Quick, pick-first, and Build & QC flows

Three execution flows cover almost every production pattern Assemblified work orders are designed for. They share the same setup phase and the same lifecycle, and differ only in when picking happens, when completion happens, and whether QC sits in the middle.

This guide walks all three with the same example product so you can compare them directly.

The shared setup

Every flow begins the same way. We’ll use a single example throughout: a work order to build 20 finished units of a “Premium Backpack” product, where the BOM calls for 5 raw materials and one pre-built sub-assembly.

1. Create the work order. From the assemble bench, click Create → From flow (or From a BOM, From orders, or Empty). Pick the source, set the production location, and use Save & mark ready (or Save & start if you’re going to build immediately). See creating a work order.

2. Confirm the plan. Open the new work order. The Materials tab lists every component the spreadSpreadThe step that walks each item's BOM (and any sub-assemblies inside it) and turns the result into the flat list of materials the work order needs. Runs automatically when you add an item — unless you choose "skip for now" and plan the materials yourself. Read more → generated. Adjust effective quantitiesEffective QuantityThe quantity actually consumed by the work order, after operator overrides. Starts equal to the original BOM quantity, but can be adjusted up or down per material as plans change. The effective quantity is what the pick list and cost calculations use. Read more → if needed, set per-row consume-from locations if they differ from the default. See canvas editor.

3. Move to in_progress. If you used Save & mark ready, click Start. If you used Save & start, you’re already there. Build runs are now allowed.

From here, the three flows diverge.

Flow A — Quick Complete (no QC)

Use when: the build is simple, you trust the operator, and you don’t need a separate QC step. The fastest path through the system.

1. Open the Build runs card on the General tab and click Start build run.
2. Pick the items and quantities for this run. For our example, all 20 units of the Premium Backpack.
3. Choose mode: Pick & complete. This is the one-shot path.
4. Submit. Assemblified picks every required material in one go, decrements the local + Shopify inventory, immediately consumes the materials, and produces 20 finished units into pre-assembled inventoryPre-Assembled InventoryStock of finished sub-assemblies and BOM items that have already been built and are sitting on the shelf. When a work order needs a sub-assembly, it draws from pre-assembled inventory first and only builds fresh ones if the shelf comes up short. Read more → . The build run goes from picking straight to built.
5. Mark the work order complete. Click Mark complete on the action row. No QC checks run because no QC review exists. The work order is now in completed.

What happened:

• One build runBuild RunOne cycle of assembly inside a work order: pick the materials, build the units, then complete (or cancel, or reverse). A work order can have many build runs over its life — each one moves a defined quantity of inventory and writes a row to the audit ledger. Read more → exists, status built.
• Inventory: 5 raw materials decremented (locally + in Shopify), 1 sub-assembly drawn from pre-assembled stock, 20 finished backpacks added to pre-assembled stock.
• No QC review.
• Total elapsed clicks: roughly 3, depending on how many dialogs you walk through.

Reverse path: if something went wrong, the build runs card has Reverse on the built row. It walks the inventory back, drops the produced output, and (if the work order was completed) auto-uncompletes it.

Flow B — Pick first, complete later

Use when: you want to pick materials on day 1 and physically build over days 2–5. Operators commonly use this for multi-day projects where committed materials need to persist between sessions.

1. Start build run with mode Pick (split). Pick the items and quantities — say, all 20 backpacks.
2. Submit. Assemblified picks every required material. The build run is now in picking. The materials are reserved (in the committed ledger bucket) and decremented from Shopify, but they haven’t been consumed yet.
3. Walk away. The materials are physically gathered to your bench; nobody else can pick them because they’re committed. The work order stays in in_progress.
4. Days later, complete the run. Open the run’s row in the Build runs card and click Complete. Assemblified moves the materials from committed → consumed and produces 20 finished backpacks into pre-assembled stock.
5. Optionally run a QC review. The Build runs card now offers Run QC review on the built run. Run it if you want a sign-off; skip it for Quick Complete behaviour.
6. Mark the work order complete.

