Now You Know In-Process Inspection in Garment Industry

In-Process Inspection in Garment Industry

Mayedul Islam
Merchandiser at Fashion Xpress Buying House.
Badda, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Email: mayedul.islam66@gmail.com

In-Process Inspection

From the starting point of garment manufacturing up to garments ready to shipment, the inspection done is called in process inspection. At least 65 to 80% faults can be checked and controlled through in process inspection.

In-Process Inspection in Garment Industry

Benefits or results of in process inspection:

Reduction of major ‘surprises’ from the customers due to bad quality.
Decrease in labor cost due to decrease in repair rates.

In process inspection includes:

Spreading inspection or Spreading defects

Not enough plies to cover the quantity of garments required.
Narrow fabric or wide fabric; alignment of one side should be accurate.
Plies all are not facing in the correct direction i.e. not all the plies are spread face down, face up, or face to face as required.
Mismatching of checks i.e. plies not spread accurately one above another for cutting.
Spreading tension to each ply should be uniform and optimum.
Splicing or bowing
Overlapping should be in proper length and width.

Pattern and marker making inspection or defects

Pattern parts missing; correct number of parts for all sizes not included by the marker maker.
Mixed parts; parts are not correctly labeled in marker, so a marriage of wrong size parts.
Patterns not facing the correct direction or napped fabrics.
Patterns not facing the same direction on a one way fabric.
Patterns not aligned with respect to grain line of fabric. As a result garments may not drape or fit properly.
Line deflections poor (e.g. chalk-too thick, indistinctly printed line, perforated lay not fully powdered), leading to inaccurate cutting.
Inadequate marking; either the marker did not use outside edge of the pattern or the pattern was moved or swung after partial marking to squeeze the pattern into a smaller space in the interest of fabric economy. Alternatively, the pattern is wound around the edges and should be replaced.
Adequate marking; a combination of points 7 and 8 results in components being sewn together with puckering or pleating.
Marker too wide; garment parts at the edge of the lay are cut with bits missing.
Not enough knife clearance freedom.
Mismatched check and strips.
Notches and drill makes omitted, indistinct or misplaced.

Cutting inspection or cutting defects

Frayed edge; the amount of fraying depends on fabric finish and construction, improper cutting tools or blunt knives.
Fuzzy; ragged or serrated edges; may come due to faulty knives edges such as burrs, chips or dullness.
Ply to ply fusion; single ply whose cut yarn ends are fused to form a hard brittle rim on the cut edge.
Pattern precision; misshape of the patterns perimeter as cut also top, bottom and middle plies part should be checked against the patterns.
Notches; notch size should not be too large (more depth large notch).
Drilling; the drill holes should be in optimum size and no fusion problem along the plies.

Sewing inspection or sewing defects
In sewing section, the in process inspection is divided into three defects by Lowe and Low Coke as sewing defects:

Sewing defects:

Needle damage: evidenced by holes, picked threads, ruptured threads or damage to the fabric; caused by wrong size or types of needle, blunt needle, needle heat, machine feed difficulty.
Skipped stitches
Thread breaks
Broken stitches
Seam grin
Seam pucker
Pleated seams
Wrong stitch density
Uneven stitch density
Staggered stitch
Improperly formed stitches

Seam defects:

Mismatched of adjacent part
Wrong seam or stitch type used
Wrong shade of thread used.

Assembly defects:

Finished components not correct to size or shape or not symmetrical
Finished garments not to size due to from incorrect patterns, inaccurate marking or cutting, shrinkage and stretching fabric, incorrect seam width.
Parts, components, closures or features omitted, caused by bad work flow, parts omitted in cutting, careless operator.
Components of features wrongly positioned or misaligned arising from incorrect marking or sewing not following the mark.
Interlining incorrectly positioned, twisted, too full, too light, cockling.
Lining too full, too tight, showing below the bottom of the garments, twisted, incorrectly pleated and so on.
Garments parts cockling, pleated, twisted, showing bubbles and fullness.
Garment parts shaded due to being mixed after cutting.
Parts- in one way fabric in wrong direction
Mismatching trimmings