Fabric Inspection process by Machine - Goldnfiber | Apparel Merchandising Blog (2024)

Fabric mills should do 100% inspection before sending any consignment to apparel industry to minimize hassle. Garment manufacturers should inspect a minimum of 10% of each fabric consignment once received. Minimum and maximum roll size and the acceptable number of joins will be fixed by fabric provider and apparel manufacturer before starting of each season. Fabric mill and apparel maker should also agree whether fabric edges are to be trimmed. After classification of fabric defects, a system needs to be followed to rating the defects to decide its approval or rejection.

During fabric inspection below matter should be considered:

A) 1. Area: Inspection area should be dry, open, clean, and cool with sufficient light.

2. Equipment: Garment maker and fabric mill should have quality full inspection equipment. The inspection equipment should be smooth, fresh, and user-friendly and casing should be free from any sharp edges what could scratch fabric. The frame should be equipped with an adaptable speed drive, a meter/yard counter and along with undercarriage lighting to see through the construction and overhead light to observe the fabric face side/surface defects clearly.

3. Other Accessories: Measuring tape, scissors, defect sticker or chalk, fabric defect display board, reference sample & blank inspection form worksheet/ BOM sheet.

-> Check ticket information, item number & Lot No.

B) Operation, Findings & Actions:

1. Viewing Distance: Inspector should perform from an observation distance of 2 to 3 feet to get a suitable vision of the full width of fabric. Fabric Inspectors should wear hand gloves for safety of the goods. Fabric should be accurately rolled and store up once examination process is done to avoid damage or spoiling. An eye specialist should test inspectors viewing capacity. Acceptable maximum total error score (TES) is to be below 12 but TES- 0 is always preferable.

4. Inspection Process: Select the rolls to inspect. Put the rolls on the inspection device and make sure that the roll exists the exact yardage as declared by the supplier. The face side of the fabric should always be inspected, but sometimes both sides can be examined based on fabric nature. Both parties should check for side-center-side shading, shading from roll to roll and shading from beginning to the end of the roll. An approved fabric color swatch should be close the surrounding area of the inspection casing to make sure proper color assessment during fabric checking.

Cut-able width of the fabric should be computed at the beginning, middle and end of each roll. If the fabric found narrow in accordance with the agreement, the garment maker and fabric producer must agree to have the goods replacement facility or provide a reduction to the garment manufacturer. Check for biased, bowed and skewed fabric. Inspector should focus on fabric roll and find out any defects, shortage in fabric rolls, length/width discrepancies (short/narrow) etc and mark it with colored sticker or chalk so that they can be easily found during cutting and write-down properly. Compile the defects record; then inspector needs to inform his senior with individual roll inspection report.

-> Notice the Senior QC/In charge/Section Manager with inspection report to review the variation physically to measure the roll width at the beginning> middle> end and measure the roll length in several machines.

-> By this time QC can make fabric roll yards/width shortage, defects summary report to inform manager QA

-> After that QC can deliver fabric roll shortage/defects summary report to merchandiser for his consideration.

If merchandiser finds any serious fabric defects or width shortage problem what will hamper production, he needs to inform fabric mill/supplier along with QC report and sample of defective fabric yards/swatch to get replacement fabric urgently.

Fabric mill must supply additional goods on an urgent basis through sea or air. If severe fabric defects occur, mills are completely liable to hit the garment’s delivery date. Furthermore, they are compelled to provide the logistic cost if required (any accelerated shipment costs of fabric have to borne by fabric supplier).

->Beside this inspector can calibrate own machine per month on rotation by hand measure 50 yards sample and section chief can keep all machine calibration record officially.

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