CONTENT

S.no. Topic Page No.

1. Quality 4

2. Quality Management 4

3. Seven Quality Management Principles 4

4. Quality Management System 5

5. Quality Assurance in Apparel Industry 6

6. Quality Control in Apparel Industry 8

7. Quality Improvement in Apparel Industry 11

8. Cost of Quality 13

9. References 14

1
Quality
Quality may define as the level of acceptance of goods or services. It completely depends on
customer satisfaction. In textile and apparel industry, quality is calculated in terms of quality
and standard of fibers, yarns, fabric construction, color fastness, designs and the final finished
garments.

Quality Management
Quality management is a method for ensuring that all the activities necessary to design,
develop and implement a product or service are effective and efficient with respect to the
system and its performance. Quality management can be considered to have three main
components:

 Quality assurance
 Quality control
 Quality improvement

Seven Quality Management Principles

ISO 9001:2015 defines 7 Quality Management Principles (QMPs) as the basis of the standard:
QMP 1 – Customer Focus
Meet and exceed customer expectations.
QMP 2 – Leadership
Provide purpose, direction and engagement.
QMP 3 – Engagement of People
Recognition, empowerment and enhancement of skills and knowledge.
QMP 4 – Process Approach
Understand processes to optimize performance.
QMP 5 – Improvement
To maintain current performance and to create new opportunities.
QMP 6 – Evidence-based Decision Making
Facts, evidences and data analysis for decision making.
QMP 7 – Relationship Management
Manage relationship with interested parties to optimize performance.

2
Quality Management System (QMS)
Quality Management System (QMS) is a series of interrelated techniques and management
systems that helps to prevent defects from occurring time or if they occur at all,
countermeasures are adopted as soon as possible so that defects do not recur. Quality
Management System (QMS) takes recourse to preventive as well as remedial measures.

Figure 1: Workers follow the Quality management system techniques and produce high quality product

Step by Step Quality Management System (QMS) in the Garment Industry:

Quality Management System (QMS) generally employs the following measures, techniques to
ensure that only high quality good are produced:

 Inspect the all incoming, in-process & final goods to ensure quality of goods.
 Make sure that all patterns & pattern grading are okay.
 Check the markers, marker making methods, marker efficiency if it is okay and within
consumption.
 Inspect spreading, cutting & numbering process in detail.
 Ensure the relaxation time that was given to knit fabric.
 Install in-line inspector in the sewing lines.
 To monitor quality in production line they install Traffic Light Chart system or other
system.
 Inspect 100% goods delivered from sewing lines.
 Inspect the table quality inspection for in line passed garments with Statistical
Technique.
 Control the reject garment so that they do not mix up with quality passed garment.

3
  Have to control repairable goods, washable goods so that they can be double checked
to ensure quality.
 Check garment with right machine, tools and equipment’s and in right conditions.
 Inspect the right ironing or pressing, folding techniques.
 Make repeat inspection of garments prior to poly-bagging.
 Inspect poly-bagging & assortment.
 Make sure the actual measurements of carton and complete packaging process
according to the buyer requirements.
 Manufacturer conducts final inspection in prior to shipment of garment.
 Transmit training quality assurance personnel so that they can easily identify defects &
understand the causes of defects.
 Also arrange training for quality assurance (QA) personnel on Statistical Methods.
 Make continuous improvement plans & implement them.

Quality Assurance in Apparel Industry

Quality assurance system mainly helps to improve productivity in different departments of
apparel manufacturing. The departments which follow quality assurance system in garment
industry they are given below:

Figure 2: Quality assurance system in apparel industry

Quality control department:

Quality control is a set of test methods, inspection and analytical procedures. Which are applied
to raw materials, intermediate products, and final products, to provide feedback to the quality

4
assurance system and to ensure that the system is working correctly? Each department has its
particular methods of testing and inspection.

Raw material department:

Raw materials are inspected on reception. Top cloth and interlinings are checked for e.g.
weaving faults, printing faults, correct width, and distortions. Interlining, buttons, zippers,
ribbons etc. may also be tested for various aspects of performance. The wearing and aftercare
properties of the top cloth may need to be established to determine the aftercare label which
will be appropriate for the garment. The fabric may be tested for us behavior towards heat,
pressure and moisture. Shrinkage during fusing and pressing may be determined.

