Department of Garment Engineering

Apparel Quality Management Assignment

1. Briefly discussed the following principles of quality management.

a. Customer-Focused Organization – in customer focused organization principles of
quality management Organizations depend on their customers and therefore
should understand current and future customer needs, meet customer
requirements, and strive to exceed customer expectations.
b. Leadership – The role of leadership in quality management forms the backbone of
any improvement strategy. Leaders provide a unity of purpose, while also
establishing the direction of the organization. As such, the responsibility of
leaders consists of creating and maintaining the internal environment. In this
environment, employees are able to become completely involved in achieving the
organization’s goals and aims.
c. Process approach – this quality management principle ensures that the proper
steps are taken at the right time to ensure consistency and speed up production.
 d. Continual-Improvement – it is the ongoing improvement of products, services or
processes through incremental and breakthrough improvements. These efforts can
seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at
once.
2. Explain in detail the beneficial applications of the following quality management
principles
a. Factual Approach to Decision making – the main beneficial application of this
quality management principles are as follows
i. The ability to make decisions based on circumstances requiring action.
ii. Enhanced ability to prove the efficiency of previous decisions through
reference to factual records.
iii. Enhanced ability to evaluate, challenge and alter opinions and decisions.
b. Mutual beneficial supplier relationships – the primary beneficial application of
Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships are: -
i. Increased capacity to create value for both suppliers and the organization.
ii. Flexibility and faster joint responses to changing market conditions or
customer requirements and expectations.
iii. Optimized costs and resources across the board.
3. Which benefits of quality management system are started by the following sentences
a. A good quality management system helps the organizations to ensure that
purchased product conforms to specified purchase requirements. – Purchase
process
b. A quality management system defines processes and procedures that lead to a
high-quality product or service to fulfill customer expectations. – customer
satisfaction
4. The followings are some of the contents of QMS. Briefly explain each of them.
a. Management Responsibility – It is the responsibility of managements to
 ensure quality objectives fit the strategic direction.
 ensure QMS requirements are integrated into the organization’s business
processes. 
 ensure resources needed for the QMS are available. 
  communicating the importance of the QMS requirements. 
 engaging, directing and supporting people to participate in the QMS.
b. Resource management – is one of contents of QMS that is the organization needs
to identify and then assign resources to implement, maintain and improve the
Quality Management System and to enhance customer satisfaction through
meeting customer requirements.
c. Product realization – Product realization means a clear idea of what the product
will be, usually expressed in drawings, statements of work, functional product
specs, or their equivalents. Based on this clear idea, quality management can
objectively determine if the product was "realized" and how efficient the process
was.
5. Compare between the old and new concepts of quality based on the quality elements
stated in this manual. Also give comparison between quality control, quality assurance
and TQM.
 Simply, Quality Assurance focuses on the process of quality, while Quality
Control focuses on the quality of output. Where as TQM is the way of managing
for products or services quality and also seeks to improve quality and
performance which will meet customer expectations.
6. Briefly discussed the role of Deming cycle for quality improvement.
 The Deming cycle is a continuous quality improvement model which consists of a
logical sequence of four key stages: Plan, Do (implement), data (check or Study),
and Act (analyze). Deming’s experience training as an engineer gave him an
insight into industrial processes and the material reality of trying to standardize
operations to function at scale. 
7. Explain the advantages of QMS for apparel industry.
 A quality management system helps for apparel industry to coordinate and
instruct an organization’s functions/activities to meet buyer requirements and
improve its effectiveness and efficiency on a continuous basis quality control and
improvement. Good quality management can guide the apparel industry to the
right path of quality goal, to keep standard of export garments quality; a good
quality management system should be implemented.
Assignment II
1. Why quality is important in apparel industry? The following are some of the reasons that
qualities are important in apparel industries
- Ensure that apparel industries are delivering their products to customers that they have
promised. By ensuring their products are as they should be, they increase the
likelihood of brand loyalty – if customers like what they buy, they are more likely to
purchase again.
- Ensure that the retailer is receiving products in line with their own quality standards,
which ensures their brand reputation and identity is maintained.
2. Explain quality assurance process in apparel industry?
- Quality assurance process is the result of the manufacturing process is a high-quality,
reliable finished product. It is made up of all the planned and systematic operations
which are put in place to produce a product that successfully satisfies the given
requirements of the brand and customers.
3. Explain the difference between quality standard and quality specification.
 Standards are a general guideline established by companies to reflect the overall
quality level of their products. Where as Specification define specifically how to
meet the company’s standard. And it serves to inform suppliers and staff about
how particular products is to be made.
4. Why specification is important in garment quality assurance?
 It is important to pay attention to the specification sheet and update it as the style
progress towards becoming a production style. During the sampling process, it is
highly likely to change certain style details, fabric and trim specifications. Some
changes are significant hence chances are, a buyer will send an updated
specification sheet yet some changes will be minor hence may not get an updated
version. It is vital to make a note of the changes, including the date and the time
of the change occurred.
5. What is the difference between quality assurance and quality control?
  Quality control and quality assurance are two elements of quality management.
But sometimes those elements make a little bit of a mix-up about the differences
between quality assurance and quality control. For this reason, here given a brief
difference between quality assurance and quality control.
 Quality assurance
o It Is a continuous set of process where monitoring on process production
and responsible for the whole team in the organization. Also, it is an
activity to find out the faults or errors and its aim is to preventing products
defect.
 Quality control
o It is a technical process where confirming product quality and standards
and responsible for only the quality team in the organization. Also, the
main aim and activities of QC are identified product defect and find out
the correct error or mistake for need more examination respectively.
6. Mention some garment defects which are related to construction and explain their causes?
 Some of garment defects which related to is causes are as follows:
o Seam Puckering – Seam puckering refers to the gathering of a seam
either just after sewing or after laundering causing an unacceptable seam
appearance. The causes of this types of defects are:

