The moment a customer approves a quote is when the sales side of the job ends and the shop side begins. It is also where information gets lost. This guide covers what production actually needs, and how to hand a job over so nobody has to call sales to ask what was sold.
The handoff test
Ask this about every job: could someone who never spoke to the customer fabricate and install it correctly from the job record alone? If the answer is no, the handoff is incomplete.
What production needs from an approved job
- Final dimensions for every piece, from the signed-off template, not from the first sketch.
- Material: the exact slab or lot, thickness and finish, plus any pattern or veining direction.
- Edges: profile and which edges are finished.
- Cutouts: sink, cooktop and faucet holes, with the appliance spec sheets attached.
- Seams: locations agreed with the customer.
- Backsplash and any full-height sections.
- Site and installation notes: access, stairs, tight turns, removal of old tops, and anything the installers need to know.
- Dates and priority: the customer’s deadline, and any constraint such as a cabinet delivery or a builder’s schedule.
- Commercial status: whether the deposit or approval required by your process is in place.
Keep one job record
When the estimate lives in a spreadsheet, the drawing in another file and the schedule on a whiteboard, someone has to copy data between them. Each copy is where a dimension gets mistyped or an edge profile gets dropped. A single job record that sales, estimating, production and installation all read from removes the copy step.
Control changes after approval
Customers change their minds after approval. The risk is not the change; it is a change the shop never hears about.
- Log every change against the job with a date and who requested it.
- Update the price if the change affects it, and get approval for the difference.
- Mark the job as revised so production works from the latest version, and flag what changed.
- Stop or hold fabrication if a change touches a piece that is already being cut.
Give production a clear priority
Production teams work best when the queue is obvious: what is next, what is waiting on material, what is waiting on a customer, and what is due this week. Attach deadlines to jobs instead of relying on people to remember them.
Close the loop after fabrication
- Check finished pieces against the job record before loading.
- Pass installation notes and the final layout to the installers.
- Record what went wrong, if anything, so it can be prevented next time.
Where software helps
A production workflow that starts from the approved estimate and Sketch-BIM data means the shop receives the job that was actually sold, measured and approved. See how this works in stone fabrication production software and across the whole lead-to-installation workflow.