APPAREL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT II
TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN OPEX GROUP,
BANGLADESH

SUBMITTED BY –
SIVANI JAYANTH (BFT/17/1109)
CONTENTS

TOPICS PAGE NUMBER

COMPANY PROFILE 3

INTRODUCTION TO TQM IN 4
OPEX GARMENT INDUSTRY

METHODS OF QUALITY 5
CONTROL

9
SOCIAL COMPLIANCE IN
APPAREL INDUSTRY

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REFERENCE

2
COMPANY PROFILE

Opex group is a Bangladeshi Conglomerate of manufacturing readymade garments, Textile

and Accessories. It is one of the largest Garments and Textile industries in Asia; which is set
up in four massive industrial complexes in Bangladesh.

Opex Group established in May of 2010, with highly skilled personals in the industry as
buyers and can expertly manage Production and Quality. Opex Fashion understands that in
the fashion world, style is the most important element, having designers from New York,
London, Milan and Tokyo develops style designs without compromising on the upcoming
trends. Attire is their registered apparel brand in UK. .It’s mission is to supply fashionable,
high quality designed garments to consumers.

Their head office in the Dhaka, Bangladesh and other office are in Hong Kong, China,
Germany and USA. Opex garments are vertically setup with in Woven, Denim, Knit and
Sweater. The production team works along with the factory to reduce production to achieve
the best price for the quality standard of the garments our quality team checks finished
quality according to buyer required standard.

They are very aware of our compliance standard. We do not have any factory on board who
does not have high compliance standard both technically and ethically. They encourage their
supply source to accommodate the required compliance for ethical trading and
manufacturing. Opex fashion Ltd work with many different freight forwards worldwide and
can also accommodate its buyer by clearing and forwarding their goods. They store the
buyer goods in warehouse in UK and deliver the essential quantity in required time.

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TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN OPEX GROUP,
BANGLADESH

Total quality management (TQM) is the continual process of detecting and reducing or
eliminating errors in manufacturing, streamlining supply chain management, improving the
customer experience, and ensuring that employees are up to speed with training. Total
quality management aims to hold all parties involved in the production process accountable
for the overall quality of the final product or service.

Quality may be defined as the level of acceptance of a goods or services. For the textile and
apparel industry, product quality is calculated in terms of quality and standard of fibres,
yarns, fabric construction, colour fastness, designs and the final finished garments.
Different garments factory follow different quality control and management systems
especially different inspection systems for garment inspection.

Certain quality related problems, often seen in garment manufacturing are

 Sewing defects : Open seams, wrong stitching techniques, non- matching

threads, missing stitches, improper creasing of the garment, improper thread
tension etc. are some of the sewing defects.
 Colour defects: Variation of colour between the sample and the final garment,
wrong colour combinations and mismatching dyes.
 Sizing defects: Wrong gradation of sizes, difference in measurement of various
parts of a garment like sleeves of XL size for body of L size garment can
deteriorate the garments beyond repair.
 Finished garment defects: Broken or defective buttons, snaps, stitches, different
shades within the same garment, dropped stitches, exposed notches, fabric
defects, holes, faulty zippers, loose or hanging sewing threads, misaligned
buttons and holes, missing buttons, needle cuts, pulled or loose yarn, stains,
unfinished buttonhole, short zippers, inappropriate trimmings etc

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METHODS OF QUALITY CONTROL
Quality Control System is followed by all concerned in the company from piece goods
inspection to the final statistical audit.

Basically two methods are used for garments quality control

a) Testing

b) Inspection

(1) Piece goods quality control: On receipt of fabrics in the ware house of Opex group, at
least 10% are inspection as per “4 Points” system.4 Points system as per below –

SIZE OF DEFECT PENALTY

3 Inches or less 1 Point

Over 3, under 6 Inches 2 Point

Over 6, under 9 Inches 3 Point

Over 9 Inches 4 Point

(2) Cutting quality control:

In cutting section quality is insure in two stages. a) Spreading quality control: Following the
point are checked during spreading

 Table marking.
 Ends
 Tension
 Leaning
 Narrow Goods
 Counts
 Ply height
 Remnants
 Fabric flaws
 Market placing

b) After cutting quality control: After each cutting blocks and bundles are checks on the
following points.

 Miss cut
 Ragged cutting
 Pattern checks
 Matching Plies
 Notches

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(3) In process quality control (Sewing): During the swing “In process quality
control” is done by the line QC’s through 7 pcs inspection system. For critical
operations 100% process inspection are carried out. The following parameters are
also checked in sewing process
 Machine check.
 Tension.
 SPI checks
 Needle check.
 Cleanness.
 Table inspection.
 Inspection before wash.

(4) Washing section

 Garments handling
 Wash standard.
 After wash thoroughly inspection.

(5) Quality control of finishing sections:

 Inspection and audit is done to attain AQL 2.5 (Acceptance quality level)
 Process inspection: Garments are checked process wise in the finishing section to
identify defects and pass only the passed garments.
 Two hourly audit: Every after two-hours audit is done on finishing lot to attain AQL
the required AQL.
 Days final audit: At the end of the day accumulated lot of finished garments are
statistically audited to attain required AQL.
 Lot final audit: On completion of packing of one complete lot of garment, QA
manager conduct statistical audit based on required AQL garments. Garments
are offered for final inspection by buyer /clients for shipment only when these are
through in this audit.

The following parameters are also checked in sewing process –

 After wash garments must be keep in the box / table covering.

