How the order approval chain between Europe and Asia actually works
The brand says the order is confirmed. The factory hasn't started cutting yet. Between commercial confirmation and production start, there are 8 to 12 people involved — and each has their own process.
The Question That Always Surprises
When a European brand asks me how long it takes to produce a collection in Asia, the honest answer always surprises them. Not because production itself takes so long — factories in Bangladesh or Myanmar can be very efficient — but because between the purchase decision and the real order confirmation there's a process with many more people and steps than anyone imagines from outside.
This article is not about logistics or lead times. It's about understanding who intervenes in an international order and why that matters for correctly planning your season.
The Error of Assuming "Confirmed" Means Production Started
In more than sixteen years working in Asia with European brands, I've seen the same pattern repeat itself: the brand says the order is confirmed, but at the factory they still haven't started cutting fabric. Why? Because between commercial confirmation and production start there's a chain of validations that has to complete.
That chain, in a real order between a European brand and a factory in Asia, can involve eight, ten or twelve people. And each person has their process, their schedule and their priority level.
The Real Actors in an International Order
The European brand. Design, purchasing, quality, finance. They don't usually talk to each other as quickly as we assume. The purchasing department confirms the price, but finance has to approve the advance payment. Design has to validate the pre-production sample. Quality has to review the technical data sheet. These are parallel processes that rarely move at the same speed.
The HQ in China. When you work with a partner whose operational base is in China, there's a local team that acts as interface between the brand and the factory. They manage technical communication, samples, production timelines, quality control. Their work is critical, but they also have their own bottlenecks: communication with the factory in Bangladesh or Myanmar isn't always in real time, and you have to account for time zone differences, local holidays and each party's response capacity.
The factory. The production team, the samples department, the fabric purchasing manager, the quality manager. A factory in Bangladesh with 2,000 workers has its own internal bureaucracy. An instruction to change a neck label can seem trivial from Europe and generate three days of back-and-forth between departments at the factory.
The factory's suppliers. Fabric, trims, threads, labels. Before cutting, the factory needs to have the fabric in the warehouse. And the fabric comes from another factory — in China, Bangladesh, Korea — that has its own delivery timelines.
Why Last-Minute Changes Are So Expensive
Once production has started cutting, any change — in colour, composition, fabric weight, label design — generates a disproportionate cost relative to what it would theoretically seem.
The problem isn't just the direct economic cost. It's that the change interrupts the flow of the chain at multiple points simultaneously. The HQ has to reconfirm with the brand. The HQ has to reconfirm with the factory. The factory has to talk to its fabric supplier. Everyone stops, recalculates and restarts. And that, in an industry where production slots are limited and planned weeks in advance, has consequences that reach the delivery date.
What You Can Do to Make the Process Smoother
Close all details before placing the order, not after. Fabric composition, gsm, construction, exact colours with Pantone reference or physical sample, label detail, packaging, shipping instructions. It seems obvious and yet it's the point where most orders get complicated.
Approve samples with real authority, not with "it's more or less fine." The pre-production sample is your last chance to change something at no cost. If it's not exactly right, don't approve it. Once you say "OK, production can proceed," you assume the outcome.
Understand the holidays of the countries where you produce. Chinese New Year, Eid in Bangladesh, Thingyan in Myanmar. There are weeks when the entire chain stops or operates at half capacity. It's not an unforeseen event — it's the calendar. Plan around it, not against it.
Confirm the PI (Proforma Invoice) and payment before expecting the factory to start. Factories in Asia don't produce against a verbal promise or a confirmation email. They produce when the PI is signed and the advance payment is on its way. The sooner that happens, the sooner the real production clock starts.
The Chain Works When Everyone Knows Their Role
What differentiates a well-managed order from one that generates stress on both sides of the world is not product complexity or volume. It's clarity in roles, timelines and approvals.
Understanding that there are many people working in parallel for your collection to arrive on time is the first step toward stopping asking for the impossible and starting to plan realistically.