What is Quality?
Quality can be defined in various ways and can be approached from different viewpoints. There is not a single description of it. Ways to describe quality are through its objective or subjective nature. Objective quality describes the existing characteristics of an artifact or a process in measurable, quantitative way. With textile testing, the manufacturer can ensure that the garment or textile material has the properties that it is assumed to have, for example, the abrasion resistance of the furnishing material is sufficient for public premises.
Subjective quality is qualitative, and it speaks about the context in which the concept of quality has been used. For example, it takes the customer’s opinions into account and thus describes the quality on the personal level. Furthermore, quality can be approached from the product base, manufacturing base, user base, and value base. Quality can also be seen as transcendent: luxury that is incomparable. Altogether, quality tries to attain positive and desirable good features. Quality indicates succeeding in processes and making. This article contains the quality control process as well as quality management procedures followed by different textile and garment factory of Bangladesh and the feasibility of these processes.
Quality Management in Textile and Garment Industry:
Quality management is an important part of the operation of business, and it means comprehensive development of the company’s processes in a way that demonstrates the company’s ability to consistently provide products and services that enhance customer satisfaction and meet applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. Quality management aims not only to develop processes and products to achieve a company’s business goals and objectives, but also to meet the needs and expectations of users and the market itself. Quality management covers different activities in the company from leadership to grassroot textile testing. The latest concepts of quality management always insist on internal quality audit rather than checking by fixed quality control auditors.
During product development, quality is evaluated in many aspects from the selection of the material till the finished product. Product development starts with ideation and defining the target group and continues with outlining and prototyping. New product proposals are valued as they take on their material, technical, and commercial forms. For example, the level and target for the quality are already set in the ideation step, and this determines, for example, the material choices, what material and fabric types are used, and what kind of in-use characteristics are emphasized. Before selecting the material for the product sample, materials are ordered from different suppliers. Materials are tested to obtain more information about their characteristics. Standardized laboratory tests and sensory and haptic evaluation may be used.
The choice of the material and fabric and the technical structure of the garment are specific and dependent on end use and situation. In addition, the final characteristics of the garment are affected by each of the materials and fabrics used and the combination of them. The properties of one fabric may be totally different when used alone than when used with a combination of other fabrics. This must be taken into account especially when designing, for example, work garments that require a high resistance against heat or flame.
In the prototyping stage, choices for materials, fabrics, and technical structures are tested and evaluated among the product development group. Solutions that produce the best compromises are selected. The final decisions are evaluated according to the appointed quality limits. To get proper information about the product in its actual use, prototypes can be tested in field trials. Such tests are common for textiles in special use, for example, technical sportswear, cold wear, and workwear.
Quality management ensures that the quality of the company’s products, services, and activities are fit and as agreed between clients and customers. Higher quality allows companies to obtain higher margins. Quality increases productivity, and it leads to better performance in the marketplace. Customer satisfaction increases loyalty and sales, whereas complaints decrease them.
Customer satisfaction is one of the key factors, and well-performing companies may invest especially on this and may emphasize the need to delight customers by giving them more than what is required in the contract. These companies create a total experience for their customers, an experience that is unique in relation to the offerings of competitors. This kind of strategy is called the experience economy. A customer focused company may also put a lot of effort in anticipating the future expectations of the customers. A company should listen to the customers and real users of the product or service in order to gain a clearer perspective on customer experiences, whereafter the company builds quality into the product, service, system, or process as upstream as is practicable.
Laboratory tests are simplified imitations of phenomena occurring when textiles are in use. Thus, the question of application and verification rises, and there is always a challenge to develop tests that correlate as much as possible with the consumer usage. Laboratory tests are of low cost and are available in short time limits, but sometimes it is necessary to perform field tests in real environments using test persons. Such tests are more subjective but give valuable information about the variation of preferences and test results.
Conclusion:
Quality management in textile and garment industry plays a crucial role in ensuring that products meet or exceed customer expectations while adhering to regulatory standards. It involves a set of practices, processes, and procedures aimed at producing high-quality textiles, from raw materials to finished products. I have discussed about quality management in textile and garment industry in this article. If you have any query about this article, please let me know in comment section.
References:
- Textile and Clothing Design Technology Edited by Tom Cassidy and Parikshit Goswami
- Work Quality Management in the Textile Industry By B. Purushothama
- Effective Implementation of Quality Management Systems by B. Purushothama
