Quality means a reasonable standard that the customer accepts. In the apparel industry, quality means:
- There will be no stains in apparel.
- No fabric faults.
- No sewing defects.
- No defects on buttons or button holes.
- No faults of size or measurement.
- After washing, the color will not fade easily.
There are two systems for the quality control of goods: Testing and Inspection
Table of Contents
Inspection
Checking the fabrics, sewing, buttons, zippers, measurements of garments, etc. with a standard process is called inspection. Inspection is done to control the quality of garments and is mainly meant to be examined with bare eyes.
Objective of Inspection
Identifying faults at the earliest possible steps in garment production is crucial; the earlier the defect is detected, the less time and money is wasted.
Inspection Loop
- Rectify
- defects
- Identify
- Inspection
- Identify
- defect
- Inform to
- the cause
- of defect
Steps of Inspection
There are three steps in inspection:
Raw Material Inspection
- Fabric
- Button
- Interlining
- Lebel
- Accessories, etc.
• In-process inspection
- Pattern Making
- Marker Making
- Fabric Spreading
- Fabric Cutting
- Fabric Sewing
- Finishing
- Final Inspection
Raw Materials Inspection
In the garment industry, raw material means mainly the fabrics but sewing thread, zipper or chain, interlining, etc. also may be considered under the items of raw materials.
Fabric Inspection
A. Colour Shade: Colour shade means the visual appearance of colors. We need to follow the fabric color given by the buyer. The buyer will provide a fabric swatch.
B. Colour Fastness: Colour fastness means resistance of colors. By washing & sunlight, the color of the fabric sometimes degrades. The buyer generally gives a numerical value within 1–5 for color fastness.
C. GSM: GSM means Gramme per Square Metre. It is the weight of the fabric. It must be as per the buyer’s requirements. Generally, it is given in numerical value.
D. Shrinkage: Shrinkage is the rate of shrinking after washing. It will be measured in percentage. The buyer’s requirement may be 3 – 5%, but 3% is preferable.
