Twelve steps from the first phone call to a signed-off marking line

Every requirement written on the way down is closed by a named test on the way up

A marking programme is written as a V. Specification descends the left arm, verification climbs the right, and the Requirements Traceability Matrix runs across the middle carrying every requirement over to the test that closes it. The pairs below are what decide whether a marking line is still trusted a year later. The full document set, the acceptance gates and the payment structure behind them are on programme assurance.

The twelve steps, in order, with the artefact each one produces

Steps one to six descend the left arm of the V and produce the documents the system is built against. Step seven is the build at the base. Steps eight to twelve climb the right arm, closing each requirement against a named test. The detail changes with the job. The order does not. Each step states what happens and what it needs from you before it can start.

1. Step 1

   1. Qualification call: the part, the code, and the system that already owns it

   Thirty to forty-five minutes, usually a video call. What the part is, what it is made of, how many run in a shift, what the mark has to carry, which system generates that data today, and what the mark has to survive downstream: wash-down, weather, paint, heat, abrasion, years outdoors, and the scanner class carried at the far end of the chain. We also ask what is driving the change, because an audit finding, a customer mandate and a recall each set a different date. Where the physics routes the job to a label, a plate or a tag instead, the call says so and states the reason. From you: a photo of the part and a rough volume.

   Why it matters: Forty minutes with the part described properly selects the method. Nearly every failed marking project was decided in a meeting room with no part in the room.

2. Step 2

   2. Site scope on your floor

   Half a day at the plant on the actual parts, the actual line and the actual conditions: floor space, power supply, extraction route, where the part sits in the flow and whether it can pause there, how it is oriented and presented, what it is coated with, how hot, wet or oily it is at that exact point, the line rate the station has to hold, and who handles the part next and with what scanner. Part presentation is measured and photographed, because it decides the fixture and the fixture decides the rest. Alongside it, integration discovery: which system already owns the job data, where identity breaks today, and what your control engineer will sanction on the network. The scope ends with a decision on feasibility, in writing. From you: site access, an hour of the production supervisor's time, and permission to take photographs.

   Why it matters: A code nobody can scan is the same as no code, and the reason is usually standing on the floor rather than sitting in the software.

3. Step 3

   3. Marking Process Capability Study on your own material

   You send real parts off your real line, in the condition they are in at the point the mark would be applied, including the worst ones. The trials establish the source and wavelength the material dictates, then power, speed, frequency, pulse regime and mark geometry, and verify the result the way your operation will verify it: read rate on the scanner class your people carry, contrast and verification grade against the standard your customer requires, and durability against the conditions you named. The parts come back with a numbered report stating the substrate and surface condition as received, the parameter set, the verification grade against the applicable standard, the durability result and the determined process window. From you: a box of representative parts, including the worst ones.

   Why it matters: Marking is a materials process. Anodised aluminium, mill-scaled steel, green timber, powder coat and food-grade polymer each behave differently under the same beam, and surface moisture on green timber absorbs energy while escaping steam disturbs the mark as it forms. This step runs before a requirement is written, not after, which is what converts every published envelope on this site into a figure measured on your own part.

4. Step 4

   4. Marking Requirements Specification, agreed before anything is built

   Both sides write down what the finished system holds: mark permanence on the material characterised at step three, read rate at line speed on the scanners your people actually carry, verification grade per ISO/IEC 15415 for 2D and ISO/IEC 15416 for linear at the threshold your customer requires, cycle time against the real line rate, what the station does with a part that fails to mark, what happens when the network drops mid-shift, and the round trip to your ERP or MES confirmed end to end. Every requirement is carried into the Requirements Traceability Matrix and mapped to the named test that closes it, with the source, the verification method, the test reference and the acceptance threshold in the same row. From you: sign-off from whoever owns quality or compliance, since they are the party who accepts the finished system.

   Why it matters: Acceptance criteria agreed after commissioning are a negotiation. Written before the build, they are engineering, and they are why a factory acceptance produces a pass or a fail rather than an opinion.