Design department:
In the design department, quality assurance instructions are developed for each garment. In
collaboration with the production planning and control department, QA specify the technical
details of apparel assembly. This will include items such as seam and hem allowances, seam
margins, pattern making and grading, notch depths etc. for each value specified a tolerance will
also be given.

The production planning and control department:

The production planning and control department designs and documents the procedures for
checking conformance to garment size and shape specification and for the final inspection.
They also develop and maintain the forms which are used to register daily and weekly fault
rates.

Cutting department:
The cutting department prepares QA instructions which will identify and accompany the pattern
makers e.g. lay to be sectioned twice, top clothes, lining.

Sewing preparation:
During preparation for sewing, each part is individually labeled to prevent mixing and to
identify fabric front and back part.

Sewing room:
In the sewing room, devices are installed which aid the achievement of consistent quality, and
operators are helps to work to the required standards by clearly defined working methods and
by appropriately detailed, methodical training.

Intermediate inspection:
Intermediate inspection is concentrated mostly, though not exclusively in sewing room.

5
Final inspection:
Final inspection is concerned with the size, fit and overall impression of the finished garment.

Quality Control in Apparel Industry

To ensure the quality of the product, quality control personnel have to control quality in
different section in garment industry, which are directly or indirectly involved with production.

Figure 3: Quality check in garments industry

Quality controlling areas are as follows:

1. Quality control in store section:

Store section is centralized in apparel industry and all the fabric comes to this unit first from the
supplier and audited here and kept until it is distributed to other section. Following controlling
are checked here:
 Inventory
 Fabrics
 Material
 Swatch board making
 Cleanliness
 Reporting

6
2. Quality control in sample section:
Samples must be checked by quality control personnel before sending it to the buyer.
Important points to be checked in sample section:
Whether the samples are as per buyer’s specifications or not, such as, style description, sketch,
measurement sheet, photograph etc. and workmanship has to be checked with reference
sample or related documents provided by the buyer. Report to be submitted to the
merchandiser as well as to the superior.

3. Quality control in cutting section:

Quality control of garments cutting section plays a vital role in garments because right
measured cutting is required to get the right shape of garments. Besides cutting is the first
working department of garments production. So its quality must be checked with carefully.

A. Pattern/Marker:
Pattern and marker must be checked by the quality control personnel check points are as
follows:
 Measurement
 Gradation
 Allowances
 Pattern parts missing
 Mixed parts
 Pattern shape
 Direction of pattern in the marker
 Pattern alignment with respect to the grain line
 Poor line marking
 Marker too wide than fabric width
 Notches and Drill marks omitted
 Mismatch checks and strips
 Overlapping
 Too thick line or double line marking
 Invisible line marking

7
  Marker incorrectly positioned on the lay.
B. Spreading:
During fabric spreading the following points should be checked:
 Fabric relaxation
 Incorrect tension of plies
 Wrong direction of plies
 Unacceptable damages found
 Mismatching of checks and strips
 Narrow fabric
 Shaded fabric
 Misalignment of plies
C. Cutting:
During cutting the following points should be checked:
 Inaccurate cutting.
 Notches-misplaced, too deep, angled, omitted or wrong type.
 Drill marks-wrong drills, omitted, angled.
 Knife cut-garment parts damaged by careless use of knife.
 Frayed edges, scorched or fused edges caused by a faulty knife.
 Slits opened inaccurately of omitted.
D. Others:
 Bundling with bundle card
 Numbering
 Cut panel checking
 Wrong size in the bundle
 Fused parts checking
 Cleanliness
 Proper storing
 Proper is suing

8
  Prefer test cutting then bulk cutting
 Reporting

4. Quality control system in sewing section:

There are some systems which are practiced in sewing floor are as follows:
 Traditional systems
 JC Penny system
 Traffic light
 SPC
Points to be considered during controlling quality in the sewing line are as follows:
 In line inspection should be performed at the workstation.
 Inspector ratio in the line depends on the system being implemented in the line.
 As per JC Penney system, one inspector for 30 operations. All operators be audited
minimum twice a day, where operator are skilled.
 As per pre-production meeting, inspector will be provided considering the controlling
system.
 Defect and measurement both should be checked in the line.
 The inspectors must select the units at random basis from a bundle.
 The inspector must inspect exactly the number of units called for the sampling plan. No
more no less or as per the system.
 If the inspector finds a defective unit, corrective action should be taken.

