build-an-mo)
* [Style](/modules/styles)
* [Order](/modules/orders)
* [Production](/modules/production)