Functions of the Quality Control Department in the Garment Industry

Functions of quality control team

The garment industry, precisely a garment export house processes export orders in the garment manufacturing factories. While raw materials are converted into garments, there are possibilities to make errors, like making defective garment components and defective garments. Making defective garments is a cost to the company. So, to make sure garments are made as per customer requirement and whatever raw materials are sourced must meet the factory standards, the garment factories set up Quality Control Department.

So, what are the roles of this quality department in a garment factory?

In this post, we will cover the job roles of the quality department in the garment. The function of the quality control department may vary widely depending on the organization type and products a factory handle. 

But the most common functions of the quality control department include the following.
  1. Quality checking of internal process and outsourced work
  2. Quality control system development 
  3. Auditing output of each process
  4. Quality awareness development among the employees 
  5. Preparing quality reports
  6. Coordinating product quality issues with buyers and merchandisers

1. Quality checking of Internal processes and outsourced work

Followings are the various checking activities performed by the quality checkers.
Inspection of raw material: 
Checking of raw materials to ensure there are no defective or abnormal goods.


Testing of raw materials: 

The quality control department does not conduct testing of raw material, but they send samples to a testing lab for testing the physical and chemical properties. Once the factory receives the test report, the quality control team gets assurance whether raw materials to accept or not.

Inspection of Sample: 

Visual inspection and measurement checking is done prior to sending sample to respective buyers.

Cutting room inspection: 

The quality department also inspects work done by the cutting room. Like, layering of fabrics on cutting table, cut layer inspection, cut component inspection, Bundle inspection, etc.

Preparatory work inspection: 

In high fashion garments, many preparatory works are outsourced like printing, machine embroidery, hand embroidery, beadwork, special decoration on garments, etc. Before feeding these outsourced goods to the cutting section or to the sewing lines, the quality department checks and approve for further process (sewing process).

Sewing process: 

On the sewing floor, there are multiple checking processes is practiced by exporters, like, Inline inspection, end of line inspection, stitching quality audit, etc.

Finishing Process: 

Finally, quality personnel checks finished and packed goods and do auditing prior to handover shipment to the external inspector. AQL based inspection performed by the quality assurance team. 

2. Quality System Development

Raw material checking and garments checking are the bottom-level activities done by the quality checkers. Before doing any checking, the department must set up a plan of what to check, how much to check, and what would be the quality standards for each process. 

Secondly, to make quality products throughout the garment manufacturing process, factories need to develop a quality management system. The quality control department is responsible for setting up the quality system for a garment factory. The quality control system development includes the following activities. 
  • Development of quality checking procedure
  • Developing mock of defective work and correct work
  • Training of quality checkers, quality inspectors through in-house training or through workshops conducted by external experts.
  • Developing quality manuals 

3. Auditing output of each process

Other than checking of garments, raw materials, and cutting panels, quality team has another role in quality auditing of checked work. Remember quality checking is done for 100 percent of work. But auditing of work is done for certain percentage of work – like 5-10 percent. Even AQL sampling method can be used for deciding how many garments need to be audited from the ready lot.

4. Quality awareness development among employees and workers 

One of the major roles of the quality control department in a garment unit is to bring quality awareness among the workers and all employees. Displaying banners in importance of making quality first time right. Explaining them the cost of poor quality and the delays in shipment a factory needs to face due to quality issues.

5. Preparing quality reports

At all checkpoints and auditing processes, quality checkers and quality auditors need to prepare quality checking reports on daily basis. Further the quality reports are summaries and analysed based on the process and quality KPIs. 
  • For fabric checking, they prepare whether fabric lots are accepted or rejected based on the penalty points.
  • In cutting rate of damaged panels are calculated
  • In stitching, DHU and defective percentage of each production line are calculated and reported.
  • In the finishing process, DHU and Defective percentage reports are prepared. Also, damaged garments are reported.
  • Identifying major defects and identifying frequently occurring defects
  • Further, the quality team prepare Quality KPI daily and weekly basis
  • Some companies used to prepare the cost of quality reports,

6. Coordinating product quality issues with buyers and merchandisers

The quality control team of a garment factory need to understand quality requirement for the new styles. 
  • For this they normally do meeting with factory merchandiser or buyer’s representatives and discuss quality requirements point by point following the apparel Techpack and garment specs. 
  • Quality team take approval of trims and production quality from the buyers and merchandiser.
  • They need to submit quality report for each order to the buyer.
  • During sample submission, quality team prepare quality checking report

Conclusion:

The above list of roles and functions of the quality control department in a garment factory is reference purpose only. In practice, you will see factories will have additional roles and some other factories will have fewer activities. If you can follow the above activities, you can manage garment quality of your factory. 
Related Articles:
Function of the Production Department in Garment Factory
Functions of the Finishing Department in Garment Factory 
Functions of the Packing Department in Garment Factory
Functions of the Washing Department in Garment Factory 
Functions of the IT Department (EDI) in Garment Factory

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