Material Quality Manual

VIP Industries Limited

This manual is provided to understand Fabric inspection process and requirements to

deliver the highest possible quality as well as report all test results as per specified
requirements. Although this manual describes VIP’s quality requirements and we also
expects its partner suppliers to develop a positive culture of quality. This culture must begin
with management commitment to prevention-based and continuous improvement- based
quality systems including:

 Allocating appropriate resources to ensure quality systems are effective.

 Encouraging active participation of all departments involved in improvement efforts.
 Ensuring that processes are stable, capable, and centered through the application of
statistical data analysis techniques.
 Documenting systems, processes, procedures, etc. are important along with proper
training of the staff involved in handling day to day operations.

VIP Quality philosophy is based on the following principles:

 Establish clear, consumer-focused requirements

 Plan for Defect-Free performance
 Quality happens within every Process (each supplier, department, & individual owns quality)
 Ensure the Process is capable of meeting the Customer requirements
 Control the Process
 Continually reduce Variation and factory Defective Rate

Index
1. Introduction
2. Fabric Inspection Program
a. ASTM Four Point System
b. Defect Classification
c. Fabric Inspection
d. Color Matching
3. Basic Fabric Testing
4. Laying and Cutting Instructions
5. Approvals and allowances

Inspection Requirements
Area

The inspection area should be:

 Open, clean and dry

 Well lit

Equipment

 Inspection Frame: The frame should be equipped with a variable speed drive, a yard (or
meter) counter, and an undercarriage light to see through the construction and an overhead
light to inspect the face of the fabric.
 Inspection Speed: The frame should be capable of running up to 15 yards per minute and
should have both forward and reverse controls.
 Viewing Distance: The inspection should be performed from an observation distance of 2 to
4 feet (60 to 120 centimetres) so as to get full vision of the fabric width.
 Lighting: Overhead Customer required lighting is recommended for the inspection. The
surface illumination level should be a minimum of 1075 lux (100 foot candles).

Light Box and Color Room

Each Vendor should have an International light box equipped with:

Light Source Light Type:

 Primary Source D 65 (6500K) Average North Sky Daylight

 Secondary Source CWF (4150K)
 Tertiary Source A (2856 K) Tungsten

The Light box must be in a closed conditioned room with no interference from outside light and it
must be calibrated from time to time as recommended by its manufacturer. The walls of the room
should be painted neutral grey.

Tools

 Measuring Tape
 Pick Glass
 Scissors
 Defect Stickers/Tags
 Selvedge Defect Flags
 Inspection Report Forms

Approved Item Swatch

The vendor is required to use the VIP approved Fabric swatch in development stage as a quality
reference sample for hand-feel/Color and aesthetics verifications in bulk production.

This approved item swatch must be properly stored for use in quality comparison. Keep a clean
sample folder with appropriate information such as vendor name, item number, color name, date
approved, Approved test report, Production specs, and any other relevant information.

Inspection Procedure / Execution

VIP expects the vendor to inspect 100% of all outgoing shipments, identify, label and records defects
and ship only first quality materials. The vendor should be familiar with VIP inspection procedures
and standards to ensure that vendor’s internal inspection is capable of at least meeting or better
exceeding VIP quality expectations.

Color and Aesthetics

Cut a head-middle-end sample across the width of the fabric, preferably about 2 yards inside of each
dye-lot. This sample will be used for color and aesthetic verification to ensure lot to lot, head to end
fabric consistency.

Color Evaluation
Color Standard: Check the head-middle-end sample in the light box against the pantone color
standard or VIP approved lab-dip under primary & secondary light source. This process should be
done once for each color inspected.

Shading within the roll: Check for shading at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of each roll
inspected, using the head-middle-end sample for comparison.

 Side to center
 Side to side
 End to end

Color Continuity Card: Check for color consistency between the dye-lots. Cut a small sample (about
2 x 2 inches or 5 x 5 centimetres or gsm cut size) from the left side, the center and the right side of
the head-middle-end sample of each inspected dye-lot and attach to the color continuity card.
Ensure that cards are labelled with roll number & lots number. Check the samples against the
Customer color standard &/or VIP approved lab-dip. Note any significant variation of shade from roll
to roll and mention comments as a record (if any).

Aesthetics Evaluation

Inspect overall hand-feel and appearance against VIP approved swatch in development stage for
cleanliness, texture, recovery, resilience, wrinkling, etc. If
the aesthetics does not match the sample, vendor will
reprocess the fabric or will submit to concerned VIP team
for approval. Post approval from VIP, the swatch should
be kept in record for future reference for hand-feel and
aesthetics verification. This reference sample must be
properly stored for use in quality comparison. Keep a
clean sample folder with appropriate information such as
vendor name, item number, color name/code, date, batch
number, and any other relevant information.
Visual Inspection

Once the color and aesthetics have been checked and approved, begin the visual inspection for
defects. Defects which are not desirable and are clearly detectable on the inspection frame will be
assigned points as shown in the Four Point Table. The Four Point system will be applied to all fabrics,
i.e. shell, lining etc. Always inspect the side which will be used as the face in the finished product.
Mount the roll on the inspection frame with the face side up.