What happened:

• One build run, but in two sessions. The pick happened on day 1; the completion on day N.
• Committed materials persist across sessions. If you cancel the run mid-way, materials go back to available stock.
• QC is optional — running one fires the QC guards on mark_complete; skipping it lets Quick Complete still work.

Cancel path: if you decide not to build, Cancel the picking run. The committed materials go back to available, no consumption is recorded, the Shopify decrement is reversed.

Flow C — Build & QC (output deferred)

Use when: the build is regulated or high-stakes, and you need a QC sign-off before stock is released. Pharmaceuticals, food production, custom manufacturing, anything where wrong units shouldn’t leave the bench.

1. Start build run with mode Pick, complete & QC. Pick the items and quantities.
2. Submit. Assemblified picks the materials and consumes them in one shot. The build run goes to built — but the produced output is held back. Pre-assembled inventory does not increment. The work order auto-transitions to quality_control.
3. Run a QC review from the Build runs card. For each item, enter approved and failed quantities.
4. Save the review as completed. Approved units are produced into pre-assembled stock at this moment (not at build-run completion). Failed units create rework itemsReworkRe-running failed units through a fresh build cycle to fix them. Rework runs don't consume new materials — the materials were already consumed in the original run. Once a rework run passes QC, the units land in finished stock. Read more → in pending_rework.
5. For each rework item, choose:
   • Start rework run to rebuild the failed units (no new materials consumed). Pick a mode again — usually Build & QC. When the rework run’s QC approves, the units finally produce.
   • Scrap the rework item. The unit is a terminal loss; no rework happens.
6. Once all items are reviewed and no items are still in rework, click Approve QC. The work order moves to qc_approved.
7. Mark the work order complete. All QC guards pass because every built unit has a disposition.

What happened:

• The outputDeferred flag was set on the build run when it was started in Build & QC mode. That’s what held the output back.
• Approved units produced at QC-approval time; failed units never produced.
• Scrapped units are a terminal loss; rework runs reuse the already-consumed materials and produce on their own QC approval.
• The work order’s lifecycle visibly went in_progress → quality_control → qc_approved → completed — every stop is recorded in the audit log.

Caution

Once a build run is started in Build & QC mode, the outputDeferred flag is locked. If you started a run in the wrong mode, cancel or reverse it and start a new one. There’s no way to flip outputDeferred mid-run.

Choosing a flow

If you…	Pick this flow
Trust the build, no separate QC needed, want speed	Quick Complete (Pick & complete)
Need to pick today and build over days	Pick first (Pick)
Need a QC sign-off before stock is released	Build & QC (Pick, complete & QC)

The good news: you don’t have to commit to one flow per work order. Each build run picks its own mode. You can mix — say, do most of a work order in Quick Complete and run the last few units through Build & QC because they were the trickier batch.

What stays the same

Across all three flows:

• Lifecycle states are the same. The work order itself goes draft → ready → in_progress → … → completed. Only the path through quality_control differs.
• Canvas editing is the same. You can edit items and materials in any non-terminal status, regardless of flow.
• Material planning is the same. The spread, cost views, pre-assembled splits, and reset paths work identically.
• Shopify sync fires at pick time and completion time the same way. The retry banner works the same. See Shopify sync.
• PDFs are the same. Build Overview, Pick List, and Shortage Report don’t care which flow you used.

A quick reverse-path note

All three flows can be reversed. Reverse on a built build run rolls inventory back, regardless of mode. If the work order was already completed, reversing the only build run also auto-uncompletes the work order so the totals stay consistent.

If a build run failed Shopify sync along the way, the Retry sync banner is the recovery path — see Shopify sync.

Related

• Build Runs — the mode reference.
• Quality Control — dispositions, rework, and scrap in detail.
• Lifecycle — every status and transition.
• Glossary.