Quality · How to
The pre-shipment inspection checklist for garment orders (use it or lose it)
What a final inspection actually checks before your garments ship: quantity and assortment, AQL workmanship sampling, measurements, labels and compliance, packing, the complete checklist, who should inspect, and what to do when a lot fails.
Founder, Trishakti Apparel 2 min read
The final inspection is the last moment your order is fixable cheaply. After the container closes, every defect costs a claim, a discount, or a customer. This is the complete checklist, the same logic an AQL inspection formalises, written so you can hand it to any inspector, including ours.
The checklist
- 1. Quantity & assortment: total pieces, and the split by style / colour / size against the PO. Shortages and ratio drift surface here, nowhere else.
- 2. Workmanship (AQL): a statistically-drawn sample checked for defects, classified major/minor against your agreed level — 2.5/4.0 is the commercial standard.
- 3. Measurements: key points of measure on garments from several sizes, against the spec chart and tolerances.
- 4. Labels & compliance: fibre content, care, size, origin labels correct and correctly placed; barcodes scan; market-specific rules met (e.g. bilingual for Canada).
- 5. Packing: polybags, folding, carton counts, weights and markings against the packing list, what customs and your warehouse will cross-check.
- 6. Function & appearance: zips cycled, snaps pulled, prints inspected (and wash-tested where agreed), shade checked against the approved lab dip across cartons.
Who should inspect
The factory’s own final QC is necessary but not sufficient, it’s the seller marking its own homework. For a first order or a big one, appoint a third-party inspector (QIMA, SGS, Intertek, V-Trust and peers work worldwide at day rates). A factory’s reaction to “we’re sending an inspector” is itself a test: the right answer is a date and a contact person. Ours is exactly that, we schedule it, host it, and fix what it finds. Where inspection sits in our process.
Tie it to the money
A checklist without consequences is a wish. Structure payment so the balance releases after the passed inspection or against shipping documents, then a failed lot is the factory’s urgent problem, not your negotiation. How the standard payment structure does this.
Ask us for our inspection report format — seeing how a factory documents its own QC tells you most of what you need to know.
Frequently asked
What is checked in a pre-shipment inspection?
When should a pre-shipment inspection happen?
How much does third-party inspection cost?
What happens if an inspection fails?
About the author
Santosh Rijal runs Trishakti Apparel, the export knitwear factory his family built on three decades in Nepal’s fashion trade. He writes about sourcing, duty and production from the factory floor in Gaindakot.