 Uneven stretching on to plies of fabric during sewing.

 Improper thread tension.

o Open seam or broken seam – Portion of the garment that has not been
covered by sewing thread. The causes are:

 Improper handling of the parts of garments.

 Improper setting and timing between needle and looper or hook
etc.
o Broken Stitch – Non-continuous sewing thread. The cause of this defect
is appearing due to improper trimming or machine usage.
 o Drop stitch/Skipped stitch – Irregular stitching along the seam. The
cause is improper handling of cut pieces or machine usage.

o Uncut/ loose thread – Extra threads or loose threads on seam line. The
cause of this defect is improper trimming or finishing.

o Distorted knitting – Causes - These defects can be identified by looking

at the surface area; they usually appear as irregular on the fabric.

o Seam slippage - Causes: This happens when the yarns in the fabric are
pulled out of the seam and are more frequent in fabrics made from
continuous filament yarns

o Needle threads breakage – Causes are:

 Thread gets trapped at the thread guide.

 Irregularities or damages in needle guard, throat plate, bobbin case

and needle eye

7. Classify defects department wise?

 Defects can be classified in to three categories. These are
o Minor defects – If a defect is classified as minor, that means the item
does not comply fully with the product specs but is still usable. The defect
does not affect the product’s marketability and functionality and only has
a minimal impact on its appearance.
o Major defects – Major defects are a different beast altogether. They are
considered much more serious than minor ones. Not only do major defects
cause items to depart significantly from the buyer specs, but they could
also negatively impact the appearance, performance, and/or function of the
faulty products.
 o Critical defects – Critical effects are called “critical” for a reason. They
are the most serious defect type and typically render the product
completely unusable.
Assignment III

1. What is the difference between Testing and inspection?

- Testing, often known as lab testing, typically involves testing a product against a
specific standard or regulation in a certified laboratory. Whereas inspection often
involves checking a random sample of an order for compliance with a buyer's
requirements and specifications.
2. Mention some examples of Garment testing
- Some of the examples of garment testing in garment industries are:
o Color shading.
o Colorfastness check (Rub test)
o Symmetry check.
o Size fitting test.
o Adhesive check (logos, printings, markings fastness)
o Fabric weight test (for knitted garments)
o Fasteners fatigue and zip quality test.
o Waterproof test

3. Why sampling is required while testing and inspection of fabric/trims and accessories and
Garments?
- Because of Sampling plays a vital role in getting orders from the buyer. It is a
representation of the manufacturer's or exporter's potential to deliver desired outputs
based on the details and information specified by the buyer. Besides this, sampling
also gives an idea regarding the time and cost that the manufacturer of the garments
will require completing the whole order, and delivering the products in time.
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of sampling inspection?
i. Advantage
 - Less amount of inspection to achieve a pre-decided degree of certainty
about the quality
- It consumes less time and is less expensive
- Scope of sampling is high
- Accuracy of data is high
- Organization of convenience.
- Intensive and exhaustive data.
- Suitable in limited resources.
- Better rapport.
ii. Disadvantage
- Chances of bias
- Difficulties in selecting truly a representative sample
- Need for subject specific knowledge
- changeability of sampling units
- impossibility of sampling.

5. Explain the different inspection stages. And discuss their advantage and disadvantage for
a garment industry?
 The various stages of inspection in garment industry are mentioned below:
o Raw material inspection stage – A quality inspector should check various
matters according to the buyer’s instruction in Raw material inspection
stage of garments.
o During production inspection stage – A quality inspector should ensure
different matters according to the buyer’s instruction in the production
stage of garments.
o Finishing inspection stage – A quality inspector should check different
issues according to the buyer’s instruction in the finishing stage of
garments.
o Final inspection stage – A quality inspector should confirm various
matters according to the buyer’s instruction in the final inspection stage of
garments.