5. Quality control in finishing section:

This is the final section to make the product saleable condition and the finishing processes
should be controlled to achieve the quality target.
Checking areas in finishing section are as follows:
 Iron/Press
 Folding
 Tagging

9
  Packing

Quality Improvement in Apparel Industry

Quality Improvement can be distinguished from Quality Control in that Quality Improvement is
the purposeful change of a process to improve the reliability of achieving an outcome.

Garments Quality depends on these Quality Factors

 Fabric defect
 Trims and accessories defect
 Cutting defect
 Construction and placement Defect
 Seam and Stitching Defect
 Finishing defect
 Packing defect

Fabric Defect
Fabric cost is at least 60% out of total garment Cost. Apparel Industry inspect fabric roll for
quality matter. If your fabric roll fail in inspection you should return to fabric supplier and
replace with the quality one. If your finished garment contains fabric defect, you are the one
who will be responsible for that not fabric supplier.
Trims and Accessories Defect
Apparel industry should check all trims and accessories after in housed. If they found any
problem, they should return to suppliers for replacement.
Cutting Defect
As per Running shade and Selvage report, marker will make for bulk cutting. Otherwise
garments will contain part shading. All cut components should match with marker.
Construction and Placement Defect
You will sewing garments as per buyer’s approved sample for bulk production. All stitching of
every process should same as sample. Different parts placement should accurate. Up-down is
not acceptable.
Seam and Stitching Defect
All sewing machine should fit for sewing with accurate tension. Otherwise there are possibilities
of skip stitches, puckering. Garments should be clear of some other stitching defects like:
broken stitch, over stitch, down stitch, jam stitch, and joint stitch.

10
Finishing Defect
After pressing Garments there should be no crease mark, puckering. Keeping good appearance
is also necessary for garments.
Packing Defect
There are zero tolerance any types of packing defect. Incorrect size, incorrect PO, incorrect
quantity, folding defect include in packing defect. You should be careful about these defects.
Inspection
You should check your quality of 100% garments in finishing. If repairable of defective
garments, you should repair it quickly as you can. Before final inspection, you can do pre-final
or shadow inspection to see quality of your packed garments. If you found lots of defect in
packed garments, you should re-check all garments and take effective measures to resolve the
quality problem of garments.

Cost of Quality
Quality means consistency in meeting customer expectation. The cost of quality is the cost of
yarn that met those expectations, combined with the costs that result when you fail to meet
them.
The cost of quality is composed of two parts. They are

 The cost of conformance

 The cost of non-conformance

The cost of conformance:

The cost of conformance is the cost of all of the procedures, such as documentation, analysis,
inspection and testing, which are necessary to run the quality assurance system. QA also ensure
that the faulty goods are never or seldom made.
The cost of non-conformance:
The cost of non-conformance is the cost which results from errors, faults, additional inspection
and testing, reworking and repairing, unnecessary waste, downgrading of faulty garments to
second grade, returns of faulty garments from customers, loss of goodwill and market
opportunity.

11
 REFERENCES

 https://textilelearner.blogspot.com/2012/09/total-quality-management-tqm-in-
textile.html
 https://www.qualitygurus.com/seven-quality-management-principles/
 https://fashion2apparel.blogspot.com/2017/04/quality-management-system-
apparel.html
 https://fashion2apparel.blogspot.com/2017/02/quality-control-apparel-industry.html
 https://fashion2apparel.blogspot.com/2017/03/quality-assurance-system-apparel-
industry.html
 https://fashion2apparel.blogspot.com/2017/01/improve-quality-apparel-industry.html
 https://ordnur.com/textile-fashion/garments/quality-improvement-techniques-in-
apparel-industry/

12