For every industry or business, to get increased sales and better name amongst consumers and fellow companies it is important to maintain a level of quality. In the garment industry quality control is practiced right from the initial stage of sourcing raw materials to the stage of final finished garment. For textile and apparel industry product quality is calculated in terms of quality and standard of fibres, yarns, fabric construction, colour fastness, surface designs and the final finished garment products. However quality expectations for export are related to the type of customer segments and the retail outlets. There are a number of factors on which quality fitness of garment industry is based such as performance, reliability, durability, visual and perceived quality of the garment. Quality needs to be defined in terms of a particular framework of cost.

The national regulatory quality certification and international quality Programmes like ISO 9000 series lay down the broad quality parameters based on which companies maintain the export quality in the garment and apparel industry. Here some of main fabric properties that are taken into consideration for garment manufacturing for export basis:

• Overall look of the garment.
• Right formation of the garment.
• Feel and fall of the garment.
• Physical properties.
• Colour fastness of the garment.
• Finishing properties
• Presentation of the final produced garment.

There are certain quality related problems in garment manufacturing that should not be over looked:

• Sewing defects - Like open seams, wrong stitching techniques used, same colour garment, but usage of different colour threads on the garment, miss out of stitches in between, creasing of the garment, erroneous thread tension and raw edges are some sewing defects that could occur so should be taken care of.
• Colour effects - Colour defects that could occur are difference of the colour of final produced garment to the sample shown, accessories used are of wrong colour combination and mismatching of dye amongst the pieces.
• Sizing defects - Wrong gradation of sizes, difference in measurement of a garment part from other, for example- sleeves of XL size but body of L size. Such defects do not occur has to be seen too.
• Garment defects - During manufacturing process defects could occur like faulty zippers, irregular hemming, loose buttons, raw edges, improper button holes, uneven parts, inappropriate trimming, and difference in fabric colours.

Various defects in garments:

v      Broken buttons

v      Broken snaps

v      Broken stitching

v      Defective snaps

v      Different shades within the same garment

v      Dropped stitches

v      Exposed notches

v      Exposed raw edges

v      Fabric defects

v      Holes

v      Inoperative zipper

v      Loose / hanging sewing threads

v      Misaligned buttons and holes

v      Missing buttons

v      Needle cuts / chews

v      Open seams

v      Pulled / loose yarn

v      Stain

v      Unfinished buttonhole

v      Zipper too short