Last month a purchase order came in from a customer we have supplied for over ten years. Fifty thousand pieces, a part name, a rate per piece, a delivery date. Everything a PO needs except the one thing we need to make the part. The size.
Nobody was careless. That part name has meant one thing inside their plant for years, so to the person raising the order the size is obvious. To us, a name like "insulation plate" could be any of a dozen parts we cut for them.
There are two ways to handle it. Cut what we cut last time and hope nothing has changed, or hold the order and ask. We ask, every time, even when we are almost sure. Almost sure is how you end up with fifty thousand of the wrong thing and an argument about whose fault it was.
If you raise POs, the cheapest fix is a drawing number or the three dimensions written on the line itself. Then the order stands on its own, even when the one person who knows the part is on leave.