Set up your first made-to-order product
This is where Orderkraft starts being useful. You pick a Shopify product, tell Orderkraft how long it takes to make, and from then on the product is treated as made-to-order: its delivery date is calculated rather than guessed.
What you’re actually setting up
A made-to-order product in Orderkraft has two times attached to it:
Production time is how long it takes to actually make the item. From starting production to finishing it. Not including packaging or prep for shipping. Most merchants set this to match their typical turnaround.
Dock-to-stock time is the gap between “it’s made” and “it’s ready to ship.” Quality checks, packaging, labeling, anything else that happens after production wraps but before it leaves your facility.
Both are set as ranges (min and max), in the unit that makes sense for your workflow: minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months. If production usually takes 5 days but sometimes 7, set a range of 5-7 days. Customers see the total lead time on the product page, computed from both ranges.
Steps
- Open Orderkraft and go to Products.
- Click Add product. A Shopify product picker opens.
- Pick the product you want to set up as made-to-order.
- Set the production time range and unit.
- Set the dock-to-stock time range and unit.
- Click Save.
That’s it. Orderkraft does the rest:
- The product is flagged as made-to-order on your Shopify store
- A production lead time metaobject is created and linked to the product
- The lead time becomes available to the storefront so customers can see it
Ranges versus single numbers
You can set min and max to the same number if your turnaround is consistent. Most production isn’t, though, and a tight range (5-7 days) sets a more honest expectation than a single number that’s secretly the average of a wider band.
Changing or removing it later
To change the times, open the product in Orderkraft and edit the bill of materials. The metaobject on Shopify updates automatically, and the storefront reflects the new range on the next page load.
To remove the made-to-order flag entirely, open the product and archive it. The metafield and metaobject are removed from Shopify and the product goes back to behaving like regular inventory.
What’s next
The basics are done. The remaining setup steps are optional but worth doing:
- Designate a production location if you make and stock items in different places
- Enable split shipments so made-to-order items don’t hold up the rest of an order
- Show lead times on your storefront so customers see the delivery promise before they check out