How FactorySpec works

Model the product family

A product family is the approved model for one range. It declares:

• Inputs: lengths, counts, numbers, yes or no choices and option lists, each with a label, bounds, unit and precision.
• Engineering tables: typed lookups with exact keys, imported from CSV or entered directly.
• Calculations: additions, subtractions, scaling, explicit rounding and table lookups that produce named lengths.
• Components: your part codes, revisions and descriptions, and whether each is a counted part, a cut length or a panel.
• Conditions: when an option is allowed, when a field applies, when a combination is blocked and when a BOM line is included.

Measurement conventions are part of the model, so ordered, finished and cut sizes are never confused.

Prove it with worked examples

Your product expert adds examples calculated independently of the model: normal units, both sides of every boundary, and combinations that must be refused. A candidate release passes only if every example gives exactly the expected result.

Review, release, activate

Submitting a candidate freezes it and compares its results with a sample of units already accepted, so the reviewer sees what would change. A reviewer who did not contribute to the model or its examples approves it, creating a release that never changes. Activating the release is a separate step, and both need a recent two-factor check.

Evaluate a unit

A supervisor enters a unit’s dimensions and options, with an optional order reference. FactorySpec converts the units, checks every input and condition, and returns a result: valid, incomplete or blocked, with the reasons.

A valid result shows the bill of materials and the trace behind it. Accepting it rechecks everything and stores one result that cannot be edited. Accepting twice returns the same result rather than a second one.

Issue the engineering pack

An accepted result is issued as an engineering pack: a PDF for people and a JSON file for systems, tied together by a manifest of file hashes. The PDF carries a code that anyone at the bench can scan, with a keyboard scanner or a phone camera, to see the result’s current status.

Change without rewriting history

A new release never alters results already accepted. Amending a unit creates a new revision that is evaluated again, and a remake becomes a new configuration linked to the original. If a component or table is withdrawn, every affected release is held and the packs that used it are listed for follow-up.

Before production

Each real product family is qualified with its named engineering owner before its results are used for manufacture. Your engineering data, AI and review covers who can approve what.

Read next

• BOM rule examplesExample product rules in plain English, and what each does to a unit’s bill of materials: include a part, allow an option or block a combination.
• Cut lengths from finished sizesCalculate cut lengths and panel sizes from ordered and finished dimensions, with each deduction applied once and every value traced.
• Engineering data, AI and reviewHow FactorySpec uses AI only to propose rule conditions, keeps unit evaluation free of AI calls, and protects your engineering model and results.