5. Step 5

   5. System and interface design, written, signed and versioned

   The system specification covers the marking process and its parameters, the source and head selected against the material, the fixture and part presentation, safety and extraction, and the operator workflow at the station, with cycle time proved against your line rate. Alongside it, the Functional and Interface Specification states how the Light Lane Control Layer and the system that owns your job exchange data: fields, direction, format, transport, authentication model, test data, deployment and rollback, and what each side does when the other is unavailable. The connection pattern is chosen with your IT team against what your environment already runs, from REST or SOAP, a read-only database view, a watched file drop, a message queue, an OPC UA or Modbus TCP tag read, or middleware your organisation already operates. On SAP the path is whatever your Basis team sanctions, usually existing middleware, and approval takes longer than the build. From you: a named technical contact on the systems side and a sample of real job data. Both documents are signed before the build starts.

   Why it matters: An interface that lives in two people's heads stalls the moment either of them moves on. Written and versioned with a changelog, a line commissioned this year and a line commissioned next year run the same interface at a known version.

6. Step 6

   6. Itemised quote, staged against the acceptance gates

   Machine, marking head, fixture and rig, software, integration, install, commissioning, training days, documentation, spares holding and support tier appear as separate lines with separate prices rather than folded into a single line labelled system. A larger programme is staged: capability study and scope, then design and specification, then build and pilot, then controlled replication, each scoped, priced and approved on its own, and each leaving the plant holding something usable whether or not the next stage is approved. Payment is released against the gates, so exposure at any point is capped at the value of the stage in progress and the final release is tied to the Site Acceptance Record signed on your line. The gates, the capital structure and the prequalification pack are set out on programme assurance. From you: the approval path, and who signs at each stage.

   Why it matters: Procurement approves a number it can break down, and a plant that has proved the first stage decides the next one with the result in front of it.

7. Step 7

   7. Build and configuration, with the rig designed and built in Nelson

   Sources, galvo heads, enclosures and interlocks are ordered as catalogue equipment from established manufacturers through the distributor channel that fits the job. Everything around them is engineered here: fixtures and jigs, conveyors and rotaries, extraction and filtration, safety enclosures and interlocks, camera and vision alignment, counterbalanced arms for parts too large to come to a station, handheld rigs for yard and field work, inline galvo stations marking on the fly against the encoder, and a marking head added into a fibre or CO2 cutter you already own, so the machine pauses part way through a cut it is already running, the head fires the traceability code onto the part exactly where it sits in the fixture, and the cutter resumes the same job. The Control Layer is configured to your part library, materials and machine, and the integration is built against the signed specification and tested on your sample data.

   Why it matters: The part is anonymous from the second it drops out of the nest. Marking it in the fixture means the part number never leaves the fixture, so it can never be attached to another part's record.

8. Step 8

   8. Factory Acceptance Protocol, run and signed before it ships

   The complete system is assembled and run end to end at our facility: rig, fixturing, enclosure, extraction, safety circuit and software configuration, with the integration pointed at a test instance of your system where one can be provided and exercised against representative production data. Your parts go through it at your cycle time against the criteria written at step four, and the failure behaviours are exercised deliberately rather than assumed: the maintenance window, the dropped network, the missing or conflicting signal at the head, the schema change underneath the integration. A system that has not passed its Factory Acceptance Protocol does not ship, and you are welcome to witness it. From you: a second batch of parts, and a test endpoint where your IT team can provide one.

   Why it matters: Install day is the wrong time to find out a fixture does not clear the part. Debugging on your site costs you production. Debugging in Nelson costs a day.

9. Step 9

   9. Install and commissioning at real line rate

   Physical install, alignment and calibration, extraction and safety sign-off, software onto the operator machines, machine profiles tuned to the delivered hardware, and the integration cut over to your production system under your change control with a documented rollback. Then the first-run validation pass: real parts, real line rate, real operators, marks verified for read rate and grade on your own scanners, and the round trip confirmed end to end with the completion record landing against the right job, carrying timestamp, operator, machine and station. Commissioning closes with the Site Acceptance Record: what was tested against the criteria from step four, what passed, and any open item with a named owner and a date. From you: a planned install window, an electrician where the power supply needs work, and access to the line.

