Buyer guide
Where inspection happens in apparel production, what each stage checks, and how a buyer sets the standard the goods are judged against.
In short
Inspection is not one event at the end. Material checks before cutting, inline checks during sewing and a final random inspection of packed goods each catch different defects. Final inspections are commonly sampled to an AQL plan under ISO 2859-1, but the acceptance levels are the buyer's to set. Agree them in writing before production starts.
7 min read
Reviewed by AHM International product development team
Last reviewed August 2026
The stages
- 01
Incoming materials
Fabric is checked for shade, weight, width and visible defects before cutting, often with a points system such as the 4-point system. Trims are checked against the approved trim card.
- 02
Pre-production
A pre-production sample in bulk fabric and trims confirms the construction before cutting begins.
- 03
Inline
Checks during sewing catch construction faults while they can still be corrected on the line, not after thousands of units.
- 04
End of line
Finished garments are checked for measurement, construction, appearance and labelling as they come off the line.
- 05
Final random inspection
A sample of packed goods is drawn and inspected against the agreed standard, often by the buyer's own QA or a third-party agency.
AQL in plain terms
The vocabulary of a final inspection report.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| AQL | Acceptance Quality Limit: the worst average defect rate the buyer will accept, used to set a sampling plan. |
| Inspection level | How large a sample is drawn for a given lot size. General Inspection Level II is the usual default. |
| Critical, major, minor | Defect classes. Buyers commonly accept no critical defects and set separate limits for major and minor. |
| Lot | The quantity the sample is drawn from, usually the order or the shipment. |
Conventions are not rules
In apparel, 2.5 for major and 4.0 for minor defects are widely used acceptance levels. They are conventions, and some programs set tighter or looser limits, or different ones for different defects.
Which level applies to your order is a commercial decision, written into the purchase order or the quality manual, not something a supplier or an agency should assume.
What gets checked
- Measurements
- Each point of measure against the size specification and its tolerance.
- Construction
- Stitch type and density, seam finish, bar-tacks at stress points, hardware attachment.
- Appearance
- Shade consistency, stains, loose threads, pressing.
- Decoration
- Placement, size, colour and quality against the approved sew-out or strike-off.
- Labelling
- Care, content and origin labels, and their placement.
- Packing
- Folding, polybags, size ratios, carton marking and carton counts.
Your standard decides
An inspection checks goods against a standard. If the standard is not written down (the approved sample, the size specification with tolerances, the defect classification and the AQL) nobody can fail the bulk, and nobody can pass it fairly either.
Related questions
Usually the buyer books and pays the agency, but terms vary. Agree it in the purchase order, together with what happens on a failure.
Typically the goods are sorted or reworked and the lot is inspected again. Who pays for the re-inspection and how much time it adds should be agreed before production, not after the report.
Send one specification and we will apply exactly this thinking to your style. Construction, materials and commercial FOB costing.