AQL & Defects in apparels

By: Ankur Makhija NITRA,Ghaziabad

Stages of Garment Inspection

Pre-production Check
final check on the raw material used, style, cut

Initial Production Check

First batch of garments is inspected, make correction before bulk production

During Production Check Final Random Inspection

Checking the total production quality by selecting the samples from the order. AQL sampling inspection may be applied

How much to inspect; Some Options No Inspection 100% inspection Arbitrary Sampling Statistical Sampling

No Inspection
No one knows if material is defective until the material is in critical demand This situation increases cost Defective products might reach the customer Cost is increased and a loss of goodwill

100% Inspection
This is the other extreme of no inspection. 100% inspection is the inspection of every unit of a product It gives a better idea of product quality than any other inspection alternative However, 100% inspection does not guarantee detection of all defects The direct cost of 100% inspection is high

Spot Checking
Between no inspection at all and 100% inspection Consists of inspecting random shipments It is only partially effective since some shipments are accepted without inspection

Arbitrary Sampling
A certain percent of a shipment is inspected Accept/reject decision regarding that shipment is made, based on the inspection results of that certain percent of the shipment. The most popular or widely used plan under this alternative is called 10% sampling For some shipments or lots, 10% is too small a sample to be representative, whereas for other shipments or lots, it may be too large

Statistical Sampling
Also referred to as random sampling inspection Takes a sample of units from a lot/shipment, inspects samples for defects and makes a decision whether to accept or reject a lot. It is applicable to inspections of raw materials, partially finished goods and outgoing final product shipment.

AQL
The AQL is the maximum per cent defective that for the purpose of sampling inspection can be considered satisfactory as a process average." In layman's language this means, when a buyer specifies a particular AQL for sampling inspection, it is an indication that as long as the percentage of defective garments in the shipments (lots) supplied by a manufacturer is lower than the AQL, most of the shipments will be accepted.

AQL Random Sampling Inspection

The AQL inspection takes the samples from a goods, inspect them and depends on the quality of samples inspected and decide to accept or reject them. The standard is based on Military Standard 105D (MILSTD-105D) It provides with the sampling plans, the number of samples to be inspected and the acceptable quality level (AQL) AQL 1.5 is applied to very severe inspection on highclass expensive item. AQL 2.5 is applied when textiles of normal/good quality are involved.

What type of risk in AQL?

Producer's risk: The chance of rejecting a good lot that contains equal or less percent defective than AQL. The Customer's risk: The chance of accepting a bad lot that contains more defective than the largest proportion of defects that a consumer is willing to accept a very small percentage of the time.

Sample size Code Letter

Single Sampling Plan for normal inspection

Double Sampling Plans

Example
Single Sampling Plan-Normal Inspection

Assume AQL is 2.5% and lot size is 600 garments, find out the following :
The total number of samples need to inspect The acceptable number of the samples The rejection number of the samples

Answer Single Sampling Plan

First, from Table 1 find out the code letter for lot size of 600 and inspection level II is J From Table 2 (single sampling plan), the letter J corresponds to sample sizes of 80. So, 80 samples are needed to inspect out of 600 At AQL 2.5%, if defective garments are less than or equal to 5, whole lots will be accepted, if it is found to be 6 or more, whole lots will be rejected.

Try this one

If the garment lot is 300 dozens, and AQL is 4.0%, find out the number of samples to be inspected the acceptable number and rejection number

Example II Double Sampling Plan

Assume AQL is 4% and lot size is 2000 garments, find out from double sampling plan on the following:
The total sample sizes need to inspect What is the first acceptable number What is the second acceptable number

Answer Double Sampling Plan

First, Table 1 of 2000 lots at inspection level II is letter K Table 3, double sampling plan shows the sample size of letter K is 80. First inspection, at AQL 4%, the acceptable number is 5, rejection number is 9 If any number between 5 to 9, second inspection is needed

Answer Double sampling Plan (II)

For second inspection, the sample sizes again is 80 At AQL 4%, the cumulated acceptable number is 12 and rejection number is 13. Conclusion If the number of defective garments found in the first sample is 6, and in second sample is 5, making a total of 11, then the whole lot of 2,000 pieces will be accepted.

Try this one Double Sampling Plan

A total of 3,000 dozens of sweaters were produced. At AQL 2.5%, find out the following at double sampling plan: The total sample sizes need to inspect The acceptable number at first inspection The acceptable number at second inspection

Defects of Quality in Apparels

Please take a Ten Minutes Break!