Fabric Width

Measure the fabric width at the beginning, in the

middle, and at the end of every roll. If a variation in
fabric width is found, the vendor will contact VIP or
manufacturing facility to determine if the fabric is
usable and if a replacement is necessary. At this point,
the inspector should also check the condition of the
selvedge. The selvedge should lay flat, be free of
tension, and should not have a tendency to curl.

Roll Length

Measure and record the length of each roll inspected. Not more than 1 joint is acceptable in one roll
length of up to 100 yards. Roll length should not exceed 100 yards/roll.

Inspection for Defects

The Vendor should train and/or conduct internal certification for the inspectors according to this
Manual and VIP requirements. The Vendor inspectors should inspect each material type based on
Four Point System before shipped.
 Greige Fabric Quality Requirements
Introduction:

We will provide a guideline to the factory for evaluating, grading and separating the incoming quality
of fabric to be used for VIP. This is important for the vendors to note on what are the expectations
for incoming fabric quality. This process also assists factories in detecting defects and preventing
substandard fabric. We have described widely recognized inspection procedure as a training
framework for inspectors. Our ultimate goal is to promote communication and align procedures
between the factory and the vendor to resolve quality problems.
 Four Point System
A widely recognized inspection method frequently used in the textile industry. It is a technique
issued by the American Society for Testing & Materials with reference to the designation ASTM D5
430-93 Start the frame and inspect for defects. Run the frame at 20 ± 5 yards per minute (18 ± 5
meters per minute). If a defect is observed:

1. Faults are classified and scored with penalty points of 1, 2, 3 and 4, according to their size
and significance. Each defect should be counted as a separate defect even if the nature is
the same and then based on the points allocated to each defect, total points should be
calculated.

Note:

 A maximum of 4 points may be assigned to any one linear yard), regardless of the number or
size of the individual defects.
 For a continuous lengthwise running defect, 4 points and 1 defect will be assigned to each
linear yard where the defect exceeds 9 inches (23 centimeters).

Example: Short End/ barre effect on the full roll in 100linear yards: 400 points should be assigned
with 100 defects

2. Mark the defect at the selvedge and/or at the defect.

3. Record the defect and the assigned points on the inspection worksheet.
Inspection Results

Complete the worksheet and calculate the total points of each inspected roll and the total of the
inspected linear yards/meters. With this information use the appropriate formula below to calculate
the Average Points (per 100 linear yards or linear meters).

Evaluation Guideline

Vendor quality performance shall be defined by the point count system, using the following
guideline:

Note** This criterion is subject to change at VIP discretion

Accept / Reject Procedure

Vendor should not ship any roll or shipment with defect points exceed the above evaluation
guideline. The factory will determine how the shipment can best meet VIP quality standards.
However, vendor might communicate with VIP prior to the shipment if the average points per 100
linear yards (90 linear meters) of any roll shows a higher number than allowed on the VIP evaluation
guideline above. In this case, VIP may decide to use a shipment or the roll even if the average points
per 100 linear yards (90 linear meters) shows a higher number than allowed.

Reporting

The inspection is intended to determine the shipment quality and to capture information for quality
performance evaluation of the vendor. One inspection report should be completed for each Item /
color inspected and send a copy of the Inspection Report to manufacturing factory and VIP Quality
team prior to or with shipment.
Fabric Defect Classifications
Summary of Production Fabric Testing & Inspection

Material Quality Process is the process developed to measure vendor’s performance. In this process,
both fabric vendors and manufacturing factories are required to take steps to ensure first quality
fabric reaches the cutting table to manufacture right quality products, focusing zero defect. However
to emphasize the importance and responsibilities, we have developed a summary page as described
below:

Inspection Procedures

a) Inspection Sample
 must sample a minimum of 10% or 1 Roll, whichever is greater, of every incoming
shipment by color
b) Check color
 make Color continuity card between rolls inspected
 check against color standard
 check against vendor’s reference cutting and Spectrophotometer reading
c) Aesthetics
 check hand feel
 check fabric appearance of face side
d) Visual Inspection
 measure fabric width & length
 inspection for Defects by using Four Point System
e) Fill out Inspection worksheet

Inspection Results

a) Evaluation guideline:
 Allowable Points per 100 yards (90 meters): 10 points for all fabric types
b) Result & Reporting
 Input Accept, Reject or Standard Exception result into MIS (Material Inspection
System)

Record keeping (at least two years)

a) Documents provided by Vendor:

 Reference Sample
 Internal Inspection Report
 Internal Physical Test Report
 Cutting of each dye lot and inspected roll & Spectrophotometer Reading
b) Documents prepared by manufacturing factory:
 Color continuality card between rolls inspected
 Inspection Worksheet from fabric vendor