Customers are becoming quality conscious. So, the garment making factories are. You may set up a garment quality control system in your factory and employ quality control person to run quality control systems. Having all systems in place, what do you think about the quality of the product in internal processes, like the sewing process? Do you make defect-free garments? Or you are feeling that there is no end of problems related to product quality and defect generation.
If you think so, and you are unable to get rid of poor product quality issues in garment manufacturing, continue reading this post. In this post, I have addressed 10 root causes that you might ignore to take action; those are main reasons for having poor quality of your products.
I would say nobody but a few concerned employees aware about the quality requirements across your buyers. That is why people do mistakes to have common quality problems.
If your people have quality awareness, lot of problems can be eliminated using common sense. When quality awareness is not there among your employees, quality problems cannot be eliminated easily.
You can increase quality awareness among your people through internal meeting, workshops or hire an expert for training on quality awareness.
There are lots of theories for quality management and there are lots of systems to maintain product quality in the garment manufacturing process. It is known as a quality management system (quality control). You should have some tools for monitoring quality and measuring quality parameters. But it is absent in most of the factories. Those use quality monitoring tools (formats, meetings); found that those are not in place. Still, lots of managers think that formats are a burden to them.
Related post: How to make garment inspection report?
From storing materials to transporting materials within internal departments, there are numbers of mishandling of raw materials and finished materials. Poor material handling cause quality problems and generate defects to the products. Dust may be deposited on your fabrics and garment if you store them uncovered. Chances are there to get a stain on the garments if garments are lying on the bare floor.
Here, I have nothing to say to you. It is your business and you have the freedom to purchase raw materials whatever you want. I just wanted to add this point that, the quality problem you faced in cutting, sewing and finishing may be happened due to poor fabrics and trims. Low-quality material not only the cause of defective garments but also increase your cost in maintaining a certain quality level. Like locally dyed cotton tapes can damage whole garment lot by staining, if colours are not fixed well.
Information is not passed to the right person at the right time: Merchandisers, technical department, and quality guys are always busy with urgent work. Due to their so-called busy schedule they forget to transfer important information, may be correction comments from the buyer, to the production team. Sometimes, merchants inform to production manager but the information does reach to line supervisor.
Information passed but is not understood by the users: I have experienced that production details those are explained on the paper (techpack/style file) or explained verbally are not understood by line supervisor always. But supervisor fears to ask the question even if he does not understand the things – as he doesn’t want to show himself a fool. He then assumed things on his way and become part of problem creation.
Incomplete information: You may set standard procedure to start production after having all approvals and pre-production meeting. But when shipments are getting late, you start production without all approvals and final confirmation with comments. You don’t get time to discuss the whole thing in PP meeting. So you start bulk production without complete information. In such a case, you are prone to make mistakes.
Check all these reasons for the communication gap and address things accordingly.
In some factories, checkers are also responsible for correcting defect by showing operators how to make the correct stitch. For such job responsibility, a checker must be trained first to do their job.
Damaged equipment or machine parts may generate defects in garments. Even it can damage your whole garment. I don’t know what do you say it – “cost controlling” or “being indifference to change the damaged parts”? But damaged equipment may cause you a lot of losses by damaging your garments. Like, damaged cutting equipment can make things worse.
You shouldn't compromise with quality over production quantity. Make your process defect free then your production will go up automatically.
If you think so, and you are unable to get rid of poor product quality issues in garment manufacturing, continue reading this post. In this post, I have addressed 10 root causes that you might ignore to take action; those are main reasons for having poor quality of your products.
1. Absence of Quality Awareness
I am talking about the general quality requirement, not product-specific construction detailing or trims needed to be attached to a particular order. Just check, do the concerned people know the quality requirement for an order? Or only quality control team knows?I would say nobody but a few concerned employees aware about the quality requirements across your buyers. That is why people do mistakes to have common quality problems.
If your people have quality awareness, lot of problems can be eliminated using common sense. When quality awareness is not there among your employees, quality problems cannot be eliminated easily.
You can increase quality awareness among your people through internal meeting, workshops or hire an expert for training on quality awareness.
