Garment inline inspection report template

An inline inspection report records a quality check made while the order is still being sewn; a final inspection report records the check of the finished, packed lot before it ships. The difference is what each one decides. A final random inspection draws its sample from the whole order, usually once at least 80% of it is packed, and decides whether the lot is accepted for shipment against AQL limits. An inline or during-production check draws its sample from the pieces that exist on the day, and decides what has to be corrected before the rest is sewn. That is why this template has no pass or fail line: each finding gets an action, an owner and a re-check date, and the report ends with a status, which is carry on, carry on with actions, or stop and correct. The final inspection still follows, and its inspector should read the inline report first.

Early enough that a fault can still be fixed on most of the order, and late enough that the line is running at normal speed. Inspection companies set a threshold: QIMA makes a during-production inspection when at least 20% of the order is complete, and HQTS describes around 20%. On a clothing order the first bundles off the line are the cheapest moment to find a construction or measurement fault, because only a few hundred pieces carry it. Inside the factory, roving quality checkers check each operator throughout sewing, and their sheets are worth asking to see. Write the visits you want into the order confirmation, with their timing: an inline or initial production check on the first bundles, a during-production inspection at about a fifth of the order, and the final inspection when the order is finished and mostly packed. In the template’s example the visit comes at 40% sewn, with the whole order already cut.

For a buyer’s or a buying house’s inspector, take the sample from the same AQL table as the final inspection, applied to the quantity made so far rather than the order quantity; QIMA, for example, draws its during-production sample following ANSI/ASQ Z1.4, the American counterpart of ISO 2859-1. In the template’s example, 1,152 pieces are sewn on the day, and general inspection level II gives a sample of 80 pieces, which the AQL calculator works out for any quantity. Pick them across lines, sizes and colours, from finished bundles and from pieces still at the machines. A roving checker inside the factory works differently and checks a few pieces of each operator’s work; in the common “7.0 system” the checker takes seven garments and marks the operator red if even one is faulty. For each finding, the template records how many pieces were checked for that point and how many were faulty.

Fix the cause, not only the pieces, and prove the fix with a re-check. A wavy neck usually comes from machine tension, feed or the operator’s handling; a measurement drift usually starts before the line, in the pattern, the marker or the cutting, so the action belongs where the cause is. Then go back to the last good check: every bundle sewn since then may carry the same fault, and those pieces should be checked and repaired or rejected. Give every finding an owner and a re-check date, because a finding without a date tends to stay open. Tell the buyer the same day when the specification is affected, such as colour, measurements, artwork or labels, and stop the line when a fault affects every piece being made. Finally, carry the findings to the final inspection, so its inspector checks that they were fixed across the whole lot.