Quality control in fashion – everyday life

Everyday quality management differs between fashion brands and garment manufacturers and between small and large companies. All of these are interesting to analyze when it comes to quality challenges they face most. Fashion companies and brands will need quality standards in market research, design, production, retail, customer service and feedback. Garment manufacturers (like large companies located in Asia) have whole departments specialized in quality control.

What does everyday quality control in production look like?

It depends on the scale of the manufacturer but two main types can be defined.

• Inline/online quality control: happens during the manufacture, there is personnel who inspects samples of clothing on the production lines. Doing inline quality checks helps identify defects early on and repair them. This is helpful because it minimizes the chance of releasing and shipping whole batches of apparel with defects.
• On-table/final quality control: conducted after items are manufactured. In large productions, a sample is chosen and inspected according to a checklist provided by the product owner (the brand). Large factories have quality control departments and quality management systems. AQL (Acceptable Quality Limit) – maximum number of defects accepted before a batch of items is disqualified.

In some cases, laboratory tests are conducted. Depending on legal regulations, in some countries a brand needs to test an item for certain qualities before it can be advertised, for example if a brand wants to advertise a jacket which can retain color fastness even after 100 washes, it needs to order laboratory tests to independently verify this.

Source: Image by teksomolika on Freepik

What is evaluated during quality control?

In large companies the brand prepares a quality guidelines document and a sample item against which the manufacturer can check the items inline and before shipment. Evaluation includes but is not limited to:

• measurements,
• color fastness (material’s color’s resistance to fading or running),
• dyes (if the fabric has any visible spots or dye excess),
• fabric mechanical properties,
• seams and stitches,
• appearance of the finished garment,
• fitting,
• smells (any odor from dyes of chemicals used during manufacture),
• safety (check if any needles, pins and staples are left in the garment),
• packaging and labeling,
• patterns and prints.