   Why it matters: A system that has not run at line rate on real parts has been delivered rather than commissioned.

10. Step 10

    10. Operator training on your own jobs

    We train the people who will run it, on the system as installed, using your work rather than demo files: normal operation, changing between parts and materials, what a good mark looks like and how to check one, what to do when a code fails verification, daily and weekly maintenance, consumables, and the first checks before the escalation ladder is engaged. Shift leads and maintenance are trained alongside the operators, and a named operator owner and a named backup are agreed with the plant manager as part of the scope. Training closes when your team runs the station without us in the room, and more than one person is trained. From you: the operators, released from the line for the agreed training days.

    Why it matters: Naming the operator owner is the single strongest predictor we have of whether a line is still marking a year later, and a lone trained operator is a single point of failure who also takes annual leave.

11. Step 11

    11. Operational Handover Pack

    You receive a document set produced for your operation: as-built documentation with equipment make, model, serial and distributor, marking parameters and machine profiles for every material and mark type you run, fixture and rig drawings, the Functional and Interface Specification as built at a version number, the materials database exactly as configured, the operator procedure, the maintenance schedule with stated intervals, the consumables and spares list with lead times, safety documentation, the written support arrangement, warranty documentation and the Site Acceptance Record. It is written so your own engineer picks the system up from it, and so an auditor follows an identifier on a part back to the job that made it.

    Why it matters: The second install should cost less than the first. If it does not, the pilot was not properly documented.

12. Step 12

    12. Support tier, spares and the life of the system

    The support tier scoped in the proposal starts at commissioning, with severity defined in plant language: S1 is a stopped line with no workaround, S2 is a line running degraded on a workaround, S3 is a change with the line unaffected such as a new material or a new part family, and S4 is a question, a training refresh or a documentation request. What is handled remotely, what triggers site attendance and the named escalation ladder are fixed in the agreement, and the committed times are set against your site location, shift pattern, on-site spares holding and whether the line can run degraded, then written into the support agreement before commissioning. Software updates run for the life of the system, fetched from a signed version manifest and verified against a published SHA-256 checksum before installation. Spares are agreed at commissioning against the parts that would actually stop the line and held on site. Warranty is manufacturer-backed through the distributor and administered by us. When the product line changes, the re-scope starts from your documented reference design rather than a blank page.

    Why it matters: A stopped line at 3am is production rather than a ticket, and it never happens at a convenient hour. The system has to still be running in year four, on parts nobody has drawn yet.

Who decides what, and where they appear in the sequence

These people are identified at the qualification call and named in the specification, each against a defined artefact they sign or supply. A programme that names them early runs on a plan rather than on availability.

Integration is specified, built and tested as delivery work

What the Operational Handover Pack contains

Handover is a defined deliverable with a list attached, produced for your operation, resident on your site and yours. It is published here so a buying group knows what it holds at the end of the sequence before the first stage is approved.

• As-built documentation with equipment make, model, serial and distributor for every item in the station
• Marking parameters and machine profiles for every material and mark type you run, saved on the system and written down, so a setting is recovered rather than rediscovered
• Fixture, jig and rig drawings, including everything designed and built in Nelson for your parts
• The Functional and Interface Specification as built, at a version number, with field mappings, transport, authentication model, failure behaviour and a named owner on each side
• The materials database exactly as configured on your machine
• The operator procedure, written for the person running the shift
• The maintenance schedule with stated intervals, the consumables list, and the agreed spares holding with lead times
• Safety documentation, the extraction layout and the interlock configuration as installed
• The Site Acceptance Record, showing what was tested against the criteria from step four, what passed and any open item with a named owner and a date, alongside the written support arrangement and warranty documentation

Questions asked before the first stage is approved

The document set, the acceptance gates, the exposure cap and the qualification pack are on programme assurance. Materials, mark types, speed envelopes and symbol grades are on the engineering specification.