2. Unavailability of Quality monitoring tools
You can’t improve product quality if you can’t measure it.There are lots of theories for quality management and there are lots of systems to maintain product quality in the garment manufacturing process. It is known as a quality management system (quality control). You should have some tools for monitoring quality and measuring quality parameters. But it is absent in most of the factories. Those use quality monitoring tools (formats, meetings); found that those are not in place. Still, lots of managers think that formats are a burden to them.
Related post: How to make garment inspection report?
3. Poor Material handling
From storing materials to transporting materials within internal departments, there are numbers of mishandling of raw materials and finished materials. Poor material handling cause quality problems and generate defects to the products. Dust may be deposited on your fabrics and garment if you store them uncovered. Chances are there to get a stain on the garments if garments are lying on the bare floor.
4. Inferior quality of raw material:
Many times garment factories compromise the quality of raw materials for cost control.Here, I have nothing to say to you. It is your business and you have the freedom to purchase raw materials whatever you want. I just wanted to add this point that, the quality problem you faced in cutting, sewing and finishing may be happened due to poor fabrics and trims. Low-quality material not only the cause of defective garments but also increase your cost in maintaining a certain quality level. Like locally dyed cotton tapes can damage whole garment lot by staining, if colours are not fixed well.
5. Communication Gap
The communication gap between inter-departments may happen due to the following reasons –Information is not passed to the right person at the right time: Merchandisers, technical department, and quality guys are always busy with urgent work. Due to their so-called busy schedule they forget to transfer important information, may be correction comments from the buyer, to the production team. Sometimes, merchants inform to production manager but the information does reach to line supervisor.
Information passed but is not understood by the users: I have experienced that production details those are explained on the paper (techpack/style file) or explained verbally are not understood by line supervisor always. But supervisor fears to ask the question even if he does not understand the things – as he doesn’t want to show himself a fool. He then assumed things on his way and become part of problem creation.
Incomplete information: You may set standard procedure to start production after having all approvals and pre-production meeting. But when shipments are getting late, you start production without all approvals and final confirmation with comments. You don’t get time to discuss the whole thing in PP meeting. So you start bulk production without complete information. In such a case, you are prone to make mistakes.
Check all these reasons for the communication gap and address things accordingly.
6. Non- maintenance machines
Cutting defects, sewing defects, and pressing defects may generate due to faulty machines. You should ensure that no malfunctioning machine should be in the line. All you need to have machine maintenance plan as prevention procedure. As an example, you can use machine maintenance tag hanged on the thread spool stand that ensures machine maintenance is done on a regular interval.7. Untrained checking personnel at Checkpoints
If you assumed that checker’s job is segregation of good and bad quality garment, then you are wrong. Checker does a lot of decision-making job. When they check, there is a number of consequences and parameter to be analyzed to short out defective garments from a lot of stitched garments. For this job, you must have trained quality checkers.In some factories, checkers are also responsible for correcting defect by showing operators how to make the correct stitch. For such job responsibility, a checker must be trained first to do their job.
8. Untidy floor and workshops
A tidy floor and clean machine beds make a lot of difference in quality of your garments. Few common defects like hard stains, soil marks, and oil spots found in garment, are result of untidy floors and dirty and dusty machines.9. Use of damaged equipment
Damaged equipment or machine parts may generate defects in garments. Even it can damage your whole garment. I don’t know what do you say it – “cost controlling” or “being indifference to change the damaged parts”? But damaged equipment may cause you a lot of losses by damaging your garments. Like, damaged cutting equipment can make things worse.
10. Production team biased on quantity than quality
You are doing exports order. There is always pressure for making production faster. Production managers and supervisors know very well how to manage production pressure. And as a result they are more concerned about quantity to be made at the end of the day. They don’t much worry about stitch quality. They think – defects may come out in stitching but all defects can be rectified and can be altered later (in the finishing). I don’t mean that production people ignore quality.You shouldn't compromise with quality over production quantity. Make your process defect free then your production will go up automatically.
Conclusion:
I think all the above points are very important and need to be taken care of. Everyone must take action to improve the quality level for the first time. Do you like to share your experience with the above points? Or like to mention additional points those are also important to make quality garments. Please add into the comment box.
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Quality