Garment manufacturing in Asia is one of the largest manufacturing sectors of the world. The most successful garment companies have a great production schedule, to get their products out on time to meet the needs of those consumers. So, what are they doing differently to ensure their production schedule runs so smoothly and with high-quality standards? They’re utilizing inspection services long before their product order’s completion dates.
The majority of inspections performed in the garment sector, like most other product sectors, is the Pre-Shipment Inspection, where close to 100% of the order is complete and ready to be shipped. But what happens to those orders when major defects are uncovered at that stage of production? Unfortunate delays of as much as 2-3 months, due to the need to rework or even reproduce the order. And in this fast-paced industry, you can’t afford to lose that kind of time on your product’s availability to the market. And this is where the DPI (During Production Inspection) becomes the ultimate garment manufacturing service.
Garment defects are far too common and challenging for the average production line operators to detect. In one of our previous articles, Most Common Defects in Garments we highlight many of the top defects that can go undetected in the garment’s assembly and hold up your production schedule. However, garment labeling is actually the most common defect that sets back production schedules. Mostly due to incorrect wording of the sizes, materials, or product care on the labels. And these are all defects that, if caught early enough in production, can be corrected, and keep your production schedule from hitting unwanted delays.
So, let’s talk about the ways of using, and maximizing a DPI service in the garment sector. The first step is to pair it with your product’s Tech Pack for the best results. The Tech Pack as explained in our previous article, Building a Tech Pack for Garment Production and Quality Control, is one of the greatest tools to assure your garment order’s DPI is immediately improving your production schedule. And with very little pushback from your supplier. We hope that every new garment design that goes into production has been accompanied by its own Tech Pack. And by providing that Tech Pack to the inspectors before going in to perform your DPI, you’ll have the comfort of knowing that everyone involved in your business’s quality assurance is on the same page and prepared to assist each other.
Next is all about the timing and how it affects your schedule. If it’s a new product that you haven’t been producing already, the earlier you get in to inspect the better. A simple stitching or labeling error in the production can go undetected on every single product off the line. And then need to be corrected on all of them. Therefore, if you catch it before your production level reaches 20% completion, you can correct the error on the production line to keep 80% of your order on schedule and allow the supplier to slowly work on the corrections and hopefully catch them up to the rest of your order.
Most DPI services when commonly used outside of the garment sector are being paired with sample picking and lab testing product certification services. Which we will be highlighting in a future article, so stay tuned for that one. And through these additional services on brand new products to the market, companies are saving valuable time by not running into production delays and limiting setback times from production errors. For more information on DPI services as well as other great quality control services, visit our website here.
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