 Thread sucking.
 Iron inspection.
 Measurements inspection.
 Poly inspection of top of garments.
 Inspection before cartoning

(6)Testing (Lab test):

 Shrinkage test
 Colour fastness test
 Azo-free test

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FOLLOWING ARE THE PHASES OF TQM IMPLEMENTATION

1) 5-S-(Sort, set in order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain)

 Conceptually 5-S is aimed at developing a work culture where by all employees

including operators, supervisors and managers participate in problem solving
process.
 Sort (1-S) - this is initiated by identifying the abnormalities at the work area.
Abnormalities are highlighted by unique identification tag also known as red tag. This
ensures every employee participates in identifying the abnormality in respective work
area. It is observed that putting red tag improves awareness regarding the
abnormality; it also triggers a reaction among employees to think for ways for
avoiding the reoccurrence of abnormality.
 Set in Order (2-s) - Efforts are then directed towards resolving the tags.
Objective is to find permanent solution to problem. Day to day quality related
problems such as label mixing, trims mixing (thread, label wrongly attached) can be
completely eliminated through 5-S.
 Shine (3-s) –3-S ensures improved housekeeping by planning, cleaning &
Inspection schedules that include floor (Brooming, mopping, vacuum), over
headlamps, racks etc. The cleaning schedules should be designed such that it
should mention how, when, where, regarding the cleaning activity. It should state the
person responsible and accountable for implementing the schedules.
 Standardize (4-s)-This refers to standardizing the departmental activities. Here the
cleaning schedules, master index (indicating location marked for hard and soft
copies/registers), tool list (stating location and quantity) are displayed on notice
board.
 Sustain (5-s): regular internal and external audits are scheduled to overcome
the shortcoming. Time based action plan with responsibility for resolving the
abnormality is made.

2) DWM (Daily Work Management)

Consciously and consistently carryout all activities which must be performed daily (or
regularly) to efficiently achieve the aims of each department. In principle, these activities
aim to maintain the current status, although activities to improve the situation are also
included.

3) Six Sigma

Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing
the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business
processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and
creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization („Black Belts”, „Green
Belts”, etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within
an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified targets. These
targets can be financial (cost reduction or profit increase) or whatever is critical to the
customer of that process (cycle time, safety, delivery, etc.)

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Quality control processes of Opex group Bangladesh are as per below:

Piece Cutting In process Quality Process Two Day’s Lot final audit
goods quality quality control inspection hourly final
quality control control(Sewing) of audit audit
control finishing
sections
4-point done 7 pcs AQL 2.5 Visual Done Yes Done in
system inspection Pass only to presence of
randomly defect- attain buyers'
free AQL representatives
garment 2.5

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SOCIAL COMPLIANCE IN APPAREL INDUSTRY
WHAT IS SOCIAL COMPLIANCE?

Social compliance is a continuing process in which organizations endeavor to protect the

health, safety, and rights of their employees, the community and environment in which they
operate, and the lives and communities of workers in their supply and distribution chains.
Social compliance and social responsibility may address concerns about labor rights for
workers, fair labor laws, harvesting and the use of conflict minerals, and general
environmental and sustainability questions.

CODE OF CONDUCT (COC):

Social Accountability standards have been developed by the international organizations such
as Fair Labor Association (FLA), Worldwide Responsible Apparel production (WRAP) ,
Council on Economic Priorities Accreditation Agency (CEPAA), The Ethical Trading Initiative
(ETI) and Business for Social Responsibility (BSR).

Reputed brand buyers in large supply chain have taken the guideline from those
organizations and formulated their own standard of COC and also the acceptance criteria.

The basic principles of COC have been derived from the principles of international human
rights norms as delineated in International Labour Organization Conventions, the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.

It has nine core areas to be addressed upon. These are as follows:

 Child labor: No children younger than 15 years of age may be employed by a factory.
 Forced labor: No person may be employed by a factory if they haven’t offered to do
so voluntarily or be forced to work under the threat of punishment or retaliation.
 Health and safety: A safe and healthy workplace environment must be provided by
the factory who should also prevent any potential health and safety incidents and
work related injury or illness from occurring.
 Freedom of association and collective bargaining: All staff have the right to form, join
and organize trade unions and to bargain collectively on their behalf.
 Discrimination: A factory is prohibited from engaging in discrimination in hiring,
remuneration, access to training, promotion, termination or retirement.
 Disciplinary practices: A factory is prohibited from engaging in or tolerating the use of
corporal punishment, mental or physical coercion or verbal abuse of employees.
 Working hours: A factory must comply with applicable laws, collective bargaining
agreements and industry standards on working hours, breaks and public holidays.
 Remuneration: The right of staff to a living wage must be respected by the factory.

Management systems: Compliance must be reviewed and implemented to the SA800

StandardWhile following the above criteria is compulsory for satisfying COC, local culture
and regulation of Govt. cannot be overlooked. For instance, limit of working hours and
compensation for extra work may not be the same for all geographical zones in the globe.
Minimum basic wage also depends on the economic situation of a particular country in
question. The introduction of rights of free association and collective bargaining is guided by
the political environment, the maturity level of workforce and above all the basic training of
the management of the organization.

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Social compliance audits conducted is based on following steps:

 Opening meeting with the factory management (informed the scope of audit)
 Factory Tour (observed working condition)
 Document Review (payroll, time card, personal file, age documentation etc.)
 Employees Interview
 Closing meeting with factory management (discussed audit findings and
recommended necessary improvements).

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REFERENCES
 https://www.sgtgroup.net/textile-quality-management-blog/social-
compliance-for-garment-factories-what-you-need-to-know
 https://www.smartsheet.com/social-compliance
 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301789034_QUALITY_M
ANAGEMENT_IN_GARMENT_INDUSTRY_OF_BANGLADESH

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